A retired computer science professor has compiled the near-death experiences (NDE) of 50 people into a book. Using his research expertise, he has compared their moving testimonies of both heaven and hell to existing descriptions of what lies beyond our mortal lives, giving the readers a clearer picture of heaven than perhaps ever before.
Dr. Jacques LaFrance, 83, from Sand Springs, Oklahoma, taught computer science for over 26 years at colleges in Oklahoma and Illinois, before retiring in 2000. It was in the years that followed that he devoted himself to researching heaven. Since then, he has dedicated his life to sharing about the power of faith in the end times, the eternity of life beyond this mortal world, the significance of upright living, and the tormenting hopelessness of hell.
“I was raised by my nominal Christian parents,” LaFrance told The Epoch Times. "I never doubted God’s existence or my responsibility to Him.
“For over 200 years this nation has served as a beacon of God’s light to the world, has held dictators in check, and stood for freedom and the honoring of God ... but in the last 60 years, the nation as a whole has drifted away from having God central to our daily lives, to being just a side issue, to being no issue at all.
“Religious beliefs are being scorned in favor of ‘wokeness.’ ... we must be wise with patient endurance.”
The Book
LaFrance was a Boy Scout and joined the Methodist church at his father’s suggestion. He never smoked, nor ingested drugs, alcohol, or caffeine despite his peers doing so. Yet, he only consciously devoted himself to build his everlasting relationship with God during his college years.“That was 65 years ago,” he said. “Since then, God has used me as an encourager of the brethren, and gifted me to understand and write many things.”
His interest in representations of heaven was born in the 1970s after reading two books: George Ritchie’s “Return from Tomorrow,” and Dr. Maurice Rawlings’s “Beyond Death’s Door.” He bought and read 14 additional books on eyewitness testimonies of heaven, paving the way for his own project four decades later.
It was after teaching a summer class for his pastor that LaFrance decided to start sharing some of his favorite testimonies. “Attendees enjoyed the class so much that I thought I might do it again,” he recalled, “but I did not want to have to carry around 16 books and read from each one, so I decided to copy out the portions I used. The file became quite large, and I had the thought that this could be a book.”
The Throne of God
The author believes the oldest eyewitness cited in his book is Eunice, an elderly patient of physician and author Dr. Reggie Anderson. Eunice was in her late 60s when she died temporarily after a heart attack. The youngest eyewitness is Colton Burpo, who was 3 years old at the time of his experience and 4 when he started talking about it.Many of the 50 eyewitnesses’ accounts of heaven include similar details: mentions of bright light, warmth, and a feeling of being loved. Many include descriptions of figures, furniture, and dimensions that bear uncanny resemblance to one another.
One common image is that of the throne of God.
“The throne can be seen from all over heaven. There are many steps leading up to the throne and there are huge columns, too many to count. They all have prophetic relevance. Hundreds and thousands of people are there praising God. Everyone in heaven wants to visit the throne,” he said.
Recounting the eyewitnesses’ experiences, LaFrance added: “Colton Burpo said the throne is ’really, really big,‘ [while] Oden Hetrick said it is a ’large, round building about 300 miles across and 800 miles high in the center of the city.’
“Richard Sigmund said of God, ‘I could tell there was a Being on the throne, but He was covered with a cloud of glory that radiated from Him. The glory of God was an all-consuming, enfolding fire in which He dwelt. It surrounded the Being on the throne.’”
‘Heaven Is God’s Perfect Creation’
In one of the book’s chapters, “The Physics of Heaven,” LaFrance examines eyewitness accounts of heaven against what he knows of earthly physics. It was one of his favorite chapters to compose.“Gravity is different ... one person said she was not really walking like we do on Earth, but just ’sliding along on the ground.' Others spoke about walking like we do on Earth, but we are not tied to the ground, and can float in the air any time we want. The physical laws of heaven are very different from those that control this universe.”
As a side implication of his conclusions about the physics of heaven, LaFrance claims that his earthly, molecular body, being subject to decay, would be of no use in the afterlife. Instead, he ventured that his “resurrection body” may be the one he inhabits in the moment his spirit leaves his physical body in death.
Heaven is “not in this universe,” LaFrance insists, but there must be a unique connection between Earth and heaven since “angels go back and forth all the time,” and we transition from one place to the other when our mortal life is over.
“Heaven is God’s perfect creation,” he said.
The Choice: Heaven or Hell
LaFrance’s book also details eyewitness testimonies of hell.“People choose hell by choosing to live their lives their own way, apart from God, no matter how ‘good’ that way is by their own standards,” he said.
“One person found himself there when he died on the operating table, and was about to be tortured by evil demons. He said, ‘I don’t belong here, I am a good person,’ but the demons wouldn’t let up and he cried out, ‘God help me!’ Then, he was back in his body with all the hospital staff attending to him. He immediately wanted to get baptized, but had to wait until he was out of the hospital.”
Another witness, former atheist B. W. Melvin, was working outside Tucson on a very hot day when he took a long drink of contaminated water. He contracted vibrio cholerae and became severely ill, had an out-of-body experience, and recalls traveling down an “extremely dark tunnel” toward an “astounding light.” “It turned out to be a man in a white robe, and he was told it was Jesus,” said LaFrance.
“[Melvin] knew his fate appeared to be sealed. He was without excuse. He saw unspeakable horror, smelled an extremely putrid stench, and felt intense heat. He heard intense screams and saw people being tortured in cages. He was terrified, and felt an eternal hopelessness until Jesus came and took him out of there.”
Waking up in hospital, Melvin renounced his atheistic beliefs and turned to God.
LaFrance concludes that hell is the very opposite of heaven; it is the fear, darkness, and pain to heaven’s peace, light, and healing.
“There are more people in hell than in heaven,” he said. “They are in cages (cells) or fire pits or both. They are constantly tormented and harmed by demons. They can’t die since they are already dead, so the suffering never ends. They get burned alive in the fire, only to have the flesh come back and get burned again.
“Many are tormented with the same torments they gave others in life. One visitor saw a German S.S. officer who in life enjoyed how he tormented others. Over and over in hell he experienced being shot holding a baby in his arms, being raped and sodomized, being burned in fire, being orphaned, and all the other things he did to [others].”
Bringing People Closer to God
The author says that every eyewitness cited in his book was changed by their personal encounter with the afterlife; they all have a deeper appreciation of God and what He has done for them, they all have new priorities in line with what is “eternally important,” and, in some cases, are more sensitive to the presence of God in their lives.Writing his book has also brought LaFrance closer to God, and his book has had a similar impact upon his readers.
“I am constantly receiving favorable comments,” he said. “Some, especially ones who have lost a loved one recently, have been uniquely blessed by what they read about heaven, their future home.”
“Now we are seeing attempts by those in power to take away the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution in favor of not allowing any criticism of the party in power nor any objection to their policies,” he said. "Now, public prayer, recognition of God’s sovereignty, is discouraged. God’s plan for right living has been replaced with a human (governmental) definition of what is right and moral.
“There will be deprivations, but God has promised to take care of His people during that time. We must learn to trust Him.”
LaFrance believes that God will come very soon and “proclaim His victory.” “The whole world (except His people) will mourn, for they will suddenly know they have served the wrong spirit and they have lost big time,” he concluded.
