Does the book Heaven is for Real seem real?

[Nita]

I read the book and really liked it. Two things that I recall actually go along more with Catholic teaching than the Protestant background of the boy’s father. The little boy said Jesus had “markers” on His hands. Eventually, the father realized that the boy was talking about the nail holes in Jesus’ hands. This surprised the father because they do not have crucifixes. They focus on the resurrected Christ and not the crucified Christ. If I recall correctly, the father didn’t think his son had ever seen any sort of an image of Jesus with the marks of crucifixion.

The father related that the boy said Mary was right next to Jesus in heaven. That goes along with Catholic teaching about Mary’s place as the Queen Mother. (In OT, it was the Queen Mother who sat on the right side of the King.)
I was wishing the father would have related the little boys actual words about Mary.

 

[Khalid]

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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.

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Kneeling before the throne of God - intercession

Standing beside Jesus - a high place in Heaven

Still loves him like a mom - Mother of God

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Mary is not “Mother of Jesus”, but “Mother of God”. That right there is enough to confirm anyone’s worst suspicions of fundamentalist or evangelical Protestant bias, as the traditional Protestant communions generally do give her the name “mother of God” (such as the Lutherans and Anglicans). Unknowingly committing the sin of the great heresy of Nestorianism, anyone who says, “Christotokos”, anathema sit.

Anyone who says differently is a heretic as defined by the Third Ecumenical Council. Is Jesus God? Yes. Did the Blessed Virgin give birth to Jesus? Yes. Therefore, the Blessed Virgin gave birth to God.

 

[Eddie_Mac]

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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.

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Kneeling before the throne of God - intercession

Standing beside Jesus - a high place in Heaven

Still loves him like a mom - Mother of God

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Sorry, this is not adequate for the Mother of God, nor the Queen of heaven, nor the one who will crush the serpents head.

Our Blessed Mother will meet me and take me to Her Son Jesus when I die.

Eddie Mac

 

[Nita]

Mary is not “Mother of Jesus”, but “Mother of God”. That right there is enough to confirm anyone’s worst suspicions of fundamentalist or evangelical Protestant bias, as the traditional Protestant communions generally do give her the name “mother of God” (such as the Lutherans and Anglicans). Unknowingly committing the sin of the great heresy of Nestorianism, anyone who says, “Christotokos”, anathema sit.

Anyone who says differently is a heretic as defined by the Third Ecumenical Council. Is Jesus God? Yes. Did the Blessed Virgin give birth to Jesus? Yes. Therefore, the Blessed Virgin gave birth to God.

Wonder how the apostle John would feel about your words.

John 2:1 On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the** mother of Jesus **was there; 2:2 Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. 2:3 When the wine failed, the **mother of Jesus **said to him, “They have no wine.”

The Council did not say that Mary can ONLY be referred to as the “Mother of God”. They did not say that if anyone should speak of her as “Mother of Jesus”* anathama sit.*

 

[bsy]

Mary is not “Mother of Jesus”, but “Mother of God”. That right there is enough to confirm anyone’s worst suspicions of fundamentalist or evangelical Protestant bias, as the traditional Protestant communions generally do give her the name “mother of God” (such as the Lutherans and Anglicans). Unknowingly committing the sin of the great heresy of Nestorianism, anyone who says, “Christotokos”, anathema sit.

Anyone who says differently is a heretic as defined by the Third Ecumenical Council. Is Jesus God? Yes. Did the Blessed Virgin give birth to Jesus? Yes. Therefore, the Blessed Virgin gave birth to God.

If one believe that Jesus is God,
Addressing Mary as the Mother of Jesus, or the Mother of God is correct.

If one believe that Jesus is merely a prophet and not God,
Calling Mary as Mother of Jesus the man, is incompatible with Catholic’s belief.

Sorry, this is not adequate for the Mother of God, nor the Queen of heaven, nor the one who will crush the serpents head.

Our Blessed Mother will meet me and take me to Her Son Jesus when I die.

Eddie Mac

It’s a child’s testimony. He told what he witnessed “as is.” God gives dreams and visions according to one’s understanding. Failure of Colton to use Catholic terms doesn’t make him a false witness.

