"Boy Who Came Back From Heaven" says it isn't true after all

Alex Malarkey, now 16, has just come out and said he made up the story of going to heaven after the accident at age 6 that left him paralyzed. Here's the story from The Washington Post.

I've continued to get comments on my blogs about this and other heaven stories, particularly on this post.

People Still Fall for the Heaven Stories

It's beginning to seem that a major proof that we are in the last of the last days is the phenomenal success of the many books about people's experiences of "heaven," and in some cases also Hell.

I was reminded of the popularity of these stories as I was walking out of the grocery store a few days ago with a couple of people behind me talking about the book Heaven Is For Real, what it costs at that store and where to go to get a better deal on it. Their interest is probably due to the recent movie based on that book. With that much popularity I thought I should write a brief update on the subject since I've got a few posts of my own on it here that I hope steer people to the truth about such things.

When I wrote my posts on that subject it never occurred to me that they would become the topic that attracts far and away the most comments I get at my blogs. I still get comments on those posts.

Many of the comments are of course negative, especially when it comes to the experiences of small children. How can I suggest that small children could be so deceived? The idea seems to be that children are too innocent for the devil to exploit them. But of course the devil has no qualms about whom he exploits, whatever works to deceive us is all that matters to him, and apparently we are a gullible lot, even Christians sad to say. Some of the books were of course written by Christians, and I do mean genuine believers, who even claim the experiences do not contradict the Bible.

By now it should be clear that they do contradict the Bible. I've tried to collect that evidence here, but there are many other sources out there, including the sermon by a pastor I linked here, but also in particular John MacArthur's ministry Grace to You, for instance HERE and HERE.  [Just for the record, I don't see that there's any reason to suspect that these stories are the product of imagination or hallucination, I think there's reason to believe that they are genuine experiences that can only be demonic deceptions.]

I don't want to review the arguments in this post, there's enough in the posts I've written already, and there are many comments to those posts people can read as well. This is just a reminder for anyone who still has questions.

A pastor's sermon on the Heaven stories

I just got a comment on my post about finally reading the book The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven from a Pastor Ken Burkett who included a link to a sermon he gave on the subject of the Heaven stories.

From about a third of the way into his sermon he covers so many solid biblical points it seems like a very valuable resource so I decided to recommend it. He mentions many books that have come out in recent years on such experiences, more than I've touched on here. He also confronts many of the logical problems and contradictions between the various accounts as well as with the Bible.

He acknowledges that there's no reason  at least in some of the cases to doubt the sincerity and honesty of those who had the experiences, but he stops short of suggesting that therefore it had to be a spiritual fraud concocted by demons. I think it's necessary to draw this conclusion myself, however, because people do need an explanation for how the people could be sincere but the accounts be false.

The whole sermon is a good overview of all the problems involved in these extremely popular accounts, and his perspective is thoroughly Biblical. He concludes that if people read the books and don't see contradictions with the Bible they just don't know the Bible and need to put down the book and go back to the scriptures.

That's the problem with this whole phenomenon right there.

UnChristian "Christian" movies

Lots of movies out recently that are supposedly "Christian" in orientation. Yahoo has a story on this Faith-Based Wave that comprises four recent productions. 

They made a movie out of "Heaven Is For Real" about the boy who supposedly went to heaven during a near-death experience, which has been the subject of many of my own posts here and an amazing number of reader comments on those posts.  Apparently it did well at the box office, which isn't really a surprise since the book has been popular and the majority of the comments I've been getting strenuously object to my criticism that it's unbiblical.    From the trailer at that link I get the impression that the movie is well done, with good acting, and true to the book. 

Then of course there's "Noah" which managed to pervert the Biblical story into a sci-fi horror flick that makes God and Noah into monsters, though Noah gets humanized in the end. 

Then there is "Son of God," which is based on the TV series "The Bible" produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, of which I saw bits and pieces and gave up in disgust because it too rewrote the Bible, subtly reversing the Biblical meanings in some cases, removing the homosexual element from the story of Lot.

The only production out as part of this wave that apparently doesn't violate Biblical truth is "God's Not Dead," and I know many Christians have been enjoying it.  I don't get to movies so it will be a while before I see it if I do, but my impression is that it attempts to make a case for God that isn't primarily Bible-based, but one of those typical arguments about how a good God wouldn't let people suffer.  It doesn't seem to be appealing much to unbelievers anyway.

The culture just celebrated the usual paganized Easter, all of a piece with three of these movies celebrating a paganized "Christianity."

All in all what does this wave of "faith-based" films amount to?  Not much for true Christianity I'd say, more for the antichrists and Bible debunkers unfortunately.  It's a religious but not Christian wave that will no doubt fit in well with the apostate World Religion that is forming behind the scenes, which may emerge in the near future headed by the forces of the final Antichrist.

Another Comment on my post about the "Heaven" experiences

UPDATE:  October 26, 2013:

Listening to parts of the Strange Fire Conference I missed the first time around I just heard Justin Peters on the Word-Faith Movement and somewhere toward the middle of his talk he mentions visits to Heaven, including the stories of Colton Burpo and Alex Malarkey. He says he and Phil Johnson spoke with Beth Malarkey who told them the story about her son is not true. So Peters says the stories are simply false, made up, lies.

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Even after such a long time my main post on the experiences of visits to "heaven" continues to accumulate hostile comments.  Today I received one from "wingedlion" who accuses me of being a satanic infiltrator since my views don't "build faith" but destroy it. 

Well, I have to say I WANT to destroy "faith" in experiences of this sort.  Our faith is to be in what God tells us in His word, not in our experiences.  Experiences that contradict the Bible, and so far ALL those I've read about do, are only going to lead people into deeper deception. 

It's one of the signs of the times that we are in the very last of the last days that this sort of phenomena has been increasing, which is apparent just in the number of books that have come out about such experiences, and even in the number of comments I've been getting to this topic.  It's all of a piece with the increase in apparitions of "Mary" over the last century or so.  Apparently we're only too gullible when it comes to anything "supernatural."

Here's today's exchange:

Having died, and been brought back to life myself, I will have to agree with the Burpo's. I am somewhat concerned about makeing demons more powerful then God though, I believe this is the work of a Satanist infiltrtor, and not a "concerned Christian". This is a faith destroyer, not a faith builder.

Hello Wingedlion,
Did God allow Satan to deceive our first parents?  Has He allowed him to deceive countless millions across the world and down the millennia who are enslaved to false religions?  If so, why wouldn't He allow demons to deceive us still if we believe things contrary to the Bible?  What sort of "faith" is it that is built on false experiences?

I can't judge your experience since you don't describe it, but the Burpo boy brought back descriptions of supposed occurrences in "heaven" that contradict the Bible.  I cover this more in a more recent post on this subject than I do in this one. 

Christians CAN be deceived and "supernatural" experiences are apparently an all-too-easy way for the devil to accomplish this these days.

Demonic Deceptions in the Heaven stories. (Mostly about the Colton Burpo story Heaven Is For Real)

Well, I've now read both The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven about Alex Malarkey, and Heaven Is For Real about Colton Burpo, boys who claim to have actually visited Heaven during surgery for life-threatening conditions, Alex at age six and Colton just before he turned four.

I've already written posts on these books because you really don't have to read such things to know just from a few reports on them that they are not Biblical and should never have been published.  HOWEVER, if only because so many complained that I hadn't read them I finally did.

The main thing I learned is just how sincere these people seem to be and how much they themselves believe in what they are writing about.  There is no hint of any kind of conscious deception that I could detect in either case, from the books or from some videos I've seen either.  I don't have any reason to doubt the sincerity of anyone involved.

Nevertheless, the stories are so patently unbiblical the sincerity only makes the whole thing all the more disturbing.  I'm alternately angry and sad for these people, but more angry in the end because such stories can only serve to deceive others and contribute to the growing apostasy of the churches.  But who is there to be angry with?  

There have been many such experiences by NONChristians over the last few decades but those are easy enough to answer from a Biblical perspective.  But these people seem to be true Christians, average Christians, Todd Burpo is even a pastor, they quote the Bible, they claim to follow the Bible.

First, how is it they are so gullible that they themselves don't doubt the source of these things?  And second, if they were simply too carried away by emotion over the fact that their boys nearly died, to be able to be objective, how is it that others didn't help them face the truth?  Did  nobody they know try to tell them they are trusting in a deception?  Nobody?  The many other Christians in their lives, pastors, whole congregations of people who prayed for them?  They all seem to have been just as taken in. 

