Next Stop: Heaven

Unless you've actually been living there for the past decade, you have no doubt taken notice of the avalanche of best-selling books written by people who claim to have visited heaven (and/or hell) and are anxious to share enthralling accounts of their experiences with the world. Walk into any Christian bookstore today and what you will see prominently displayed are books featuring spine-tingling tales of celestial excursions (round-trip, of course) authored by people ranging from church pastors to airline pilots, from school teachers to neurosurgeons—with some accounts coming from children as young as four.

I'm not aware of any stories featuring package tours, but hey...the genre is still young.

Here's a small sampling of titles (in no particular order) that you're likely to come across during a visit to your friendly neighborhood Christian bookstore these days:

• Heaven Is For Real
• To Heaven and Back
• 90 Minutes in Heaven
• Proof of Heaven
• My Time In Heaven
• 23 Minutes In Hell
• Waking Up in Heaven
• My Journey to Heaven
• Flight to Heaven
• The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven

Christian bookstores are peddling them, and Christians are snapping them up like proverbial hotcakes. Several spent many months on the New York Times Best Seller list, and a couple have been made into feature films—and I have no doubt that more are in the works.

Mind you, we're not talking about fringe, fly-by-night publishing companies or vanity presses. Many of these books are coming from major publishing houses (Christian and otherwise): Thomas Nelson, Tyndale House, Simon & Schuster, etc. Make no mistake: There is money to be made in heaven tourism. And when there is money to be made, everybody wants a piece of the pie.

Regardless of the filling.

The Boy Who Didn't Come Back From Heaven

Now, please don't think I'm trying to sound all spiritual or anything, but these books routinely pass under my radar without so much as a glance—and I think I know why. I believe it's due to the fact that I had a brief fling with New Age spirituality many years ago, and these books all exude that same foul odor—so much so that they actually repel me, no matter how many puffy, white clouds or dazzling sunrises adorn their covers.

What caught my attention and prompted me to write this article, however, was something that happened a few weeks ago. An unusual event occurred in the Christian publishing world, and its ramifications are yet to be fully felt or accurately gauged:

Somebody came clean.

In 2004, six-year-old Alex Malarkey was involved in a horrific traffic accident that severed his spine and left him a quadriplegic. It wasn't long before he began recounting stories of going to heaven, meeting God, interacting with angels, etc., and his father Kevin Malarkey authored The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven (Tyndale House, 2010). The book has sold over a million copies, and a one-hour television documentary based on the book was released in August of 2010.

What the book-buying public has been largely unaware of (up until recently, at least) is that almost as soon as the book was published, Kevin Malarkey's wife Beth and son Alex began distancing themselves from the story, claiming that greedy father Kevin had written a deceptive account to make money. According to reports, Christian publisher Tyndale House was well aware of their concerns, but continued selling the book anyway.

But on January 13, 2015, it all came crashing down.

On that day, Alex Malarkey, now 16, dropped the following media bombshell:

Alex came clean: I did not die. I did not go to heaven. After Alex admitted that he made up the entire story, Tyndale House—in an apparent effort to salvage what little credibility they still have as a Christian publishing company—decided to pull the plug and remove the book from store shelves.

I confess that I was literally moved to tears when I read Alex's statement, because this is just about the most biblically straightforward gospel message you will ever hear from anyone, much less a teenaged kid who made up a silly story about visiting heaven during a near-death experience when he was six. Way to go, Alex! May God bless your efforts to reach people with the truth of His Word. It's a sorry state of affairs when a 16-year-old boy in a wheelchair demonstrates more Christ-honoring character and biblical integrity than the entire Christian publishing industry.

Follow suit? Not a chance. To the surprise of no one, authors of other heaven tourism books have gone into damage control mode. Colton Burpo, whose alleged visit to heaven as a four-year-old following emergency surgery is the subject of runaway bestseller Heaven Is For Real (Thomas Nelson, 2010) and feature film of the same name released in April 2014, issued the following response three days later:

And I'm sure Colton really, really means it.

Hopeless: Sorry, Colton, but your little childhood fantasy does nothing but fuel the carnal speculation of scripturally ignorant people—it doesn't give anyone "hope." Only complete trust in God and His Word and faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ can do that.

