Posted on 04/24/2014 8:39:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
"Heaven Is for Real," the movie based on the near-death experience of a young boy who believes he visited heaven and met Jesus, is generating divided opinions among Christians on whether it presents a biblical message on heaven as it hits theaters Easter weekend.
The movie is based on the best-selling 2010 book Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back, where pastor Todd Burpo reports on the near-death experience of his then 4-year-old son, Colton, who shares of meeting Jesus in heaven as well as a number of his deceased relatives after undergoing emergency surgery in 2003.
The film won the Wednesday box office race with a strong opening-day gross of $3.7 million from 2,417 theaters. The TriStar movie -- nabbing an A CinemaScore overall, and an A+ among moviegoers under the age of 35 -- could gross north of $20 million by Easter Sunday, one of the top openings ever for a faith-based title.
The film adaptation of the book, directed by Randall Wallace, opened on Wednesday, and has received the backing of some Christian groups, including Faith Driven Consumer, which reviews faith or Bible-based films.
With an overall rating of four stars out of five, Faith Driven Consumer states that while the movie "does not clearly present the biblical teaching on how a person gets to heaven or comes to know Jesus, it is a high quality outreach tool for Christians to share with non-believers about the reality of heaven and the Gospel."
In the category of Faith and/or Biblical relevance, the movie scored three-and-a-half stars out of five. Some Christians "may take issue with the hint of universalism and lack of overt reference to repentance and faith in Jesus for salvation and attainment of heaven," Faith Driven Consumer says. Still, "Heaven Is for Real" "gently shares biblical truths in an accessible and non-preachy way – offering hope, encouragement and a strengthening of faith for both Christians and non-believers alike."
Not all agree. Christian TV producer and author of over 30 books Steve Wohlberg argued that the movie promotes an unbiblical view of heaven by suggesting that a person's dead relatives are already there.
"There's one major problem," Wohlberg wrote on Thursday. "Neither the Old or New Testaments teach anywhere that our dead relatives are floating around in heaven waiting to talk to us. Instead, they 'sleep' (1 Cor. 15:51) quietly in their graves awaiting 'the resurrection at the last day' (John 11:25)."
In November 2013, Burpo spoke with The Christian Post and commended the film, calling the parts he had seen "accurate" and well-made.
"They're sharing Colton's message accurately and honestly, and they're doing it incredibly well," the pastor told CP. "I think God is telling people the story."
He added that he believes Hollywood is a "great medium," as many more people will go to the movies rather than read books.
There are many books that have been written, chronicling the experiences of people who had near death experiences. I believe the first one of note was Dr. Raymond Moody’s “Life After Life”, which was written in the ‘70’s (?). While no single experience seems identical to another, there are many different common patterns of experience that emerge from the many accounts. To me, reading Moody’s book back in the ‘80’s helped to affirm my Christian belief in a spiritual existence after death. The reality of the spiritual realm is probably far more complex than the human mind can even contemplate.
"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions" - Joel 2:28
Why can’t this little boys experience be a miracle, a gift from God to help us here on earth have a glimpse of heaven? Many are always wanting to see real life miracles, then when we get one, we still doubt.
Hank Hanegraaff is a fraud and an accuser of the brethren. He is also a preterist for whose opinion I have no regard.
It doesn’t matter whether he is or is not. Haanegraaf’s objections are theological, not situational. (And, as a Catholic I find it astounding that I agree with most of them; usually Hank is his very own pope.)
I usually find Hanegraaf’s theology abhorrent, but I’m unaware of how he is a fraud. Do tell.
Re: Preterism
Catholics are often accused of preterism, but the Catholic doctrine is that future events are foreshadowed by past events; it is false to say that Catholics believe the book of revelations is journalistic and not prophetic.
Does Hank really believe that the Book of Revelations has happened and will not happen?
What brethren would that be?
Walter Martin's daughter tells the truth about Hank Hanegraaff
The “brethren” would be true believers in Christ. You have to look long and hard to find a high-profile pastor, teacher or theologian Hanegraaff has not attacked.
Dr. Mark Hitchcock of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, OK and Dallas Theological Seminary and Dr. Thomas Ice of Liberty University and the Pre-Trib Research Center in Washington D.C. co-authored a book called Breaking the Apocalypse Code that refutes this bizarre position. Of that book, Dr. Norman Geisler wrote,
"This is an excellent point-by-point critique of the fallacious claims in Hank Hanegraaff's preterist interpretations of end times events, revealing its ungrounded and unbiblical conclusions. It exposes his dangerous method of interpretation that, if applied to essential doctrines of the Scripture, it would undermine the historic Christian faith."
Interesting. Also interesting that Hank has no formal biblical study; that explains why he cites the Book of Jeremiah more frequently than the entire New Testament, as if the condemnations against the foes of Israel and Israel’s own unfaithful over-rides the gospels. Among my Catholic friends, if you say, in a deep voice, “It says here in the Book of Jeremiah...,” everyone knows that’s Hank Hanegraaf. That’s a shorthand for nonsequitor and human judgmentalism.
Seeing is BELIEVING!
Succinctly put!
My understanding is that partial preterism is the belief that certain portions of the Book of Revelations happened already, and certain ones will happen in the future. If I understand you correctly, the Catholic Church would hold *YOUR* definition of partial preterism, that the same event happens in the past and will happen in the future.
An example of Catholic teaching (NOT dogmatic, NOT official, but commonly held) that fits your definition of partial preterism is that the Beast referred to Emperor Nero (Qsr Nrn = 666), but also a global oppression of Christianity in the end times.
Again, this is NOT official Catholic dogma; in fact there have been Catholics who believe we are living before the millennium, during the millennium, and even after the millennium; since the issue of the millennium is not one of morality (even the authority to require obedience is an issue of morality), the Church has not seen it necessary to dogmatically define.
For anyone buying into the story PT Barnam coined the phase over a 100 years ago. “There’s a sucker born every minute”.
I often find that near death experiences do more so than not help my faith experience greatly.
One lady told me she had two.
The first was when she was a Christian. She described the bright lights, feeling loved, seeing family. The usual. She converted to a well know religion that makes use of many Christian terms and later had another experience. It involved pain, fire and torment.
A neighbor, who had was not a believer went into cardiac arrest and was resuscitated. He told me that Hell is a real place. When talking about it he had a panicked look and trembled. Sadly he will not come to Jesus.
Scripture is silent on this phenomena so I don't take a stand on it one way or the other. But for that reason I will not see the movie.
I have no regard for Catholic teaching as IMO Catholicism is heretical and denies Christ as the only source of salvation, deifying humans and teaching us to pray to them. But, trusting your salvation to a priest instead of accepting your responsibility to work out your salvation with fear and trembling sure is easy.
Agreed. I used to listen to him, but he drove me away. Certainly, there are charlatans out there who should be exposed, but it seemed that EVERYONE was a charlatan in Hanegraaff’s mind, and a lot of people for whom I have enormous respect were tarred with the same brush.
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