What About the Book, "Heaven Is For Real"?

Pastor Todd Burpo’s book, “Heaven is For Real” — and the movie it spawned — are undoubtedly bringing in a lot of money for his family, and Christians seem to be the primary audience.  This, of course, just demonstrates that most Christians are woefully lacking in discernment.

In addition to the original book, there are also other books based on the same experience: “Heaven is For Real — for Kids,” and “Heaven Changes Everything.”  According to Todd, there is additional information about Colton’s experience in these books which is not in the original book. [Link gone by 7/10/18]

There have been many critics of Todd’s story of his son Colton’s near-death experience (NDE), and rightly so since there are some really problematic claims in the book.  The book is based on a claimed experience of Colton, and Todd would have us all give up what Scripture says and rely instead on an experience for truth.  In fact, Todd says if you criticize his story, then you are nothing but a “Pharisee.”  But is it really pharisaical to examine his story in light of the Scripture?  Of course not!  That was NOT the problem of the Pharisees.

G. Richard Fisher, in an article discussing many claims of so-called visits to heaven (Don Piper, Betty Malz, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Betty Eadie, Akiane Kramarik, et al), had this to say:

“There are so many…possibilities that can account for these heavenly tales. …[S]ome have been shown as fabrications and outright deceptions.  Others are mere hallucinations.  Some have definite medical explanation tied to brain activity or as a result of medication during surgery.  The heaven conjured up is always in synch with the person’s prior beliefs. … There can even be a demonic component — especially when false doctrine is espoused as being from the other side.  There is also the possibility of an overcharged imagination.

“We have to ask if this perhaps is the case of 4-year-old Colton Burpo who could have had seven years of coaching from an overzealous father.  Memories can be constructed and built, and can seem very real.  Now one knows for sure what kind of information was fed, even inadvertently, to young Burpo over those seven years, which was the time between surgery and the book making its way onto bookstore shelves.  Sometimes, if pondered long enough, imagination can seem like reality to a child.” (Personal Freedom Outreach’s “The Quarterly Journal, Oct-Dec 2011, editorial “Heaven is for real, but the stories are not.”)

While a lot of the claims for heaven are just silly, some of the more problematic claims in the book are:

Jesus had a rainbow horse — Scripture only has him with a white horse (Rev. 19).

Colton said Jesus has blue eyes; Jesus is a Jew and would have brown eyes.

Everyone in heaven has wings - including God the Father!  Nowhere in Scripture does Jesus have wings, even after the Resurrection, and Paul said that our bodies will be like Jesus’ body (Phil. 3:21).  Besides, our bodies will not rejoin our souls until after the Resurrection, so how could Colton see human bodies?

Gabriel sits on the left-hand side of God’s throne.  Not only that, but he is the one in heaven that most resembles God the Father.  Shouldn’t that description be for Jesus.  And if God is spirit (John 4:24) how did Colton see Him appearing as a man?

The Holy Spirit is blue and transparent.  The only color associated with the Holy Spirit in the Bible is white, as in coming in the form of a white dove.

Colton’s father, Todd, will fight monsters in the battle of Armageddon, and it would be with either a sword or a bow and arrow but Colton couldn’t remember which.

When his parents asked him what Jesus looked like, he pointed to a painting by Akiane, who claimed to have many visions of Jesus when she was young.

“The story becomes problematic in that Todd also asked Colton for information about which the Bible is silent, including such things as what people look like in heaven, what Jesus looks like, who sits on the left side of God’s throne, what the Holy Spirit looks like, and what Satan looks like. …

“Assuming that Burpo’s account of his son’s NDE is accurate, it also seems that God allowed Colton to encounter certain people and have certain experiences.  Where the story becomes problematic is in mining Colton’s experience for extrabiblical information.  Moreover, there is no reason to suppose that the Lord would convey such details to a not-quite 4-year-old child in order to reveal to the world information He did not previously see fit to provide in Scripture.”

J. Greg Sheryl, “Are Near-Death Experiences ‘Proof of Heaven’?”, PFO “The Quarterly Journal, April-June 2014.

One of the best reviews of this book which I came across is by Steve Parker.  He includes a lot more of the questionable and foolish claims about heaven, as well as some good commentary (and, no, I don’t agree with everything he says).

I also recommend the following reviews and commentaries for more information (and I don’t agree with everything these guys say either):

David Platt (video)

John MacArthur at Grace to You

John MacArthur at Answers In Genesis.

Tim Challies

Drew Dyck, CNN

Randy Alcorn

Erik Raymond

Timothy Hammons

Lyndon Unger

I want to close this article with the final paragraph of Steve Parker’s review:

“There’s a lot more that could be said about this book. But the above will do. Heaven is for Real is simplistic, superficial, and naive. The most disturbing thing about this book is that it has become so popular – which doesn’t say much for the people that swallow it whole without a second thought – even to the extent of stating that they have had their faith strengthened by it. If this is all it takes to reaffirm faith then, to my mind, that faith is pretty fickle.”