Posted on 04/20/2014 1:42:07 PM PDT by MNDude
"Heaven is for Real" Review A couple of years ago some people in the church in which I served at the time began asking me one by one about a book they had read. While they had really liked the book, they had some questions about it and some things just didn't seem right to them. So I concluded that it was my duty at that point to read...you guessed it...The Shack. I read the book and posted a strongly critical review online as a way to help people see the danger in that novel.
(Excerpt) Read more at missionaldiscipleship.blogspot.com ...
Jesus told Colton to be good
People had halos
Colton saw John the Baptist, whom was nice
Jesus had a horse
There were rainbows
Jesus wore a white robe and purple sash
Everyone had wings except Jesus
The angels wore robes and sashes as well
Jesus taught Colton and gave homework
His sister who was miscarried had no name
The Holy Spirit was hard to describe and blue
There were animals in heaven
Jesus and the Holy Spirit shoot "power" to his father while he preaches
No one is old or wears glasses in heaven
There were a lot of children in heaven
Jesus loves children
Swords are present in heaven
Pop had a new body
My Observations Let's talk about the descriptions of heaven first. While the Bible does not give tons of information about heaven, it does provide more than most people think so we have a pretty good amount of Scripture to test the book against. While I can't point to anything on the above list and declare with Biblical support that it is wrong, there are a few items that clearly fall into a grey area of Biblical support:
Everyone (but Jesus) had wings. There is no refutation of this in the Bible, but there is also no support for it at all and it seems to blur the line between angelic beings who are described as having wings such as in Isaiah 6 and humans who are separate created beings. His sister had no name. Revelation 2:17 tells us that believers in heaven will be given a new name by Christ. Now, while that verse also says that the name is only known by Christ, it does show us that names matter in heaven, just as they do on earth. Is it possible that God would allow all the miscarried and aborted babies who were not named by parents on earth to not have a name in heaven? Possible, yes. Probable?
The Holy Spirit's description. The Holy Spirit is perhaps the least understood Person of the Trinity. God the Father we can understand through the lens of earthly fathers. God the Son we can understand because of His ministry on earth. But God the Spirit is rather mysterious. The problem is that many Christians reduce the Holy Spirit to a non-personal force, however, He is not a force, He demonstrates the full characteristics of personality. I find it perplexing that God the Father (whom has no body) would be described by Colton, but God the Spirit was only "blue."
Animals were present. We know that Christ will return on a horse (Revelation 19). One could then argue that the horse has to be present in heaven for the start of His journey. However, Colton's contention that heaven is full of animals is potentially problematic. We know that the Bible depicts animals in the future millennial kingdom and that animals will most surely be present in the new heaven and new earth but the intermediate heaven is much less clear. Could there be animals in the present heaven? Perhaps. But it does call into question the nature of the intermediate heaven and how animals, who have no soul, can be present.
Pop had a new body. We know that believers will not receive their resurrected bodies until the rapture but aren't sure about believers who are in the intermediate heaven having a transitional body or not. Some believe that God will give us transitional bodies that we will shed when we receive our resurrected bodies, but this is conjecture. These last two items and several other details (rainbows for example) cause me to believe that the intermediate heaven and eternal heaven are often confused in the book. Certain truths are only applicable of the new, eternal heaven. Bodies and animals may be two of those.
Besides these questions, several other things simply didn't add up to me. Again, I cannot point to these as concrete evidence that the book is unreliable, but they do give me ample reason to continue in my skepticism:
Colton was only in heaven for three minutes, yet he did so much. Colton was emphatic that he was in heaven for just three minutes. My first question is what three-year-old pays that much attention to time? My second question is how could he experience so much in just three minutes? Todd Burpo tries to explain this by suggesting the verse about time being relative to God and God being outside of time. My problem with that is demonstrated in the Revelation martyrs who ask how long will it be until they are avenged. It seems that they had an awareness of earth's timing.
It is rather convenient that he saw so much. I probably sound like a broken record, but again I find it rather convenient that Colton saw and experienced so much.
How did he see Satan? As Colton talks about swords being in heaven he explains that the angels have them to keep Satan out of heaven. (Parenthetically, it seems that Satan continues to have access to God, see Job, and will not be expelled as Revelation depicts until the end times.) But then a moment later he says he saw Satan but would not describe him. If Colton was in heaven, and if he is correct that the angels use swords to keep him out of heaven, how did he see him? How would it be "dangerous" for him to have a sword in heaven? Tangent to the last point, when Colton asks Jesus if he could have a sword, Jesus tells him that it would be dangerous. What possible danger could a sword pose in heaven? Who would Colton hurt? What would he destroy?
The preponderance of miracles. Let me state clearly that I believe that God continues to be a miracle-working God. However, I do find it rather hard to believe that the Burpos could experience several (Colton's recovery, the finances, etc.).
Conclusion: Three Options So what do I think about "Heaven is for Real?" Would I recommend Christians to read it? Is it helpful? Harmful? Well, I'll start with the good news: "Heaven is for Real" is not dangerous along the lines of "The Shack." Now for the bad news: I don't see a good reason for Christians to read this book because of the numerous questions surrounding it. As I was reading the book I kept thinking that instead of trying to find encouragement and strengthened faith from this experiential-based book, why not read solid Biblical-based books on heaven instead? Why not read Heaven by Randy Alcorn, Heaven Revealed by Paul Enns, The Glory of Heaven by John MacArthur, or One Minute after You Die by Erwin Lutzer instead?
