Don Piper has a new book out called 'Getting to Heaven: Departing Instructions for Your Life Now'
Posted on 03/11/2011 10:08:14 AM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
Just two months shy of his fourth birthday, Colton Burpo, the son of an evangelical pastor in Imperial, Neb., was rushed into emergency surgery with a burst appendix.
He woke up with an astonishing story: He had died and gone to heaven, where he met his great-grandfather; the biblical figure Samson; John the Baptist; and Jesus, who had eyes that “were just sort of a sea-blue and they seemed to sparkle,” Colton, now 11 years old, recalled.
Colton's father, Todd, has turned the boy’s experience into a 163-page book, “Heaven Is for Real,” which has become a sleeper paperback hit of the winter, dominating best-seller lists and selling hundreds of thousands of copies.
Thomas Nelson, the book’s publisher, said it had broken company sales records.
The publisher, based in Nashville, began with an initial print run of 40,000 copies.
Since the book came out in November, it has gone back to press 22 times, with more than 1.5 million copies in print.
On the New York Times best-seller list for paperback nonfiction last Sunday, “Heaven Is for Real” was NO. 1.
The book remains in the top spot this coming Sunday.
Colton told his parents that he had met his younger sister in heaven, describing her as a dark-haired girl who resembled his older sister, Cassie.
When the Burpos questioned him, he asked his mother, “You had a baby die in your tummy, didn’t you?”
While his wife had suffered a miscarriage years before, Mr. Burpo said, they had not told Colton about it.
“There’s just no way he could have known,” Mr. Burpo said.
The Burpos said that Colton painstakingly described images that he said he saw in heaven — like the bloody wounds on Jesus’ palms — that he had not been shown before.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“The part about Jesus’ blue eyes ..... hmmmmmmm.”
I wonder about that, too. It’s like the long hair that artists portray Him with, which is a mistake.
As long as the boy and his saintly daddy are evangelicals, they’re kosher, we believe them. If they were Roman Catholic, though...
I always thought that only our spirit ascends into heaven and leaves our body behind.
If an unborn child can die and go to heaven then continue to grow into a dark-haired girl , does that mean our spirits have bodies in heaven and if so, that would imply that our spirit bodies would continue to age. One has to wonder at what point does this aging process stop......
I believe there is a God and a Heaven but I don't believe this child and his father have seen it..........
American Jews have extensive European ancestry. Jesus was pure Middle Eastern. If he had blue eyes they would have been so unusual as to have been mentioned in biblical accounts.
Repentance is enabled by REVELATION.
Biblical source??
Too many to cite, here; they are found throughout the bible, but I'll cite an example or two. When Nebuchadnezzar saw Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego preserved without even the smell of smoke from the fire of the furnace, that was a revelation of God to him, and he responded in repentance; completely discarding his former ideas about YHVH, believing in Him, and issuing a declaration prohibiting blasphemy against YHVH throughout his kingdom. The revelation prompted repentance. When the fire fell on Elijah's sacrifice at Mt. Carmel, ALL of the people fell down and proclaimed "YHVH is God!" The revelation prompted instantaneous repentance from unbelief.
Furthermore, in your own life; pray tell how did you come to faith in Jesus except that the Truth about him was revealed to you, which revelation spurred repentance in your heart? Indeed, though the phrase is not in scripture verbatim, the concept is plainly conveyed: there is no repentance without revelation, and that given by The Spirit of God.
I didn't impose anything on the boy.
Yes, you did. You asked, rhetorically, "I wonder if sin is even mentioned in the book, or repentance?" Your implicit claim is that the boy needed to include those things in the book, and that if he didn't then the book is deficient, and not worth reading.
Why the personal attack? Because you didn't agree with what I said?
I didn't come out to attack you, personally. I came out against your claim that the boy's testimony couldn't possibly aid anyone in coming to faith in Jesus Christ, because that would violate something Jesus said.
Jesus claim, which you quoted was, "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead."
You used this declaration as a basis to claim that the boy's story, because it is the testimony of one raised from the dead, cannot move anyone to repent; it cannot convince anyone who would not already be convinced by the testimony of Moses and the Prophets.
I assail that claim as incorrect; as a misunderstanding of Jesus' meaning.
Despite the words of Jesus that you quoted, the whole gospel upon which our hope is founded is, itself, established foursquare upon the testimony that someone rose from the dead.
But, according to how you used Jesus' words, if we were not convinced by Moses and the Prophets, we would not be any more convinced if someone were to rise from the dead.
And yet, here we are; saved from all our sin and clothed in the very power that raised Christ; brought to repentance and faith along with millions of others who were not convinced by Moses and the Prophets, but were convinced by the Truth of the gospel; to wit: that Jesus has, indeed, been raised.
Since we did not believe Moses and the Prophets, how were we convinced by Jesus' having risen from the dead? How did Jesus rising from the dead bring us to repentance if his words that you quoted mean what you say they mean?
Obviously, that is a rhetorical question, for it must be that Jesus words do not mean what you thought they did, else we could not have been convinced to repent and believe by his rising from the dead.
THAT is why I came out after you: because you were not declaring the Truth.
Truly, the call to repentance that leads to faith is an exhortation to be convinced because Jesus rose from the dead, even though we would not believe Moses or the Prophets.
And since that is true, we know that Jesus didn't mean what you think he meant, and that it is therefore invalid to claim that "People will NOT come to true faith from reading the account of the book..." Indeed, some have come to faith by it, and more undoubtedly will.
The trouble is that these type of stories abound even among people with little religious background or belief in the afterlife. There is a whole science on the study of near death experiences which man's science alone cannot explain.
One of the better authors I read on the topic wrote an outstanding book on the topic. He was an MD and an atheist when he set out to research people who had NDE's or measured their vital reactions as they passed away. He became a Christian after he completed the research for the book. It was excellent, but I cannot remember the name of the book or the author.
FWIW, I was with an older brother in his final days before he passed away. He described conversations with long gone relatives who I had barely heard of or knew little about. Later, when I checked out the specifics of these conversations with older relatives who knew them better, they were astounded by the details of what my brother related. I've got to believe he was drifting in and out of an NDE in those final days.
Glad to hear your son is doing well!
Some people have so much baggage they've become disillusioned. I know a few.
I pinged you because you responded to another article I posted today about this book today. It was titled:
Book Review: “Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2687271/posts
(I do not have a ping list and will not be pinging anyone again, if that was a concern.)
Don Piper has a new book out called 'Getting to Heaven: Departing Instructions for Your Life Now'
This is Don Piper’s Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?filter=lf#!/pages/Don-Piper/15132662650
He’s been traveling on a book tour.
The obverse is also true. People refuse to believe.
On the New York Times best-seller list for paperback nonfiction last Sunday, “Heaven Is for Real” was NO. 1. The book remains in the top spot this coming Sunday.
Very moving story...
I’ve been to Egypt and was surprised at how many had blue eyes. I remember writing home about it. I would not be shocked if Jesus eyes were blue.
Actually, the eyes were characterized as and the painting shows them as blue-green. Not strictly typical blue eyes.
Read the book and then tell me if you still feel the same way.
I think a lot of it is available on the net.
The eyes were characterized as blue-green and the painting reflects that.
Not typical blue.
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