Posted on 03/28/2011 8:22:08 AM PDT by RnMomof7
Embarking on a short tour of the afterlife is all the rage, it seems. Don Piper got it started with 90 Minutes in Heaven, a really bad book that sold millions of copies. Then there was 23 Minutes in Hell, another bestseller and another awful book. And now hot on their heels comes Heaven Is For Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. It’s currently sitting atop the New York Times list of bestsellers and has over a half million copies in print. I wonder if I’m the only one who finds it a mite suspicious that now that these books are selling like proverbial hotcakes, more and more people find that God wants them to tell their stories of heaven and hell. Probably not.
Heaven Is For Real is written by pastor Todd Burpo and it tells the story of his son Colton who, at age 4, visited heaven. His visit came while he was on the operating table after suffering a burst appendix. He told his parents his story several months later and his parents then waited 6 or 7 years to record it in a book. That book has shot to the top of the charts, resulting in many of you sending me emails to ask, “Have you read it?” So I went ahead and read it. Because that’s the kind of guy I am.
You will probably not be surprised to learn that this is not a good book. What I want to do here is offer a very brief review and then I want to tell you why you can legitimately dismiss this book and all the others like it, because I think that’s where many of us feel the tension—what gives me the right to dismiss another person’s experience?
I’ve already given you the broad outline. Colton dies (or something close to it) and visits heaven for an unknown period of time. He returns to his body and over the months and years that follow tells his parents about his time in heaven. He tells about spending time with Jesus, about meeting the sister he never knew he had, about fluttering around with wings, about the pearly gates, and on and on. Along the way you’ll get descriptions of Todd’s various afflictions and you’ll read the fine details of Colton’s battles with constipation and the great relief he experienced passing gas. Riveting stuff, this.
Every one of Colton’s experiences, or very nearly every one, follows a pattern. He tells his father some little detail. His father experiences a gasp or feels his heart skip a beat. “I could hardly breathe. My mind was reeling. My head was spinning.” A Scripture verse comes to dad’s mind that validates the experience. Colton gets bored and runs off. Repeat.
The story is told with short chapters and grade school-level writing. Fine literature it is not. The point of it all is to encourage you that heaven is a real place. Colton went there and his experience now validates its existence. Just like Don Piper went there and his experience validates its existence. Just like Bill Wiese went to hell and can speak with authority to tell you that you really, really don’t want to go there. Just like the Apostle Paul went there and told us all about it in order to…oh wait.
Now, what do I do with a book like this one? It seems to me that there are only a couple of options available to me. I can accept it, agreeing that this little boy is legitimate—he went to heaven and is now telling the tale for our edification. Or I can reject what this boy is saying—he did not go to heaven and this book is fictitious. If I go with this second option (which is exactly what I am doing) I now have two choices before me: either the boy (and/or his parents) is a liar or he genuinely believes he experienced something that he did not actually experience. I know which way I would lean, but I suppose that’s neither here nor there.
Either option is very uncharitable and each one leaves me with a further problem: on what grounds can I dismiss this as fiction, as a book that is completely unprofitable?
If I wanted to disprove Colton’s experience on grounds of logic or consistency I might point in a couple of different directions. In the first place, Colton is a toddler who speaks like an adult. His verbatim quotes sound nothing like a 4-year old, and I think I can say this with some authority as the father of a 4-year old. I’d also point to the fact that dad routinely remembers circumstantial detail that there is very little chance he would remember 6 or 7 years after the fact, something that, at the very least, tells me that he is filling in details where he feels he needs to. But there are better grounds.
The better strategy, I think, is to look to the Bible.
I offer two ways of going about this. First, the Bible gives us no indication whatsoever that God will work in this way and that he will call one of us to heaven and then cause us to return. It is for man to die once and then the resurrection. To allow a man (or a boy) to experience heaven and then to bring him back would not be grace but cruelty. The only biblical example we have of a man being caught up to heaven is Paul and it’s very interesting that he was forbidden to tell anything about it. And the reason he even mentioned this experience was not to offer encouragement that heaven exists, but to serve as a part of his “gospel boasting.” He saw heaven and was told to say nothing about it. This was a unique experience in a unique time and for a unique reason.
