"Heaven is For Real" (2014) movie review

Little boy, near death experience

"Heaven is For Real" website.

IMDB

Based on the #1 New York Times best-selling book of the same name, HEAVEN IS FOR REAL brings to the screen the true story of a small-town father who must find the courage and conviction to share his son's extraordinary, life-changing experience with the world. The film stars Academy Award® nominee and Emmy® award winning actor Greg Kinnear as Todd Burpo and co-stars Kelly Reilly as Sonja Burpo, the real-life couple whose son Colton (newcomer Connor Corum) claims to have visited Heaven during a near death experience. Colton recounts the details of his amazing journey with childlike innocence and speaks matter-of-factly about things that happened before his birth ... things he couldn't possibly know. Todd and his family are then challenged to examine the meaning from this remarkable event. Written by Sony Pictures Publicity.

Books by the family

The family seems to be producing a book a year. The books are written by Todd Burpo, Colton's father, who is senior pastor at Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Nebraska.

• Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent (Nov 2, 2010)

• Heaven Is For Real Conversation Guide by Todd Burpo (Nov 8, 2011)

• Heaven Changes Everything: Living Every Day with Eternity in Mind by Todd Burpo and Sonja Burpo (Oct 9, 2012)

• Heaven is for Real for Little Ones by Todd Burpo and Sonja Burpo (May 7,

2013)

• Heaven is for Real Movie Edition: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent (Mar 4, 2014)

Quotations from the book

Epigraph

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Jesus of Nazareth).

I certainly do want to have the heart of a child, but not the gullibility. We are to love God with all of our heart, all of our mind, and all of our strength. I do not think it is the case that anyone who doubts some or all of Colton's story lacks the innocence required to enter Heaven.

page 10

Todd, Colton's father: "I am a storyteller."

The story is well-told. It is a quick read, full of charming incidents and attractive personalities.

page 103

Todd asked, “What does God look like? God the Holy Spirit?”

Colton replied, “Hmm, that’s kind of a hard one…he’s kind of blue.”

page 125

Talking to his mom and bedtime, he related, “I’ve seen power shot down to Daddy. Jesus shoots down power for Daddy when he’s talking. Yeah, at church. When he’s telling Bible stories to people.”

page 126

The next morning, Todd asked him about it, “What’s the power like?”

Colton replied, “It’s the Holy Spirit. I watched him. He showed me.”

Todd asked, “The Holy Spirit?” Colton said, “Yeah. He shoots down power for you when you’re talking in church.”

page 138.

[What do we fight with?].

“You either get a sword or a bow and arrow, but I don’t remember which.”

Notes from watching the movie

FORD truck, not Chevy! Product placement. :o(

Spider Man is a Sony character. He was the only action figure Colton played with in the movie. Although this was another product placement, the toy was used very effectively to signal Colton's changing moods.

First rate production: music, filming, casting, acting, editing. The family members were superb (father, mother, sister, Colton).

Good tribute to the power of prayer.

"My son went to Heaven. What does it mean to say that Colton was "in" Heaven? Where is Heaven?

Visit with psychologist: "What do you do when you come upon something beyond the realm of your comprehension?" Paper tiger--pushover character. She turns up beaming at the Triumphant Homily.

BAD Triumphant Homily. Nothing about Jesus' triumph over sin and death. It's all about the good we can do if we just love one another--not about the comfort to be had in this life from being aware of the beauty of the NEXT life.

How do we know that Heaven is real?

• Resurrection of Jesus
• Testimony of the apostles
• Matrydom of the apostles
• Memory of the apostolic communities
• Development of the Scriptures

The movie suggests that people refuse to believe Colton's story because they are afraid to do so. I believe that he had the experience he claims to have had; I do not believe it is direct and definitive revelation from God--especially the prophecy that Armageddon would take place during his father's lifetime.

Preach Jesus, not Colton!

I did not like their scenes of Heaven nor of the CGI butterflies. It is much better to leave Heaven to the imagination of the audience. I'm very glad the rainbow horse was not shown!

Akiane's visions?

Pro-life message: miscarried children are in Heaven. I like that very much.

Love: "let others know they are not alone."

Watered-down gospel.

No Armageddon.

No Holy Spirit.

No God the Father enthroned in glory.

No swords or bows and arrows.

Jesus' message: "No one will hurt you."

Consistent with gospel; no substitute for it.

Believers will see the faith, I guess, and supply what's missing.

God is love.

On earth as it is in heaven.

"Clever Hans"

False memory syndrome.

Reflections

How do we judge mystical experiences?

Benedict Groeschel, A Still Small Voice: A Practical Guide on Reported Revelations.

St. John of the Cross, the mystical Doctor of the Church, ... warned people to assume that extraordinary experiences came from the forces of evil unless the opposite could be proved.

