Recently, a movie was released that became popular among many religious folk. The film was an account of a young boy’s experience of dying, going to heaven and then returning from heaven. The source for the film is a non-fiction book, which is actually just one of other books with the same basic theme of dying, visiting heaven, and returning to talk about it.
Such stories seem to enjoy significant reception from religious readers or moviegoers. I am not sure why. Perhaps there is that need to be assured that “heaven is real.” Somehow testimonies of people who claim to have experienced visiting heaven helps to calm people’s anxieties about one’s eternal destiny. Perhaps they find in these stories experiential “proof” for their belief in heaven. And they want to believe that such proof helps to silence the objections of nonbelievers. Is this even necessary?
Just last month, a teenager retracted his story of a visit to heaven when he was in a coma when he was six years old. A book had been written about his supposed experience. But now he confesses that it was all a lie. One other author of a book with a similar theme has responded by declaring that he stands by his own story as true.
In the end, it really does not matter whether or not the stories are true. The real issue is whether they are appropriate as sources to support (or even base) our belief about life in eternity. We already have the Bible that is God’s revelation of the truths he wants us to know. Do the accounts in the books and movies provide pictures of heaven and the afterlife that align properly with the biblical teaching on the matter? Sometimes I have the uneasy feeling that the desire for such stories is fueled more by a sentimental need for reassurance rather than a faith grounded in truth.
For the believer, the promise of life in eternity is not about being whisked away to some otherworldly place. It’s about living in the restored creation. And what makes life in eternity “heavenly” is not beautiful landscapes, or luxurious buildings and fixtures, or even a reunion with loved ones, but the immediate presence of the Lord himself.
“Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away … And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God’” (Revelation 21:1, 3 NIV). Perhaps we may say that God’s people do not visit heaven; heaven comes to God’s people.
—Keith Y. Jainga