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Lee Strobel investigates close to loss of life experiences in ‘The Case for Heaven’ movie

(Picture: Lee Strobel)

(CP) Award-winning Christian creator and former investigative journalist Lee Strobel investigates tales of near-death experiences and appears at what the Bible says concerning the afterlife within the new documentary movie “The Case For Heaven,” based mostly on the guide of the identical identify.

Coming to theaters nationwide for 3 nights solely on April 4-6, the movie seeks to reply questions on what awaits believers after loss of life. Strobel additionally researches the proof for Heaven and Hell, and shares the documented testimonies of people that declare to have had near-death experiences.

“My background is in journalism, in legislation, so I are typically a skeptic; I are typically somebody who needs proof and information and logic and motive,” Strobel mentioned in a current interview with The Christian Put up. “I used to be an atheist for a lot of my life, and I got here to religion by way of my very own investigation into the historic reliability of the proof for the resurrection of Jesus, the scientific proof for the existence of a creator and so forth.”

Out of his investigation got here the bestselling guide, “The Case for Christ,” which was later tailored into a movie.

Strobel’s analysis then turned an important a part of his ministry. He recurrently interviews students and consultants across the nation and worldwide to assist his readers belief the validity of the Bible, one thing he mentioned he believes is required within the occasions we’re residing in.

“I feel that is essential as of late once we do have a rise in skepticism in our tradition,” Strobel mentioned.

The creator not too long ago launched a brand new heart for evangelism and utilized apologetics at Colorado Christian University, the place he helped to create 91 programs on the undergraduate and grasp’s diploma ranges and certificates programs which are all on-line.

“I actually imagine it is essential for younger individuals, particularly, to grasp that we have now a religion that is not constructed on wishful considering or make-believe or mythology or legend, however actually on a strong basis of reality,” Strobel maintained.

The Case for Heaven” was impressed by Strobel’s personal brush with loss of life. Ten years in the past, he almost died and his spouse discovered him unconscious on the bed room flooring.

“I keep in mind waking up within the emergency room and the physician regarded down at me and mentioned, ‘You are one step away from a coma, two steps away from dying.’ After which I went unconscious once more,” he recalled.

Strobel has an uncommon medical situation known as hyponatremia, which is a situation the place there’s a extreme drop in a single’s blood sodium degree.

“You may’t stay on the ranges of sodium that I used to be at,” the previous Chicago Tribune reporter informed CP. “So I lingered between life and loss of life there for some time till they had been in a position to save my life. However it was a really clarifying expertise as a result of while you’re in that scenario, nothing is extra essential than what actually occurs after we shut our eyes for the final time on this world.”

Folks ask the questions, “Is there an afterlife? Is there a Heaven? Is there a Hell?” he posited.

“As a Christian, I imagine what the Bible teaches, however I nonetheless have that skeptical background. So that is what launched me on a mission to put in writing The Case for Heaven.”

Earlier than Stroble dug into his analysis, he described himself as a Christian who was skeptical concerning the afterlife.

“I used to be a skeptic about near-death experiences,” he mentioned. “I assumed that possibly they had been the results of oxygen deprivation to the mind and hallucinations. However then, as I researched it, I realized that there have been 900 scholarly research completed of near-death experiences printed in secular scientific and medical journals during the last 50 years. So [it’s a] very nicely researched space, he added.

The Lancet, which is the well-known medical journal in England, carried an evaluation of near-death experiences, saying that not one of the different explanations can account for them,” he continued. “So one thing is occurring there. Being a skeptic, I assumed, ‘I am not going to imagine near-death experiences except I’ve corroboration.’ As a result of there have been individuals who’ve made up tales I can not verify, so I do not purchase into that.”

As documented within the guide and movie, Strobel discovered the proof he was searching for by listening to the testimonies of people that, throughout a near-death expertise, noticed and heard issues they in any other case could not have seen or heard except they’d had an genuine out-of-body expertise.

The account of a girl named Maria who was pronounced lifeless on the hospital is without doubt one of the tales featured in “The Case for Heaven.” Maria testified that though she had been declared lifeless, she was aware the complete time. She describes her expertise as her spirit and her soul separating from her physique. She watched the resuscitation efforts because the medical doctors had been making an attempt to revive her physique and her spirit floated out and as much as the roof of the hospital.

