Christianity Today: Are Near-Death Experiences Evidence for Heaven?, by Andrew Wilson (Pastor, King’s Church London; Author, Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West (2023)):

Writing about heaven is different from writing about other Christian doctrines. Some books on the new heaven and new earth are so imaginative and speculative that they become untethered from biblical reality. Others are not imaginative enough; they make lots of accurate statements but lack the fusion of poetry, consolation, metaphor, wonder, and joy that characterize the apostles and prophets. Dane Ortlund’s new book, [Finally Home: The Christian Hope of Heaven (2026)], gets the balance just right more than any other modern book I have read on the topic. It is clear, solid, robust, and orthodox, but it is also soaring, evocative, comforting, and beautiful. It will be my go-to book to recommend on heaven from now on. …

[Michael Zigarelli (Messiah University), Evidence for Heaven: Near-Death Experiences and the Mounting Case for the Afterlife (2026)] presents three claims of escalating significance. Each of them is reflected in the title and subtitle.

The simplest and most defensible claim is that near-death experiences (NDEs) are much more common than many of us realize: They are experienced in all sorts of different cultures and are increasingly the subject of serious academic research.

The next claim is a bit stronger, namely that these experiences are so widely attested. Despite the wide range of cultures from which they come, NDEs have so many overlapping features—the departure of the soul from the body, heightened senses, overwhelming love, brilliant light, a journey through a tunnel, gaining special knowledge, a transformed life afterward—that they represent a growing body of evidence for the afterlife, in which the soul continues after the death of the body.

The third claim, as per the title, is that they actually represent evidence for the Christian doctrine of heaven, on the basis that they witness to a place of perfect peace, light, love, and joy after death, and in some cases a being from whom these things emanate.

Dane Ortlund (Senior Pastor, Naperville Presbyterian Church), Finally Home: The Christian Hope of Heaven (2026):

In Finally Home, Dane Ortlund plunges into the word of God and the wisdom of the saints to help us rightly think about heaven, and to draw strength from our coming future more deeply than we ever have before. Writing with the same pastoral warmth and enchanting prose that mark his well-loved books Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers and Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners, Ortlund speaks directly to the heart, providing insights into what our eternity with Jesus will be like. Finally Home is a timely invitation to lift our focus from the turmoil of our broken world to the wondrous surprises of our eternal home, where the Lord Jesus Christ himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Rev. 21:1–5). 

• A Vision of Eternity: This book prompts readers to wonder at what awaits us in heaven and the joy of dwelling with Jesus forever
• From the Author of Gentle and Lowly (Over 1 Million Copies Sold): Written by Dane Ortlund, this book is marked with the same pastoral warmth and enchanting prose
• Wisdom from Figures Throughout Church History: Including Thomas Goodwin, Jonathan Edwards, C. S. Lewis, Richard Baxter, and others 
• Scripture-Based: Explores passages throughout the whole Bible to arrest readers with the heavenly realities inevitably awaiting believers

Michael Zigarelli (Messiah University), Evidence for Heaven: Near-Death Experiences and the Mounting Case for the Afterlife (2026):

If one person told you the story about how they died, experienced the afterlife, and then came back to life, would you believe them? What if thousands of people had similar stories?

Research over the past fifty years is finally settling centuries of debate. There’s an increasingly credible case that death is a doorway–a case established by the thousands who walked through that door and returned to tell about it. In this captivating investigation, Professor Michael Zigarelli takes you on a step-by-step journey into these breathtaking eyewitness accounts, uncovering seven lines of evidence for life after death, including

• consistent near-death experience (NDE) reports of the afterlife
• corroborated reports where NDE stories check out as true
• the radically transformed lives of those who experienced an NDE
• what healthcare workers have observed at the deathbed
• NDE reports from young children and the blind

If you have lost a loved one and wonder whether you might see them again, if you seek assurance that this life is not all there is, or if you’re simply curious about the scientific case for the afterlife, Evidence for Heaven offers a compelling, intellectually satisfying answer to one of life’s greatest mysteries–What happens after we die?

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