Even pastors wrote testimonials to the Burpo book.  And then there are the supposedly Christian publishers of the books too.  Tyndale, Thomas Nelson?

If I'm going to be angry at someone there seem to be plenty of candidates, and the writers of the books may be the least culpable in the end.

Here is a video of an interview with Todd Burpo, Colton's father, in which he says that some people don't believe the story, and that seems to be his sole concern.  In fact throughout the book he is at pains to demonstrate the authenticity of Colton's reports about his experiences of Heaven, through his knowing facts he couldn't have known from any other source.

But this is tremendously naive of him.  The problem isn't that the story isn't credible, I find it quite credible myself as far as its being a true report of a real experience Colton Burpo had, and hearing both Todd and Colton talk about it only adds to the credibility.  The problem is that it is not Biblical.  And if it's not Biblical then you have to look for another source of the experience than Heaven.  You SHOULD, it seems to me, especially if you are a pastor, immediately know that the source must be demons.   Demons would know all those things that Colton had never been told, they would be able to create an illusion of Heaven, complete with impersonations of "Jesus" and the grandfather and sister Colton had never known.

This is hard stuff to have to face, I would think, if you are the Christian parent of a child who had such an experience, but what other explanation could there possibly be?

Both of the fathers, Kevin Malarkey and Todd Burpo, insist that the experiences their sons had ARE Biblical, that they merely confirm the Biblical record.  Here's a video giving a brief critique of the Colton Burpo book.  I don't think this critique is right to accuse the Burpos of "making money" off this book as if that is their only motive.  My own take is that they are quite sincere about the value of the story and think it could be an encouragement to others. 

But the critique does touch on some of the unbiblical aspects of the account.  Does Jesus have a horse that is rainbow-colored?  Well, in the Book of Revelation He is depicted as riding on a white horse.  Does the angel Gabriel sit on the left hand of God (as Jesus sits on the right)?  Scripture reports Gabriel saying he "stands before God."  Burpo even quotes this, saying it confirms Colton's experience, which is odd since it so clearly contradicts it.  Does the Holy Spirit "look kind of blue" and "shoot power" down to Colton's father when he's giving a sermon? 

The video also points out that Colton's finding out things he couldn't otherwise have known doesn't prove the source was God but is probably demonic.   The naivete Todd Burpo shows about that is probably what bothers me most about his account, as I say above, since over and over he is at such pains to prove Colton really did have such an experience. 

But the second most disturbing thing may be the vagueness of the gospel the book presents.  For some period soon after his experience Colton was very concerned about people dying without "knowing Jesus," or without "having Jesus in their heart."  When the question is asked why Jesus had to die on the cross, the answer he gives is "So we could go see His Dad"[p.111].  Is this the gospel?  Nothing about sin, disobedience of God as keeping us from His presence, nothing about Jesus paying for our sins with His own suffering and death in our place?  Nothing about our need to repent of our sins?  No, nowhere in the book.

And the third thing that disturbed me was how seriously they take Colton's experiences as a true revelation of what Heaven is really like, of God, of Jesus, of the afterlife for a Christian, ON A PAR WITH THE BIBLE.  Or maybe this is really the MOST disturbing of all.  They do seem to think it doesn't contradict the Bible, but on the other hand they talk of having a new understanding of things, of having learned this or that about Heaven that they couldn't have known just from the Bible itself.  They take a great reassurance from this experience that for some reason they never got from the Bible alone, the same kind of reassurance they think the book also holds for others.  They are now looking forward to meeting the child that was miscarried before Colton was born because they believe Colton met her in Heaven and is describing her accurately.  Why couldn't they simply have believed that the baby was in God's hands without such an extrabiblical revelation?  King David expected to see his son by Bathsheba in heaven although he died in infancy.  Shouldn't any believer have the same faith simply based on that account? 

The blurb on the back cover of the book promises that

"Heaven is for Real will forever change the way you think of eternity ..."

Why should Christians need a new way of thinking of eternity?  The Biblical revelation isn't sufficient?   The blurb goes on:

"...offering the chance to see, and believe, like a child."

 The Bible doesn't offer that chance?  Odd, Jesus seems to expect that of us without other revelation.

There are other things about the book that are disturbing.  In Alex Malarkey's heaven experience the angels all have wings, which is in itself a contradiction with the Biblical account, in which angels always appear as men, and it's also a contradiction with Colton's experience, where even the people in heaven have wings.  He had wings himself while he was there.  He also said that people there had "lights" over their heads which Todd Burpo interprets as halos.  But there are no halos in scripture.  In fact both wings and halos trace back to pagan and Catholic imagery, not Biblical.  And I'd also mention that they refer to some Catholic friends who wanted to know if Colton saw Mary.  He said he did.  And there is no hint that Catholicism is anything but Christian in their minds.

In other words the overall effect of this book is to UNDERMINE the authority of the Bible and undermine the true Biblical faith.

I should also mention that when Colton Burpo saw Akiane Kramarik's portrait of "Jesus Christ" he said it looked just like the Jesus he himself saw in heaven.  Akiane Kramarik is another who went to "heaven" as a young child.  I did a post on her a while back.  Her descriptions of her experience are so clearly NOT Christian but completely New Age that Todd Burpo's accepting anything about it takes his own spiritual judgment as a Christian pastor to a new low.

The most disturbing thing of all about both these accounts taken together, the Malarkey story and the Burpo story, is that it is Christians who experienced these things -- how they could not recognize that they are deceptions, but also why God would let them have such experiences at all.  Is their very lack of discernment a clue to the answer to this question?  I'm wondering.  The Malarkeys in my judgment seem to have a better understanding of salvation and the gospel than the Burpos, but maybe this is the wrong direction to be wondering in.  Is it then a test and they failed it because of their lack of discernment, their willingness to believe this extrabiblical deception?  I don't know. 

The idea that my child had an out-of-body experience engineered by demons would upset me no end, but it would be better to KNOW that than to be taken in by the delusion.  The prayers in that case should be AGAINST the experience, that the child would be freed from it, that the deceptions would be exposed and cast down.  AND that the parents examine themselves as well to see if they are in the faith, as scripture instructs us. 

That doesn't seem to be happening.  We've apparently got an enormous number of "Christians" out there who fall for this stuff.  THAT is disturbing.

The gullibility of Christians these days, and in fact the rise in this very sort of supernatural experience, the plots of demons, the presence of demons in our world more and more it appears, is just part of the growing Great Apostasy of the end days. 

Reading "The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven" finally

UPDATE:  The mother of the boy of the book title disclaims all connection with the book.

After writing the post below I found Beth Malarkey's blog and was very interested to see that she denies any connection with the book about her son's experiences of heaven and in fact disagrees with it.  She is very clear on at least one page I read there that she's quite content with what the Bible has to say about heaven and doesn't support extrabiblical revelations. 

This of course makes me want to know the whole story, the true story.  How does such a book get written against the beliefs and feelings of the people involved?

Unfortunately the poor woman has been plagued by people who have read the book and want to talk to Alex, apparently thinking he's some kind of seer with words of wisdom to impart.

In one of her blog posts she says she called the ninistry Grace to You and had a good conversation with Phil Johnson who had written an article about the phenomenon of heaven books.  The link above goes to that article.

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April 28:  Thanks to Beth who found this blog and wrote a nice comment on it, below. 
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This book is promoting deception

I got another comment on one of my "heaven" stories posts, complaining that I hadn't read the book about Alex Malarkey, saying how inspiring the book is.  Well, as a matter of fact I got the book some time ago and had been meaning to read it, and finally now I am reading it.

My first impression is that these are Christian people, living for Christ, living by faith, intending to give glory to God in all things, telling the truth as they know it.  They lived through the tragedy of their son's becoming a quadriplegic at age six in a car accident, who should have died but survived against all odds and seems to be a happy person and a witness for Christ some nine years later.  Hundreds if not thousands of people from their own church and other churches prayed for Alex right after the accident.  The story is a wonderful testimony of the rallying of Christians to help in tragedy through prayer and practical means.

It IS good to know all this.  I believe they are sincere people who came through a terrible tragedy.

The part I have a problem with is Alex's experiences of visiting heaven, and of angels and demons that were continuing in his life years after the accident.

I don't doubt that he had and has such experiences, I just have huge doubts as to their source and their purpose.  I also don't WANT to have these doubts.  I wish I could just believe it's all true and means exactly what it is understood to mean by the people involved with Alex, because NOT believing it all as written raises questions that are very disturbing.

