Great News!

Once again The New York Times best seller list includes a christian book:

HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, by Todd Burpo came in #2 in the combined print and e-book nonfiction category, and #1 in the paperback nonfiction category.

And who could resist.

Cute and cuddly Colton Burpo, two months shy of his fourth birthday, son of an evangelical pastor in Imperial, Nebraska, rushed into emergency surgery with a burst appendix and awoke with an astonishing story: He had died and gone to heaven.

Thomas Nelson, says the book has broken company sales records. The publisher, began with an initial printing of 40,000 copies. Since then it has gone back to press 22 times, with more than 1.5 million copies in print, and counting.

“We all are perhaps desperate to know what is on the other side of the veil after we die” said Matt Baugher, vice president of Thomas Nelson.

Perhaps Mr. Baugher is correct in his assumption - 'we are all desperate to know...' so let us examine the evidence Colton has presented,  proving -

Heaven is For Real.

Colton tells us that "All the people have a light above their head." [perhaps he means a halo].

A halo exists in children’s Bible stories and in Renaissance art, but not in scripture.  Revelation 21:14 describes those in heaven as wearing 'fine linen, white and clean' but no mention is made of a light above their heads.

Colton says that Jesus has a rainbow horse, and he got to pet him. Again in Revelation, [19:11,14] the horse mentioned is always white.

When ask about God's throne, Colton says it is 'big, really big'. He said that Jesus sits on one side of God and the angel Gabriel on the other.

Yet in Luke 1, when Gabriel foretells John the Baptist’s birth and says, 'I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God…'

Colton says: They brought in a little chair for me, and I sat by God the Holy Spirit and then goes on to claim that is where he met his great-grandpa, also sitting on a throne by the Holy Spirit.

But John in Revelation 4 gives us a much different account of the throne:

"…At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones, and seated on them were 24 elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumbles and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God..."

[thanks to moms in need of mercy for the invaluable book review]

'While in Heaven Colton says  he was upset because he "did not know what was happening" and so "He (God) used people or things that I liked to calm me down. From there on I felt better." That anyone, even if he is a small child, would feel any kind of fear, confusion, or apprehension in the presence of the omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent God in Heaven is doubtful.' [Justin Peters]

Is Heaven for Real.?. ABSOLUTELY.

Does the book Heaven is for Real give us the information we need to see 'what is on the other side of the veil after we die'?

NOT according to scripture.