Why I Think Heaven is for Real is Unreal

Heaven is for Real, a movie about four-year old Colton Burpo’s near death experience (NDE), has hit the theaters, but I just cannot bring myself seeing it. I would even advise against others seeing it. The reason is that I am convinced that Colton’s story offers nothing of value for Christian faith and practice.

I say this because a few years back I had reviewed the book the movie was based, which bears the same title, and was written by Colton’s father Todd along with Lynn Vincent [1]. I found there were some peculiar elements to Colton’s NDE, like Jesus’ rainbow colored horse. There were also some unbiblical elements. For example, Colton says everyone in heaven’s got wings save Jesus, but the Bible says the believer’s resurrection is patterned after Christ (Rom. 5:12-21; Cor. 15:20-28). Colton says the resurrection is only for believers but Jesus says all will experience either the resurrection to life or the resurrection to judgment (John 5:28-29). Colton sees the heavenly throne room with God sitting on a big throne with Jesus on the right, the angel Gabriel on the left, and the bluish colored Holy Spirit somewhere else. But this is simply a misunderstanding of the language of vindication and exaltation the biblical writers sought to convey in applying phrases like Son of God sitting at the right hand of the Father to Jesus..

Since then and now, I have found that Colton’s NDE story moves from bad to worst. I saw this excerpt from an episode of Today with Marilyn and Sara, which featured guest Todd and Colton Burpo. Marilyn Hickey asked, “Did you see God while you were in heaven?” Colton replied, “I did see God, but he pretty much looked like Gabriel…What Gabriel and God looked like is they had yellow hair that went down to their shoulders, um blue eyes, a really bright smile, a golden sash, white robes, but God’s wings were the biggest” [2] None of what Colton says here made it into the book, but the boy’s NDE story is evolving, or better yet devolving.

There is something very unsettling about hearing from the lips of an Anglo child talk about an Aryan god with blond hair and blue eyes. I can say a good number of Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, and other non-Anglo people groups would find such a theology to be offensive. .

God is spirit (John 4:24), so skin and eye color never apply. The Bible does employ anthropomorphic language to God, such as having a “face,” “eyes,” and “ears” (1 Peter 3:12), “nostrils” and a “mouth” (2 Sam. 22:9), an “arm” and a thundering “voice” (Job 40:9), a “hand” (Exod. 15:6), “fingers” (Ps. 8:3), “feet” (2 Sam. 22:10), and “wings” (Ps. 61:4). One is never to take these descriptions in a wooden literal sense; rather, they are the means the Spirit uses to explain heavenly realities in terms in which finite humans can relate. God the Son—the second person of the Trinity—did incarnate Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, but to say He has blond hair and blue eyes stretches credulity beyond the breaking point. (Colton would also agree, for his Jesus looks like the paintings of a young Lithuanian-American poet-artist named Akiane Kramarik. But even here the boy purports to receive divine revelation that answers a question all theologians from the second century to the present could only speculate upon.) .

A story like Heaven is for Real sells, but the people who grab onto it are really playing a high stakes game. If God has unveiled to Colton mysteries about the afterlife, then we must give it reverence, for it would be nothing less than Scripture. However, if God never spoke to Colton, then it is simply blasphemy wrapped up in a cute package. I am inclined to think Heaven is for Real is of the latter sort than the former.

~ WGN

1. Please see Warren Nozaki, “Heaven is Read…but Is Colton’s Heaven for Real?” Christian Research Journal, 34, 4 [2011]: 59-60.

2. Cf. YouTube, “Special Guest Todd and Colton Burpo Part 2,” http://youtu.be/NNOG3jISIzo, statement is about 18:58 into video. Clip was accessed April 30, 2014.