Yesterday while browsing online I came across a video interview by Fox News of the author, Dr. Mary Neal, discussing this book and her near death experience. On video she came across as truthful and credible and I had a little time on my hands so I downloaded the book to my kindle.

I feel that she is being truthful in her account as she experienced it. She calls herself a person of faith and has served as an elder in her Presbyterian church. She seems to be an upstanding member of society who truly loves her family and cares about people around her, as evidenced through her work as an orthopedic surgeon. She comes across as likable and honest. She has gone through the death of her son for which I am totally sympathetic. She definitely knows trials.

All that having been said, I have a few reservations, none of which are meant to personally attack Dr. Neal, so I am sharing these concerns in the spirit of honest concern, and in no way to malign her as a person. I do believe these events occurred as she presents them, but I worry that some aspects of her account may not be what they seem on the surface.

My concerns about this book include:

1.) Sharing the Gospel, i.e., The Great Commission of Matthew 28:16-20, is never listed as a reason for her return from near death. The complete Gospel, or good news of Jesus, is not shared in the book.

2.) The final choice of choosing or rejecting "God" (not Jesus) is presented as happening after the soul leaves the body and is at the entrance of heaven. This contradicts what the Bible says about choosing Jesus as Lord and Savior while alive, on earth, in this body. Patrick Zuckeran, Christian theologian, says, "Hebrews 9:27 states that it is appointed to man to die once and then the judgment. This indicates that after death, there is the judgment, and there is no mention of a second chance. In Jesus' parables of the kingdom, judgment follows after death. One example is Luke 16, Lazarus and the rich man. Immediately after they died, Lazarus was taken to Abraham's bosom and the rich man to hell. Even in hell the rich man saw that he was wrong and sorry for his sin but could not change his outcome. I am sure if he had a second chance, he would not have been there. Parables like these indicate there is no second chance. Finally, we are saved by faith. Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1 as "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Saving faith is exercised while on earth. When we are face to face with the Lord, we will no longer be exercising any kind of faith; we will see as 1 Corinthians states, "face to face." So all scripture indicates judgment after death. The burden is on those who say there is a second chance after death. Where are the verses to uphold that view?"

3.) Dr. Neal quotes from various sources that subscribe to worldviews including Eastern Mysticism and New Age Philosophy. These sources include A Course in Miracles, from which a rather benign quote is taken, but also present in A Course in Miracles are several other extremely telling and worrisome quotes including: "My salvation comes from me. It cannot come from anywhere else." and "There is no sin." as well as "Do not make the pathetic error of clinging to the Old Rugged Cross. The only message of the crucifixion is that you can overcome the cross." I will leave it to the reader of this review to ponder why a Christian woman with a supposedly Christian message quotes from a book that also includes quotes that completely go against the teachings of the Bible. (I am not suggesting that Dr. Neal is purposely misleading anyone, but this point is extremely crucial considering we're talking about "ultimate Truth".) Dr. Neal also quotes from Deepak Chopra, a New Age leader and author whose teachings clearly contradict the Bible, as well as the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader, whose teachings also clearly contradict the Bible. Sometimes these sources say or write things that might coincide with Biblical truth, but their overall messages contradict the Bible as a whole and consistently. Knowing this would be important to the Bible believing reader of Dr. Neal's book.

4.) Dr. Neal accepts at face value that human souls are sent to collect the soul at death. This may have been her experience, but her experience may have been inconsistent with biblical truth in order to lead folks away from biblical truth. Again, I am not saying Dr. Neal is purposely trying to do this. I just believe that spiritual warfare for the souls of humanity is real, subtle, and expertly undertaken. Also, this book has no mention of hell, or any consequences of rejecting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

5.) Dr. Neal accepts at face value that the wife of a deceased previous patient communicated with her dead husband. The wife, a member of the LDS church, knew, according to Dr. Neal, many events that occurred to her in her accident that could only mean she had received information from her dead husband. The Bible clearly forbids communicating with the dead. It is my belief that oftentimes spiritual communication is with evil entities who impersonate passed loved ones. This why mediums are so popular - many times the messages have truth about people and events in them mixed with spiritual lies meant to leave those still on earth with temporary comfort and more importantly, anti-biblical spiritual confusion for the purposes of leading them away from Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

This book contains subtle deception away from Biblical truth, perhaps not intended by the author, but there nonetheless.