This is a great book! I don't know if anyone has mentioned it, so I wanted to mention it. It's a "gotta read book." It doesn't matter what religion you are or if you consider yourself an athiest. It's by Todd Burpo, writing about his young son's trip to heaven.
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.
When a book becomes that popular, it should expect criticism�which Heaven Is For Real has gotten�in spades. But I am not really interested in criticizing the boy, the book, or even his experiences�whatever they were. People have been reporting near death experiences for as long as anybody can remember, and the subject has become fodder for academic research, beginning with psychiatrist Raymond Moody�s Life After Life, first published in 1975. What disturbs me are the reports I am hearing anecdotally from people about how Heaven Is For Real is regarded as �powerful evidence� for biblical Christianity. One of my friends called me this weekend to say that he received a copy of the book from his in-laws as a gift for Father�s Day as a way of helping him bolster his faith. His father-in-law has bought dozens and dozens of copies of the book and is using it as a kind of alternative apologetics book.
Aside from the fact that, as Bill Hybels once wisely pointed out, you don�t lead with your best �weird God story� when you�re trying to evangelize someone, I am more bothered by the high regard and sheer enthusiasm many well-intentioned lay evangelicals are affording to Todd Burpo�s book. Nor am I embarrassed by the discussion of evidence for the afterlife, having written about it previously, and commending Dinesh D�Souza�s fine book about the subject along the way. What bothers me about the reception of Heaven is a Real Place is what it says about the relatively low view of the sufficiency of Scripture among evangelicals today. In other words, it�s not good enough for us to hear about heaven from the holy apostles, Church Fathers, and trusted commentaries on Scripture. No, we need a little boy sitting on Jesus� lap to tell us that instead. Then we will believe it. And that phenomenon ultimately bodes ill for everyone who really does love the Bible: pastors, teachers, parents, and yes, even children.
Have to disagree with Holding OUt Hope. Sorry brother, I read the entire book in a few days and I have a Bachelors Degree in Early CHildhood Education and Have spent many years of my life working with and communicating with pre-school age children. Now remember in development, each child is different and aquires different speech and language skills at different times. My own daughter said the word doctor very clearly at age 9 months and I had witnesses...LOL.
Ok, so that said, I thought this sounded very much like words many of the pre-schoolers I worked with would say if they had a profound story to tell. Sometimes it is about a family member or a pet or how they hurt themselves but young children can and will give you specific details about thier lives if they feel strongly about something and feel the need to tell.
Here is my take on the book, I believe in the Holy Bible and I believe it is God's Holy WOrd and I dont see anything in TOdd and coltons book that disagrees with our Lord. I mean there are so me things that maybe seem different in Heaven then how we expect but there is nothing blasphemous that I saw in this book.
In fact, I am a former Pastor's wife and I can relate to much of how they describe the family life and I can tell you that writing a book like this from the point of a lie would have been then end to Todd's career, he was supported by his church and many of them were witnesses to some of the prayer accounts that led to the healing of Colton.
Todd's wife went through a miscarriage and I Feel this testifies to what I have always known in my heart to be true, there will be unborn children in Heaven. Yes this is encouragement for those who have lost a child either in miscarriage or through abortion. Life begins at conception and God revealed this in this book as well as in his word.
Please read this book and pray about it and what it may mean for your life but remember no matter what you have done or been through the Grace of God is with us and HIs love our sins...no questions asked...forgiveness. GOd is crazy about us, all of us and this book proves it.
THere is also a Heaven is For Real for children that is a picture book and I suggest it :)
One more thing...If you are a skeptic after, read the Faith chapter in Hebrews Chapter 11, and dont put GOd in a box:) :angel:
:waving:...I havnt read it but I will...its a book...it has a story line...some believe the story line...some dont...I dont believe alot of what I read outside of the Bible for obvious reasons....doesnt mean im not gona read a book...
I have a friend that just read the Shack...she believes she now understands about the Trinity of the Triune GOD...it help her...doesnt mean she believes the story line of the book more than the Bible...just means she now believes she understands better about the Trinity of the Triune GOD...no harm in that...xo
Yes, good point because C.S Lewis books that have been made into movies; the Narnia series are very very profound in how they point to Asland the Lion as God and hsi leadership but it is founded in a story.
Heaven is for real, I believe is a vision that God chose in his wisdom to give this young child and if it helps you to be closer to Jesus then not harm done in fact I dont see anything harmful in one oz of this book, I have been a Christian for 20 years, was a Pastors wife and learned under my ex husband while he was attending Seminary, we had theology for dinner every night...LOL I just dont see how this book could encorage any beliefs that go against God.
I was always taught that when we have to weight something to it's validity we match it against scripture and there are so many things God doesnt tell us about Heaven, however nothing Colton tells us about his vision of Heaven is Satanic in nature in any way, in fact it ALL GIVES GLORY TO GOD, that is why I accept it as truth, ok, not Biblicial truth but truth that his experience is real and that we will mostly likely see Coltons reports of Heaven when we get there.
The amazing thing about stories of people who see Heaven through near death experiences is that they support our Biblical view of Jesus, and of Heaven and sadly for some, Hell. Sometimes we have to open our minds a little to be able to judge something by the scriptures even though it is not in the scriptures, does that make sense....if it supports our Biblical Understandings of something then it is an experienced that can be judged to be harmless and God in His wisdom allowed that person to experience it. After all, God is the keeper of life and death, and when people have these experiences it can only be God that allowed them to see and report to others in our culture to hear about and lead them to learn more in a church or the Bible. God is not in a box. :angel:
Exactly...I agree...I've also expieranced something with my Daddy while he was in transition from this life to the next...I'll share a bit of it here...
At one point He asked what is that light up there ?...Its the bathroom light Daddy...NO...not that light the one way above and far away...I replyd...thats where we go when we die...to the light...Your kidding me...No Daddy...I'm not...OK he said with a smile...Next day...He is figiting and struggling and says loudly...They are pulling me down...they are not nice...they are hurting me...I grabed my Daddys & Sister inlaws hand and Prayed...Dont know what I prayed...Just know that He was OK because He said...OK...they Can Not hurt me anymore...He relaxed...
There is SO MUCH we do not know...and I believe it to be TRUTH that Anything that brings Glory to GOD...is a GOOD...
Stay a Blessing to be a Blessing sister in Christ Jesus...xo