But whether it gives anyone hope or not, Heaven Is For Real (which was written by his pastor father Rev. Todd Burpo) has sold over 10 million copies, making Colton Burpo the undisputed crown prince of the heaven tourism industry.

And young Colton is sticking to his story.

Although it remains to be seen how this will impact the lucrative heaven tourism genre, I suspect that it will shrug off this bump in the road and continue to thrive. And the reason is simple: The discernment level of the Church continues to sink to new lows with each passing day. But we'll see.

That said, however, I do believe this may serve to de-emphasize the fanciful tales of children and focus greater attention on the "serious" experiences of adults, especially solid professional people such as surgeons, pilots, etc.

After all, why would a highly respected neurosurgeon or professional airline pilot make up such a story? Certainly we can trust the accounts of highly trained professionals who have no reason to lie, and who seem to come away from the experience with a deeper, stronger belief in God, can't we?

A number of people far more capable than me have written biblically sound and insightful articles that address many of the issues surrounding heaven tourism, and I'm not looking to simply toss another one onto the pile. So, there are several things I am not going to do in this article:

• I am not going to comb through various accounts and put together a laundry list of errors or details that contradict Scripture to prove the authors didn't really visit heaven.

• I am not going to try to assess various authors' character in order to pass judgment on their credibility.

• I am not going to try to identify which of these authors are being truthful about their experiences and which are being deceptive.

My goal in this article is certainly not new—it's just what I feel needs to be brought out with greater emphasis and clarity. What I am going to do is try to explain why it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever whether any of these accounts are biblically accurate or are demonstrably unscriptural, and why it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever whether any of these authors are telling the truth about their near-death journeys to heaven and/or hell or are merely concocting imaginative tales to gain wealth and notoriety.

And I am personally convinced that at least a few are telling the truth!

Busted

As I stated, it is not my intention to give you a laundry list of scriptural contradictions to persuade you that any particular author is lying. But I would like to give you at least one quick example of what I mean about some of the details of these alleged visits to heaven contradicting Scripture.

It is certainly true that much of the information contained in these books doesn't agree with what Scripture says about heaven—and in most cases they don't even agree with each other. Sadly, the fact that this hasn't slowed the sales of these books to any perceptible degree speaks volumes about the lack of biblical literacy and discernment within the Church today.

Here's an example of an error that jumps right out at anyone who is at all biblically knowledgeable. A number of years ago I heard about a man who claimed he visited heaven, and he regaled his audiences with a story about how, upon his arrival in heaven, angels gathered around and bowed before him and worshiped him.

Well, apparently this person has never read Revelation 22, where the apostle John bows before an angel and is promptly reprimanded for it:

Worship God—He alone is worthy of worship. Throughout Scripture, angels worship no one but God (except for Lucifer and his gang, of course). Now, stop and think: Here we have a man being rebuked for worshiping an angel, so...how much less biblical is it for an angel to worship a man?!

Busted.

The wrecking ball

The one thing that virtually all these heaven tourism books have in common is that they are accounts of what happened during what is known as a near-death experience. Accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs) are not all that unusual, and tend to occur during life-threatening complications during surgery, near-fatal accidents, etc.

Of course, most people who experience NDEs don't necessarily embark on a day trip to paradise. Many report experiencing the sensation of floating above their bodies and looking down on what is happening to them (i.e., an out-of-body experience or OBE), or seeing a bright light at the end of a tunnel, or having a vision of a deceased loved one, or something of that nature. But as a rule, they don't wake up claiming they got the fifty-cent tour of heaven.

I am going to resist the temptation to get off into a big discussion of NDEs and OBEs for two simple reasons: (a) It's a murky area with close links to mysticism, something Scripture strongly warns against, and (b) both the validity and precise nature of such experiences are largely irrelevant to the point I want to make in this article.

OK, so here's the drill:

Someone has a horrific accident or suffers complications during surgery, and they claim they "died." While "dead," their spirit seems to leave their body and float around a bit until they find themselves accompanied by one or more angels or beings of light, and they feel an overwhelming sense of warm reassurance and loving acceptance. These beings then whisk them off to heaven, and on the way they chat about the mysteries of the universe and many of their earthly questions are answered.