If you don't think too hard about it the images aren't in themselves unbelievable but you do have to not think.  Pure white angels with wings, beautiful colors in Heaven, the presence of Jesus when comfort is needed.  What's unbelievable, really, comes from the knowledge that the only experiences of heaven described in scripture were given to a very few, Isaiah and Ezekiel of God's Old Testament prophets, and Paul and John in the New Testament.  It makes no sense that God would give such experiences to anyone since then, least of all to completely unknown children.

The book does quote scripture including warnings to trust scripture over experience among other very good teachings.  You can't really fault any way scripture is quoted and interpreted.  Nevertheless the experiences reported by Alex aren't in accord with scripture. 

IF the experiences are not from God why would God allow them to occur to a young boy who as far as anyone could possibly judge from the story was truly born again at the time?

That is a disturbing question, but all I can say is I have to remain disturbed about it because I can't just believe that God DID give these experiences.  There are too many things that bother me about them.

God.  "No man has seen God at any time" says Scripture.  But Alex saw "God" as a very large man, but only his body, not his face, the idea being that you can't see God's face and live.  Is this what Scripture is saying?  I haven't studied all the references enough to know, but it doesn't "feel" right that you could see PART of God and not the rest of him.  But what's more disturbing is that Scripture says "God is a Spirit" yet Alex says he saw his BODY.  The only bodily form God appears in is Jesus Christ.

Alex also claims to have actually talked with "God" in an undecipherable language, like "speaking in tongues" which was heard by others in the room.  This "talking" would go on for some time apparently.

Although "Jesus" is said to have been present in a few situations he is mostly just a reassuring presence and tells Alex he's going to be fully healed.  Is this really Jesus Christ?

What about angels being all white and having wings?  In Scripture there are cherubims that have six wings, and seraphims that have four wings, but there is no mention of angels having wings as such.  Angels, such as Gabriel, appear as men, and are not described as having wings. 

I've heard stories of some people who have experienced what must have been angels but they look like ordinary men.  I believe they were angels from the context of the story, such as the woman who survived being in one of the towers when the planes hit on 9/11.  A "man" held a door open for her and others who were trying to escape.  He was the only person she saw that day who smiled.  He told her she was going to be all right.  She didn't realize until much later that he must have been angel.  I think she had to be right about that.

Bill McLeod, who was pastor of a Canadian church that experienced a big revival in the 70s, described being in South America with his wife during those years, for some ministry purpose but without addresses or any way to connect with the people they were to meet as the information had never reached them, and on two occasions total strangers gave them the information they needed, one even leaning forward on a bus to tell them which stop to get off at.  Total stranger.  Had to be an angel.

These angels didn't have wings.  Neither did Gabriel or Michael in the scripture.  Why do Alex's angels have wings?

And so many in Alex's room?  Why so many?  The only time many angels appear in scripture at once is as warriors fighting for the whole nation of Israel.

Which brings up another question.  Alex also sees "demons" and Satan himself at times.  But the angels don't seem to be present at those times, which is odd since supposedly angels protect us from demons.  In scripture Michael the angel who is in charge of Israel fights off Satan's hordes. 

And another thing.  "Michael" is depicted in Alex's vision as sitting near the throne of God writing down things that happen on earth.  Michael who is the Protector of Israel?  Something is wrong here.

Also Satan is depicted as ugly in the extreme, bony, with three heads and fire for hair and flaming eyes and so on and so forth.  Alex says he never appears any other way.  Also the demons are ugly and have fire for hair.

But Satan "appears as an angel of light" says scripture.  And if nothing else pagan religions have images of demons that take many different forms, from ferocious and ugly to beautiful and apparently benign, and sometimes their practitioners experience such beings too. 

What is going on here?

If someone reading this book takes all these images at face value won't they be likely to think all pretty supernatural beings are friendly and couldn't possibly be evil entities?  Wouldn't that be a deception that would mislead them into trusting beautiful-appearing but actually evil beings?

What is going on here?

The Neurosurgeon's "heaven" story. More credible with the science believers?

The story about a visit to heaven by this neurosurgeon Eben Alexander, Proof of Heaven, is now available at Amazon, and is also getting some positive publicity at various blogs I visit, one of them run by a Christian who should know better, but I've found for some time now that even people I do regard as true Christians in fact don't have a biblical perspetive on these things.  If it's supernatural they buy it as if all supernatural experiences must be in tune with the Bible.  What a recipe for deception!  And Satan's hordes are having a field day with this stuff.  Must be fun inventing "heaven" for the easily deceived. 

I also got an email about this one from a friend who's heavy into the New Age and will hear nothing about the gospel from me.  That alone ought to show that such experiences have nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It should be obvious enough anyway from the stories themselves to anyone who has a Biblical perspective on these things.   

This particular story is written from the point of view of one who had believed the outrageous claims of materialist "science" that everything proceeds from the material so that such experiences are understood to be mere products of a disordered brain and the like. 

The following is from the Amazon Eben Alexander page:

His experience clearly revealed that we are conscious in spite of our brain - that, in fact, consciousness is at the root of all existence.

His story offers a crucial key to the understanding of reality and human consciousness. It will have a major effect on how we view spirituality, soul and the non-material realm. In analyzing his experience, including the scientific possibilities and grand implications, he envisions a more complete reconciliation of modern science and spirituality as a natural product.

He has been blessed with a complete recovery, and has written a book about this most powerful, life-changing story. Simon & Schuster will publish his book, entitled "Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife" on October 23, 2012. 

For more information, including video links and reading list, visit http://www.lifebeyonddeath.net 

Yes, we are conscious in spite of our brain.  I've experienced that myself as a matter of fact although I wouldn't try to persuade someone else based on my experience.  We are immortal souls.  We will live forever. 

But what you aren't going to find out from this kind of report is that there is such a place or state as Hell, which IS an afterlife after all, in which SOME will live forever if that can be called "living."  These out-of-body experiences are designed to mislead you into believing EVERYBODY is going to have this very pleasant afterlife experience.  That's obviously the purpose of them.  No Hell, no worry, just look forward to intense beauty, color, interesting creatures, forever.  THAT's the delusion in these things. 

The whole point is to deny the testimony of the Bible, a testimony given to us to lead us to truth and save us from such deceptions by the demonic hordes.  Keeping you away from THAT is their aim.  God became a man in order to die to pay for our sins so we won't have to go to Hell?  Na, there's no such thing as sin, no such thing as Hell, we like our own delusions better. 

So are Hitler and Stalin and Jack the Ripper having a nice time in one of these otherworldly paradises do ya think?

Anyway, maybe his story will persuade some of the "science"-bound to believe in the existence of an afterlife (not in the God of the Bible, of course, not in salvation from sin through faith in Christ's death on the cross in our place), just because he's a neurosurgeon I suppose, who's sort of in the science arena and may therefore be considered particularly credible for no good reason whatever. Just that he too was deceived by "science" so that makes him more credible? Something like that. So he might be believed by some who wouldn't listen to the Bible which is full of witness testimony to things miraculous and otherworldly but will listen to just anybody today with an experience.

In reality, there's no more evidence for such things from this story than there ever is, of course: You either believe this guy or you don't. That's the way it always is in the end. Unless you have such an experience yourself all you have is witness testimony. That's the way it is with the Bible and that's the way it is with ALL testimonies to anything you can't prove from material evidence or personally prove from yur own experience, such as a spiritual life apart from the body.

I just happened to write about this at my evolution blog this morning, about how faith is based on witness testimony, in response to a post at EvC (Evolution versus Creation forum), as the poster tried to dismiss faith as having no rational grounds whatever.  They simply define it out of existence.  

But as I say at the other blog, faith is believing witnesses, and you believe on the basis of judging their testimony to be credible, and you don't believe if you don't think it credible -- or just because you are one of those who won't believe anything whatever unless you can see it and touch it and feel it for yourself (or so you think, since in reality everybody believes tons of stuff on witness testimony alone).  

I found the statement at this link to be an interesting clue:

Although I considered myself a faithful Christian, I was so more in name than in actual belief. I didn't begrudge those who wanted to believe that Jesus was more than simply a good man who had suffered at the hands of the world. I sympathized deeply with those who wanted to believe that there was a God somewhere out there who loved us unconditionally. In fact, I envied such people the security that those beliefs no doubt provided. But as a scientist, I simply knew better than to believe them myself.

He considered himself to be a "faithful Christian" although he never attended church (he doesn't identify the church he feels is his either) and he doesn't give one iota of evidence that he understands anything that has to do with being a Christian, and as far as this goes he believes nothing any more Christian after his experience than before it.

