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 ...
I think any of us readers of this book went into it with the plan of “testing” it and not making judgments first as so many non readers are doing here. I, and it seems to be the rest of the readers who finished the book all say it sounds credible.
Are we 100% certain? No, its not our story it is theirs, but at the same time we have not found anything in it that would lead us to believe it was fabricated either.
So let them tell their story, what’s the harm in that? Bible book stores are full of the most wonderful testimonies from people of all ages.
JESUS DECLARED TO THE THIEF ON THE CROSS:
“TODAY YOU SHALL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE!”
No delay there.
No delay for Colton.
And many millions of others.
Colton wasn’t told EVERYTHING.
IIRC, she was likely around the age of a young teen or maybe some older. She wasn’t per se the standard 30 years looking.
Interestingly a fair number of such visitations have talked about aborted babies growing up and being taught the ways of God by angels, Mary had a class of such, others do as well.
Clearly time is quite DIFFERENT there.
It FEELS like you are chafing at the narrative because it jangles some of your assumptions, preconceptions etc. etc. etc.
Chafing at the way God does things is not wise. It is not His Peace. It is not His Rest.
He later talked about "the birdies" who took care of him and told him he would be OK.
After a lot of talk about "the birdies" it turned out he was talking about Angels.
God often doesn’t respond to our why’s.
WHY tends to have an accusing element in it.
God will NOT per se be accused—particularly in Heaven.
Any successful why in Heaven must be extremely innocent.
And God often declines to answer whys—even innocent whys.
He has His own reasons and priorities for each of us. Answering our whys vs REQUIRING THAT WE TRUST HIM REGARDLESS seems to be an abiding issue. He virtually always REQUIRES US TO TRUST HIM REGARDLESS.
His Grandfather looked as he did about 30, as verified by a photo of that age that Colton recognized. Colton did NOT recognize his Grandfather’s elderly pictures.
All adults in Heaven appear to be about 30 years old. God’s choice.
Sounds great.
Bloody? Not a perfect body? Where are you getting that rubbish?
You would agree book critics should read the book first, and movie critics should actually watch the movie, wouldn't you? In your multiple post you are not doing just what you would say they should do.
Read the book, and come back and engage the readers in some intelligent dialog.
What an absurd assertion!
PRETEND, for argument,
that YOU are an extremely gifted artist and that Holy Spirit enlivens your natural gifting yet further.
PRETEND that you sit chatting with a new acquaintance over lunch for an hour and a half.
PRETEND that as you get up to leave, the acquaintance steals your purse.
DO YOU THINK YOU’D BE ABLE TO PAINT A PRETTY GOOD PIC OF THE THIEF?
The young girl gifted with Heavenly visits was also gifted by God with her enormous artistic talents.
She saw Jesus extensively in Heaven over several visits.
HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THAT COLTON REJECTED EVERY DEPICTION OF CHRIST UNTIL HE SAW HERS.
THEN HE SAID:
“THIS ONE’S RIGHT.”
THEY BOTH SAW JESUS FACE TO FACE.
DEAL WITH IT.
IT HAPPENED.
THAT SCRIPTURE
IS TALKING ABOUT THE ANCIENT OF DAYS,
THE FATHER!
Silly rabbit.
If anyone’s had their whities in a wad . . . look in the mirror.
What a dumb UNBIBLICAL assertion.
The powers of darkness according to the New Testament’s own criteria . . .
do not claim that Jesus came in the flesh and the other basic doctrines of the faith.
Have you never read any of the better quality narratives?
You sound extremely ignorant of the factors involved as well as angry at God for not running things according to YOUR priorities and sensibilities.
I don’t think such attitudes impress God favorably AT ALL.
Thanks for #191.
I was just pondering such reactions prayerfully for the umpteenth time . . .
God may have given me an insight into what’s going on with such naysayers.
1. At least most of them seem to have a gritch between them and God.
2. Evidently God at some level, to some degree has not managed the universe or their lives according to their specifications and sensibilities.
3. Therefore, there is at least some degree of unconscious or barely conscious or even conscious anger, angst, frustration, even outrage that God has not met their expectations of Him.
4. And comes along this upstart of a 4 YEAR OLD, NO LESS! Who gets a Jesus escorted tour of Heaven, all expenses paid. HOW DARE HE! HOW DARE GOD!
5. So THEN, to cope with their bubbling over anger at God that’s always been there since whatever disappointment(s), they SIMPLY MUST discredit the experiencer and all his experiences.
6. Otherwise, they must be compelled to believe that it is because of their UNIQUE AND PERSONAL AWFULNESS AND UNWORTHINESS that God has NOT given THEM such an experience. And, of course, satan is playing that violin to the hilt at loud inner volume.
7. Undoubtedly the sense of worthlessness and inadequacy has always or long been there from early significant degrees of ATTACHMENT DISORDER. And such narratives with satan chiming in as to why THEY haven’t been blessed with such just adds insult to injury.
8. “HOW DARE GOD! I was next in line! HARUMPH TO THE MAX!”
9. They evidently fail to consider that God has dozens of reasons for selecting and deselecting those He chooses for such experiences. And Worthlessness on the part of the individual is probbaly not in the first 10 reasons.
10. Apart from Christ, we are ALL worthless.
INDEED.
And the only thing that makes sense to me about the whys of that are what I just posted.
While I wholesale agree with you . . .
to nit pick a bit . . .
this country is marginally free on the surface.
Al Cuppett asserts (as have many others) that the PTB have 100,000 guillotines warehoused in the USA ready for exterminations . . . along with many other more mass oriented means. He has a pic of a rail car full of them.
He’s the former staff officer of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
I hope I can keep my white beard too.
I'm pleased to learn that we share that physical characteristic. :-)
Actually . . . I think I can say . . . I’m 100% certain it is as he told it.
Given the witness in my spirit and how the book came across to me . . . I’m that certain.
Right. I read that one.
Thanks.
THANKS MUCH.
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