While in heaven, they get to have lunch with Jesus, sit on God's lap, take a selfie with the Holy Spirit (who is "kind of blue" according to Colton Burpo), carve their initials in the Tree of Life, play Frisbee with the archangels, thumb their nose at Satan and a few bony demons who are lurking outside the gate, and in general have a mind-blowing time during which they are told and shown unspeakably wonderful things.

Finally, they are told with a sigh that it's "not their time" and they have to go back, often for some noble purpose such as writing a book about their experience. Then, much to their chagrin, they wake up back here on good old terra firma—but the good news is that they are a changed person. A more spiritually enlightened person.

As it turns out, however, the things they were told and shown aren't so unspeakable after all. They start telling people about their experience, one thing leads to another and next thing you know, a book gets written about the whole thing. Then it becomes a best$eller. Then they hit the talk show circuit. If it's an especially entertaining story filled with titillating details, especially one told by an adorable little kid, we're talking movie deal.

Now, no matter what angle I come at this from, I can really only see four logical possibilities:

1. They are lying. They simply made up the story to gain notoriety, make money, etc.

There's really not much to say about this possibility. There is little doubt in my mind that at least some heaven tourism books are simply fabrications written to cash in on the trend. And why not? I mean, if Christians are stupid enough to buy them...

2. They are telling the truth, but in reality it was just a vivid dream, a hallucination induced by medical circumstances, etc. In other words, they're not actually being deceptive, but the experience just wasn't real.

There's not much to say about this one, either. I'm sure there are at least a few people whose stories of trips to heaven are in fact figments of their imagination, although they sincerely believe them to be something more.

3. They are telling the truth, and the experience was real. They really did go to heaven and their experience is exactly what they believe it to be!

This is the rabid mongrel I want to grab by the scruff of the neck, so grab a cup of coffee because I'm gonna take my sweet time doing it. OK, listen up:

These people DID NOT go to heaven!

Period. I can't say it any more plainly. Not a single, solitary one of them. I don't care how sincere they are, how many millions of books they sell, how many talk shows they appear on, or how many movies are made. They never got anywhere near heaven—get over it. And I can state this with confidence based on the authority of God's Word.

As an appetizer, note that there isn't one single account in all of Scripture of a person visiting heaven during a near-death experience and returning to describe it.

Zero. Zip. Nada. That right there should tell you something.

The Bible contains several accounts of people being raised from the dead, and not one of those people says anything about what they experienced. Apparently mum's the word for people who actually died and were brought back to life. And Lazarus was dead for four days—not a peep (John 11:39).

But here's what we do have:

There are two what might be called "brief glimpses" of heaven by people who lived long enough to speak of it that are mentioned in Scripture, one in the Old Testament and one in the New. The first is that of Micaiah, where he mentions seeing the throne of God, but nothing is actually described (2 Chron. 18:18–22).

The second is that of Stephen, recorded in Acts 7:54–60, where he looks into heaven as he is being stoned to death. As he is about to die, he says that he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of the throne of God. Again, there's really no description.

Besides these two brief glimpses, there are four men in the Bible who had full-blown visions of heaven: Isaiah and Ezekiel in the Old Testament and Paul and John in the New Testament. Let's take them one at a time:

a. Isaiah had a vision of God's throne in heaven when God commissioned him as a prophet (Isa. 6). Note that in Isaiah's vision, initially all he can do is fall on his face and cry out that he is unworthy of being in God's presence:

b. Ezekiel also had a vision of God's throne when God commissioned him (Ezek. 1:1–3:15), and just like Isaiah, he fell on his face in the presence of God's glory. Ezekiel also had a second vision of heaven when the glory of God departed from the temple in Jerusalem (Ezek. 10).

c. The apostle Paul had a phenomenal vision of heaven and spent a grand total of three verses on it. Paul seems almost reluctant to even bring it up, but mentions it for no other reason than to defend the validity of his ministry as an apostle in his second letter to the Church at Corinth:

That's it. We know from other context that Paul is talking about himself in the third person ("I know a man in Christ..."). Notice that Paul tells us nothing about the details of his vision. In fact, he says it is unlawful for him to do so.

