THE BOY WHO CAME BACK FROM HEAVEN ACTUALLY DIDN’T
“Tyndale House, a major Christian publisher, has announced that it will stop selling “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven,” by Alex Malarkey and his father, Kevin Malarkey.
The best selling book, first published in 2010, purports to describe what Alex experienced while he lay in a coma after a car accident when he was 6 years old. The coma lasted two months, and his injuries left him paralyzed, but the subsequent spiritual memoir – with its assuring description of “miracles, angels, and life beyond This World” – became part of a popular genre of “heavenly tourism.”
Earlier this week, Alex recanted his testimony about the afterlife. In an open letter to Christian bookstores posted on the Pulpit and Pen Web site, Alex states flatly: “I did not die. I did not go to Heaven” (Washington Post, January 16, 2015). Folks who know the Bible would have known that this would not be correct. While there are several accounts in the Bible of people raised from the dead, there is no account from any of them of what it is like.
Recently, NBC News Anchor, Brian Williams, has admitted that he was not truthful regarding an experience he had in Iraq about being shot at while in a helicopter. He has temporarily taken himself off the air.
Truth is valuable. Solomon wrote, “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding” (Prov. 23:23). Jesus said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). All of us desire, or should desire, to know the truth on any subject. Yet, many people be-lieve false doctrine simply because it comes from a speaker they like, and they never bother to check it out.
Lying will damn the soul. Remember the words of John, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8).
We are told by the news media that same sex marriage is right. We are told by the news media that we must accept homosexuality as normal. Leaders in some religious organizations have bought into this false teaching. We are told by some of our own brethren that we have been wrong in denying the use of the instrument in our worship and that we should now accept it. Some of our brethren have bought into this erro-neous doctrine. In each of the above the Bible strictly forbids all of it.
Paul to the Ephesians wrote, “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another” (Eph. 4:25).
Many years ago someone said, “Don’t believe anything you read and only half what you see.” May be some truth to that. Check it out by the Bible.
Larry