Heaven Is For Real is a book that has been the talk among many Christians these days. Many Christian bloggers have reviewed this book and have given mixed reviews. Many people in the church have received this book as a genuine experience from a little boy to this is ridiculous.
The book is written by Todd Burpo, who is a pastor, volunteer firefighter, and works for a garage door company. The book begins with many stories that happened to the family that led up to Todd's son, Colton, having an emergency appendectomy. It was during this emergency procedure that Colton began to have a vision of what heaven was. He told his family that he sat in Jesus' lap and even saw visions of a coming war which is described in Revelation.
Colton even talked about seeing his grandfather, named Pop, and a sister that Sonja, Todd's wife, miscarried before Colton was born. As Colton tells his stories, you could sense the disbelief in Todd and even went to the Bible to verify what some of the visions Colton said was true. The book concludes on life ever since that fateful day that Todd and Sonja almost lost their son.
The stories that Todd shares about his families struggles can cause any believer to weep. Especially with the thought of losing a child after his wife's miscarriage. I am grateful to God that Colton made it through his procedure and he is a healthy young man. However, what causes me to be skeptical are the visions Colton saw.
First, Colton said he saw a rainbow horse that Jesus owns. While there are creatures in heaven, I highly doubt Jesus owns a rainbow horse. In fact, Revelation says Jesus will come down on a white horse (Revelation 19:11). Another vision is that Colton had wings, which were not big, and every one in heaven had wings. There has been always been images of people, who go to heaven gaining wings as if they become angels, which is not true. Angels are ministering spirits to serve those who will inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14) and one day we will judge the angels (1 Corinthians 6:3).
Colton was asked by his father who was on the left side of God, since we know Jesus is at the right hand of God. Colton answered was the angel Gabriel. First of all, if Gabriel was one the left hand of God, then he would be God. Wasn't that the sin Satan committed that caused him to be thrown out of heaven.
Am I denying that what Colton saw actually happened? No, but how many near death experiences have we heard and give us a different picture of heaven then what Scripture gives us? Scripture is the final authority for every believer. In other words, we should always go to the Bible when it comes for spiritual truth. What I have heard from people I have talked to about this book, they are saying that their perspective of heaven has changed because of this book. This is a scary thing because we are saying that the Bible does not give us what we want. In this case, it is a actual picture of heaven from someone who saw it and came back to life.
I think every Christian should read this book with discernment because the Bible gives us a glimpse of what heaven is going to be. Whenever we read books or listen to a sermon, we need to go to the Bible and ask the Holy Spirit to help us test what we have read and heard.
Thanks to Booksneeze for letting me review this book.
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