Imagine the reaction that would get from Christian publishers today.

Not only that, but Paul goes on to explain that his vision of heaven was so incredible that God allowed him to be afflicted with a "thorn in the flesh" to keep him from becoming overly exalted and puffed up with pride, and to continuously remind him that God's grace was sufficient for him.

No one knows the precise nature of that thorn in the flesh, but some have speculated that it might have been some type of problem with his vision or with his speech. But whatever it was, God allowed it to keep Paul humble—and he kept the details to himself for the rest of his life, as per instructions.

That's a far cry from peddling best-selling books, making movies, and becoming a celebrity on the talk show circuit, wouldn't you agree?

d. Finally, there's the apostle John who wrote the book of Revelation. John's vision actually begins on earth (Rev. 1–3), but it isn't long before the scene shifts to heaven for the bulk of it—the part that is yet future:

Home and dry: Many Bible scholars are convinced (and I agree) that those 24 elders sitting around the throne are the raptured Church, in heaven before the judgments of the Tribulation are unleashed in Revelation 6.

John gives us a detailed description of the events transpiring around God's throne (Rev. 4–5), and then most of the rest of the vision is John describing the events unfolding on earth during the Tribulation as seen from the vantage point of heaven.

Overall, there are several things worth mentioning:

• Note that none of the above is a near-death experience—they are visions that are sovereignly ordained by God for a reason.

• Although Isaiah and Ezekiel do give some detail, what jumps out at you is the fact that both are overpowered by, consumed with, and fixated on only one thing: God's glory—the very thing that defines and permeates heaven. They certainly don't waste time with the kind of trivial, whimsical features that heaven tourism authors seem gleefully preoccupied with.

• In regard to the two New Testament visions, whereas Paul is silent on the details, John only writes the details of his vision because he is commanded to do so by Jesus Himself (Rev. 1:11).

(By the way, keep in mind that the above accounts I have just shared with you aren't merely consistent with God's Word, they are God's Word.)

Finally, there's this statement by Jesus in his conversation with Nicodemus:

This doesn't mean nobody has ever gone to heaven—that's stupid. The meaning in context is that no man has entered heaven and then returned to earth imbued with the power to speak authoritatively about spiritual things except Christ, who both lives in heaven and came down from heaven to dwell among us (because He has both a divine and a human nature).

The verdict is clear: The Bible takes a wrecking ball to all these tales of trips to heaven. When you compare these captivating stories to biblical accounts, it becomes thunderingly obvious:

The idea that any of these people actually visited heaven is ludicrous to the point of being offensive to any biblically literate believer.

But we still have one remaining possibility.

Angels of light

So...if they aren't lying, and it wasn't just a dream or hallucination that they thought was real but wasn't, and the experience was real but they didn't actually go to heaven, then just what does that leave us?

4. They are telling the truth and the experience was in fact very real, but was the product of demonic deception.

If any of the authors of heaven tourism books really had the visions they say they had, then this is exactly what we are left with.

Satan.

Just how much do we know about the devil, anyway? Or maybe I should ask what do we need to know about him in regard to the present discussion?

The Bible does teach us a number of things about Satan; but as far as heaven tourism is concerned, we can limit our focus to four basic things:

a. Satan is the prince of the power of the air. In other words, he operates in the lower realms of the spirit world, aka the astral plane.

The Greek word translated "air" here refers to the lower atmosphere, or the air we breathe. This is Satan's stomping grounds, and it's where he and his demonic hordes rule the roost. This is what mystics often refer to as the astral plane, which is exactly where OBEs and NDEs take place.

b. Satan disguises himself as an angel or being of light, and I see no reason to believe the demonic beings he controls cannot do the same.

c. Satan can take you to wonderful places and show you amazing things in the spirit world/astral plane.

Here, Satan has come to Jesus in the wilderness to tempt Him into doing something contrary to the will of His Father. But Jesus doesn't take the bait, and rebuffs Satan each time with the sword of the Spirit—the Word of God.

