“I have always believed Christian theology that declares heaven is real and a place of God’s people. Since my own experience of having been there, I’ve felt a stronger sense of responsibility to make the way absolutely clear…I don’t want to see others die without Jesus Christ.”

In this quote from chapter twelve in 90 Minutes in Heaven, Don Piper tells us that he has “always believed” that heaven is “a place of God’s people,” and that after having been there he does not want others to die without Jesus Christ. Later on in the same chapter we are also told what it means to die without Jesus as his friend Dick says that many people are “lost and going to hell,” to which Piper answers: “You’re absolutely right.”

   While 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper is written with Cecil Murphey is more subtle and diplomatic about this Christian fundamentalist view, Piper’s website is more to the point. At Don Piper Ministries website we are told about his Ministry that Piper’s message is simple: We can all have “eternal life someday through faith in Jesus Christ!”

   This is also where under the section on “How to go to Heaven” we find the standard Christian fundamentalist line from the Bible: “Don Piper Ministries is a Christian ministry that believes the only way to go to heaven is to trust Jesus Christ as your savior. Jesus said in John 14:6, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Farther except through me.’”

   One could assume that maybe Piper’s Ministry was clearly separated from the book, but this is not so as the ministry is based on his near death experience as it is: “dedicated to spreading the Gospel through one-day rallies, conferences, and revivals via Don’s remarkable testimony delivered in print and in person.” Also there is a direct link from the official website of the book to the “How to get to Heaven” section on the donpiperministries.com website.   

   In the last chapter of the book Piper tells us that, “I have looked at the research on NDE and thought about it often during the years.” This may be so, however, it is clear that he has not looked deep enough or thought hard enough as there is absolutely no objective evidence within research of Near Death Experiences (NDEs) to support religious fundamentalism.

   A quick look on the internet at the International Association for Near Death Studies’ website tells us that,

As with the pleasurable NDE, distressing NDEs seem to occur about equally to people of both genders and of all ages, educational levels, socioeconomic levels, sexual orientations, spiritual beliefs, religious affiliations, and life experiences.

   Here the group of pleasurable NDEs contains heaven-like experiences like Piper’s NDE and distressing NDEs contain so-called hell-like or hellish experiences, which in religious terms would mean the people going to hell. But as we here find in NDE research, there is no mention of Jesus as experiences of both heaven and hell seem to happen equally to people of all walks of life and religious beliefs.

   In my own research I found that 92 percent of the people in my study who had an NDE disagreed with the statement: “Eternal life is only possible through a particular religion.” Nearly eight in ten said that they strongly disagreed with this statement based on their NDE. Also 92 percent said that, “No one has a patent on Salvation or Heaven,” and to the statement: “You need to believe in a particular religion to go to Heaven,” I found that 100 percent said that they “strongly disagreed.”

   The conclusion of the International Association for Near Death Studies, which is based on over 30 years of research, and my own findings clearly suggest that Piper’s claim that you need to believe in Jesus to go to heaven is wrong.