Tyndale Removes "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven"

I don’t know if you heard of the book The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven. It is the book about a boy who died and went to heaven. Only he didn’t really die, and he didn’t really go to heaven. He made the story up and then someone published it and it sold millions like every other book of its type.

What makes this one interesting is that the boy, Alex Malarkey, came out recently after actually reading the Bible and recanted the entire story. He said it was a hoax. Really? You see, that is the real rub. Alex, a boy, actually had to come out and tell us the story was a hoax before we (the wider church audience) could actually discern that the story was a hoax.

Every single story like this is a hoax. In fact, let me try to be clear as possible: if someone has a story of dying and going to heaven, and they have published a book about it, then they didn’t die and go to heaven. It is a hoax. The reason I say this is that we have a standard that we can use to test such stories. It’s called… (and I wish the people at Tyndale Publishing would actually get one of these books and read it), it’s called the Bible. By reading it with eyes of faith, we can actually discern between what is real and what is a hoax, like the book written by Malarkey and the other popular book Heaven is For Real. Back to the standard.

Let me be clear, I’m not saying that it is impossible for someone to die, while on the operating table for example, and be with the LORD provided they are actually Christians. What I’m saying is that the standard for discerning is given by Paul when he had such an experience. He writes: And I know such a man–whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows– how he was caught up into the Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter (2 Corinthians 12:3).

The key for knowing whether something is a hoax or not is whether or not the person actually talks about it, and tells us wild things like Jesus has a pet unicorn that is colored like the rainbow. The true believer, whom God might give the experience of being caught up to heaven, would not talk about it because he or she would know it was unlawful.

According to the latest reports on this book, Tyndale Publishing has decided to pull all the books and paraphernalia. Gee, that is wonderful. But what they should do is repent of such greed and stupidity. Are they going to give the money back to the people who were fooled by these lies? Are they going to actually hire some Christian theologians to help set a standard so they won’t publish such tripe in the future? Will they actually use the Bible as their standard for truth, instead of the bottom line?

I’m not sure any of these things will happen. For the most part, people will continue to flock to those things that are but a shadow of truth. And we will see more books on people who go to, and come back from heaven. I guess we should rejoice that one little boy, was used by God to do what the pastors and teachers should have been doing all along. Maybe a few will become a bit more discerning in the process.