But note with care exactly what Satan does—he takes Jesus on an out-of-body experience in the astral plane and takes Him to a high mountain and shows Him in a flash all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory. Satan shows Jesus everything any man's heart could desire, which for anyone other than the Son of God would have been an overwhelming temptation.

Don't look so surprised—he offers people the same things today. In other words, the devil doesn't always act so...devilish.

Satan is under no obligation to conform to the Hollywood caricature that we have created of him. He doesn't try to scare Jesus with ghosts, ghouls, and goblins. He doesn't have the most hideous demons in all of hell vomiting green pea soup in His face.

He takes Him on a trip into the astral plane to a beautiful place and shows Him amazing things that are intended to make Him feel wonderful—and want more.

Virtually every heaven tourist comes back reporting that they saw, heard and felt such wonderful things that they hated to leave—they wanted to stay! They wanted more of this indescribably wonderful experience, so much so that many embark on a lifelong journey into mysticism and New Age spirituality in an achingly desperate effort to get another taste of it.

Bottom line: Satan can make you feel g-o-o-o-d.

d. Satan is the god of this world, and blinds men to the truth of the gospel.

Satan's number one goal has always been to blind men to the truth of the gospel and steer them away from the cross.

OK, please tell me you see where this is going.

How interesting that virtually all writers of heaven tourism books agree on the following items, boom boom boom, right down the line:

• They had an out-of-body experience and traveled into the astral plane: Satan's backyard (see a. above).

• They were accompanied by beings of light who filled them with a sense of loving acceptance and reassurance (see b. above).

• They were taken to beautiful places (well, heaven, or so they think) and shown wonderful things that made them hungry for more. Oh, and by the way, when those beings of light tell heaven tourists things about their lives that no one on earth could have known, guess who knows everything that has happened in the past? Duh... (see c. above).

• They came back with a message that negates and undermines the gospel, but one that tickles the ears of unregenerate people (see d. above).

This last point is key. As you might imagine from the diversity of authorship, the tenor of heaven tourism books varies widely, ranging from fun-filled accounts of trips to a celestial Six Flags to deeply spiritual experiences that leave the authors passionately espousing New Age spirituality (or in some cases Christianity scrubbed clean of any trace of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and the need for repentance and belief in faith).

In spite of the diversity of their experiences, however, there are several bullet points that they all seem compelled to emphasize:

1. God loves each one of us. I mean He just love love love love loves us.

2. God has a wonderful plan for each and every human being, and we need to learn to just let go and see Him working in each of our lives.

3. We can do nothing that's really wrong—our only true failure is not embracing the profound, life-changing truths above.

This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is another gospel, a feel-good New Age gospel in which God just loves us and so everybody goes to heaven (or else you have to earn it, which is worse). So be good and love others, OK?

Here's why I say that it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever whether any of these heaven tourism books are biblically accurate or not, or whether the authors are being truthful or not. Ask yourself: Do you think it's possible for Satan to arrange a wonderful out-of-body experience for someone and show them things that don't specifically contradict information in the Bible?

Piece of cake. (So why doesn't he, you ask? Considering the utter lack of discernment in the Church today, he doesn't even need to!)

In other words, let's say someone writes a heaven tourism book, and it doesn't contain any details that clearly contradict Scripture. Does that mean they really did visit heaven?

No! The point I'm trying to make is that God's Word makes it clear that the entire experience in and of itself is unbiblical, so we only have two choices: It's either (a) unreal or (b) the product of demonic deception.

Stop right there: As soon as you read the story of someone's alleged trip to heaven and wonder if it is true or not, you have already blown right by a major checkpoint and have placed yourself in the crosshairs of deception.

What promises?

Heaven tourists usually come back with messages of love and hope, usually bathed in the soft, warm glow of biblical buzzwords:

"Wow, Dr. Neal, you mean the promises of God are true?! Really? Well, that's great! How spiritually uplifting and reassuring is that, huh?"

Dr. Neal, who by her own admission is not a believer, tosses that in to "strengthen our faith—and it goes down well with Christian book-buyers.

