Pastor John Burke says as the world gets worse, God is revealing himself more
As the world gets darker, God is revealing Himself more to people from all nations, says Pastor John Burke.
The founding pastor of Gateway Church in Austin, Texas, and New York Times bestselling author shares the accounts of near-death experiences in his new book, Imagine the God of Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God’s Revelation, and the Love You’ve Always Wanted.
The new book is similar to his previous works but delves further into people's lives and their relationship with God following their near-death experiences.
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Burke, who once identified as agnostic, was an engineer when he first delved into researching near-death experiences as his father was dying of cancer a few decades ago. He was engrossed in his research about near-death experiences, particularly being drawn to the “scientific medical evidence” backing up people's accounts. The research brought him to God, and he eventually left his career in engineering to become a pastor.
Burke spent 35 years researching over 1,000 near-death experiences before writing his bestselling book, Imagine Heaven.
“If you just look at a theology of the afterlife revealed in the Scriptures, what these people are commonly overlapping is the same; it’s illustrating that in an incredible way. And so, I wrote Imagine Heaven,” Burke told The Christian Post. "If you've read Imagine Heaven, they talk about these amazing journeys into this beautiful place, not unlike Earth — mountains, trees and flowers — but experienced in new dimensions of time and space, and so much more," he continued.
“They talk about these great reunions with people who have passed on. We're not wispy, ethereal; we're more real and more ourselves than we've ever been. What they would commonly say, [is that despite the wonders around them], when they were in the presence of God, they said, ‘I didn't care about any of that, nothing compared to just looking into His eyes or just being in His presence.”
Featuring 70 interviews, the author describes Imagine the God of Heaven as a comprehensive book about God, a “love story shown throughout history revealed in Scripture” and in people's near-death experiences.
Burke said his goal was to share God's love, the love they've “always wanted.”
“What blew me away is the people that God brought to me this time in writing Imagine the God of Heaven are from every continent, every background imaginable. What I started to realize as I was researching and thinking about the book is that He wants everybody to know He is the God of all nations. He created every person of every race, color, every nation to be His child, and that His love for each one of us is so unique,” Burke said.
"In our crazy world, what feels like evil on the rise, I think God is giving greater testimony globally to His reality and His great love for all people,” he told CP.
What he traced throughout the book is “God has created us all for a love relationship, and that's true in every nation.”
"I've got stories of people who clinically died, their heart stops beating, their brainwaves have ceased, medical proof of it from all over the world and yet, the God they are consistently describing, what I'm showing is this is the God who has been revealing Himself throughout history,” Burke maintained.
“God is not all of a sudden showing up in our age of medical resuscitation. ... These are just testimonies affirming what He's been revealing to the world all along,” Burke insisted.
"I believe He is doing this because He wants every person of every nation to know that He's made a way for everyone to be forgiven and made right with Him, as a gift,” the pastor concluded.
Imagine the God of Heaven is now available everywhere books are sold. For more information, visit the website.
Jeannie Ortega Law is a reporter for The Christian Post. Reach her at: [email protected] She's also the author of the book, What Is Happening to Me? How to Defeat Your Unseen Enemy Follow her on Twitter: @jlawcp Facebook: JeannieOMusic
