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Tag: Heaven is For Real

  • ‘Heaven Is For Real’ is Real Says Colton Burpo, Teen Who Says He Visited Heaven as a Boy

    Heaven Is For Real‘s Colton Burpo, the subject of the book-turned-movie Heaven is for Real, stands by his story of visiting Heaven as a boy.

    His revelation comes in light of a confession by Alex Malarkey, the subject of another book, The Boy Who Went to Heaven, who recently revealed that his story is not real and did not happen.

    Alex Malarkey said he made up the story when he was only six years old and didn’t yet have a personal knowledge of the Bible.

    “When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth.”

    Alex Malarkey said he came to understand that what he did was wrong after reading the Bible and felt compelled to come clean about his mistake.

    However, Alex Malarkey’s confession has tarnished to some degree Colton Burpo’s claims that Heaven is for real.

    According to Christian Today, Colton Burpo has released a statement on his website insisting that Heaven if for real and that he did visit Heaven when he was four years old after complications during emergency surgery to remove his appendix. He also insists that he met Jesus and saw Mary and the angels. He even claims he met his sister — who never made it to Earth after his mother had a miscarriage — something Colton Burton didn’t know about. It was the claim of meeting his sister that convinced his parents that he did indeed visit Heaven.

    “Dear friends, I know there has been a lot of talk about the truth of other Heaven stories in the past few days. I just wanted to take a second and let everyone know that I stand by my story found in my book Heaven is for Real.”

    “I still remember my experience in Heaven. I want to keep telling people about my experience because it has given hope to so many people. People have their doubts about my story. But the thing is, I wasn’t coaxed into doing this. I wanted to tell people about my experience. In fact, I started sharing my story with my friends and people in our town way before there was a book called Heaven is for Real.”

    The book was later made into a very successful movie starring Greg Kinnear.

  • “Heaven Is For Real” Countered By Atheist Gene Weingarten’s “Me & Dog”

    Heaven Is For Real may be a best selling book, but now it has some competition from a children’s book by an atheist author. Gene Weingarten says his book Me & Dog was written as an “antidote” to Heaven Is For Real which he called “a foul load of phony, credulous, opportunistic crap by a pastor named Todd Burpo, whose son almost died on the operating table and allegedly came back claiming to have met Jesus in heaven” in an editorial published by the Washington Post.

    The idea for Me & Dog came about when Weingarten stepped on his dog’s foot. “She howled and then asked me, clearly: ‘What have I done wrong? What did I do? I won’t do it again.’ The whole idea flashed in my mind: I am her God!” he said in an interview with the Washington Post, “The allegory sprung to mind. That there is a controlling presence. That we can importune him with favors. That all things happen for a reason. We may not understand the reason, but somebody up there does. This is a book that is a sweet little book. It’s not hectoring anyone, but it’s trying to start a conversation with a very young person: What if things happen just because? Is that something to fear? And the book says: No, we have each other, we have love and the world is full of endless possibilities. Why should that be frightening?”

    Not only is his book intended to counter Heaven Is For Real, it’s also designed to entertain kids while starting a conversation. “Atheists always get this question: How can you be an ethical, moral person?” Weingarten explained in the interview, “Which is annoying and insulting. It demonstrates a fundamental disconnect. Do you really need fear of hell to make you do good, moral things? I don’t need to fear the devil to do good. I know that it’s fundamentally right to do good. And that’s what I tried to teach my children. I have ethical and moral children.”

    The book has received good reviews so far from sites like Kirkus. “Shansby’s digital illustrations give a welcome, lighthearted feel to what might otherwise come off as too heavy a message,” the review explained, “They march in step with Weingarten, though readers are left pondering the point of a conspicuous church that makes a cameo in the background of one page.”

  • ‘Heaven is for Real’ Movie Crushes Johnny Depp at Box Office

    The Heaven is for Real movie opened in theaters on April 16th, and on Easter weekend it crushed Johnny Depp’s new film Trandsendence in box office earnings. Heaven is for Real soared, bringing in $21.5 million from 2, 417 theaters. Depp’s film opened to a rather dismal $11.5 million coming from a total of 3, 455 movie theater locations.

    Based on the best-selling book of the same name written by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent, Heaven is for Real tells the story of little Colton Burpo who says he went to Heaven and came back again during a surgical procedure. Greg Kinnear stars as Colton Burpo’s father in the film. This is the latest in a series of Christian films to earn big at the box office in recent weeks. Noah, starring Russell Crowe, started big. God’s Not Dead, featuring Duck Dynsasty stars Willie and Corie Robertson, did much better than expected in a very limited theater run.

    Perhaps part of the film’s initial success stems from the Twitter campaign producers launched which focuses on strong family values.

    Bishop T.D. Jakes of The Potter’s House mega church even recommended the following video about the film, which includes snippets with some of the cast members.

    Heaven is for Real made quite a stir when the book was published, with many saying the story was contrived or highly embellished by Colton Burpo’s pastor father Todd Burpo. Producers obviously thought it had enough pull to draw people in to movie theaters, and Easter weekend’s box office numbers proved them right.

    Do you have plans to see Heaven is for Real, and if so, did you first read the book? What is drawing you to want to see this new Christian film?

    Image via YouTube

  • ‘Heaven is For Real’ Crushes It at Box Office

    Faith-based film Heaven Is for Real crushed it at the Easter weekend box office, earning $21.5 million from 2,417 theaters to destroy big-budget sci-fic epic Transcendence, which earned an unimpressive $11.5 million from 3,455 locations.

    Heaven Is for Real, from Sony’s TriStar label, opened Wednesday and earned $28.5 million in its first five days and placed third overall for the weekend.