When she was revived, her spirit returned to the physique and described intimately a tennis shoe she noticed on the hospital’s roof. The hospital workers went as much as the restricted space and so they discovered the shoe precisely as she had described.

Maria’s account is corroboration that she had an out-of-body expertise that’s genuine, Strobel mentioned.

“There was one other research completed of 21 blind individuals, most of them blind since start, and but throughout their near-death experiences they had been in a position to see for the primary time,” Strobel added. “They noticed individuals making an attempt to resuscitate their our bodies, they noticed crops, they noticed birds. Then once they had been revived, their spirit returned to their physique and so they misplaced their eyesight once more. One medical researcher mentioned that is medically unimaginable.”

“I’ve grow to be fairly satisfied that these are genuine experiences,” he maintained. “It is in step with Christian theology.”

Strobel is not the primary Christian to come back to the conclusion that there’s a Heaven. Gary Habermas and JP Moreland, two well-respected Evangelical philosophers, wrote a guide, titled Immortality, through which additionally they describe intimately their near-death experiences.

“That is one thing I feel we must always take critically,” he confused. “The proof is there that one thing is occurring. I feel it is in step with Christian theology and it is supportive of what the Bible tells us as a result of the Apostle Paul says, ‘To be absent from the physique is to be current with the Lord.’

“We all know that once we die, our bodily physique dies. However our spirit, our soul continues to stay on, both within the presence of God or aside from God. That is the intermediate state.

“Then on the finish of historical past, when historical past is consummated and Jesus returns, we’re reunited now with our resurrected our bodies, and we undergo ultimate judgment, after which we spend eternity in a really bodily Heaven or a really bodily Hell. So the near-death experiences are in step with that.”

Within the movie, the Illinois native explains that when believers die, they don’t seem to be but within the ultimate Heaven.

“Once we speak about near-death experiences, simply perceive, these individuals are not irreversibly lifeless. … They’re clinically lifeless. They don’t have any measurable mind waves, no pulse, no heartbeat, they’re clinically lifeless, however not irreversibly lifeless, as a result of they’ll come again,” mentioned Strobel, pointing to 1 Corinthians 15:50-57.

“When an individual does die, their spirit goes to this intermediate state,” he defined. “It is not the ultimate Heaven. It’s a place the place we’re in. If we’re within the presence of God, it’s a fantastic expertise. However there’s nonetheless incompleteness to us. We nonetheless need to be in that ultimate Heaven, which is what comes after the consummation of historical past.”

Strobel was talking of the ultimate Heaven described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which says: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the lifeless in Christ will rise first.”

Within the documentary, the daddy of two additionally talked about Hell as a result of he mentioned he couldn’t speak about Heaven and never point out its reverse.

“I felt like I could not write a guide concerning the afterlife with out coping with how Jesus talked about Hell greater than anyone within the Bible,” Strobel informed CP. “I did quite a lot of analysis on it and I discovered that there is quite a lot of misconceptions we have now about Hell.”

The story of the late, world-renowned evangelist Luis Palau was additionally featured within the movie.

“Luis was a hero of mine and a good friend,” Strobel mentioned. “For the guide, I used to be considering, ‘Would not or not it’s attention-grabbing to interview an important Christian who’s on the verge of dying, figuring out that they are going to Heaven shortly? How would that change their considering? What would they be pondering at that second?'”

Palau had been recognized with terminal most cancers shortly earlier than Strobel interviewed the evangelist at his residence.

“Probably the most profound factor that he mentioned to me that I will always remember, proper close to the close to the tip of the interview, he checked out me and he mentioned, ‘Lee, while you get to the tip of your life, when all is claimed and completed, you’ll by no means remorse being brave for Christ,'” Strobel recalled.

Mani Sandoval, the director of “The Case for Heaven,” mentioned billions of individuals all over the world look to Heaven as an “awe-inspiring place solely totally identified when you’re there.” Strobel and the crew behind the movie checked out proof inside and outside the Bible to make a robust case for Heaven.

“I hope that people who find themselves Christians will stroll away with renewed hope, stronger hope and assurance that their eternity goes to be with God eternally,” Strobel added. “That is an exquisite prospect. I hope that non-believers will come to the film and notice that this life isn’t all there’s and that they’ll flip to Jesus for forgiveness, and His free present of grace and everlasting life.”

© The Christian Post

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