Christian author Lee Strobel will feature an investigative documentary that discusses truths about the afterlife in his new film "The Case for Heaven" on April 4-6 through Fathom Events.
"The Case for Heaven" was initially published by Strobel as a book, and now embarks on his investigative journey of finding supporting accounts of the afterlife through a documentary, CBN News reported.
Strobel said in an interview, "As a Christian, I believe what the Bible teaches about the afterlife, but at the same time, I've got this skeptical gear." His curiosity about the afterlife began when he almost died 10 years ago. His physician told him "You're one step away from a coma, two steps away from dying," yet he still woke up in the emergency room alive.
He said "And so I lingered between life and death there for quite a while. I had a rare condition called hyponatremia, which is a severe drop in my blood-sodium level."
He admitted that he was skeptical about it due to his professional background which tends to question things. However, the investigation left Strobel astonished specifically over the well-documented and researched data on near-death experiences.
"I thought maybe it was just a lack of oxygen to the brain that causes hallucinations or something like that. And what I discovered is there have been more than 900 scholarly studies on near-death experiences published in scientific and medical journals over the last 50 years," he continued.
Strobel shared with Religion News that through the direction of Mani Sandoval, this film documentary would highlight him, the scholars, and the people who reported having near-death experiences. The almost two-hour documentary has been treated by natural cinematography taken across the country that Strobel believes is "just a shadow of what heaven will be like."
"I think there's a particular interest in this subject matter now because of the COVID outbreak," Strobel said. "I think the topic of what does indeed happen after we leave this world is more relevant to a lot of people today than it was a couple of years ago."
For him, he would leave a legacy that would equip the next generation to not just share what they believe but to understand why they believe it.
He was cautious and aware of the fraudulent stories so he concentrated on testimonies he believed had "corroboration," using his legal and journalistic background to discern. "I wanted cases where people saw things or heard things that they could not have seen or heard had they not had an authentic out-of-body experience," he said.
The author recounted a fascinating story of a woman named Maria who died and was revived at the hospital. According to him, the woman said she was conscious the whole time. "I was watching the resuscitation efforts that they were doing on my body. My spirit was kind of floating there in the hospital room, and then my spirit floated out of the hospital," Strobel recounted what the woman told him.
Then she talked about a man's tennis shoe located on the roof of the hospital and described it to him specifically. According to Strobel, these statements were investigated, and found out Maria's description of the mysterious shoe was true though she never went to see the area physically.