    Christian-based movies seem to be making a huge impact of late and Heaven is for Real is the latest Christian film to exceed expectations.

    The movie is based on the real-lfe story of Nebraska pastor Todd Burpo, whose young son Colton said he visited Heaven during an emergency surgery. The film is adapted from the pastor’s book about Colton’s near-death experience, co-written by Lynn Vincent.

    The film stars Greg Kinnear and was produced by well-known pastor T. D. Jakes, director Randall Wallace and Hollywood veteran Joe Roth.

    Not surprising, the drama did its biggest business in the country’s Bible Belt, but appealed to mainstream audiences as well.

    “It’s really a terrific result,” said Sony’s distribution chief Rory Bruer. “And Easter was certainly a date that was in the wheelhouse of the film.”

    Currently there are three Bible-themed films in the top 10 chart.

    In addition to Heaven is for Real, Noah placed No. 9 with $5 million for a domestic total of $93.2 million. God’s Not Dead came in No. 10 with $4.8 million, adding to its total of $48.2 million.

    It came as a big surprise that the $12 million Heaven Is for Real beat Johnny Depp’s Transcendence, which cost $100 million to produce.

    Transcendence is the fourth big-budget bomb in a row for Johnny Depp after The Lone Ranger and Dark Shadows.

    In terms of Depp’s openings, Transcendence came in lower than The Tourist, which debuted to $16.5 million in 2010.

    Captain America: The Winter Soldier enjoyed its third week in the top spot, followed by Rio 2.

    Here’s the real life Colton Burpo who claimed to have visited Heaven.

    Image via YouTube

  • Colton Burpo: Little Angel or Exploited Kid?

    Little Colton Burpo went through hell, then told everyone he’d been to heaven.

    When Colton Burpo’s appendix ruptured, he was only 4 years old. He was rushed to the hospital and had a brush with death — though he was never declared clinically dead during his ordeal — but he was pulled through thanks to some wonderful doctors and nurses doing what they do best.

    In the months that followed Colton’s release from the hospital, his family says that he started telling them stories about things he had experienced while in surgery. As the parents listened, Colton began relating what most people would probably have considered to be a dream. But Colton’s parents saw it as something else.

    Colton said angels had sung to him. He said he had seen Jesus riding a rainbow-colored horse. He said he had seen his long-deceased great-grandfather. He had seen Mary, the mother of Jesus, kneeling before the throne of God. There was music all the time.

    His father, pastor Todd Burpo, was convinced: his son had been to heaven.

    Since then, Todd Burpo has published a book about Colton’s experience, called Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. It was written with, Lynn Vincent, who also co-wrote Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue.

    Tons of money have poured in. Media outlets flocked to hear Colton’s story. He was on the Today Show.

    And although church-loads of people walk out each Sunday, having heard of little Colton’s experience, feeling more secure in their own assured faith that heaven is waiting for them, many people ask another question:

    Is someone using this kid as a money-making prop?

    The phenomenon of near-death experiences is nothing unusual. Some even say that all Colton Burpo likely experienced was simply a dream, maybe even medication-induced. They offer the simple explanation that for all 4 years of his life up to that point, little Colton had been surrounded by religious imagery and Sunday school nursery story books with bright, colorful drawings of Jesus walking on water, Mary, Noah’s ark, and Pearly Gates. His father was a pastor, after all.

    They also wonder at how much of Colton’s statements originally claimed heaven as the setting. Did he say he saw Jesus? Or simply a man in a white beard on a rainbow horse? Have his young recollections been retrofitted, coached by his father’s clarifications and addendum over the years?

    And this is not simply an argument between believers and non-believers, Christians and atheists. Lots of Christians are skeptical about the kinds of claims made in Burpo’s book.

    But with a new movie out now, based on the book, the money will keep rolling in, no matter what anyone else believes.

    Image via YouTube

  • Colton Burpo Still Remembers His Trip To Heaven

    In the spring of 2003, 4-year-old Colton Burpo underwent an emergency appendectomy. Over the next few months, following the surgery, Colton slowly tells his family of his miraculous out-of-body experience.

    Colton revealed that he left his body, during the operation, and flew to Heaven. He described the people he met, including Jesus, and was able to tell his family what they were doing in the hospital while he was unconscious.

    His amazing story was written in a best-selling book titled Heaven is For Real, narrated by Colton’s minister father Todd Burpo, published in 2010. The book is now being adapted into a film that is scheduled to be released on Easter (April 20).

    While Colton, now 14-years-old, says he doesn’t have dreams about his experience, he does say that he remembers his trip to Heaven vividly, but not the events leading up to his hospital stay. “Well, my hospital experience and all the events leading up to not really, but with heaven, I still remember a lot of what I saw,” Colton said, during an interview with his family on Tuesday’s episode of the Today show.

    When the idea of a movie was pitched to the family, Todd said that they wanted the producers to stay as true to the story as possible, and keep the integrity of the story intact. “The biggest thing for us was the integrity of the story and they’ve kept their word to do that,” Todd said. “When you see Greg Kinnear and especially this little boy, Connor, you’re going to see, I think, the best representation of what I saw 11 years ago.”

    Todd and Colton told Kathy Lee and Hoda that the movie did a good job of depicting Heaven, but it is actually much better than what you will see in the film. “I think when it comes to real life , especially the scene where greg and kelly are fighting with each other in the kitchen, they know us pretty good, but, you know, I think the one scene about heaven, that’s Colton ‘s saying about the movie, he’s like, ‘you know, I know they did the best job they can, but heaven is so much better than that,’” Todd explained. “That’s good news for all of us. when you see — you’re going to see a good depiction, but for you it watch the movie and realize it is so much better, what a great thing to walk out and know that.”

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