Does the book Heaven is for Real seem real?

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I mean, if it were, would it disprove Catholicism? Any reason to doubt it?
 
I read it and found nothing contrary to the faith in the revelations made by the boy. Keep in mind that the family is not Catholic, and so are coming from a slightly different understanding than we are. All in all, I found his description of Heaven to be pretty close to my own expectations, even though many elements totally surprised his parents.
 
In my opinion, it seems no more legitimate than Dante’s Divine Comedy, and executed with much less grace. Like a contrived stunt or a hallucination, as is every other book I’ve ever seen purporting to cover some supposed period of time in Heaven and/or Hell, where the person remains alive to speak of it (as if God can’t tell if you’re actually going to stay dead!).

As there being anything in it to disprove or even shedding doubt on Catholicism beyond the family’s Evangelical Protestantism, no, not at all. It’s not like the vision was about why purgatory is a fraud created by Pope X to steal the hard-Capitalist-earned money of Saint Doctor Professor Martin Luther’s countrymen.
 
Khalid said:
In my opinion, it seems no more legitimate than Dante’s Divine Comedy, and executed with much less grace. Like a contrived stunt or a hallucination, as is every other book I’ve ever seen purporting to cover some supposed period of time in Heaven and/or Hell, where the person remains alive to speak of it (as if God can’t tell if you’re actually going to stay dead!).

As there being anything in it to disprove or even shedding doubt on Catholicism beyond the family’s Evangelical Protestantism, no, not at all. It’s not like the vision was about why purgatory is a fraud created by Pope X to steal the hard-Capitalist-earned money of Saint Doctor Professor Martin Luther’s countrymen.
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I’m not ready to call it a hallucination. Mind you that the child is 4, and yet a lot of the things a 4-year-old would put in heaven are not there. No dinosaurs, no superheros, no cute purple dinosaur, no elmo. If this was just a hallucination, I would expect some of that. None of it was there.
 
I think that it is real. Many saints had visions of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. If God were to bestow such a vision on a modern person, I would think it would be a child because children are very innocent. I don’t think it denies anything taught to Protestants or Catholics. I don’t think it suggests that God didn’t know this child was dead and had to take him back to earth or anything. God would have known what He was doing.
 
Depends on the fruit. Is this book bringing people closer to God?

We can tell the Spirit by the fruit…
 
Well, it didn’t have anything that seemed like part of an agenda, like Angelica Zambrano. so, i’m willing to put my faith in it.
 
kdganey1991 said:
Well, it didn’t have anything that seemed like part of an agenda, like Angelica Zambrano. so, i’m willing to put my faith in it.
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The agenda is clearly to persuade people that God is real and we should not fear death. Nothing wrong with that. It’s not anti anything but I found it to be a bit contrived.
 
michaelhager said:
… It’s not anti anything but I found it to be a bit contrived.
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The part that I might consider in that light is that after they found out that the child had visited Heaven, everything he said about it came as a total shock to his parents. They came to grips with the fact he had been there, but that he met his greatgrandfather absolutely flabbergasted them. There were angels and Jesus in Heaven, but the parents were floored when the child told them.

It seemed to me that, for a preacher, the dad in this book didn’t know as much about Heaven as I do as a layperson. That’s kind of sad now that I think about it.
 
Loren_1of6 said:
The part that I might consider in that light is that after they found out that the child had visited Heaven, everything he said about it came as a total shock to his parents. They came to grips with the fact he had been there, but that he met his greatgrandfather absolutely flabbergasted them. There were angels and Jesus in Heaven, but the parents were floored when the child told them.

It seemed to me that, for a preacher, the dad in this book didn’t know as much about Heaven as I do as a layperson. That’s kind of sad now that I think about it.
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A very dear and wonderful priest, may he rest in peace, once told us that in order to approach God, we must be like children. I do believe that this child did visit heaven. I personally haven’t read the book, (although I read the children’s version of it to my kids) but judging by what I read I feel that God calls on those to convey messages back to us so that we may not lose sight of our purpose here on earth. Just saying.
 