This is not an infallible guideline, but I do think it has some relevance here.

From a review of Groeschel's book:

Fr. Groeschel's book has been extremely illuminating and helpful. He cautions skepticism toward all claims of divine revelations, noting that the Vatican itself is very careful in certifying them. He divides bogus claims into various types: some are outright frauds; some are psychologically disturbed; still others are simply self-deluded because of their strong need and desire to believe.

After reading the book and seeing the movie, I am not in a position to say that I know for sure that Colton's experience was not from God, nor can I say with certitude that it was not from God. The material Colton's father selected and presented in the book is consistent with the gospel message. I don't find any clear contradiction between what the father says his son experienced and what the Church teaches about Heaven.

Evaluating particulars of Colton's experience

• "Picture-thinking": thrones, wings, animals, colors, songs, swords, bows-and-arrows.
• The imagery in the book seems appropriate for a four-year old, but it can't be distinguished from a drug-induced dream: Jesus' rainbow-colored horse, the pink diamond in his crown, wings on everybody, both angels and saints, homework given to Colton by his grandfather, seeing the Trinity in three separate forms (definitely not the Beatific Vision), angelic hosts fighting demons with swords, bows, and arrows, watching God shoot Holy Spirit power down on his dad while he preaches, seeing everyone in heaven with halos, Jesus going up and down "like an elevator," sitting beside the Holy Spirit on a little chair, etc., etc.
• The preternatural knowledge shown by the boy (immortality of a sister lost in a miscarriage and encounters with a grandfather and great-grandfather) does not require divine activity. Evil spirits could also know and communicate these facts to him.
• Protestant theology.
• Danger of gnosticism--revelation judged by personal experiences rather than vice versa.
• Preternatural powers (gift of knowledge) at work: not necessarily good angels. Evil angels also have knowledge of human history and can communicate that to "prophets" (cf. Edgar Cayce).
• Our faith is based in Jesus' resurrection from the dead, not from any number of near-death experiences. Many near-deathers preach a form of New Age religion based on their experiences. I don't want to open the floodgates to that kind of "revelation."
• The boy's experience has been selectively narrated and interpreted by his father, who is a Wesleyan Methodist preacher.
• "They market the book as if the kid died and came back. That's not the case. The kid went under general anesthesia and seems to have had some sort of vision. The heaven he visited definitely seems to be the American Evangelical heaven."
• "Be ready … there is a coming last battle."

We won't be able to judge the truth of this prophecy in Colton's father's lifetime. If it is true, the truth will be revealed by the last battle, and the world will have come to an end. If it is false, those who accepted it as true will be misled by the prophecy until Colton's father dies without the final battle taking place.

The bottom line

Heaven is for real.

This is true. None of my criticisms of the book or the movie are directed against this proposition. This is dogma. More than half of the Apostles' Creed affirms the reality of Heaven:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

This is just orthodox Christianity. It is not a new revelation. The movie is incoherent on this point. It portrays Colton's father and other members of his congregation as if they had never thought about the reality of Heaven. What, then, was their gospel message?

People are hungry for the good news.

Heaven is for Real was a New York Times bestseller. People want "blessed assurance." They are willing to believe Colton's testimony as interpreted by his father.

Heaven is here and now

"All the way to Heaven is Heaven."

Heaven is not a place as much as it is the state of union with GOD.

God works miracles, signs, and wonders.

There is no reason in principle to think that Colton's vision was not from God. God is capable of doing things I do not expect Him to do. He is LORD. He has a plan and purpose for Colton and his family that I cannot discern from afar.

Randall Wallace

• 2014 Heaven Is for Real (screenplay)
• 2006 Titan Quest (Video Game)
• 2002 We Were Soldiers (screenplay)
• 2001 Pearl Harbor (written by)
• 1998/I The Man in the Iron Mask (screenplay)
• 1996 Dark Angel (TV Movie) (story)
• 1995 Braveheart (written by)

Raymond Arroyo interview of Randall Wallace, 24 November 2014.

[X] Find Raymond Arroyo show, "The World Over." April 17.

Room for doubt

This is the kind of book and movie about which reasonable and faithful people may reasonably and faithfully disagree. God certainly might have taken Colton to Heaven and revealed Himself under these images, but I don't find them especially edifying myself. For me, the best part of the movie was when the pastor was passing kidney stones--realistic, compassionate, and humorous treatment.

I believe in the reality of Heaven because I believe in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Nothing in Colton's story strengthens my belief in what Jesus has promised for those who receive His mercy and follow Him faithfully.

I do not doubt the sincerity of Colton or of his parents. I believe Colton did have a private revelation, accommodated to the intellectual powers of a four-year-old. I do not doubt that they sincerely believe that Colton is telling the truth about his experience. The trouble is that other people with near-death experiences just as sincerely tell other stories about the nature of death and the afterlife. Here, for example, is a priest's story of "dying," then visiting Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven in the company of his guardian angel.

