Heaven is for Real
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| Author | Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Nelson |
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Publication date
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November 2, 2010 |
| Media type | Print (paperback, hardcover), ebook, audiobook |
| Pages | 163 |
| ISBN | |
| Website | Official website |
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back is a 2010 New York Times best-selling Christian book written by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent. It was published by Thomas Nelson Publishers. The book documents the report of a near-death experience by Burpo's three-year-old son Colton. The book recounts the experiences that Colton relates from visits which he said he made to heaven during a near-death experience.
By April 2012 over one million ebooks had been sold, and by 2014 over 10 million copies had been sold. A movie based on the book was released on April 16, 2014, earning $101 million at the box office.
In the book, Todd Burpo, pastor of Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Nebraska, writes that during the months after his son, Colton, had emergency surgery on March 5th, 2003 at the age of three, Colton began describing events and people that seemed impossible for him to have known about. Examples include knowledge of an unborn sister miscarried by his mother in 1998 and details of a great-grandfather who had died 24 years before Colton was born on May 19th, 1999. Colton also explained how he personally met Jesus riding a rainbow-colored horse and sat in Jesus' lap while angels sang songs to him. He also saw Mary kneeling before the throne of God and at other times standing beside Jesus.
Within ten weeks of its November 2010 release, the book debuted at No. 3 on the New York Times bestseller list; by January 2011 there were 200,000 copies in print; and it reached No. 1 in the Times's best-selling non-fiction paperback category in March 2011, remaining in the top 10 for some weeks.
A variety of Christians have expressed criticism or concern about the book's content and message. The Berean Call, a Christian ministry and newsletter, criticized the book for its "extra-biblical" and "problematic" claims, as well as the lack of any medical evidence that the boy was clinically dead during the surgery. Author and pastor John MacArthur has criticized the book for presenting an un-Biblical perspective on the afterlife, especially in light of the Burpo's claim about the portrait of Jesus by Akiane Kramarik being "totally accurate." In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Vincent expressed concern that Christians would find the book to be a "hoax" if she included people in heaven having wings.
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