One of my favorite pastimes is shopping at thrift and resale stores. I really don’t have to buy anything; I just like seeing old and unusual things. It’s a fun way to bring back memories!

One day while at a resale shop I glanced over at the books and noticed a worn out copy of “Heaven is for Real.” They made a movie about it a few years ago and I remembered lot of people talked about seeing it or at least wanting to go see it. I never got around to it. Actually, I purposely didn’t go see this movie when it came out (or buy the used book at the resale shop) because it’s just not biblical.

No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. John 3:13

The book was a bestseller and the movie was a box office success. For those who don’t remember the book or the movie, it was about a young boy, the 4 year-old son of a pastor, who had an operation and claimed he went to heaven and back during his operation; an out-of-body experience. He describes his visit to heaven with the vivid imagination of a young child. Interesting.

Interesting to me because when I was young, maybe 11 or 12, I had, what I would call, a kind of out-of-body experience myself. I was sick with a fever and headache and I was lying on the living room couch. I think I was home alone. I remember crying and drifting off to sleep. I woke up in a sweat and kept thinking about just being outside of my body and floating all around the house. I was floating from room to room, all while hovering near the top of the ceiling for what seemed to be several minutes. I don’t really remember much else except being back on the couch and my mom giving me water and cold rags to bring my fever down. I didn’t go to the doctor and I didn’t mentioned the floating experience to anyone because it was all too weird. At the time it seemed frighteningly real to me, but in retrospect I’m sure it was the fever that caused me to dream or hallucinate it.

So as sincere and well meaning as this 4 year old boy and his father may have been, I simply don’t believe it. He may have had a dream or some sort of hallucination due to the anesthesia but I don’t believe for one second that he died and went to heaven and back.

Why would people even begin to believe a story like this?! What God has revealed to us in His Word is truly the only legitimate source we have about heaven. There may be a lot about heaven that is yet to be revealed to us but I believe the Bible tells us all we need to know.

But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,”What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:7-9

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:2

Actually, much more important than knowing about heaven, is knowing Jesus. All of the “knowledge” in the world about heaven will not get you there. You need Jesus first and foremost.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.John 3:16

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

So herein lies both the question and the answer:

Jesus, do you know Him?