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Near-Death Experience Led to Heaven's Door
Winnipeg Free Press ^ | 6/4/11 | Joanne Thibault

Posted on 06/04/2011 11:00:11 AM PDT by marshmallow

Heaven Is for Real

A Little Boy's Astounding Story

of His Trip to Heaven and Back

By Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent

Thomas Nelson, 163 pages, $17

WHILE on a family road trip in 2003, a small-town Nebraska boy just shy of four years old survived a brush with death made all the more maddening by how preventable it was.

A simple case of appendicitis took a malevolent turn when medical miscalls, parental errors in judgment and the vagaries of winter travel conditions lead to Colton Burpo suffering a rupture and rampant infection.

Heaven Is for Real, by Colton's father, Todd, a Baptist preacher, with the help of Sarah Palin's ghostwriter Lynn Vincent, could easily have been devoted to examining how such a near tragedy occurred.

But instead, Colton, once restored to health, energy and normal precociousness, offers up a far more irresistible storyline.

In conversation, Colton starts to drop the names of some remarkable religious figures, saying that he had met them in heaven during the moments he was nearest to taking his last breath.

Todd, a pastor at a Nebraska Wesleyan church, wonders about his son's otherworldly comments that pop up in the midst of otherwise normal little-boy chatter.

Being careful not to seed and feed Colton's account, Todd coolly inquires, "Remember when we were in the car and you talked about sitting on Jesus's lap ... well, did anything else happen?"

Immediately rising to the open-ended bait, Colton goes on to describe meeting Jesus's cousin, John the Baptist, and petting Jesus's multicoloured horse. Todd, knowing that Colton could not possibly have had prior knowledge of the experiences and people he describes, interprets the situation as a calling.

"We'd been given a gift and our job now was to unwrap it, slowly, carefully, and see what was....

(Excerpt) Read more at winnipegfreepress.com ...


TOPICS: General Discusssion; Skeptics/Seekers
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To: ml/nj

Oh, no! Not the Bridie Murphy thing! Personally, I don’t listen to anything anyone under 10 has to say.


21 posted on 06/04/2011 12:23:54 PM PDT by miss marmelstein (.Life and Death are wearing me out)
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To: surroundedbyblue

Did this woman meet God? What gets me about all these stories is that the person involved always gets to meet Jesus and God. Never St. Peter at the pearly gates or anything like that. My God, even Joan of Arc said she only got to talk to St. Catherine, St. Margaret and Michael the Archangel and she won a war for heaven’s sake!

It reminds me of all the people who believe in reincarnation and always come back as Cleopatra - never a little lackey with leprosy.


22 posted on 06/04/2011 12:30:23 PM PDT by miss marmelstein (.Life and Death are wearing me out)
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Comment #23 Removed by Moderator

To: darkangel82

“DU would be more to liking, bigot.”

You totally lack sense.

Point taken.


24 posted on 06/04/2011 12:34:31 PM PDT by Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)
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To: miss marmelstein

Post #22.

Good point taken.


25 posted on 06/04/2011 12:38:24 PM PDT by Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)
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To: miss marmelstein
Not the Bridie Murphy thing!

Who's Birdie Murphy? It's been a long time since I read Life After Life. If you don't listen to what kids under ten have to say, I don't think you have to worry about any of the stuff the LAL author has to say because nearly all of the supposed memories of a previous life depart along with those other memories from about age four and earlier, according to him.

ML/NJ

26 posted on 06/04/2011 12:41:42 PM PDT by ml/nj
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To: miss marmelstein

Um, no. “this woman” is a hospice nurse who compiled hundreds of stories of dying patients who had visions of the other side before their death.

Sheesh. Google her name & read for yourself.


27 posted on 06/04/2011 12:45:29 PM PDT by surroundedbyblue (Live the message of Fatima - pray & do penance!)
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To: mlo

You don’t believe in visions? Obviously the child had a vision, and he peopled it with Christian images. Even the saints do this, because we only paint with the colors of our experiences.


28 posted on 06/04/2011 12:50:03 PM PDT by RobbyS (Pray with the suffering souls.)
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To: marshmallow

I do not like to block people’s spirits, but I will caution them on stories of multicolored horses. If it’s an analogy to the followers or the church building, I do not get it.

Folkes need to delve more in the theological merits of such stories. I have seen islam and communist atheists pull some similar suspect romanticized stunts before...


29 posted on 06/04/2011 1:06:32 PM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: ml/nj

It’s BRIDIE Murphy, not Birdie, lol! One of the most famous hoaxes of all time - some woman with past lives.

Personally, I went through all these beliefs when I was a teenager along with conspiracy theories. But they don’t hold water for me any more. I’m sure there’s an afterlife and I’m sure I’ll be in it one day but at this point one life is hard enough without investigating past lives or future lives.


30 posted on 06/04/2011 1:17:00 PM PDT by miss marmelstein (.Life and Death are wearing me out)
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To: surroundedbyblue

Sorry! Didn’t mean to step on your toes.


31 posted on 06/04/2011 1:18:16 PM PDT by miss marmelstein (.Life and Death are wearing me out)
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Comment #32 Removed by Moderator

To: mlo

The boy goes into great detail about what he saw when he was clinically dead about heaven and about what he saw both there and here. There is absolutely no way he would have known any of the details beforehand. I didn’t even know certain details, I had to look into the bible myself just to verify it.


33 posted on 06/04/2011 1:23:32 PM PDT by Peter from Rutland (!@)
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To: Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)

Gatun, I am outflanked here on the afterlife-little boy with big lying father stuff. Better get back here and help me out!


34 posted on 06/04/2011 1:26:02 PM PDT by miss marmelstein (.Life and Death are wearing me out)
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To: Ivan

I continue to make my point. And such language from a religious one.


35 posted on 06/04/2011 1:26:57 PM PDT by Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)
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To: Peter from Rutland

Not that I really care but are there tapes of this kid doing all the talking? ‘Cause when I saw him on tv, I thought he was a mute! His father did all the talking while the kid sat there like a bump on a log.


36 posted on 06/04/2011 1:28:42 PM PDT by miss marmelstein (.Life and Death are wearing me out)
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To: Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)

I never claimed to be religious, but I sure knew what I might find when I pulled up this post. Did’t your mother teach you not to complain when you get what you ask for?


37 posted on 06/04/2011 1:29:40 PM PDT by Ivan
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To: Ivan

And just what did I ask for?


38 posted on 06/04/2011 1:37:48 PM PDT by Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)
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To: miss marmelstein

I’m here.

I see my first reply did not get to you backing you up.

I’m here.


39 posted on 06/04/2011 1:41:11 PM PDT by Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)
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To: Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)

By following the link to the page, you asked for content related to “Near-Death Experience Led to Heaven’s Door” and proceeded to complain about the crazies that also followed the link. If you did not have any interest in the subject, don’t click the link.


40 posted on 06/04/2011 1:47:54 PM PDT by Ivan
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