Yahoo report on this story

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And a followup.  Somebody posted a comment in relation to a report on this book about how a small child on leaving the gravesite of the grandmother who had doted on him suddenly looked up toward the sky and said "I'll miss you too."  That's very touching and full of implications about what the child was supposedly responding to.  Even the "Christians" at this website took it as the grandmother's saying goodbye from heaven.

Question:  Does this story in any way suggest the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, or does it instead suggest universalism, that is, the belief that everybody goes to heaven?

The latter obviously.  No mention was made of this family's beliefs if any, just this experience.  This alone OUGHT to alert a Christian to the fact that this sort of thing is a deception for the purpose of detracting from the gospel of Christ.  We have to assume the child heard SOMETHING in order to respond as he did, and if you believe the Bible you should know it could not have been his grandmother in heaven because we don't have communication with the dead, but demons may impersonate people and they are the ones who have the motive to detract from the gospel.

Wake up, Christians!  The devils don't mind using a three-year-old to deceive sentimental souls who would not let themselves question such a supposedly tender moment. 

"Heaven" stories believed because the Bible is undermined?

I got this message today on that same post on the Heaven stories that still attracts so much attention:  "Counterfeit "heaven" stories deceive even Christians...":

I disagree about the author of this articles position about ' scripture being enough' for true Christians. I work hard to stay in the word, but there are often times I am challenged or am unable to interpret the meaning of a passage or a chapter. There are numerous translations which change meanings slightly. If a good person is motivated to pray more, to accept Christ or to perform works for others, then why is it impossible to believe that God is using it as a tool to reach people. The bible is a collection of historic stories written over hundreds of years. Why cannot the 'stories' be continuing to evolve? I don't think you can believe Jesus Lives and say that his word is unchanged since his death?

I don't know what branch of the Church this person belongs to but if he/she is in a standard evangelical/Bible-believing church this is a very sad message.

I didn't say God can't use these stories to reach people, I'm sure they can be used for that purpose just as so many other things can be, but that doesn't make them true in themselves.   The problem is that these stories teach a false Christ so you can't say that they lead people to "accept" the true Christ. 

But what is most distressing about this comment is the way the Bible is treated as something that could continue to evolve rather than the foundational truth it is.  Truth can't "evolve" in the direction of something that contradicts it and that's what these stories do.  Yes I certainly CAN say His word is unchanged since He lived on this earth.

This comment also suggests exactly what I've been trying to get across on my blog about the Bible versions, The Great Bible Hoax of 1881.  It is only too clear that at least for some people the many different "translations" only lead them into distrusting God's word, and I suspect they have some of that effect on all of us even if we don't go as far as this writer does.

I feel a terrible sadness when I hear a good sermon preached quoting from one of the newer Bibles, because of the lack of sensitivity to the problem of confusing the listeners among other things. 

In Isaiah 9 just for an example, "But His hand is stretched out still" in the KJV becomes "But His hand is still stretched out" in one of the newer translations and nobody recognizes that that simple little change, so inoffensive, so merely more in our own style, contributes to the undermining of trust in the Bible, and to the problem in the churches of a confusion of tongues, and the very fact that such a LITTLE change was made is an affront in itself to God and to His people.   

I had to live in this problem for a while before that became clear to me so I can't expect anyone to recognize it just on the basis of my say-so, but how I wish I could.  This is the biggest most destructive Trojan Horse within the Church there has ever been, and its armies are devastating the people of God and hardly anyone notices.

Another "Heaven" Lie

Yikes, more of this out-of-body stuff that supposedly proves the reality of "heaven."  This is one from Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon who had such an experience and of course wrote a book on it, Proof of Heaven.  It's not out yet but Amazon has a page on it started.

http://www.amazon.com/Proof-Heaven-Neurosurgeons-Journey-Afterlife/dp/1451695195/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349964774&sr=1-1&keywords=proof+of+heaven

The demons are working awfully hard promoting this particular deception these days. 
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If you know and believe the Bible you should be able to spot these reports as false, but those who reject the Bible may fall for them.

Notice that they NEVER give the gospel of Jesus Christ, that He is God incarnate who died for our sins. They give an otherworldly experience and often a false idea of God and Jesus -- that is, false according to the Bible.

As a Bible-believer I know these stories are deceptions.  I believe they are real, however, in the sense that they are actual experiences of a real spiritual realm these people are having, and not hallucinations or tricks of the mind. But Heaven isn't the only spiritual realm, and demons are very clever at deceiving people.

Jesus died for your sins and ONLY those who are saved by believing in Him, saved by the blood He shed on the cross to pay for our sins, saved by faith alone in Christ alone through grace alone, can expect to see Heaven or the new earth.

These illusions are all designed to deceive unbelievers into thinking they, and everybody else, will go to heaven. It's an evil lie concocted by the demons, or fallen angels.   Unfortunately some Christians believe this stuff too and contribute to the deception.  Really depressing. 

Another out-of-body encounter with "Jesus"

Another Phony Near-Death Conversion. A regular epidemic of these deceptions coming on now. Like appearances of "Mary" and other demonic manifestations.

This one isn't new but I just happened to find it promoted by a Christian at another blog.

Atheist professor’s near-death experience in hell left him changed

By Mark Ellis

In some near-death experiences, people report they were drawn toward “the light.” But in this horrifying near-death experience for an atheist art professor, he was drawn into the darkness of hell, which dramatically altered the course of his life.

...On the last day of a three-week European art tour he led, his group had returned to their hotel in Paris after a visit to the artist Delacroix’s home and studio. As Howard stood in his room with his wife and another student, suddenly he screamed and dropped to the floor in agony.

[Later in the hospital] ...he had a very unusual out-of-body experience, and found himself standing next to his bed, looking at himself lying there. As he stood there, he noticed he didn’t feel the pain in his stomach. He felt more alive than ever, and his senses seemed more heightened than usual.

...“I saw my body lying on the bed, but I refused to believe it was me. How could that be me if I was standing there,” he wondered.

Suddenly he heard people outside the room calling for him by name. ..“Come with us,” they said. “Hurry up, let’s go.”

Howard left the room and started to walk with them down a long hallway, which was very dimly lit – almost dingy. “They took me on a very long journey through a grey space that got increasingly darker and darker,” he recalls.

They walked a long time, and Howard wondered why he was not tired when he had just suffered the worst day of his life.

...Howard’s fear and apprehension grew at the same time he lost trust in his guides. “Finally it was so dark I was terrified and I said, ‘I’m not going any farther. I want to go back.”

“You’re almost there,” one replied.

Howard dug in his heels. “I’m not going any farther,” he said firmly.

...His guides began to push and pull at him. Howard fought back, but he was horribly outnumbered.

“We had a big fight and the fight turned into them annihilating me, which they did slowly and with much relish,” he says. “Mostly they were biting and tearing at me. This went on for a long time. ...

He lay there motionless for a few moments, completely spent. Then he was surprised by a small voice inside his head that said, ‘Pray to God.’

He thought, ‘I don’t pray. I don’t even believe in God.’

Then he heard the voice a second time, ‘Pray to God.’

‘But I wouldn’t know how to pray even if I wanted to pray,’ he thought. Whose voice was this, he wondered? It sounded like his voice, but the words were completely foreign to his own thinking. Then he heard the voice a third time repeat the same message. His mind drifted back to his days in Sunday school as a child. “I tried to remember things I memorized when I was very young,” he says. He struggled to think of something he could pray.

Then he managed to blurt out, “The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want…”

When the people around him heard his attempt to pray, they became enraged. “There is no God and nobody can hear you,” they cried, along with other obscenities. “If you keep praying we will really hurt you.”

But Howard noticed something curious. The more he prayed and began to mention God, the more they backed away from him.

Emboldened, he began to shout out bits and pieces of the Lord’s Prayer, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and “God Bless America.” Finally, he was screaming any fragments of God’s truth he could muster from the moldy recesses of his memory bank.

It seemed to work! Even in the darkness, he could tell they had fled, but not too far away.

As he lay there, Howard began to review his life. “I came to the conclusion I led a crummy life and I had gone down the sewer pipe of the universe. I had gone into the septic tank with other human garbage. I was being processed by the garbage people into garbage like them.”

{Does he know they are demons?]

“Whatever life was supposed to be about, I missed it,” he thought. “What I received was what I deserved and the people who attacked me were people like me. They were my kindred spirits. Now I will be stuck with them forever.” Feelings of self-loathing and hopelessness filled his mind. His thoughts floated back again to himself as a nine-year-old in Sunday School, “I remembered myself singing “Jesus Loves Me,” and I could feel it inside me. As a child, I thought Jesus was really cool and he was my buddy and he would take care of me.”

