- In recent years,

we've seen no shortage of so-called

heaven tourism stories.

Some people have written books

that have become bestsellers about heaven,

others have recanted their testimonies.

So who and what should we believe?

That's exactly what LeeStrobel wanted to find out.

(light music)

- [Reporter] As a younginvestigative reporter

for the Chicago Tribune

whose wife had found Jesus,

Lee Strobel made ithis mission to disprove

or prove his existence.

Lee's journey to faith becamea popular movie in 2017.

After a brush with death 10 years ago,

Lee added another book to his popular

"The Case For Series",

this time examining the afterlife.

"The Case For Heaven" is Lee's answer

to what he says is life'smost important question.

- Then what happens to us

after we close our eyes in this world

for the last time?

- And that's the million dollar question.

Joining us now via Skype is Lee Strobel.

Lee, welcome back to the show.

- Well, thank you so much.

Great to be with you.

- Well Lee, 10 years ago,you had a close call.

Doctor said you were twosteps away from death.

What happened? Tell us.

- Yeah, my wife found me unconscious,

called an ambulance,

I woke up in the emergency room,

the doctor said, "You'reone step away from a coma,

two steps away from dying.",

and then I fell back unconscious.

I had a rare conditioncalled hyponatremia,

which is a precipitous dropin my blood sodium level.

And I lost a kidney in the process

and I hovered between life and death

for quite a while there.

And as difficult as that experience was,

so it was a very clarifying experience

and really motivated me to wanna make sure

what really does happenafter we close our eyes

for the last time in this world.

- You didn't see?

You didn't go to heaven though,

when that happened to you?

- No, I didn't havewhat's technically known

as a near-death experience,

but I had a brush with that.

But I was a skeptic aboutnear-death experiences.

I thought that they were kindof a new agey sort of thing,

they were not well documented,

and yet in my investigation,

I found there are over900 scholarly articles

in scientific and medical journals

investigating near-death experiences

over the last 40 years.

And what shocked me about that

is we have corroboration ofmany of these experiences,

which I talk about in my book.

In other words, people whose soul

separated from their body atthe time of clinical death,

and they saw things or heard things

that they otherwise couldnot have seen or heard,

this corroborates the fact that indeed

they did have an out-of-body experience.

And it means that our spirit, our soul,

our consciousness can actuallysurvive physical death.

- But can't science sort of explain

what people go through when they're dying?

I mean, they have these,endorphins are released

as you're dying and it makes you smile.

Can science can prove anything?

- That's a great question.

That's what I thought.

I thought, "Okay, this wasjust oxygen deprivation,

or the dying gasps of abrain or hallucinations".

But an article in The Lancet,

which is the prestigiousBritish medical journal,

said that there are noalternative explanations

to near-death experiencesthat stand up to scrutiny

when they're thoroughly investigated.

And none of them can explain this away,

especially the corroboration.

For instance, in the case of Maria

who died during surgery,

her spirit floated out of her body.

She watched the resuscitation efforts,

her spirit actually floatedthrough the hospital

and out of the hospital,

and when her spirit wasreunited with her body

she said, "By the way,there's a tennis shoe

on the roof of the hospitalin the third-storey landing.

And it's a men's bluetennis shoe, left footed

and there's a littlewear mark over the toe,

and the shoelaces tucked under the heel."

And they went up and investigated,

sure enough there it was.

- Okay, that makes mea believer, for sure.

You interviewed a professornamed Scott McKnight

and he says heaven isn't just

some beautiful place in the clouds.

So what does he believe?

- Yeah. I mean, what the Bible teaches

and what a lot of peoplemistakenly believe

is that the heaven is avery ethereal experience,

wrapped in the clouds,

we're just spirits, not physical bodies,

that's not what the Bible teaches.

The Bible teaches there'll be a new heaven

and a new Earth that Godwill renew His creation.

So it's gonna be a very physical place.

The Book of Revelation does not say

that God is gonna make new things,

it say it's gonna make all things new.

And so our world will be a physical world,

it will be theocentric that is centered

around worship of God,

but also there'll be relationships.

There'll be activities,

we'll do things,

we'll have responsibilities,

we'll explore,

we'll have adventures and so forth.

God is infinite so we'll have

an infinite amount of time to explore God.

- And you say that the Christian worldview

of the afterlife offersthe best possible outcome

and the best hope for all of us.

Why is that?

- Yeah. Even the atheist Luc Ferry admits

that of all religions,

Christianity's view of the afterlife

is the most appealingif you're a believer.

'cause it is a world of joyand adventure and fulfillment,

no tears, no suffering in the presence

of God Himself for eternity,

there's relationships that are renewed

and new relationships that are made.

So it's really, if it's true,it's a incredible promise.

And I believe, as my bookdemonstrates for many reasons,

it is true.

And especially when you lookat the resurrection of Jesus,

which I believe is one ofthe best attested events

of the ancient world.

We have good evidencethat He's an eye witness

to the afterlife.

Not only that, but He showedthat He's the Son of God,

and so He created the afterlife,

and what does He describe it as?

Like a home,

that this is not our home,

but that is gonna be a home for eternity.

- Well, your new book iscalled "The Case For Heaven".

And by the way, I thoughtthe movie about your life,

"The Case For Christ" was phenomenal,

and I've been tellingeverybody they ought to see it.

So maybe this will become a movie, eh?

- It will.

It'll be in movie theaters next March.

- Oh! Okay. Wow!

- Yeah.- Breaking news.

- Yeah.- Breaking news right here.

(both laugh)

That's fantastic.

Well, great.

Well, "The Case For Heaven" is available

in stores nationwide.

Lee Strobel, God bless you.

Thank you so much for being with us.

- My pleasure.

Blessings to you.

- That's a book everybody should get that.

- Yes!- That's fantastic.

- [Wendy] He's a phenomenalinvestigative reporter,

and again the movie.

- The Apostle Paul says is,

"The one thing that I want to attain

the resurrection of the dead.

That's the most important thing,

I'm looking forward to it,

and it's gonna be great."

Well, then I had Lee Strobel.

What a terrific guy.