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I believe him.Without getting into it too deeply I’ve had several near misses and have had similar experinces.

The book has been on the NY Times best sellers list and is available for $6.99 at Christian Books! I want one in my Easter Basket. As a parent who lost a daughter to a Drunk Driver, I hope that she is with Jesus and waiting for her Mom and Me!

Sure sounds compelling. The thing that makes me skeptical is that he says people in heaven have wings. There’s a common folk belief that confuses angels with people who go to heaven, and thinks they all get wings, but that is not based on Scripture. Also, his description of Jesus seems to be in direct contradiction to the appearance of the glorified Christ in Revelation.

I’m going to say, on first impression, that at the least, the kid has embellished, as kids tend to do, in an effort to please his parents or get attention.

His description of heaven does not test the scriptural test.. as an example.. His grandfather had wings.. a typical thought of a child and people becoming angels when they die.. but people do not become angels ..they do not get wings..

He spoke of the angels singing... typical of a child who listens to Christmas carols ..but angels do not sing ..

Instead of reading the dreams of a chid people would be better off reading the scriptures and seeing what God says about it

First of all, what kind of parents name their kid Colton????????? Especially when your last name is Burpo????????????? Hope the kid makes it alive through high school with that moniker!

I did buy the book after reading about it here on FR. Finished it a few days ago. It is a believable story, though there was at least one thing I would question the boy more on if I was his Pastor father. One being his great grandfather (Pops) having wings, and he himself having little wings. No place in the Bible does it say we will get wings in Heaven. But regardless, even if you take away his account of Heaven, the chapters on his illness was absolutely terrifying to read, as a parent of a young boy myself. I could only imagine the horror his parents were going through as he clung on to life.

There is a heaven, i.e., God will bestow happiness and the richest gifts on all those who depart this life free from original sin and personal mortal sin, and who are, consequently, in the state of justice and friendship with God. Concerning the purification of those just souls who depart in venial sin or who are still subject to temporal punishment for sin, see PURGATORY. On the lot of those who die free from personal sin, but infected with original sin, see LIMBO (limbus pervulorum). On the immediate beginning of eternal happiness after death, or eventually, after the passage through purgatory, see PARTICULAR JUDGMENT. The existence of heaven is, of course, denied by atheists, materialists, and pantheists of all centuries as well as by those rationalists who teach that the soul perishes with the body — in short, by all who deny the existence of God or the immortality of the soul. But, for the rest, if we abstract from the specific quality and the supernatural character of heaven, the doctrine has never met with any opposition worthy of note. Even mere reason can prove the existence of heaven or of the happy state of the just in the next life.
We shall give a brief outline of the principal arguments. From these we shall, at the same time, see that the bliss of heaven is eternal and consists primarily in the possession of God, and that heaven presupposes a condition of perfect happiness, in which every wish of the heart finds adequate satisfaction.

•God made all things for His objective honour and glory. Every creature was to manifest His Divine perfections by becoming a likeness of God, each according to its capacity. But man is capable of becoming in the greatest and most perfect manner a likeness of God, when he knows and loves His infinite perfections with a knowledge and love analogous to God’s own love and knowledge. Therefore man is created to know God and to love Him. Moreover, this knowledge and love is to be eternal; for such is man’s capability and his calling, because his soul is immortal. Lastly, to know God and to love Him is the noblest occupation of the human mind, and consequently also its supreme happiness. Therefore man is created for eternal happiness; and he will infallibly attain it hereafter, unless, by sin, he renders himself unworthy of so high a destiny.
•God made all things for His formal glory, which consists in the knowledge and love shown Him by rational creatures. Irrational creatures cannot give formal glory to God directly, but they should assist rational creatures in doing so. This they can do by manifesting God’s perfections and by rendering other services; whilst rational creatures should, by their own personal knowledge and love of God, refer and direct all creatures to Him as their last end. Therefore every intelligent creature in general, and man in particular, is destined to know and love God for ever, though he may forfeit eternal happiness by sin.
•God, in his infinite justice and holiness, must give virtue its due reward. But, as experience teaches, the virtuous do not obtain a sufficient reward here; hence they will be recompensed hereafter, and the reward must be everlasting, since the soul is immortal. Nor can it be supposed that the soul in the next life must merit her continuance in happiness by a continued series of combats; for this would be repugnant to all the tendencies and desires of human nature.
•God, in His wisdom, must set on the moral law a sanction, sufficiently appropriate and efficacious. But, unless each man is rewarded according to the measure of his good works, such a sanction could not be said to exist. Mere infliction of punishment for sin would be insufficient. In any case, reward for good deeds is the best means of inspiring zeal for virtue. Nature itself teaches us to reward virtue in others whenever we can, and to hope for a reward of our own good actions from the Supreme Ruler of the universe. That reward, not being given here, will be given hereafter.
•God has implanted in the heart of man a love of virtue and a love of happiness; consequently, God, because of His wisdom, must by rewarding virtue establish perfect harmony between these two tendencies. But such a harmony is not established in this life; therefore it will be brought about in the next.
•Every man has an innate desire for perfect beatitude. Experience proves this. The sight of the imperfect goods of earth naturally leads us to form the conception of a happiness so perfect as to satisfy all the desires of our heart. But we cannot conceive such a state without desiring it. Therefore we are destined for a happiness that is perfect and, for that very reason, eternal; and it will be ours, unless we forfeit it by sin. A natural tendency without an object is incompatible both with nature and with the Creator’s goodness. The arguments thus far advanced prove the existence of heaven as a state of perfect happiness.
•We are born for higher things, for the possession of God. This earth can satisfy no man, least of all the wise. “Vanity of vanities”, says the Scripture (Ecclesiastes 1:1); and St. Augustine exclaimed: “Thou hast made us for Thyself (O God) and our heart is troubled till it rests in Thee.”
•We are created for wisdom, for a possession of truth perfect in its kind. Our mental faculties and the aspirations of our nature give proof of this. But the scanty knowledge, that we can acquire on earth stands in no proportion to the capabilities of our soul. We shall possess truth in higher perfection hereafter.
•God made us for holiness, for a complete and final triumph over passion and for the perfect and secure possession of virtue. Our natural aptitudes and desires bear witness to this. But this happy goal is not reached on earth, but in the next life.
•We are created for love and friendship, for indissoluble union with our friends. At the grave of those we love our heart longs for a future reunion. This cry of nature is no delusion. A joyful and everlasting reunion awaits the just man beyond the grave.
•It is the conviction of all peoples that there is a heaven in which the just will rejoice in the next life. But, in the fundamental questions of our being and our destiny, a conviction, so unanimous and universal, cannot be erroneous. Otherwise this world and the order of this world would remain an utter enigma to intelligent creatures, who ought to know at least the necessary means for reaching their appointed end.
•Very few deny the existence of heaven; and these few are practically all atheists and epicureans. But surely it cannot be that all the rest have erred, and an isolated class of men such as these are not the true guides in the most fundamental questions of our being. For apostasy from God and His law cannot be the key to wisdom.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07170a.htm

But I don't want to have wings...

I’d like to hear about such commonplace things like the decor, food, accomodations, and all we hear are the fairy tale details.

Near death experiences are not compelling evidence of survival after death. Reports of such experiences change for example in the 19th century it was crossing over a river i.e. Stonewall Jackson. Recently, it is tunnels of light. Some see nothing such as Wyatt Earp's brother after the brother lay dying after he was shot. Further, those reporting the experiences are alive, the dead are not reporting.

2 Corinthians 11 tells us that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. We have been warned.