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[Khalid]

I made the point about crypto-Nestorian Protestants with hyperbole; “Jesus this” and “Jesus that”, and they’ll even say Jesus is God, but is Jesus’ mother the mother of God, then? “Oh, no, we even have tracts to show how it’s unscriptural!” When Protestants use it, they use it as a conscious reflexion against saying “Mother of God”, in my experience, because that’s a Papist saying and “lifts Mary up too much” (even though it pulls Jesus down at the same time, if you don’t acknowledge her as his mother). When Mary is glorified, Jesus is glorified.

 

[Eddie_Mac]

It’s a child’s testimony. He told what he witnessed “as is.” God gives dreams and visions according to one’s understanding. Failure of Colton to use Catholic terms doesn’t make him a false witness.

It is the Father’s book, not the child’s. It is the Father’s testimony on what he claims the child said. The father is using the book as an evangelization tool. Christ warned us against using false teaching to evangelize. Just because a story is a feel good story does not make it God’s truth. The fact that much of what is in the book does not fit with Catholic teaching makes the whole book suspect. When you package untruths with a little truth the whole package is untrue.

Good cannot come out of bad no matter how valuable the good is.

I could have written down every cute stateement my children made on Jesus and sold them as a book but it would not make it the truth.

The only few things in that book that are the truth is that there is a heaven, Jesus loves children, and that Jesus said we must be like the little children to get to heaven.

Eddie Mac

 

[Khalid]

You want some good Catholic reading, “Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations” by Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich.

“The only few things in that book that are the truth is that there is a heaven, Jesus loves children, and that Jesus said we must be like the little children to get to heaven.”

Isn’t that Chapter 11 of Matthew’s Gospel?

 

[ethereality]

Well, the book, if true, disproves some of what Seventh Day Adventists (and perhaps some other Protestants) believe – perhaps it’s called “soul sleep”? A friend of mine in undergrad told me, based on a psalm asking poetically, rhetorically, “Do those in Sheol proclaim your praise?” (asking God to spare his life), that when we die we don’t go to heaven or hell, but rather remain “asleep” awaiting the Final Judgment (what we understand to be the General Judgment) …

So if he sees his grandfather in heaven and speaks with him, then there goes that idea!

 

[nordskoven]

Mega-dittos for Nita! What a cynical lot. I think the child Colton had a near-death experience. It is in the nature of St. Augustine and St. Monica’s beatific vision. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” The “theology” that I took away was stalwartly Catholic, and familial, a fine Scott Hahn theme. Now that I mention it, I have more issues with Hahn, a fellow Catholic, and his “all prophecy is fulfilled” standpoint and other concerns. But I embrace him as a brother.

I think it took tremendous integrity for Colton’s dad, a non-Catholic preacher, to relate the lovely Marian presence; and that of John, Jesus’ cousin, whom Christ said was the greatest born of a woman–yet the least of us may have a share in sainthood if we lovingly hear and obey. I found Heaven Is For Real moving and uplifting, especially the part where the dad’s angry prayer was heard by God, something that many Catholic saints have related. Saints have great piety and rich intimacy with God. If you’re going to be frustrated, be frustrated with God as it shows “right relationship.” Reminds one of Saint Teresa of Avila’s travel woes. She was thrown from a carriage into a stream, and said to Jesus, “No wonder You have so few friends if this is how You treat them.”

The Jews rejected the Gospel because it wasn’t what they wanted to hear. This may not be what various people wanted to hear, but Heaven Is For Real has simplicity, power and insight consonant with Catholic teaching. “In My Father’s house there are many mansions there. If this were not true, lo, I would have told you so.” Let the little man have his say. My friend, who has been attending Catholic Mass to the great dismay of her anti-Catholic family, eagerly rushed a copy of this book to her anti-Catholic sister to share the with her that the Catholic panoply of saints is “for real.”

 

[maryjk]

It is the Father’s book, not the child’s. It is the Father’s testimony on what he claims the child said. The father is using the book as an evangelization tool. Christ warned us against using false teaching to evangelize. Just because a story is a feel good story does not make it God’s truth. The fact that much of what is in the book does not fit with Catholic teaching makes the whole book suspect. When you package untruths with a little truth the whole package is untrue.

Good cannot come out of bad no matter how valuable the good is.

I could have written down every cute statement my children made on Jesus and sold them as a book but it would not make it the truth.

Again,

The only few things in that book that are the truth is that there is a heaven, Jesus loves children, and that Jesus said we must be like the little children to get to heaven.

Eddie Mac

One more time…

I had to force myself to finish the book. To me it was so obvious that the father was making it up.