In short – nothing. Because in Bible times the medical care that would allow humans to survive the heart stopping barely existed. While the idea of mouth-to-mouth breathing coupled with manual cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can be traced back as far as references in the medical literature of Ancient Egypt (c. 2686 – c. 2181 BCE), the idea of using electricity to help restart a heart was first suggested in 1809 by the Scottish surgeon Allan Burns, and it was not until the 19th Century that various advanced treatments for resuscitation became both more successful and more common.
The only examples of “near death experiences” are Paul being left for dead after being stoned, and Eutychus falling out of window. In both cases we don’t know that they were certainly dead. They may have been concussed. Although the second case does read like an actual resurrection.
So with the Bible being silent, we can only go with what the Bible actually says about death – which none of the people who claim NDEs know anything about because they medically speaking were not dead. Death is what happens when all possible activity and hope of resuscitation has finished. Their experiences are understood by doctors to simply be akin to dreams.
Given this those who want to justify NDEs fall back on the usual handful of misread (and overused) exceptions in the Bible such as the witch of Endor’s claim to king Saul that she could see the ghost of Samuel, which Saul himself could not see.
For those “exception” verses and for general Bible teaching on life and death please use the search function.
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