Todd Burpo - Heaven Is for Real

review by Ro Bennett on bookshow live 10th Nov 2011
Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Backby Todd Burpo (the father), Sonja Burpo (the mother) and Colton Burpo (the child who was just 4 years old at the time)

£10.99 retail price, Amazon £6.27, Kindle £5.96

I bought the Kindle version and am extremely grateful I didn’t pay the full price. As it is I am realising that the downside of Kindle is that if you do buy a paperback book you deeply dislike you can at least pass it on to someone who will enjoy it more. However with Kindle there’s nothing to alleviate the regret that you’ve wasted almost six quid... As you can gather I wasn’t particularly keen on this book even though it was on the Times Best sellers list.

This is the Product Description:

A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. A young boy emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable stories of his visit to heaven. 'Heaven Is for Real' is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear. Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how 'reaaally big' God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit 'shoots down power' from heaven to help us. Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.

Well I’m sure this is all happy confirmation for fundamentalist evangelical Christians - the truth allegedly coming out of the mouths of babes and sucklings reinforcing proof that what the Bible says is true. To me the book was a thinly veiled attempt to proselytize.

The poor little boy certainly did have a traumatic time - he had an undiagnosed ruptured appendix and was lucky to survive and the family also had a tough time. It must have been an exhausting emotional roller coaster and very draining and stressful. They believe that Colton died on the operating table (although that is not documented in his medical notes), because some months later he told them that he went up out of his body, that he had spoken with angels and had sat in Jesus’ lap.
The family are convinced that whilst the child was dead he visited heaven, so they began to question him about his alleged experiences. In the book the boy’s experiences are linked with chunks of the Bible which Burpo claims validate the accuracy of both the boy’s story and the Bible. I counted at least 11 times when Burpo quoted what he called the Scripture:

Scripture says
Images from Scripture tumbled through my mind
That also matched Scripture in every detail etc

He kept claiming that the child’s story must be true or how else could he possibly have known these details which were verified in the scriptures, unless he had actually experienced it?’ The answer to that is ‘Easy!’ - the child has been immersed and saturated in the christian lifestyle, stories, doctrines and dogma since birth! The father is a pastor and seems a nice, well meaning man but he is very zealous. His wife, family and friends are also very religious and their entire lives revolve around their faith and their commitment to evangelize and save the world.

Quote: It didn’t matter what Bible story my wife or I read to our tiny evangelist at night, whether from the Old Testament, the New Testament, about Moses, or Noah or King Solomon, Colton wrapped up the night with the same message: Jesus loves the children.”

What really concerned me was the effect this teaching a child about heaven and hell had on an impressionable young mind. For instance the father was explaining the meaning of a funeral to Colton.

Quote: Instantly Colton’s demeanor changed. His face fell into serious lines and he stared fiercely into my eyes. ‘Did the man have Jesus in his heart?’
My son was asking me whether the man who had died was a Christian and had accepted Christ as his Savior. But his intensity caught me off guard. “I’m not sure, Colton,” I said. “I didn’t know him very well.”
Colton’s face bunched up in a terrible twist of worry, “He had to have Jesus in his heart! He had to know Jesus or he can’t get into heaven.”

Then during the funeral,
Quote: Suddenly, Colton’s face gathered into that same knot of intense concern. He slammed his fists on his thighs, then pointed at the casket and said in a near shout, “Did that man have Jesus?!...He had to! He had to!” Colton went on. “He can’t get into heaven if he didn’t have Jesus in his heart!”

Sonja grabbed Colton by the shoulders and tried to shush him. But he was not shushable. Now nearly in tears, Colton twisted in her arms and yelled at me, “He had to know Jesus, Dad!’’

Another example: after watching The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,
Sonja said offhandedly to Carlton, “Well I guess that’s one thing you didn’t like about heaven - no swords up there”.
“There are too swords in heaven.”...
Sonja smiled at Colton. “Um...okay. Why do they need swords in heaven?’
‘Mom! Satan’s not in hell yet,’ Colton said almost scolding.‘The angels carry swords so they can keep Satan out of heaven!’
Again Scripture leaped to my mind, this time from the book of Luke where Jesus tells the disciples, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.’

The Burpo’s link Colton’s behaviour as a reaction to what he saw in heaven. I personally find all this deeply disturbing and it just shows how immersed in christian teaching the child has been.

However I do think that the Burpo family are completely convinced that Colton did die and did go to heaven it’s not a cynical money making scheme.

There are some positive aspects in the book. At the end there are some interesting photos of the family over the years. They portray a wholesome respectable god fearing typically American family.

It might be worth noting that the woman who co-wrote the book Lynne Vincent also co-wrote Sarah Palin’s 2009 memoir...

As to whether or not the child did actually go to heaven - this of course is very controversial and there are all sorts of theories. For instance:

Near death and out of body experiences are the result of neurotransmitters in the brain shutting down which creates lovely illusions. They can also be attributed to lack of oxygen in the brain.

Instability and activity in the brain's right temporal lobe is responsible for religious experiences of deep meaningfulness, early memories, and out-of-body experiences

I didn’t like the book however I have read other books on the subject which I much prefer - e.g. Melvin Morse: Closer to the Light which documents NDE in children

One interesting link - Akiane Kramarik. Colton reckons that the picture she drew called Prince of Peace looks like the Jesus he met in heaven.

Akiane Kramarik was born to a Lithuanian mother and an American father. She is homeschooled.

She is primarily a self-taught painter. However, she states that God has given her the visions and abilities to create her artwork, which is unusual for her family, considering both her parents were atheist at the time (they later converted to Christianity on account of Kramarik's paintings and visions). Kramarik started drawing at the age of four, advancing to painting at six, and writing poetry at seven. Her first completed self-portrait sold for US$10,000. A portion of the money generated from sales is donated by Kramarik to charities.[3] According to Kramarik, her art is inspired by her visions of heaven, and her personal connection with God. Kramarik's art depicts life, landscape, and people.

At the age of 10, she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and at the age of 12, on CNN