Boy’s Tale of Heaven Is Publishing Phenomenon

NY Times ^ | 3/11/11 | Julie Bosman

[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.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Just wonderful...

[Quix]

Right.

No way that can be explained away.

All the EMT’s who’d checked pronounced him very very dead.

They were incredulous a pastor would want to pray over a body that had been dead as long as he had.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I agree...

[Quix]

Avoiding the book will mean you are missing out on some wonderful insights into JESUS AND THE FATHER AND SOMEWHAT HOLY SPIRIT.

[Quix]

WHAT A WONDERFUL NARRATIVE.

PRAISE GOD.

I don’t doubt it a bit.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Don Piper had so many bones broken in his body. His arm was found in the back seat, yet today he can move his arm and walk. Pieces of bones in his leg were never found.

I was very happy to meet him.

[tnlibertarian]

he’s doing very well.

Good to hear. My youngest son was born at 28 weeks, less than two pounds. He's fine now, almost three years old. Still small, but makes up for it with energy. I can't read that story I posted without tearing up, no matter how many times I do it.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

My grandkids love the Wiggles’ song about Ol’ Dan Tucker.

I don't believe I've heard it, but it is on youtube, so I'll make a point to do so.

Here's the story of the song's namesake (See: Daniel Tucker):

As a young man Daniel Tucker came to Elbert County to take up a land grant and served as a Captain in the American Revolution. Farming the rich land along the Savannah River, he became a capable farmer. At least one man was bound to Daniel Tucker to learn how to farm. One of his closest friends and neighbors was the former Governor of Georgia, Stephen Heard.

The graveyard where Daniel Tucker is buried in Elbert County, Georgia, is a tourist attraction due to the minister's possible connection to the song "Old Dan Tucker".

Tucker also ferried people across the Savannah River between the states of Georgia and South Carolina. Records in the Elbert County Courthouse show that in 1798, Tucker bought from Mr. John Heard for $1,000 in cash, part of the "Cook's Ferry Tract" with a ferry and all the items that went with it. The ferry was well situated and continued to serve the traveling public until bridges were built for the coming of automobiles.

Besides farming and carrying travelers across the river, Daniel Tucker was a Methodist minister. He spent much of his time teaching slaves and praying with them. The song written about him called "Old Dan Tucker" has become a part of American folk music.

Daniel Tucker died in 1818 and was buried near his home. Today, his grave lies on a hill overlooking Lake Russell. "Old Dan Tucker's Grave" marks the burial site of Reverend Tucker in Elbert County. His grave site is located off Highway 72 east of Elberton, Georgia.

[Quix]

Your conjecture does NOT FIT a single aspect of the book.

Being so emphatic in an assumption that it does, without reading the book, strikes me as rather cheeky.

BTW, the mods are unwilling and unable to bother about requests to avoid posting to folks. Such things are against FR policy.

I’ll continue to post to anyone’s posts that strike me as worth commenting on.

That’s the nature of the forum.

[Quix]

So . . . when did you see a DIFFERENT Jesus and in what context and by what means?

[Quix]

And just how do you explain 2

DIFFERENT

4 year old children seeing the

SAME JESUS

. . . kids who never new each other existed at the time?

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Thanks for the info about Dan Tucker. My grandson is now 17 months old, and we watch him 3 days a week. Whenever we play the Wiggles’ DVD, he dances. The Wiggles seem to be a phenomenon for toddlers.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Avoiding the book will mean you are missing out on some wonderful insights into JESUS AND THE FATHER AND SOMEWHAT HOLY SPIRIT.

That's ok, I'll spend the time reading the Holy Bible. God bless you, Quix, and keep you on the true path! :)

[Quix]

Of course I was not THERE with the parents and son.

I thought that was self-evident, and a straw dog not worth replying to.

Their narrative in the book is sufficient for me to make my assessment.

I’ve often assessed family relationship dynamics etc. based on writing, journals etc.

[Quix]

WOW. Indeed.

I’d forgotten such details.

