The best selling book and soon to be released movie Heaven Is For Real is based on the true story of the three year, ten months old son of a Nebraska pastor who claims to have experienced heaven during emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix. The events it describes took place in 2003.
Another best selling book called The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven is based on a similar story. In it, the six year old son of a Christian therapist in Ohio claims that he visited heaven while in a coma for two months. It describes an experience that took place in 2004. Both books became New York Times bestsellers in 2010.
After reading these two “near death” accounts this week I am left with conflicting thoughts. According to three year old Colton Burpo, the gates of heaven are bright and feature a pearl. Six year old Alex Malarkey remembers them as shiny, covered with scales like fish. Colton saw three thrones – for God, Jesus and Gabriel – and was given a chair by an angel so that he could chat with the Trinity. Alex remembers seeing a hole that leads to hell outside the gates, an outer and an inner heaven, and an inner court where angels flew back and forth to prevent a face to face encounter with God. Colton described meeting his miscarried sister, his long dead grandfather, adults who were all in their prime, and many, many children. Alex said that there were only angels and Bible characters. Colton described a glorious landscape and lots of animals. Alex described awesome city skylines and stunning lakes and forests. In Colton’s memory, everyone wore white robes with different coloured sashes. Alex made no mention of sashes, but, then, it might have been laundry day during his visit to heaven (couldn’t resist. Sorry). What their accounts did agree on was the comforting presence of Jesus.
For a more scholarly perspective on life after death, I scanned Randy Alcorn’s 500 page epic about life after death, Heaven. In it he speculates that there is an intermediate, “present heaven” where Christians go when they die and an “ultimate, eternal heaven” that he calls “the New Earth” where they will go after Christ returns and all the dead are raised. This new earth, he says, will be so beautiful that it will make us gasp. It will be a physical place, inhabited by embodied, conscious human beings who will live meaningful, purposeful lives full of exciting adventures and perfectly loving relationships with each other and God.
Alcorn’s description of the after life as a renewed earth reminded me of Paul Marshall’s 1999 classic, Heaven Is Not My Home. In it, Marshall rejects the idea that we will live disembodied lives in a distant heaven. He insists that this earth matters to God, that human beings were created to live on this planet, that the world is worth our care and commitment, and that it will be completely restored to its former beauty by Jesus for our habitation. He would probably shudder at the lyrics of Jim Reeves’ old gospel hit: “This world is not my home/I’m just a-passing through/my treasures are laid up somewhere/just beyond the blue.”
The different reports by the two little boys and the differing interpretations of the two scholars tell me that any thoughts about heaven will always involve a degree of subjectivity and imagination, and perhaps some hallucination. If these books and next month’s movie release inspire people to study what God’s Word has to say about life after death, great! But when it comes to our next destination, the Bible is our only authoritative travel guide.
- Pastor Peter
Another best selling book called The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven is based on a similar story. In it, the six year old son of a Christian therapist in Ohio claims that he visited heaven while in a coma for two months. It describes an experience that took place in 2004. Both books became New York Times bestsellers in 2010.
After reading these two “near death” accounts this week I am left with conflicting thoughts. According to three year old Colton Burpo, the gates of heaven are bright and feature a pearl. Six year old Alex Malarkey remembers them as shiny, covered with scales like fish. Colton saw three thrones – for God, Jesus and Gabriel – and was given a chair by an angel so that he could chat with the Trinity. Alex remembers seeing a hole that leads to hell outside the gates, an outer and an inner heaven, and an inner court where angels flew back and forth to prevent a face to face encounter with God. Colton described meeting his miscarried sister, his long dead grandfather, adults who were all in their prime, and many, many children. Alex said that there were only angels and Bible characters. Colton described a glorious landscape and lots of animals. Alex described awesome city skylines and stunning lakes and forests. In Colton’s memory, everyone wore white robes with different coloured sashes. Alex made no mention of sashes, but, then, it might have been laundry day during his visit to heaven (couldn’t resist. Sorry). What their accounts did agree on was the comforting presence of Jesus.
For a more scholarly perspective on life after death, I scanned Randy Alcorn’s 500 page epic about life after death, Heaven. In it he speculates that there is an intermediate, “present heaven” where Christians go when they die and an “ultimate, eternal heaven” that he calls “the New Earth” where they will go after Christ returns and all the dead are raised. This new earth, he says, will be so beautiful that it will make us gasp. It will be a physical place, inhabited by embodied, conscious human beings who will live meaningful, purposeful lives full of exciting adventures and perfectly loving relationships with each other and God.
Alcorn’s description of the after life as a renewed earth reminded me of Paul Marshall’s 1999 classic, Heaven Is Not My Home. In it, Marshall rejects the idea that we will live disembodied lives in a distant heaven. He insists that this earth matters to God, that human beings were created to live on this planet, that the world is worth our care and commitment, and that it will be completely restored to its former beauty by Jesus for our habitation. He would probably shudder at the lyrics of Jim Reeves’ old gospel hit: “This world is not my home/I’m just a-passing through/my treasures are laid up somewhere/just beyond the blue.”
The different reports by the two little boys and the differing interpretations of the two scholars tell me that any thoughts about heaven will always involve a degree of subjectivity and imagination, and perhaps some hallucination. If these books and next month’s movie release inspire people to study what God’s Word has to say about life after death, great! But when it comes to our next destination, the Bible is our only authoritative travel guide.
- Pastor Peter
The release date of the movie Heaven is for Real is Friday, April 16.
The books Heaven is For Real and The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven are available in our church library.
The books Heaven is For Real and The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven are available in our church library.
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