We know at death, the body returns to the ground, and the spirit returns to God. As Stephen was being murdered, he cried out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts 7:59)
This spirit, probably entering with our first breath, enlivens body and soul, imparts higher intelligence, reasoning ability, an aesthetic sense and a God-consciousness, and somehow returns to God at death. The process of disengagement from the natural body may account for reports of near-death experiences. If the patient is resuscitated, the spirit may indeed have “recorded” environmental events that can be recalled.1
One of the questions we have to ask: has the Bible anything to say about “out of body experiences?” Are there any tangible examples we can learn from? And if so, what insight might we gain?
In an overall reading of the Bible you will soon encounter numerous testimonies that find their origins from beyond this physical world. You will read of men who experienced various visions and directly attributed them as having come from God: Jacob saw a stairway leading to heaven. Ezekiel saw a stunning vision of a future resurrection. Daniel saw a vision detailing successive world empires. And John also saw Jesus in vision amidst apocalyptic end-time prophecies.
Then there is a curious passage in Paul’s second letter to the faithful at Corinth. He wrote:
It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. (2 Corinthians 12:1-4)
It seems here Paul is writing, in the third-person, about himself. It’s an experience that has stayed with him for some 14 years, and he doesn’t really know how to fully describe it. We are not privy to how and why this happened to Paul, but we do know that there were times in his life where he was almost killed. An example of one such event happened at Lystra.
Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. (Acts 14:19)
Stoning was a brutal form of execution. We read then where the disciples gathered around Paul, presumably praying and anointing his lifeless body, and then we’re told that Paul somehow survived.
Perhaps Paul’s life, on one of those cruel encounters, teetered on the edge, where his spirit experienced some level of “disengagement” from his body! We don’t know. We do know, however, that his experience hearing “inexpressible words… not lawful for a man to utter” was also mirrored in John’s Revelation vision when he was told not to write what he had heard from the “seven thunders”. (Revelation 10:4) John’s experience, in his own words, was:
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day,… (Revelation 1:10)
From our physical and limited perspective, there are questions that we’ll never adequately answer in this lifetime. Nor do we need to. Our only resource are the Holy Scriptures, what “is written”, the very words of Jesus, and from the lives of those faithful to him.
(Excerpt from 3rd newly revised edition of “Hope of the Resurrection”, by John T Klassek)
1. Alive in the Spirit, James McBride, Bible Advocate, page 12, Nov-Dec 2013 baonline.org