What do you think are the major reasons naysayers cling to their irrational stuff so tenaciously?

[Quix]

He’s very good at that task.

Likewise.

[lupie]

Repentance is enabled by REVELATION.

Biblical source?? Why, then, do you impose upon the boy the unreasonable, unbiblical, legalistic standard that his testimony is invalid unless it comes with an exhortation to repent, or a sermonette on the Four Spiritual Laws?

I didn't impose anything on the boy. Don't put words in my keyboard. Where did I mention a sermonette of the Four Spiritual Laws? Do you even know if I know them?

Who made you judge over him?

I am not able to judge anyone, (see Romans 2). Can you show me where in my post I judged the boy? I have no clue about his heart, or the heart of his parents and where they stand with Christ our Lord. I simple quoted what the Truth of God from Christ Jesus. Do you have a problem with what He said? If so, then please give scriptural support (in context) Or, perhaps a better question would be WHY you are trying to proclaim judgment on ME and what I think and believe? There really is not any good and Godly reason to attack me.

Have Jesus repeated excoriations of the myopia of the Pharisees and Saducees so failed to register with you that you so readily imitate them rather than Christ?

Why the personal attack? Because you didn't agree with what I said? Again I am asking you - why are YOU judging ME? *scratches head*

You appeal to the gospel; well and good. And what is the gospel (literally: “good news”) but the joyous declaration to fallen man that relationship — actual, personal knowledge of, encounter by, and experience with the Living God — has been made available through the finished work of Jesus at Calvary?

Do you have biblical foundation for all you have said here? Please provide.

The curtain of the temple was torn in two. Who was behind it? And is He there still? NO! He’s out in plain view, for all with “eyes to see, and ears to hear.”

Really? That is not what Paul says in Romans 11:

7What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day." 9And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,and bend their backs forever."

Also Luke said the same thing in Acts 28, and Jesus in Mark and Matthew. Not all will see, nor will all understand, as Isaiah prophecied.

And do you think this biblical phrase refers only to spiritual eyes and ears? It does not, for I tell you in all sobriety that Our LORD, Jesus has appeared in Person to MANY to bring to the uttermost ends of the Earth the knowledge of Him. Heathen men and women have SEEN Him with their own physical eyes, and heard Him with their own physical ears.

So? What does this have to do with anything I was talking about or the scripture that I gave?

Recall that Jesus is “The Last Adam,” and consider that part and parcel of his function under that title is to reconcile us to God with the result that we can NOW have relationship to God in the same fullness that the First Adam enjoyed; and I do mean NOW.

Or this?

Or do you think that Our Father, having given up His only Son to save us, would subsequently withhold Himself from us?

Or this?

That is not the testimony of scripture.

Or this?

Paul, in the book of Romans makes this clear when he writes, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with him also freely give us all things?”

Or this?

What — aside from sin — is excluded from “all things”? Surely “all” means ALL, and within the scope of all are sons and daughters who prophesy, young men who — like this boy — see visions, and old men who dream dreams.

Or this?

Why does Paul — not once, but repeatedly — exhort The Church to prophesy saying, “...covet spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy” (I Cor. 14:1), and again “I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied...” (I Cor. 14:5), and yet again, “...covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues,” and also even again, “Quench not The Spirit. Despise not prophesying.” (I Thess. 5:19 & 20)?

Or this?

Why these repeated exhortations unless he expected... imaginations.

Or all of that??? Please give a contexual scriptural answer to these questions if you really want to discuss this.

p.s. You may want to read through 1 John 4 first. And so should anyone who wants to read this book and think it is from God.

[lupie]

Why did you ping me?

[RoadTest]

“The part about Jesus’ blue eyes ..... hmmmmmmm.”

I wonder about that, too. It’s like the long hair that artists portray Him with, which is a mistake.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Of course I was not THERE with the parents and son.

Of course you weren't.

On a personal note, I would think that if the good Reverend truly wanted to reach as many as possible, they would post the story on the internet where it could be read for free. Instead, they publish a book that must be bought. And, that is the source of my skepticism.