...“I’ve got nothing else to lose. I’ll give Jesus a try.”

Then he yelled into the darkness, “Jesus, please save me!”

...Within an instant, a brilliant light appeared that came closer and closer. He found himself bathed in a beautiful light, and for the first time he could clearly see his own body’s miserable condition, ghastly for his own eyes to behold. “I was almost all gore.”

Immediately he recognized Jesus, the King of Kings, the Rescuer, the Deliverer.

[Savior? Cross? Atonement? Forgiven sin?]

“His arms reached down and touched me and everything healed up and came back together,” he recalls. “He filled me with a love I never knew existed.”

Then he picked up Howard, like one football player picking up a fallen teammate on the field, put his arms around him, and Howard cried like a baby in His arms. “He carried me out of there and we headed to where God lives.”[Is God somebody different from Jesus?]In his mind, Howard began to think that Jesus made a terrible mistake. “I’m garbage and I don’t belong in heaven,” he thought.

They stopped moving, and both Howard and Jesus were hanging in space, somewhere between heaven and hell. “We don’t make mistakes,” Jesus said tenderly.

[Cross? Atonement? Repentance?]

“He could read everything in my mind and put His voice into my head,” Howard recalls. “We had very rapid, instantaneous conversations.”

Then Jesus told Howard He had angels who would show him his life. “It was a terrible experience because my life deteriorated after adolescence. I saw I became a selfish, unloving person. I was successful, a full tenured art professor at 27, the department head, but I was a jerk.”

In this replay, he saw his heavy drinking and adultery. “I cheated on my wife proudly. It was horrible.”

...For the first time he realized the way he lived his life hurt Jesus. “I was in the arms of the most wonderful, holy, loving, kind person and we’re looking at this stuff. Embarrassing doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

As they watched together, Howard could see the pain and disappointment on the face of Jesus. “When I did these things it was like sticking a knife into his heart.”

“Do you have any questions?” Jesus asked.

“I have a million questions,” Howard replied, and proceeded to unburden himself of anything and everything he could imagine asking an omniscient being. Jesus answered Howard’s questions kindly and patiently.

When Howard couldn’t think of anything else to ask, he said, “I’m ready to go to heaven now.”

“You’re not going to heaven. You’re going back to the world,” Jesus replied.

Howard began to argue, but it was to no avail. Jesus told him to go back and live his life differently.

[Forgiven? Under the blood? Through the cross? Or just through his own will?]

...At 9:00 p.m., Howard was back in his hospital room...Less than 30 minutes had elapsed since he lost consciousness.

...When his strength returned, Howard began to devour the Bible. “Since none of my atheist friends believed me, I started memorizing verses and I would give them Bible lectures, but that didn’t go over very well,” he recalls.

He grew “desperate” for fellowship in a church, and began to attend Christ Church in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, part of United Church of Christ.

...He also wrote a book about his experience, “My Descent Into Death,” which he says was written primarily to non-believers.

Howard and his second wife, Marcia, a strong Christian, are both involved in missionary work in Belize. He maintains a passion for painting, with much of his art devoted to spiritual themes.

[Why couldn't Jesus help him strengthen his first marriage, why didn't He convert his wife? Jesus said God hates divorce.]

I just encountered this story on another blog and realized I had to write about it although I don't yet know enough about it to say more than ask the questions I've raised in the brackets. I think that's enough to show that it's just another bogus demon-inspired deception of course, but it always helps to get more evidence.

Did Jan Hus hear personally from God? Prophecy, Discernment, spiritual gifts etc.

Was recently watching Chris Pinto's film A Lamp in the Dark again, and noted that Jan Huss, one of the pre-Reformation Reformers, burned at the stake for his commitment to the Bible as the ultimate authority for a believer,* claimed to have had a private revelation from God that sounds to me like it should be called a prophecy. Wondered how that sits with all those Protestants out there who deny that such things have occurred since New Testament times. Jan Huss is one of our heroes, after all, originally a Catholic Priest, as were most of the Reformers, who saw that the Bible contradicted the teachings of Rome. He became a recognized leader in the movement that finally deposed Rome from its dominance of Europe and established the word of God as the "light unto the path" of the believer.

So here's the prophecy: In the film the narrator says:

Before he died he claimed that God had given him a promise. The name "Hus" means "goose" in the Czech language and so the Lord had told him:

They will silence the goose, but in one hundred years I will raise a swan from your ashes that no one will be able to silence. [Source: Jan Hus: The Goose of Bohemia, by William P. Farley --about 32:38 into the film]

So, all you cessationists out there: Do you deny that this was a special revelation, even a prophecy, given to Jan Hus personally by God?

He was prophesying of course of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation which God would bring to Europe a hundred years after Hus's time. One might wonder if calling Luther a "swan" reflects God's sense of humor of course (or if a swan has characteristics that do fit Luther that I'm not aware of.) The Popes don't say much that I agree with but the Pope who referred to Luther as a "wild boar" got it right in my estimation. You could say that we needed a wild boar at the time of course. But anyway, as far as the Reformation goes Luther could be regarded as the beautiful swan that brought it all to fruition.

I haven't particularly thought of what I do with my blogs as a "discernment ministry" but maybe I should, as that does happen to be a big part of it. I have prayed for discernment many times, and in my experience God answers that sort of prayer -- prayers for understanding, prayers for wisdom -- much more readily than other kinds of prayers (such as for healing of my extremely painful bone-on-bone arthritis of the hips.) No, I'm certainly not claiming that my prayers guarantee I'm going to be right in my judgments, of course not, only that I have many times found myself understanding something after prayer that before had been confusing and I thank God for that. Happening to watch this film again and happening to notice that quote from Hus is very likely God's answering a prayer for understanding about the gifts for today although I don't remember a specific recent prayer about this.

I just got another comment on my "Heaven" blog, certainly a discernment issue and the one topic that really brings them in -- most to denounce me for daring to suggest that the heaven experiences are counterfeits.

They often fault me for not having read the books, but they also never succeed in showing that what I've learned from other sources about the books is false. In most cases of course a reviewer should read the book or see the movie or whatever, but there really are cases where that is not necessary, where the public knowledge of their content is sufficient to make a judgment. Remember The Last Temptation of Christ? There was no need to see the movie if your concern was Bible truth because its main story line was well known and clearly in contradiction with the Bible. Same with the DaVinci Code. On the other hand, the book The Harbinger needs to be read because there are many different ideas floating around about what it says and many misunderstandings out there to mislead people about it.

So, you could say that whether or not you always need firsthand knowledge in order to render a judgment is also a matter of discernment.

Discernment implies careful sorting of truth from lies or deception, in the light of the Holy Spirit of course. Discernment is needed first of all in reading the Bible or "rightly dividing" the Word of Truth.

If you believe that God's supernatural gifting of the Church stopped after New Testament times then you'll automatically understand all claims to supernatural experiences today to be false. No discernment is required. But if you believe otherwise then rightly judging a particular case requires you to spend time carefully comparing the Biblical standard with the claim to supernatural experience.

Does the quote from Jan Hus prove anything or not?

========================
Follow-up thought: It could be argued that cessationist doctrine itself, the doctrine that all supernatural experiences ceased after apostolic times, is a CAUSE of the discernment problems we're encountering so much today, the false signs and wonders, the New Apostolic Reformation and the like. Hidebound intellectualism interferes with true spiritual growth and experience, and interferes with the exercise of true spiritual discernment.

It also promotes a cynical mindset in those who have experienced something they can only call supernatural, leaving its understanding up to their own wildest imaginations. No wonder they fall for fleshly and demonic tricks since they know they are real at least and all the critics do is denounce what they haven't themselves experienced. No wonder if they get the source of such phenomena wrong because true supernatural spiritual discernment is not being encouraged, because it's not considered to be needed any more. In fact discerning of spirits is one of those spiritual gifts that supposedly stopped after the apostolic generation. We're supposed to rely only on intellectual understanding of the Bible, in a time when if we ever needed a God-inspired gift of discernment it's now. Proposition for a future blog topic if nothing else, the Lord willing I should live so long.

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*OK, specifically he was burned at the stake for denying the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation.

The idolatry of human feelings must be repented of, in the heaven stories and in 9/11 if we want God's blessings

Another thing I think I have to say today is that I've been realizing I haven't gone far enough on the "heaven" stories or the attack of 9/11. I've been waffling on the majority reaction of people that puts all the emphasis on the suffering people, on the boys who had the heaven experiences because they almost died so we must first of all soothe the feelings of those involved, think of it as God's mercy that they have been spared and so on, and on the victims of 9/11 RATHER THAN GOD'S CLAIMS ON US.

