trevor j major

Thomas Nelson – the world’s biggest religious publishing house – now belongs to the secular publishing house, HarperCollins.[1] If you look at the spine of your Bible, there’s a good chance you’ll see the Nelson name. One of Nelson’s titles, Heaven is for Real, is on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list.

On amazon.com, Real is the top seller in their “Christian Theology” section. In fact, as of writing, 9 out of 20 books are about heaven.[2] One is a straight ahead attempt at saying what heaven is like. Two (from Rob Bell) suggest that everybody is going to heaven. The six remaining titles represent three allegedly true stories (in various formats) of people who went to heaven and came back again.

In some respects, these stories resemble the Near Death Experiences that people used to talk about in the heyday of the New Age movement. But these go beyond the typical NDE story: it’s not just a case of seeing the light, or Jesus opening His arms, but of spending time in heaven.

Trust Me, I Was There?

Heaven is for Real (2010)

• This is meant to be the true-life story of a 4 year old boy who went into surgery for an appendectomy and then, after surgery, had all sorts of amazing tales to tell about heaven.
• His accounts are compelling, so we are led to believe, because they reveal all sorts of information about heaven that a 4 year old couldn’t possibly know unless he had actually been there.

The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven (2010)

• This is a story of a 6 year old boy who went into a coma following a car accident.
• When he woke up two months later, he told his parents that the angels had taken him to the gates of heaven, and he talked to Jesus.
• He related events at the accident scene and in the hospital while he was in a coma – events, allegedly, that he could know nothing about unless he saw them in heaven.

90 Minutes in Heaven (2004)

• A Baptist preacher was in a serious car accident, declared dead at the scene, and allegedly spent 90 minutes in heaven.
• Another Baptist preacher was passing by, stopped to pray, and the guy miraculously came back to life.

Quick Response

1.    Is it possible to die, see heaven, and live to tell the tale?

• Absolutely. We know that Paradise is the next step for those who are found righteous in God’s sight (Luke 23:43). John the Apostle gives us a highly symbolic picture of heaven in the Book of Revelation. So we know that something incredible awaits us up there, and…
• Jesus showed His power over death by raising people like Lazarus (John 11), and the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7). The resurrection of Christ is the ultimate example of life after death (1 Cor. 15). But you will notice that neither Lazarus nor Jesus tell us anything about their experiences in heaven.
• Paul in 2 Cor. 12 talks about a man who “was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words,” although the apostle leaves it open as to whether this really happened or not. In the context of this passage, Paul is talking about prophetic visions, not a round trip visit to Paradise.

2.    That was back in the days of miracles. What about today?

• Even if the stories in the popular books were true, they shouldn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. We know there’s a heaven. Jesus told His disciples in John 14:2 that He was going to prepare many mansions. That promise is backed up by the Person and work of our resurrected Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That’s all we need to know.

• If these stories are trying to tell us something we don’t already know, then they fall under the warning of Gal. 1:8 – “Even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”

3.    What we don’t get in any of these books is independent corroboration that what they say is true. In fact, there are claims in these books that are simply unbiblical.

4.    Here’s what we do know: “it is appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). That’s the sobering truth we need to hang our hat on.

Update: Interesting little post from Hunter Baker at Touchstone/Mere Comments.

Ground Zero mural commissioned by Yakov Smirnoff

As Yakov Smirnoff would often say, “I love this country.” The Ukrainian-born comedian built a sizeable career on this line and his signature Russian reversals.

For Smirnoff, these jokes were only partly tongue in cheek. They reflected an abiding appreciation for the economic and personal freedoms of his newly adopted country. On July 4, 1986, Smirnoff took the Oath of Allegiance on Ellis Island with a scale-size model of the Statue of Liberty in his hand. After the 9-11 attacks he used $100,000 of his own money to mount a patriotic mural near Ground Zero.[1]

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Recently I learned that one of my favorite TV actors of yesteryear is an avowed atheist.[1] The person in question is Tom Baker, who played the titular role in the marathon sci-fi series Doctor Who. So yes, I hold up my right hand and confess, “I am a geek.” To make matters worse, I am a British child of the ’70s. This means, of course, that I spent the requisite time cowering behind my father’s armchair while the Daleks threatened to Exterminate! Exterminate! pretty much everyone I knew and loved. Ah, good times, but I digress…

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Church bashing, pagan priestesses, and religious pluralism – Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon (1982) has it all. Offering yet another take on the Arthurian legend, Bradley’s fantasy has been praised for its feminist narrative and honored with its own miniseries on basic cable (2001).

The strongest women of Avalon – all devotees of the mother goddess – hold the destiny of the High King in their hands while fending off the dual threats of Saxon invasion and Christian conversion. The “official” version of the new religion gaining ground in Arthur’s world is cold, misogynistic, hypocritical, and meddlesome. Not all is gloom and doom, however. Bradley, in the voice of Morgaine, offers hope by uniting the two religions under one Gnostic banner. If Morgaine has her way, the most enlightened heirs of Camelot will understand that the Christian God and the Celtic goddess are male and female aspects of a single, nameless Divine. The good old days are behind us, she laments, but the goddess survives in the guise of Mary, mother of Jesus.

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In various Star Trek series, the “Prime Directive” ordered a strict policy of noninterference in the cultures of developing planets. For Gene Roddenberry, the show’s creator, the plot device was aimed squarely at the perceived evils of Western civilization, including traditional Christian faith. Indeed, religion always provided a convenient exception to the Prime Directive. Principal characters, especially in the original series and in The Next Generation, were frequently called upon to debunk religious belief or quash its development.[1] For someone like Roddenberry, tolerance was the first and greatest command unless, of course, an inhabitant of the galaxy happened to believe in God.

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