Any description of the afterlife is speculative. Even Jesus wasn’t so specific about heaven, mainly because I believe we are unable to comprehend heaven from where we are in this world.
 
I read it; couple parts I found intriguing…

The boy who is supposedly in heaven, prays for his father who is in distress at the hospital…

Sounds like Saints praying for us, and that they hear our prayers, does it not?

Probably went way over the Ministers head…

Second part is when the boy was presented with pictures of Jesus and he picked one
out painted by a child prodigy who claims she speaks to Jesus and has seen him…The boy not knowing it of course…

The painting is fantastic, she did it at age 8. Parents were athiests, they converted.

www.artakiane.com

One more thing…the girl had been looking for a model to help with the painting…found a guy who stopped by the house looking for work…he was a carpenter…
 
It seems real and exciting to me. I recommend following it up with Afterlife on Netflix.
 
Tbrightson said:
I read it; couple parts I found intriguing…

The boy who is supposedly in heaven, prays for his father who is in distress at the hospital…

Sounds like Saints praying for us, and that they hear our prayers, does it not?

Probably went way over the Ministers head…

Second part is when the boy was presented with pictures of Jesus and he picked one
out painted by a child prodigy who claims she speaks to Jesus and has seen him…The boy not knowing it of course…

The painting is fantastic, she did it at age 8. Parents were athiests, they converted.

www.artakiane.com

One more thing…the girl had been looking for a model to help with the painting…found a guy who stopped by the house looking for work…he was a carpenter…
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Thank you for that link. Some of her art made me cry… I know! It’s ridiculous but… I don’ tknow. There’s a lot of emotion in her paintings.

If I was rich I would buy her stuff but holy cripes is it expensive… so I’ll have to pass.
 
Read the book and liked it very much. God can and does use all kinds of events and people to convey His message to us, so why not a 4 year old child!👍

Sometimes people just need a gentle reminder that God STILL cares and is active in our lives, and who better to bring this message to us then that of a small child.

And like nicky said,if it brings us closer to God then its a great book.
 
I just finished the book.

I am sure the child experienced something but it was not heaven.

There is only one truth and that truth is Jesus Christ. God is the same always and cannot change. Heaven is what it is and cannot change just because your personal faith does not believe in it.

The Blessed Mother is nearly totally ignored in the book. The boy claims to have met John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin. Our Blessed Mother is the Queen of heaven. Jesus wants us to know His Mother. She will meet us all when we die because we are all Her children through our baptism. She has a huge role in salvation and relegating her to a minor role just is not the truth.

When the boy described God the Father on His throne, Jesus on His right, Gabriel on His left, and the Holy Spirit on a chair next to the boy, that is when I knew the book was a lame attempt at convincing the world that their faith was the way.

Nice story but full of holes. Definitely not for Catholics. You can teach your children using Catholic Saints and achieve better results.

Eddie Mac
 
As an ex-protestant turned Catholic, I read the book after my confirmation and found it to be heavily protestant biased. I had not thought of the part Mary plays in heaven and that simply reinforces my feeling that someone put the words they wanted to hear into the boys mouth… or translated what he said into language easier for a protestant to believe.
 
Source: Heaven is For Real, pp 152-153.

A lot of our Catholic friends have asked whether Colton saw Mary, the mother of Jesus. The answer to that is also yes. He saw Mary kneeling before the throne of God and at other times standing beside Jesus. “She still loves him like a mom.” Colton said.
Kneeling before the throne of God - intercession

Standing beside Jesus - a high place in Heaven

Still loves him like a mom - Mother of God
 
michaelhager said:
The agenda is clearly to persuade people that God is real and we should not fear death. Nothing wrong with that. It’s not anti anything but I found it to be a bit contrived.
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When I read it, I thought it to be complete fiction. I do not believe this boy went to heaven. I believe his father made it up and convinced the boy. Then the father wrote the book.

I saw it as an attempt to get 15 minutes of fame and lots of money.
 
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