Don Piper, a New York Times best-selling author and the subject of the 90 Minutes in Heaven movie, said he came to know Christ as Savior at age 16 through the influence of friends and relatives. Those were the people he says he met at the gates of heaven when he died in a car crash at age 38 and spent 13 months in the hospital.

In his new book, People I Met at the Gates of Heaven, Piper, who is also an ordained minister, told of those who expected and met him at heaven’s gates. His college roommate’s mother met him there, as did one of his classmates who was killed, his great-grandparents, his grandmother and a teacher.

People I Met at the Gates of Heaven also shows how believers can and should influence others on earth for heaven's purposes, just as those who helped lead Piper to Christ influenced him.

As for whose name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, which the Scripture speaks about, “only God knows” Piper said.

“We think we know who’s going and who’s not, and we do not,” he said.

FaithWords releases his new book in November.