What about “Near-Death Experiences”?
Such experiences are very popular today. As mentioned in the pioneering work of Raymond Moody. Other books in recent years have purported to tell of people who “died,” went to “heaven,” and then were given a “second chance” to return to the earth. Some of those books have been extremely popular, and a few have been embraced by Christians. However, a close inspection shows that most of those books embrace unbiblical heresy, either the notion that we are saved by doing good works or the idea that everyone is going to heaven in the end.In thinking about this question, we need biblical balance. On one hand it’s undeniably true that some Bible characters did see the Lord before they died. Stephen saw Jesus just before he died in Acts 7. Paul was evidently given a vision of heaven—perhaps during his stoning at Lystra in Acts 14. He alludes to the event in 2 Corinthians 12. However, it’s important to say that such revelations did not happen often even in Bible times. Not every believer had or will have a revelation of heaven. Could such a thing happen today? Yes, but we shouldn’t expect it or base our hope of heaven upon a last-second experience.
Let’s also remember that Satan is the great deceiver. He can create scenes that seem to be scenes of heaven but are actually creations born in hell. Some near-death experiences are demonic in nature. You should never base your hope of heaven—or the hope of seeing a loved one in heaven—on a supposed vision or revelation. The only reliable ground given to us is the eternal, unchanging Word of God.
There are obviously cases in the Bible of people who have died being raised to life. Both the prophets Elijah and Elisha raised boys back to life [1 Kings 17:17-24 & 2 Kings 4:32-25]. Jesus raises a number of people from the dead including Lazarus who had been dead for 4 days [Luke 7:11-15; Luke 8:49-56 & John 11:1-49]. Of course there is Jesus resurrection as well. So there is a precedent in the Bible for God bringing people back from the dead.
But as for our state between death and the resurrection, believers are in some sense in communion with Christ while they await the resurrection. [Luke 23:43; Phil 1:23] This is only an intermediate state until the resurrection and the coming of the new heaven and earth. [1 Thess 4:13-17, Rev 21:1ff].
It is possible that Don Piper and others have had such experiences. After all, Stephen, Apostle John and Paul did. The difference is because they were apostles, their writings are authoritative scriptures where as Don Piper’s is not. Personal experiences can be very authentic & edifying. But they can also be misleading and demonic [Matt 7:22]. Personal experiences are hard to refute because they are ‘personal’. Therefore we must always test such experiences against the sure revelation that God had given us - the Bible. [1 Thess 5:18]
If the ‘critics’ are correct and Don Piper is describing a heaven that is largely devoid of Christ, then we should be wary of what weight we give to his testimony.
