My grandfather, who became a Christian very late in his life, used to tell the story of an experience he had when he was younger that had a deep impact on him.
He had been visiting an older friend, who was a Christian, in the hospital, and as he got up to leave, he promised to return the following week as he usually did.
“I won’t be here next week,” my grandfather’s friend responded.
Then the older man looked up, clearly seeing something beautiful that my grandfather could not see, and added, “Never forget this sight.”
He died before my grandfather’s next visit, just as he predicted.
I was reminded of that story when I read the story of Tina Hines.
Hines’ story was shared by her niece, Madie Johnson, in an Instagram post in 2019.
Johnson posted a photograph of the words “It’s real,” tattooed on a wrist with the incredible story behind the words — a story involving a heart attack, apparent death, and a miraculous recovery.
And a message every Christian should see.
“A little over a year ago my Aunt Tina, one of the most amazing, discerning, and healthy people I know had an unexpected cardiac arrest and according to doctors had died and was brought back to life four times by my Uncle Brian and first responders before arriving to the hospital,” Johnson wrote.
“…she was put on a defibrillator and after miraculously waking up the first thing she did, unable to speak because she was intubated, was ask for a pen and in my cousin’s journal wrote, ‘it’s real,’” the post continued.
According to Hines’ husband, Brian, who shared the story with Christian Broadcasting Network, once Hines was given a pen and a journal, “she just started making marks, and I couldn’t tell what it was, and I was almost shaking. I was fixed. I just held the book steady because I didn’t want it to drop.”
“We figured out that she wrote I-T-S-R-E-A-L. ‘What’s it’s real?’ And I go, ‘The pain? The hospital?’ She’s slowly nodding your head. Eyes are closed. She’s fully vented. She’s moving all this. No, and then my daughter goes, ‘Heaven?’ And she goes – she nods yes,” Brian said.
Her son-in-law Dave recalled, “And as soon as someone said, ‘Jesus,’ a peace came across her.”
“I just looked at Dave and said, ‘She’s going to be just fine,’” Brian added.
TINA Hines suffered a near-fatal heart attack. At the hospital,
“They called me dead on arrival,” she says, as she was deprived of oxygen for 27 minutes. “That’s when I saw Jesus,” she says. “He was standing there in a white robe with arms stretched out.”https://t.co/LiqNaaD1Vj pic.twitter.com/no30VHthTm— Good News newspaper (@papergoodnews) April 12, 2022
Although doctors warned that Tina Hines would not be able to speak for a while, according to her family, she quickly had a lot to say.
“I just wanted to share that I saw Jesus face to face and the unbelievable rest and peacefulness of what I was experiencing was Jesus standing there with His arms open wide, and right behind Jesus standing there was this incredible glow it was the most vibrant and beautiful yellow,” she said, according to CBN.
There have been many credible people who have had near-death experiences of heaven or hell.
The book “90 Minutes In Heaven,” which sold over 4 million copies in 2011 and was also turned into a movie, shared the story of Baptist minister Don Piper’s account of his near-death experience after a horrific car accident that should have left him dead.
#90MinutesInHeaven is a powerful story of faith, triumph & perseverance. Own it NOW on Blu-ray & DVD. #HopeLiveshttps://t.co/gMAZEKyFNb
— Universal Pictures All-Access (@UniAllAccess) December 1, 2015
Piper referred to the 90 minutes that he says he spent in heaven as “the most real thing that ever happened to me,” according to ABC News.
Of course, there will always be some people who make up such stories for ulterior motives.
In 2015, a boy named Alex Malarkey recanted his story of visiting heaven almost five years after the book, “The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven” hit the best-seller list, according to NPR.
Do you believe Heaven is a real place where some people – but not everyone – go after dying?
“I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible,” Malarkey said.
Although Malarkey’s lie and subsequent confession were used by the media to attack all such stories, he made a great point when he recanted. While testimonies like Hines’ and Piper’s can serve to encourage us, the truth of heaven does not rely on the testimony of any fallen human but on the word of Jesus Christ himself.
In John 14: 1-6 (KJV), Jesus told his disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
But one of the disciples, Thomas, wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to get there.
Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Brian Hines told CBN a doctor told him his wife’s heart attack had left her dead for at least 27 minutes. Piper says he spent 90 minutes in the afterlife.
But the human concept of time is insignificant on the scale of eternity.
Sudden events such as those involving Hines and Piper lead to the question: What if your life ended today? Would you be in heaven?
The Bible tells us that we cannot earn a place in heaven through good deeds, for “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans. 3:23).
And no one who is unholy can stand in the presence of God.
But the Word of God goes on to assure us that, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Jesus paid the price for our sins so that we could have a place with Him in heaven.
Human beings never know when their last day on earth will come. But those who know Jesus’ salvation know their future is assured.
Whether sudden, as with Hines and Piper, or expected like my grandfather’s friend, if we know Jesus as our Savior, we have nothing to fear from death.
When that moment arrives, we can be sure that looking up, we will see the glory He has prepared for us.