Yes, I know I'm committing one of the biggest sins in the eyes of the world by saying this, but I'd rather that than commit the worse sin of giving in to mere human fleshly sentimentality while slighting the Lord. If God isn't greatest in all our thoughts, if He isn't the Beloved of our hearts, if we put ANYTHING above Him, we are committing adultery/idolatry against Him.

No, the victims of 9/11 should NOT be our first consideration, though I've allowed myself to say that they should because it's the popular attitude.

God's will should always be our first consideration and in the case of 9/11 what we SHOULD have done, even those who lost loved ones, is GET DOWN ON OUR KNEES AND ASK GOD TO FORGIVE US FOR THE SINS THAT DESERVED THAT JUDGMENT FROM HIM.

And with the heaven stories, there too the feelings of the parents, and the sufferings of their children that led to their having these visions, are put ahead of the fact that the heaven stories are bogus for all kinds of reasons. They are lies and they are deceiving God's people and that is far and away what should matter to us most. It's a great sin to put concern for a family's suffering above the effect of the lies they are promoting, that influence other people against the true God. And that is what we should say to the family as well. The heaven stories are lies from the devil that mislead people about the nature of God and Christ. The devil has no compunctions about exploiting children in the service of his lies, but we shouldn't allow him to play on our feelings when the more important thing is that his lies be exposed and denounced.

Such feelings are an idolatry, and part of the reason God is allowing us to be subjected to such deceptions as the heaven stories.

We can and should commiserate in private with those who suffered in 9/11 but a public event that influences people in the wrong direction is what needs to be the target of public concern. On 9/11 preachers all over the country got up and assured everybody that this was NOT God's judgment, and denounced those few who rightly called it that. They expressed in some cases a great deal of moral indignation in the service of concern for the victims and against the concerns of God Himself who was warning us of judgment on the entire nation of America. Those pastors need to repent before God and the nation. Christians should go to the memorial services for the victims, hurt with the hurting, be a strength for those who suffer, BUT THE MESSAGE OF 9/11 IS NOT ABOUT THE VICTIMS AS SUCH, it is that there will be many many MANY more victims and the loss of a once-great nation that God had blessed mightily for years, if God's judgment warning is ignored!

THE ONLY THING THAT SHOULD BE HAPPENING AT GROUND ZERO IS SOME SORT OF PUBLIC ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF AMERICA'S DESERVING GOD'S JUDGMENT, REPENTANCE FOR OUR SINS AND PLEADING WITH HIM FOR MERCY.

Jesus said we must put nothing and nobody above Him, we must even hate our own family if they take His place in our hearts.

Human sentiment rises up against such a teaching, but human sentiment is the problem and we must not follow it.

Yes, I am repenting here of my own succumbing to the putting of human sentiment above God.

Heaven Stories article at Worldview Weekend

An article on various "heaven" stories: by a Justin Peters:

Here's part of the Summary from this lengthy article:

Summary

Thus far we have examined specific, current, and popular accounts of people claiming to have been to Heaven and to Hell. With these specific accounts still in view, we will now look at some of the broader challenges, both logical and theological, confronting anyone claiming to have made such journeys.

There is a logical problem with these accounts that is so glaring, it is hard to understand why more people do not take note of it; namely, these various accounts often contradict one another. The three individuals examined in this article only scratch the surface of those claiming to have been to the other side. Mary Baxter (who claimed she went to both Heaven and Hell), Betty Malz, Roberts Liardon, Jesse Duplantis, Kenneth Hagin, Richard Eby, Todd Bentley, etc. also would have you believe they were given a sneak peek into the afterlife. It takes only a cursory reading of these stories to realize that they all contradict one another – and often even contradict themselves! Colton Burpo reports that everyone in heaven, even God Himself, had wings. Piper saw many people in heaven but they apparently did not have wings. Some report that heaven is completely urban whereas Duplantis[43] says he saw homes out in the country. Some saw God on His throne, others did not see Him at all, and some, like Don Piper, can't seem to remember whether they saw Him or not. Colton claims that those in Heaven show no signs of age, yet Piper claims that his grandfather, Joe Kulbeth, still had his "shock of white hair."

Some heavenly tourists say that Jesus has brown hair, others say it is blond. Some report Jesus as having a purple sash about his waist, others say it is blue. Benny Hinn claims to see Jesus often and can even describe what He is wearing from day to day. Some, like Colton Burpo, say Jesus' eyes are blue, others say they are brown. One thing that all of the supposed accounts of Heaven have in common is a minimized description of the glory of Christ. Rather than a description like that in Revelation 1:14: "His chest was girded with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire," these accounts describe Jesus as being rather ordinary and non-glorious. God would never be the source of a vision which downplays the glory of His Son.

The list of contradictions is almost endless. The obvious point is that these accounts cannot all be true. In all likelihood, none of them are.

Now let's turn to the theological issues with all of these accounts. Though with varying degrees of specificity, all who have been to the hereafter and have returned describe people as having physical bodies. They report that the heavenly residents are perfect in every way showing no signs of sickness, disease, arthritis, handicaps, etc. They describe these glorified bodies as beautiful in appearance and perfect in function. There is only one problem with this: the redeemed in Heaven do not yet have their glorified bodies. This statement will likely surprise many readers and, unfortunately, the theological nuances are too involved to fully address here. It is, however, sufficient to note that the Bible teaches that those presently in Heaven are not yet in possession of their permanent, glorified bodies. In fact, Heaven itself is not yet in its perfected, eternal state. Those events will not transpire until the timing of Revelation 21. At present, Heaven is in its "intermediate" state, if you will, and the redeemed there are also in an intermediate state. In Revelation 6:9-11 and 20:4, John saw the "souls of those who had been slain because of the Word of God" and the "souls of those who had been beheaded" respectively. Those that John saw were not in possession of physical bodies but rather were in a non-corporeal state. The redeemed will be given glorified bodies at the rapture or Christ's return to earth (Parousia).[44] Therefore, the reports of people in the intermediate Heaven as possessing glorified bodies must be rejected.

The second theological problem is one which plagues all the books in the "I've been to Heaven and/or Hell" genre; they are all an attack on the sufficiency of Scripture. Even if an account does not directly contradict the Bible per se (and most do), these accounts propose to add to biblical revelation. In these accounts, for example, we learn that hell is 3,700 miles below the surface of the earth, that it is inhabited by ghastly creatures and giant spiders, the pit of fire is shaped like a giant human or maybe it's one mile in diameter (depending on whose account you read) and is ruled by demons – none of which can be found in the Bible. Likewise, Heaven apparently has suburbs, the flowers turn themselves to watch you as you pass by, the fruit is copper colored, individual homes are furnished with ball and claw Queen Anne furniture, people have wings or they don't (again, depending on the particular account), and the souls of babies fly around God on His throne. None of this is biblically supported.

All of this information is unbiblical at worst and extra-biblical at best. This leads us to the issue of new divine revelation knowledge. Is God giving certain individuals new revelation and speaking to them apart from and in addition to the Bible? If any of these accounts are even partly true, then the inescapable conclusion is "yes."

The implications of new revelation are huge. If it is necessary for us to know this information, why has God delayed nearly 2,000 years in giving it to us? Did the saints of previous generations have inadequate revelation of Heaven? Did they not have a sufficient supply of God's truth? If they did, then these and all other accounts of visiting the other side are entirely unnecessary and of no profit to the church.

Whatever God reveals and says to these individuals (most of these individuals quote God directly) should carry with it the very same authority as any verse of Scripture since God cannot speak less authoritatively on one occasion than He does on another. In other words, God cannot speak to us in the Bible and "really, really mean it" but when He speaks to individuals outside of the Bible whether in a dream, vision, audible voice, or trip to Heaven still mean it, but somehow mean it less so than He did in the Bible.

Heaven Stories posts continue to attract denouncers. In answer to the latest, this post is about Akiane Kramarik

I got another comment on my main blog post about the stories of children's visits to heaven.

Bob Barker has this to say to me:

I think its disgusting to go calling Akaini's [sic] work, the other child's heaven experience and 90 minutes in heaven demoniacally inspired.

Where is your proof that Akainie is tied to Hinduism and new age deception?

You mention that some of these people have a lot to answer to God for. But how about yourself, speaking against Gods chosen servants like this? ...