Although I have no need for Dr. Neal's (or anyone else's) affirmation of the existence of life after death, I do have one question for the good doctor:

"Uhm, excuse me, Dr. Neal, but you say you know that 'the promises of God are true.' What promises would those be, exactly? Would they by any chance include these statements made by Jesus?"

"You know, statements concerning the gospel you don't believe? Or am I correct in assuming that your words are just a dash of empty Christianese meant to induce scripturally ignorant people to buy your book?"

What the real gospel tells us is that our sin has separated us from a holy God who does in fact love us, but we must repent, or change our minds about our sin and our need for a Savior, and believe in faith that Jesus' death and resurrection paid its penalty on our behalf in order to be forgiven of our sin, reconciled to God, and adopted into His family.

If we do, we will spend eternity in God's presence in a place too wonderful to imagine—heaven (which is for real, and we don't need the fantasies of a four-year-old boy to know that—all we need is God's Word).

If we don't, we will die in our sin and spend eternity separated from God's presence in a place He created for Satan and his fallen angels—hell.

Which, as those who reject the gospel like Dr. Neal will discover one day, is also for real.

Enquiring minds want to know...

So, if none of these heaven tourism authors actually visited heaven (and they didn't), does that mean it's wrong for Christians to read them? What's wrong with being curious about heaven? I'm going to let Rev. John MacArthur answer that one as only he can:

I want to emphasize that there is absolutely nothing wrong with born-again believers wondering what heaven will be like—after all, we're going to spend eternity there. In fact, with our God-given curiosity, it's impossible not to!

The problems start when we allow our curiosity to lure us beyond what God has revealed to us in His Word, and that is precisely what heaven tourism books do. These accounts entice us to venture beyond the boundaries set by our Heavenly Father, and the point that so many people miss is that He established those boundaries at least partly for our own good.

Father knows best: God knows better than anyone how slippery and seductive Satan's lies can be, and how easily they can deceive us and lure us away from the truth when we treat His Word as if it were insufficient.

And when we listen to people who are the victims of demonic deception to satisfy our carnal craving for more spiritual knowledge than what God has ordained for us to have access to, that is exactly the attitude toward God and His Word that we are cultivating:

"What God said isn't enough—I want more. I want it all."

So did Eve:

Eve wasn't satisfied with what God had said—she wanted more. She wanted the one thing God had withheld from them. So did Adam.

And unfortunately for the human race, they got it.

Understand, however, that God didn't do it just for our benefit. He didn't limit our insight into the heavenly realm simply to protect us from danger.

He also did it because He's God—He is the Creator and we are His creation. Sadly, man's sin nature (which is rooted in pride) often makes it difficult for him to remember his place in the divine pecking order.

We need to be reminded just how awesome God truly is, and that if we are born of His Spirit, we will spend eternity plumbing the unsearchable depths of His glory in unimaginable bliss. Isn't that enough?

The point is that if you are a born-again believer, you have no business wasting your time with anyone's tales of alleged excursions into the afterlife. They are either (a) lying or (b) deceived, but either way they didn't go to heaven and are doing nothing but sowing the seeds of their deception. We need to be content with what our Heavenly Father has revealed to us in His Word—which is actually far more than we can digest in a lifetime.

Next stop: heaven

Look around—do you have any doubt that the days are growing darker, spiritually speaking? There is no doubt among prophetically knowledgeable believers that we are undeniably in the days leading up to the Tribulation, and as events unfold it's only going to get darker. But take heart:

We need to be geared up for the fight, because the agents of "spiritual wickedness in high places" are reaching deeper into their arsenal. Now more than ever, we need to make sure we have on the full armor of God:

Rather than being spellbound by deceptive fantasies, we need to be locked and loaded for spiritual warfare. God's Word is like a sounding trumpet that calls us into action—to grow in faith, walk in the Spirit, share the gospel, edify other believers, and long for His appearing.

Because one day in the not-too-distant future, we're going to hear the sound of a different trumpet. Only that trumpet won't be a signal to charge into battle, and it certainly won't be a signal to retreat.

It will be a trumpet call that will signal one thing to all believers.

Next stop: heaven.

Greg Lauer — FEB '15

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