Posted on 04/28/2014 1:53:01 AM PDT by markomalley
Msgr Pope ping
I saw the movie last week and I liked it. It is simply a dramatized report of a little boy’s near death experience and that is all that it is. People need to keep in mind that the NDE of a child who has not, in theory anyway, sinned because he has not yet reached the age of reason, is going to be different than those of an adult. Howard Storm’s NDE was horrifying.
I didn’t see the universalism angle likely because in my mind when someone says Heaven is for real, it implies that Hell is too. Who goes where and how many nobody knows. As Bishop Fulton Sheen says: “There will be three surprises when you get to heaven. You will be surprised who is there, you will be surprised who is not there, and you will be surprised that you are there.”
The part of the movie I liked the most was when the kid told his mom that he had met his “other sister” in heaven. This sister was a miscarriage that the kid had never been told about by his parents. His mother had been skeptical of the her son’s nde until that moment. That must have been quite shocking for her. I thought it was a prime moment for the movie to make a pro life statement but it left that one hanging. Too bad.
This is a rather weak article, imo. Both Msgr. Pope’s comments and those in the article he discussed would have more weight if any of those commenting had read the book or seen the movie they’re analyzing. (I haven’t.)
This is not to say that Msgr. Pope’s theology or cultural observations are incorrect, just that tying his comments to “Heaven Is For Real” is a stretch.
You got it.
What we are dealing here is a little kid and his NDE experience.
is Msgr Pope expecting to win hearts and minds with this? I understand his points but he doesn’t know his audience. I, as a practicing Catholic, read the book, watched the movie, and enjoyed it. The point that Msgr seemingly misses is those of us who believe in God and Heaven can have doubts and a small child helps erase some of those doubts.
Good Lord. Three people were in Heaven that was mentioned in the movie. The father of the pastor, the baby that the couple lost and the military person who was killed in action. How on Earth does that explain EVERYONE goes to Heaven. I hate people who bash these movies. Just watch the dang thing. I saw it yesterday. Was it an Oscar winner? No way. Was it a nice little movie? Yes. I actually like God’s not Dead better but big deal.
"While it is true that children can have beautiful spiritual visions, the accuracy of those visions cannot be guaranteed, and surely they are in very childlike categories, which often lack important distinctions, etc.
However, I'm sure that he believes in and teaches as fact, the visions seen by the 3 children at Fatima.
But remember Jesus’s position on little children.
Ping!
I unpinged him awhile ago on Facebook.Kinda like going to a Confirmation and having Archbishop Chaput tell everyone at the Confirmation in a round about way they really needed to relearn all that they were taught in Catholic Schools.Not the time nor the place.I think I might order the book.He also saw the Blessed Mother but I heard it was cut out of the movie and book.
If you read the book, it talks about hell. The boy said that afterwards he saw people “Who were not God’s”, and that they are not going to heaven unless they repent.
The book was not all lovey dovey (though that is what most remember).
“It is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgement”
Those people CAN’T repent. It’s too late.
They were not dead. In the book he saw them after he was released from the hospital. Specifically in his Dad’s church.
The Fatima children were a little older. The priests in their village did not believe them at all and scolded them for their story.
Christ said “many” will go to hell, and “few” will go to heaven:
Mat 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Mat 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Is that really the case, though? I wonder if "heaven is for everyone" could mean that, while some won't make it, it's God's will that everyone would.
My MIL gave me a copy of the book not long after it came out, and I read it then, so I don't remember the details. But isn't there something about the boy being asked if he saw the devil, and he became so terrified that he sat stock-still for a while, unable to speak? Or something along those lines.
You are correct.
what always gets me when people have out-of-body experiences in the hospitals, they come back and said they saw their relatives in heaven, my question always is that how can they see their relatives when it’s their souls that are in heaven and not their bodies?
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