The second ground refers to the reason each of these authors offers—that through their experience we now find confidence that what God says is true. This kind of proof is exactly the kind of proof we should not need and should not want. Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe. Don Piper insisted that he was called to be the Minister of Hope. If hope is to be found in any person, it will be found in the person of Christ. It is the Spirit working through the Word who will give us confidence in our faith. And what is faith? It is simply believing that what God says in his Word is true. We do not need tales of heaven or stories of those who claim to be there.
If you struggle believing what the Bible says, but learn to find security in the testimony of a toddler, well, I feel sorry for you. And I do not mean this in a condescending way. If God’s Word is not sufficient for you, if the testimony of his Spirit, given to believers, is not enough for you, you will not find any true hope in the unproven tales of a child. This hope may last for a moment, but it will not sustain you, it will not bless you, in those times when hope is waning and times are hard.
So reject this book. Do not read it. Do not believe it. And do not feel guilty doing so.
ABSOLUTELY INDEED!
JESUS IS front and center in all such books I put any stock in, at all.
Time with Jesus is priceless.
Jesus as presented in the narratives is exceedingly Biblical.
Jesus as presented in the narratives is exceedingly Biblical in His character, personality, doings, Heavenly sayings.
Yes, the plan of Salvation is clear in all of them . . . along with the Biblical exhortation, extreme priority to FORGIVE ALL.
Why thanks for
such a touchingly kind and wonderful
and Lovingly Christian affirmation.
Exactly!!! The books confirmed some of what I have experienced over the years. Some of what I know who God is and also given me a fresh look at just how creative and loving God is. The books are wonderful testaments of God’s grace, mercy and love and His interaction with His creation, whom He loves. What these people went through is more of what the everyday Christian life should be like. What they experienced is NORMAL Christianity. A continual and constant interaction with God. Not just some stories about people long time ago. God is no respecter of persons and what the people in the bible experienced, we should also expect that too.
Wow. As I said, they become irritable because they have no assurance nor foundation other than the doctrines of men.
Good point.
it seems to me that such snarkiness for no remotely valid reason bespeaks some rot deep inside somewhere.
Very well put.
I agree entirely.
BTW, I don’t recall
stepping on your . . . uhhh . . . anything.
Or was that just a harsh courtesy snark?
Like I said in a previous reply: I'll stick with the 1st-hand views of heaven from Isaiah, Paul, and John - we KNOW without any doubt at all that those are from God.
Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer the Word.
I have a life long passionate preference for Scripture, too.
However,
I’m
NOT ABOUT to
TELL ALMIGHTY GOD
how HE canNOT speak to me.
Have you been to her website?
So inspiring.
I just got her book from the library. Waited couple weeks.
There were not many copies - it came from Johnstown, PA.
Here poetry is beautiful.
You're not a hysterical paranoid schizophrenic.
You are simply a psycho.
Go back to Westboro where you belong.
Jesus is not the center of this book Quix.. a boys imagination is..
Have been to her website . . . Haven’t ordered her book yet.
Love the painting of the PRINCE OF PEACE.
Now breath deeply. Feel better?
(I'm messin' with ya.)
More unmitigated sweetness.
Have you always had a gross reluctance
or is it an incapacity
to handle well information outside your comfort zone and/or tunnel vision?
Interesting, that’s exactly what John Edwards (the medium) said recently on the Dr. Oz show.
I vigorously disagree.
Christ is smack in the center of his focus and his experiences—along with The Father—for some reason, this kid seems to get more FATHER GOD time than most Heavenly visitors. No explanation for that. God’s preference for some reason.
Have you read it?
I say again . . . my professional life has been heavily involved with distinguishing between reality and imagination on the part of narratives of counseled family members of all ages in my office.
I have no hesitation whatsoever asserting that this kid experienced what he related. His narrative has all the hallmarks of experience and none of the hallmarks of fantasy.
OF COURSE GOD IS STILL on His Throne.
PRAISE GOD FOR THAT!
Friends can mess with me at will.
Others . . . certainly can, too.
However, I may respond differently to the obnoxious sorts.
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