Alex Malarkey, the guy who wrote “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven” has confessed. He didn’t die and he didn’t go to heaven. It was in fact a bunch of… well, malarkey. The repentant Alex said he wrote the book with his dad to get attention, and now admits that people should rely on the bible, not grandiose claims, as the source of truth about heaven.

 

I’m glad he repented and came clean about the hoax. And I’m glad he is advising others to read what the bible actually says about heaven to learn about the subject. I wonder how many will take him up on the offer.

 

I remember talking with one friend who said she didn’t want to be bothered with reading the bible; she just wanted to make up her own mind about things. She was in fact, one to judge a book by its cover, not its contents. I wonder if we too sometimes go on with assumptions about something without considering what God actually has to say.

 

When I was growing up, The Family Circle cartoon always portrayed relatives who died as becoming angels who watched over us. Movies like It’s A Wonderful Life portray angels like Clarence Odbody who needed to do a good deed to earn their wings or to pass through the Pearly Gates. Cartoons portray heavenly angels sitting on fluffy clouds strumming their harps and hell as a place where it is all Oreos and no milk.

 

Some have concluded that heaven will be boring, perhaps because they find church to be so. But God describes heaven as being like the great parties thrown when the woman found her lost coin, when the prodigal son returned home, and when the wedding feast was celebrated! (See Matthew 22)

 

Some people don’t think much about heaven at all, thinking they have plenty of time to get ready. In the parable about the wedding feast, Jesus describes three groups of people: those who refused to come to the banquet, those who ignored or put off the invitation because they had too many ‘more important’ things to do, and those who willingly came to the party.

 

Some put off thinking about heaven because they don’t consider themselves “good enough.” But the parable says that the invitation went out to everyone, “the good and the bad.” Though we like to think of ourselves as good people, the bible reminds us that only God is good. That is precisely why he sent us a Savior who died for us…”while we were STILL sinners.”

 

Some don’t think they need to consider heaven, believing that everyone goes to heaven. But the bible warns that some go to the wedding feast and others go “into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

 

I suppose there are many other myths about heaven, made up just like Alex Malarkey’s story. And there is much we still don’t know about the truth of heaven. As Pastor David Jeremiah said about the subject, what we need most is:

1. To be ready

2. To help others get ready.