Saturday, November 12, 2011

In response I decided to do a whole post on why Akiane Kramarik's visions are NOT Christian.

First I need to explain that Akiane Kramarik is another who claims to have been to heaven at a very early age -- I've seen both age three and age four at different sources -- just like the two boys who have had books written about their experiences. Akiane has an amazing artistic ability, or really a technical skill at painting realistic images, that seems to have "come from God" in a more direct sense than we usually mean that expression. She also writes poetry which she says comes to her already composed. She is now about seventeen and apparently still communicates with "God."

Since I've been challenged on this so much I want to make the case for the demonic inspiration behind the heaven visits and visions, although I think what I've already written on the general subject ought to suffice. Apparently it needs to be spelled out more clearly because there is such an amazing lack of discernment about these things on the part of many Christians.

First of all there should be major questions asked about such claims since there is no Biblical reason whatever why God should give anyone a vision of himself these days. Instead we get books published by supposedly reputable Christian publishing companies presenting them as perfectly acceptable Christian experiences, which in itself no doubt influences Christians to accept them uncritically. Such visions were very rare even in Old Testament times, given to specially chosen prophets such as Moses and Isaiah, and in the New Testament there was only the Transfiguration witnessed by three of Jesus' disciples, Paul's encounter on the Damascus road, and then the visions of John recorded in the Book of Revelation. These visions had very specific objectives in the furtherance of God's revelation to humanity, AND they provoked amazement and fearful worshipful awe in those who witnessed them -- attitudes we NEVER see in ANY of the current supposed experiences of God or heaven. The credulity given to a "prophet" such as Joseph Smith in our time is indefensible enough, but now apparently many thousands of people who ought to know better are all too easily accepting that some small American children have been allowed to visit the true heaven.

There is really no other possibility than demonic influence. Small children could not imagine or make up these things on their own, they had to come from outside, just as Akiane and the boys who have had such experiences claim. There is also a general agreement between the separate accounts of "heaven" about the nature of "God" and "Jesus" which is also evidence that they were not simply made up, but came from some outside source. So, was that outside source God or the devil? This post is to give my reasons why it had to be the devil.

Here's at thread at EvC forums where I posted a number of comments on Akiane Kramarik and her art a few years ago. I got the same kind of responses there that I get on my post about the heaven stories here, that is, with few exceptions denouncing me for my point of view. Most of the posters there are unbelievers but I know one of my critics on that thread is a believer, apparently as undiscerning as other believers I know of who accept these heaven experiences so uncritically. Most who have commented on these phenomena here are probably Christians, but they don't provide enough information for me to know for sure. Some may not be Christians at all, but generic New Agey God-believers, deists or cultists who don't believe in the God of the Bible anyway.

Here is a page on Akiane's own web site where her experiences are described but in much vaguer terms than I remember finding earlier. She's described as having had a "spiritual transformation" at the age of four but not a direct experience of heaven which I recall is what she'd first described -- so I think they've toned it down:

•At 4, had a life-changing spiritual transformation, bringing the family to God.
•Her poems often arrive fully conceived.
•The inspiration for her art and literature comes from her visions, dreams, observations of people, nature and God.

•Her biggest wish: "that everyone would love God and one another".
•Her life goal: to share her love for God and people around the world.

This God she knows through visions and dreams is an awfully vague generic sort of God, the God of the cults, the God of the New Age, with no specific attributes that would connect him with the God of the Bible. She paints a man she calls "Jesus Christ," usually against a background of stars and galaxies -- which in itself is a hint that we are not talking about the UNCREATED God who made all things, who is outside all of it -- only the false gods are part of the cosmos. She claims to be inspired by her very unspecific nebulous "God," and her "Jesus" is no more than a handsome not-very-authoritative-looking man (in fact he's perhaps rather befuddled-looking, no Christ he). Christ is not described as the Savior in anything she says there, far from Almighty God who came to die for the sins of His people.

Here's a short You Tube video about her in which she says she believes God wanted to show her what he's like and what he's done with this world or something like that. Not a word about sending the Son of God to die for our sins. There is nothing Christian at all about her generic God, he's just a typical empty amorphous New Agey "God" with all the pseudoChristian cant words like "helping people" and "love."

There is also her experience of having the poetry come to her already written as it were. When does God do such things? But it's very common in occult practices, the doings of demons, much like "automatic writing" and even more like the whole books that were dictated directly to Jane Roberts (The Seth Books) and Helen Schucman (A Course in Miracles). Demons do these things, God does not.

What makes Akiane's vision specifically "New Age" is her notion about Jesus' supposed "missing years:" Here's another You Tube video about her. She describes her experiences starting at 6:10. At 6:40 is her painting called The Missing Years. This is that New Age notion, which I'll say more about farther down the post.

On that same video Akiane says right after the Missing Years painting that God gave her many ideas she doesn't understand at all, mentioning one about "pyramids." I have to suppose she didn't understand the "missing years" idea either, that it was given to her without her understanding, just as her poetry is also given to her.

Since her website is so vague about her early experiences of visions of God I'm including this link to a critic because at least he mentions what I know I had read some time back, and I think on her website, about her claim to have had an actual visit to heaven and personal encounter with God.

What makes Akiane so fascinating is not so much how well she paints, but rather the subject of her work and her inspiration. Akiane claims to have met God when she was just 3. He told her that she needs to paint and help the less fortunate. He also noted that he’d be there to guide her along the way.

It gets more bizarre when you discover that her mother is an Atheist and her father a recovering Catholic. Religion was never discussed in the house and the kids are all home schooled.

Wikipedia gives pretty much this same information, along with the same vague concept of "God."

Here's a report about her from April of this year. I see that most of the material in this article is taken from one at Christianity Today. They too just believe this stuff? I suppose this IS unfortunately the level of an awful lot of today's Christianity. Has nobody any discernment any more?

When asked how she knows that it's God who is speaking to her she said, "Because I can hear His voice....quiet and beautiful."

This ought to be a dead giveaway that we are not talking about the God of the Bible. Is this to be accepted as proof that it is God who communicates with her? "Quiet and beautiful?" Don't they know that scripture says the devil appears as an angel of light? That's his specialty. He was originally the most beautiful cherub in heaven. He can still muster an impression of that original beauty of form, voice, whatever, certainly enough to deceive an innocent child.

The article describes her finding a model for her paintings of Jesus, and one of the boys who had similar visions to hers said her paintings look exactly like the Jesus he also met:

The painting is startling. The eyes are loving and patient, but also piercing and fierce. He is beautiful. In fact, when Colton Burpo, the little boy who says he went to heaven at age three (see articles Part One and Part Two), saw the painting, he declared it to be the only one that ever captured what Jesus looks like. There have been many paintings since that one, though Prince of Peace is probably her most famous.

She also gives a generic vague explanation of why she believes she's been given these experiences:

People may wonder, “Why did Jesus choose to contact Akiane?"

“I have been blessed by God,” she said simply. “And if I'm blessed, there is one reason and one reason only, and that is to help others. I am donating a big portion of money to charity and to combat poverty," she said. "I want to help people. I want people to find hope in my paintings and draw people's attention to God."

There is no reason for Jesus to appear to anyone these days that I know of, certainly not to anyone who has access to a Bible and plenty of preachers and teachers such as we have in America, but let's say at a minimum if it really were Jesus talking to her He'd show her his nail wounds and tell her He died for her salvation, none of this mumbojumbo about "helping people." ALL the cults teach "helping people," the true God offers REAL TRUE TRANSFORMING salvation through the death of Christ, salvation that saves us from our Adam-inherited sin nature. Akiane is not saved, she's merely being exploited by a demonic intrusion into her mind.

The Supposed "Missing" Years of Jesus
What Akiane has learned through her visions is certainly NOT Christian. It's basically a New Age kind of teaching, which has roots in spiritism, theosophy and the like, and the mere mention of the notion of any supposedly "lost" or "missing" years in Jesus' life is a red flag clue to this. Akiane herself probably had no notion of its anti-Christian meaning when she first received this from her otherworldly communicant. Christians do not believe there were any "missing" or "lost" years in Jesus' life. There is simply a long period of His childhood that is not described in scripture simply because it is not of importance to the gospel, from age twelve to the beginning of his ministry around age thirty. New Age writers have claimed he traveled during those years and learned Eastern religion during that time, but the entire context of his life and ministry as shown in the Bible is the Old Testament, nothing outside that context. Clearly we are to assume he lived the life of a Jewish boy learning his earthly adoptive father's trade of carpentry and His heavenly Father's calling on His life through attendance at synagogue and temple.