Many people find Colton's story consoling and encouraging. They seem to think that little children cannot deceive or be deceived. I am not confident that children only tell the truth and could never be used by evil spirits to mislead the faithful. We are not hearing Colton speak for himself in the book or the movie. We are given excerpts of his story as selected and interpreted by his father.

I am not interested in collecting and evaluating every near-death story now available on the internet to see how they compare. I expect nothing but confusion to come out of that kind of study. I suspect that the persons who have these experiences will see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. That's how we behave when we are wide awake; that's how I expect people to behave when they are profoundly injured and near death or when they are under the influence of sedatives and anesthetics.

I do not doubt God's power to reveal truth to whom He wills. In Matthew's gospel, Joseph has four dreams in which an angel appears to him:

1. 1:20 -- Mary's child was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
2. 2:13 -- Flee to Egypt.
3. 2:19 -- Those who sought to kill Jesus have died.
4. 2:22 -- Go to Nazareth, not Bethlehem.

St. Paul writes of himself (2 Cor 12:2-4):

² I know someone in Christ who, fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows), was caught up to the third heaven.

³ And I know that this person (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows)

⁴ was caught up into Paradise and heard ineffable things, which no one may utter.

"Private revelations" are a normal part of Catholicism.

Numerous saints have had visions of Heaven and Hell, mostly without trauma or medication that might raise suspicions about their mental state during the visions. The Church treats their accounts as "private revelation" if they are consistent with Church teaching and if they are edifying. This means that faithful Catholics may give some credence to the accounts, but may not claim that they are on par with public revelation, the Deposit of Faith preserved by the Magisterium.

"Be not afraid; I am with you."

Most people who have positive near-death experiences lose their fear of dying. Those who trust their testimony often gain that same grace of blessed assurance that all will be well in life after life. These are real graces and blessings.

In the Triumphant Homily at the end of the film, the moral of the story that draws the applause and affection of the congregation is, "Love is letting others know that they are not alone." This is a watered-down version of the gospel, but it is not entirely false. We are not alone because God is with us ("Immanu-El!"). The Good Shepherd does not want us to fear death of the body, but death of the soul. The movie is extremely weak on the need to repent of our sins and live a new life in Christ.

Peter Kreeft

The man to whom I look to teach me how to think about Heaven is Peter Kreeft. He reasons from the Catholic Deposit of Faith, which includes Scripture and Tradition.

"How Heaven Transforms Our Lives."

Restoring a practical and operative faith in heaven would go very far toward restoring vigor, joy and spiritual health to our society. But we can’t give what we don’t have. We must be sure we are living this central article of our faith first. If the salt has lost its saltiness, it is good for nothing but to be trampled underfoot on icy sidewalks.

The fundamental reason heaven is so life-transforming is not what is there but Who is there. Heaven does not contain God. God contains heaven. Heaven is relative to God, God is not relative to heaven. Heaven is heaven only because it is the full presence of God. Without God, whatever else heaven may have becomes completely worthless. So does earth. (St. Paul’s word for it, in Philippians 3, was skubala, which the old Douay and King James Bibles translated "dung.") And with God, nothing else is needed.

"Life after Death"

There are reasons for believing. Here are seven.

1. The word of God, for one: both Jesus and Scripture are called that, and both teach about heaven.
2. The nature of God as all-loving and all-powerful, for another thing. If even your love wants to save your loved ones from death, does God love us any less? But he can do whatever he wills.
3. A third reason is long-range justice, which is not accomplished in this life. "Nice guys finish last", and the meek do not yet inherit the earth. If death ends all, "all" is a pretty bad story.
4. Here's a fourth reason: the intrinsic value and indispensability of a person, which is a truth seen by the eyes of unselfish love. If death ends everything, then the indispensable is dispensed with like diapers: then persons are treated like things. Then God does exactly what He commands us not to do.
5. And a fifth reason: the image of God in us, the soul, the self, the I — that's not a thing or object or it. That's not a bodily organ. It's not a thing that can be killed by a bullet or a cancer. It's my soul, my personhood. I am not just a body because I have my body. The possessor is more than the possessed.
6. Sixth, there is the testimony of seers, saints, mystics, and resuscitated patients who have touched the next world in near-death experiences. They know.
7. But my solidest reason for believing in life after death is the Resurrection of Jesus. The Church has been witnessing to that for twenty centuries. It's no theory; it's fact.

Kreeft on Heaven:

• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven.
• "Heaven."
• "What Will Heaven Be Like?"
• Heaven, the Heart's Deepest Longing.
• "Fourteen Questions About Heaven."
• "How Heaven Transforms Our Lives."
• "Life after Death."

Links

• Heaven.
• Hell.