When it comes to "Heaven if for Real" I only see three options.
(1) The book is genuine and Colton had an authentic experience. I cannot advocate this position due to the reasons already stated.
(2) Colton is drawing on his time spent in church and hearing his father teach and preach. That coupled with his parents desire to believe has led to an experience that is believed to be genuine, but is not. You might ask about the evidence of proving his experience, but I would respond that there is a potential plausible explanation for each. Perhaps he overheard his parents talking about some of the details. Children are quite observant. Furthermore, once the Burpos started to look for support of Colton's experience, they would have been more apt to find it. For example, how many blue Chevy Camaros have you seen? Now pay attention to how many you will see in the next few days. Why? Because you're looking for them now. I personally believe this is the case of "Heaven is for Real."
(3) The book is a complete fraud. Even though I am a cynic and I could build a case for this (remember the financial problems that were mentioned repeatedly in the book) I do not believe this is the case.
So here's the question for a potential reader. Unless you are sure that #1 is correct, why read "Heaven is for Real?"
[One final note to pass along. Whenever considering a book like this, pay attention to who endorses it and who does not. You will notice a glaring lack of reputable endorsements.]
I have read numerous accounts of dying and coming back and in general believe them. There are too many instances of this happening when no books were written, no money made. And lives have been changed.
For some reason the Heaven is for Real sounds a bit shaky to me. Maybe it happened and they’ve expended on it beyond what actually happened...but something about it seems off. And, he was pre-conditioned to believe some of these things with his father being a preacher and all.
Still, I do believe that these experiences happen.
I read the book. Truly DO NOT remember anything about halos or wings. I guess I’ll have to read it again!
This guys review is quite comprehensive .... maybe he should review His Arrogance’s birth certificate, college courses and degrees.
More critics about a very real occurrence. I will trust a young innocent boy far beyond the “learned” who are mostly part of a rigid and hypocritical church leadership.
this young man did not make this up and it was not a dream, obviously. People of the church today take the bible ad their teacher. Before the image holy spirit, just using it as a crutch...not realizing that it’s words are mostly all true, but much has been translated and left out . Huge amounts of texts were not included in the canon as the assembled the bible, and many of those deciders back then were not perfect by a long shot. That is why we are always to rely on inner holy spirit insight...pure and simple and never wrong.
My daughter gave me the book to read. I don’t believe Colton died when he went to heaven, but was very ill in the hospital. One of the things he said that caught my attention was that heaven was very colorful, with colors that we don’t even have on earth. This reminded me of the posts on this website, ‘Astronomy Picture of the Day’ that shows the Hubble Space Telescope’s pictures of distant galaxies. Then Colton said the God loved all the children. Then I thought of all the aborted babies. Colton met his little sister that he did know he had as she was still born before he was born and he never met her. There are a lot of things I found hard to believe.
Like the author, I tend to be skeptical of claims that someone went to heaven and came back. But I will admit, this one is tough to dismiss. I think I believe the little boy.
I think the author is too hung up on the issue of three minutes. A thousand years is like a day to the Lord.
Don’t esteem the Bible much, do you?
The book of Luke says “we closely investigated these accounts and found them to be true”.
So what evidence is there an ounce of this is true? Because some guy said his kid told all this?
If someone makes a claim to have a new revelation about the nature of God, Jesus and spiritual things that the Bible doesn’t reveal, we should be very very very careful to examine it.
Why are people so comfortable believing immediately something that seems to be at odds with what the Bible says?
Just as God cannot reveal Himself to us and we do not see all things clearly, surely when a child goes to heaven he/she would experience it and then recall it in a manner related to their own existence. I think the story is good as it stands, just as Jesus spoke in parables to the masses. Not everyone heard all His parables. God is just too complex for us now. Take the piece of heaven shown to this boy and enjoy.
“We know that believers will not receive their resurrected bodies until the rapture but aren’t sure about believers who are in the intermediate heaven having a transitional body or not”
What the heck is an intermediate heaven?? sounds bogus to me. All are asleep until the day of judgement. No one is in heaven until then.
We need to be very very careful that this movie isn’t acting as a “medium” for familiar spirits trying to trick us into believing we can talk to the dead. We cannot.
Bttt
"Today you will be with me in paradise." ( Luke 23:43 NIV)
I do...the problem with your type is you have made the bible your God.
No. There was no punctuation in Hebrew/Aramic, etc. The authors put the comma’s in and most likely originally read like this...’truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise” This is how it is REALLY written in NIV
43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
I meant the interpreters, not authors.
I saw the movie. I liked it. End of story. I believe in God and Jesus no matter what is presented. Only they know the truth and its not up to me to judge it.
Howard Storm.
I know him personally.
I knew him before, and after, his decent into Hell.
Art professor and one of the nastiest atheists around.
God had other plans for Howard,
Like Saul into Paul, a near death vision turned the atheist into a pastor.
I saw it with my own eyes.
I remember reading The Shack or at least part of it. I didn’t like it/believe it but I can’t remember the reason why. I might like this one better.
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