How Near-Death Experiences Changed My View of Hell

Rethinking justice after death

I remember being a teenager in church, forced to watch some ‘Christian’ docu-drama about how the supposedly “lost” were certainly bound for hell, and was our responsibility to preach the “Good News” to them or we were responsible for their horrible fate.

Nervously fidgeting in my seat, I felt the adrenaline rush through me as I saw frightening images flash across the screen depicting horrors for those who had not been “saved.” Leaving, I felt genuine fear — but then angry at the manipulative nature of it all.

That’s why I don’t believe in hell anymore — at least not the eternal conscious torment kind.

What has bothered me, though, is the question of justice. Up to fairly recently, my views on who went to hell were very narrow — only those who had confessed Jesus as their Lord and Savior with a specific prayer of repentance were privileged enough to enter heaven. That left large swaths of humanity, from the remote tribes to all those who professed a different set of religious beliefs than I did, inexorably bound for hell. It sure seemed that in the end, Satan won — He got almost everyone.

Yet I could not understand how beautiful people like Gandhi or the sweet and loving grandma who does not believe in Jesus, who did so much for this world, would also burn in hell for all eternity alongside Hitler, for example. This, too, did not seem like justice.

On the other hand, I knew stories of people who had suffered greatly at the hands of true evil. If I didn’t believe in hell anymore, were the victim and the perpetrator now singing kumbaya together in heaven? It made me shudder to imagine it.

Justice seemed to be served when the evil people went to hell, right? But for eternity? That seemed like overkill, to be honest — which begged the question, was redemption the end game? Or just punishment?

I would often ask myself — who got to decide when justice was served. To still that nagging thought, I repeated the oft-quoted mantra in Christian circles, “God’s ways are not my ways” or “His justice and love will prevail.” Yet I could not see justice, or love for that matter, in either scenario. In both cases, neither was served by any standards I knew and painting God into that corner seemed like a cop-out.

I wanted answers.

It has been my experience that when I seek answers, they sometimes come to me in unexpected ways. I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Nomad, and found an answer to the question of justice. They interviewed Dr. Bruce Greyson, a psychiatrist who has devoted his life to exploring near-death experiences, or NDE’s, and wrote the book After.

What sparked my interest was that he came from a secular household, believing that when our brain died, that was the end of our existence. To date, my exposure to life after death tales was inevitably tied to the message “repent, believe in Jesus, so you don’t go to hell,” but Dr. Greyson had no such baggage. He commenced his studies when he began hearing stories of people who had come back from NDE’s, who saw and heard things that could not be explained scientifically.

One story in particular, as it relates to my question of justice, caught my attention.

A man in his 30’s was working under his truck when it fell on him, crushing his chest. As he related later, he relived an experience he had as a teen when he almost ran over a drunk in the street. Angry at the dent in his truck, he leaned out the window and yelled at the man. However, the inebriated man reached into the truck and slapped him across the face, causing the teen to jump out of the car and beat the crap out of the man, leaving him a bloody mess in the median.

In the NDE, however, in addition to feeling his own rage and adrenaline rush, he also felt each of the 32 blows he delivered to the drunk, the teeth going through his lower lip, and all the humiliation of being beaten up by a teen. It profoundly affected how he viewed his own life and those of others.

He saw for the first time that the Golden Rule — do onto others as you would have them do onto you — was not just a nice maxim to live by, but actually an indisputable law of the universe, like the law of gravity. What we do to others, he realized, both good and bad, we do to ourselves.

The beauty of that story is the redemptive nature embedded in it. At no point was suffering or punishment the end game. Instead, the person was transformed, seeing himself and the universe in an entirely different light. This and other stories like it, spanning the globe and transcending religion and culture, were filled with a God or a Being of Light who loved them and embraced them. AND helped them see the world through another’s eyes.

They lived different lives, no longer pursuing selfish gain or one-up-man-ship, but rather in service to others, sometimes making radical career changes. Their experiences were so profound that the few seconds or minutes on the “other side” had a lifelong effect that years of psychiatric help could not equal.

As I reflected on this, it came to me as the answer to my question of justice: If those who inflicted harm to others experientially went through all the evil done to their victims, feeling it in their own body and their emotions — as if it were done to them — then justice would be served, and at some point, come to an end.

In an unnerving way, it also meant that in my own life review, I would simultaneously re-experience all my emotions towards those I wanted to hurt and take revenge on. This idea made me squirm a little. I think most people can get on board with the idea of punishing evil people but rarely ever considered themselves in those terms. Romans 8:1 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” As a life-long Christian, I believe this wholeheartedly. But I think I confused “no condemnation” with never having to face up to how I have harmed others.

One of the things I think people object to when considering the Christian view of justice is that if a truly evil person repented before dying and went straight to heaven without facing up to their crimes, the victims would see that as hell, not heaven. However, if in a life review the perpetrators really felt what their victims felt in a redemptive way, then I could see restoration happening for both parties.

If I lived my life as if the “Golden Rule” actually happened rather than merely being a nice rule to live by, would that change how I treated others? Indeed, I can see it revolutionizing how I am in this world as a parent, a wife, and a friend.

I want my life now and in eternity filled with forgiveness, kindness, generosity, and love.

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