Posted on 03/11/2011 10:08:14 AM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
Just two months shy of his fourth birthday, Colton Burpo, the son of an evangelical pastor in Imperial, Neb., was rushed into emergency surgery with a burst appendix.
He woke up with an astonishing story: He had died and gone to heaven, where he met his great-grandfather; the biblical figure Samson; John the Baptist; and Jesus, who had eyes that “were just sort of a sea-blue and they seemed to sparkle,” Colton, now 11 years old, recalled.
Colton's father, Todd, has turned the boy’s experience into a 163-page book, “Heaven Is for Real,” which has become a sleeper paperback hit of the winter, dominating best-seller lists and selling hundreds of thousands of copies.
Thomas Nelson, the book’s publisher, said it had broken company sales records.
The publisher, based in Nashville, began with an initial print run of 40,000 copies.
Since the book came out in November, it has gone back to press 22 times, with more than 1.5 million copies in print.
On the New York Times best-seller list for paperback nonfiction last Sunday, “Heaven Is for Real” was NO. 1.
The book remains in the top spot this coming Sunday.
Colton told his parents that he had met his younger sister in heaven, describing her as a dark-haired girl who resembled his older sister, Cassie.
When the Burpos questioned him, he asked his mother, “You had a baby die in your tummy, didn’t you?”
While his wife had suffered a miscarriage years before, Mr. Burpo said, they had not told Colton about it.
“There’s just no way he could have known,” Mr. Burpo said.
The Burpos said that Colton painstakingly described images that he said he saw in heaven — like the bloody wounds on Jesus’ palms — that he had not been shown before.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Todd Burpo and family...
Colton, just after his recovery in 2003, with his father Todd Burpo
just a coincidence?
bookmark
My take is the boy had something happen and the account was greatly embellished by the parents who saw a book and money in the future. Though not this much money
People want to believe. Want to believe.
Ping
Fine folks, evangelical Christians...but...
no sale!
Visions of this sort are possible, but I have my doubts about this one, esp. about the part where Jesus told him his Daddy will fight in Armageddon.
The boy may indeed have had some unusual near-death experience. But I suspect that Daddy Preacher has “interpreted,” spelled out into detail some of the things the kid may have said that Daddy thought would not be understood unless he, Daddy, just tweaked them a bit.
The Armageddon part is one such possibility.
Ping
Colossal fraud, most likely.
I just finished reading it. Put aside for a moment his visit to Heaven, as a Parent of a young boy myself, I was horrified for a few chapters there as he was fighting for his life. Had this big ole guy nearly in tears reading through his father’s telling of it.
As for the boys story of Heaven and the parent’s documentation of it, I could find nothing that would have me doubt that the story is true. The only questionable part is when he says his great grandfather, “Pop” had wings, and he had little wings himself. Contrary to many old movies and even cartoons we do not become angels. When I got to that part of the book, that is when just a little natural skepticism set in. I was hoping for a little help from his pastor father to ask more on that, but he just let it go. Still it was a good read, and I think the story is highly credible.
Having read the book, do you think it’s plausible that the boy could have overheard his parents (and other family + friends) talking about some of the things he saw? Kids absorb and retain so much information about their environment - perhaps this information served as the basis for his experience?
I have this book.
Amazing.
I agree. It’s a wonderful book.
The part about Jesus’ blue eyes ..... hmmmmmmm.
Yes, it is amazing.
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