New York Times Bestselling author and founder of Gateway Church in Austin, Texas, John Burke, shared the story of a horrifying near-death experience in which an atheist found himself in the torment of hell. As illustrated by the account, eternal separation from God is immeasurably worse than anything that can be experienced during life under the sun.
Burke has spent years analyzing thousands of near-death experiences, where some are fortunate enough to encounter the divine presence of God before returning to their bodies, as it is not their time. Conversely, others, such as this professor named Howard, have had the polar opposite experience, facing the consequences of life in rebellion against God.
Explaining the incident, Burke said, “I interviewed this atheist college professor, tenured college professor, who was, he was an art professor who’s doing a tour with students in Europe, France, as lower duodenum rupture you usually have like five to six hours before you’re dead, because you’re spilling all that junk in your intestine into your cavity. And it was a weekend, so they couldn’t find the surgeon in France, and after eight hours, he died.”
Burke continued, “Now he thought, when you die, it’s just unplugged, the computer screen goes blank. There’s nothing. And that’s not what happened. And instead, he said he was standing there by his bed, he felt the worst he had ever felt in his life, and suddenly he felt wonderful, and he didn’t even know he’s dead, like he didn’t realize he’s dead because he’s sitting there thinking something happened.”
From there, the man was approached by a group of people in the hallway who beckoned him to come with them, promising to help him. However, upon accompanying these mysterious individuals, the near-death experience would take a turn for the worst.
“So he starts to follow these people and again, time and even distance. It doesn’t work the same on the other side,
which I don’t fully understand,” Burke continued. “He starts to realize they’re deceiving him, starting to mock him. They’re, they’re, they’re cursing him. They’re all these, you know. And he starts to realize this is not good.”
Burke further illustrated how the man began to be tormented. “And then he realizes he’s in this darkness, and it keeps getting dark. And he tries to say, hey, I want to go back. And they’re like, You’re not going anywhere. They start pushing and shoving. And he’s in and he calls it a darkness that’s darker than black. And I’ve heard people commonly say that Jesus called it the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Continuing to recount Howard’s experience, he said, “And so he finally realizes he’s being deceived by these creatures that he couldn’t fully see completely, because it was they were kind of veiled, but now it’s dark, and he can’t he can’t see him, but he can feel them. And they start to maul him. He starts to try to fight, to get away, and they just and they’re having fun.”
Notably, Howard was unable to share the full details of his experience as the PTSD he incurred from the event prevented him from doing so. However, Burke claimed the professor received a sudden inclination to pray and call out the name of God during the torture, which drove away the demonic beings. Eventually, Howard found himself in darkness reflecting on his life and how he was living it entirely wrong. He was eventually confronted by Jesus Christ who reviewed his life before his eyes and sent him back to his body.
Watch the interview below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.