Here's Wikipedia on the subject of the supposed Missing Years. It claims Jesus traveled in Tibet and India and learned from their sages and "holy men." This is taught in the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ written in 1908 but now part of New Age lore such as in Elizabeth Clare Prophet's teachings. The Aquarian Gospel was supposedly learned from the akashic records which is the name for an other-dimensional "library of knowledge" some people claim to be able to access. I think Edgar Cayce the psychic healer of the early 20th century claimed to get his healing knowledge from some such source out there in cosmic neverneverland. It might be tempting to suppose there is such a record "out there" that practiced Riders of the Cosmic Circuit can tune into, except for the fact that it's lying about who Jesus Christ is and that proves its satanic origin: end of story.

The message about the Aquarian Christ is not Biblical at all, but obviously based on Eastern religion. It supports a belief in reincarnation, for one thing, a direct contradiction with the Bible, and treats Christ as merely a sage who came to save through his example and teaching, concepts utterly at odds with the Biblical Christ but familiar in all the false religions. Eastern religion, spiritism, theosophy, pseudoChristian cults, channeling of spirits, all feed into today's New Age. It's all demonically inspired at its root.

The Christ of the Bible, of Christianity, is God Himself, God the Son -- yes, THAT God, the God of the Old Testament -- who came to be born in human flesh through the virgin Mary, who grew up in the teachings of the Old Testament and fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah promised from Eden through all the prophets recorded there, and died on the cross to pay for the sins of His people. Everything He taught comes from the Old Testament. He quotes nothing but Old Testament scripture and He quotes from just about every book, treating it all as literally true.

Christ lived a perfectly sinless life and then laid it down as a sacrifice as prescribed in the Old Testament so that those who believe on Him can inherit eternal life through Him. There is no other way. It is ALL based on the revelation of the Old Testament. Only someone totally ignorant of Christianity or consciously determined to distort its truth could accept the utter stupidity of trying to link His message and life purpose with Eastern religion.

There is no other kind of "salvation." We are fallen, we lost our connection to God through our first father Adam who disobeyed and plunged us all into spiritual and physical death ever since, through our simple genetic inheritance from him. We are subject to sin ourselves as a result of the sin nature we inherited from Adam, we are corrupted and blinded to God by nature. We have NO ability to save ourselves. The most holy man's example couldn't save us even if we were able to follow it because he's fallen too. ONLY a sacrifice of a perfect sinless Victim as decreed by God to pay for our sins could abolish the sin and death that separates us from God and restore our original spiritual fellowship with God.

Clearly these other notions of Christ MUST be demonically inspired, there is no other possibility. And this must be because the demons do not want anybody to learn how to be saved and they love to make us feel like we can do it all ourselves, be "gods" in our own right, which was Satan's lie to Eve in Eden.

Akiane was an innocent young child deceived by a demonic counterfeit of God, the same way the other innocent young children have been whose stories of visits to heaven have become so popular. It's also the way Joseph Smith was deceived, but he was a grownup and a con man to boot, and there are others who have been deceived the same way. Because in this case these are children, people are more than usually indignant against critics of their experiences and want to protect them from such as me, but they should want to save them from the devil's deception instead. You should be outraged at the devil's exploitation of children, which includes one child suffering terribly as the Malarkey boy is, rather than outraged at someone who calls it like it is. And you should be outraged at yourselves for trying to shut up this attempt to expose what is really going on. Pray for these children that they be set free and find the true Christ. Start with praying for yourselves, that you be disabused of your spiritual blindness.

Too many of today's "Christians" need a good sharp slap upside the head. WAKE UP!

The frequency with which such experiences are coming to people these days is certainly part of what is to be expected of the last days when the powers of Antichrist are coming to the fore.

Answering my recent commenter, someone with another heaven story

Just visited a commenter's blog where I found a post in which she quotes Augustine about the folly of picking and choosing from scripture, as it shows trusting in oneself over trusting in God.

If you believe what you like in the gospels,
and reject what you don't like,
it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.
~Saint Augustine~

Which is very ironic considering that that's exactly what she did on my Hidden Glory blog a few days ago where she did her best to discredit the apostle Paul as having reverted to Judaism in his teaching that women are to cover our heads in the church assembly, simply because she dislikes his teachings on women. I left her the following message:

Hello,
You've posted a number of times at my blogs, mostly opposing my views, and now I've come to your blog and have spent a little time familiarizing myself with your views.

Since you came to my Hidden Glory blog recently to denounce the apostle Paul essentially as a Judaizer in his teaching that women are to cover our heads in church, I have to conclude that you are one of those who reject God's word and prefer your own wisdom to His despite what you are implying in this blog post.

Actually, for all their theology of free will, the Arminians (I have no idea what an "arminiast" might be) do recognize God's sovereignty in most of the life experiences of Christians. The Pelagians, on the other hand, are more directly heretical in their insistence on human free will.

Be that as it may, I suppose you believe that evidence of Jesus' choosing you is your experience at the age of three? As I have also written at my blog in response to your posts, I believe you need to carefully and honestly reexamine that experience as there is no doubt it was a deception that has misled you for many years. If you were to describe that experience in some detail I'm quite sure it would show it wasn't heaven you were experiencing, and that wasn't Jesus you met there. Similar experiences children have reported of being taken to heaven reveal that they are in fact deceptions, as I have discussed in a few posts on my Faith's Corner blog. You should describe yours in some detail in your Profile here, or in a separate blog post if you prefer. If you are truly committed to the truth of Christ you should be willing to submit your experience to the prayerful guidance of other Christians and especially pastors or elders. Have you done this? I sincerely hope if you have not that you will, as you are most certainly under a very serious spiritual deception.

A great deal of what she says on that blog is more or less orthodox, but it is presented in such a disconnected way that I'm not sure what she means by many of the terms. Since she doesn't treat Paul as the author of inspired scripture but only as a fallible man, there are probably many other ways her doctrine is faulty. This is what I would expect of someone who attributes her salvation to a visit to heaven at the age of three. Akiane Kramarik -- who must be a teenager by now or a young adult, who also claims to have been to heaven, in her case at four as I recall, came back with a very New Age version of Jesus. The young boys who have had books recently written about their visits to "heaven" also have unbiblical ideas about God and Jesus from their experiences.

Counterfeit "Heaven" stories still interest people. Here's a link back to that topic.

My post of last November about the false heaven stories continues to get a lot of attention, accumulating comments even after all this time, so I want to link back to it for those who don't know it's there. I couldn't have guessed it would be such an important topic for people, both pro and con.

"Heaven" stories again

Here's a comment posted on my blog entry about visits to "heaven," a well-written encouraging comment that I think deserves some attention. I suppose it could just be that I'm too lazy to write a post of my own today, or that I'm basking in getting a pat on the back, but I think it's less either of those things than that it makes me happy when someone else also recognizes the deception in this time of growing deception.

It's from another "Anonymous" commenter:

I am so glad you have the guts to post about this. There is such a need. You are like the voice of one crying in the wilderness...and very unpopular in mainstream Christianity I fear.

I just read the 1st chapter of the book about Alex Malarkey. While I do believe this family is very sincere, I also believe they have been deceived. As one who has recently left the charismatic movement where experiences and "manifestations" are weighted heaver than digging deeply into God's Word, I can understand how this happens. I found conflictual evidence to the Bible, albeit very subtle in the reading of the first chapter.

We as modern Christians are sorely lacking in Biblical/scriptural knowledge and it shows. We are emotional creatures; our flesh is ALWAYS needing attention and we are infested with sin. The devil knows this and he is a master at deceit...we tend to put too much value in ourselves in being discerning (pride) when in fact we should have our eyes on the LORD at all times. Why else would the LORD tell us to pray without ceasing? He knows this and that we are like (dumb) sheep gone astray.

There are many, many stories like this. It is so easy to get emotionally wrapped up and embrace them (human sentimentality & flesh) instead of doing the "mundane" work of being a "biblical archeologist" and making a stand for what God has revealed to us in His Word.

Furthermore, there should be no shame in defending the faith "as it was delivered" to us and calling out heresy. We are too worried about offending others and we should be more worried about offending God!

Exactly, Anonymous. A little uncomfortable with the "voice crying in the wilderness" expression but it's unfortunately true that there seem to be comparatively few calling out these things while the majority are taken in by them.

And thanks for the observation that this kind of gullibility does seem to be the influence of charismatic theology.

Sincerity isn't enough, there are sincere believers in all kinds of error.

And thank you again for posting a comment here.