How we know that nobody's visited Heaven and come back

Why "Heaven Tourism" is such a pathetic imitation of the real thing

There don’t seem to be as many “heaven tourism” books being published as there were a decade or so ago, when books like “Heaven Is For Real” and “90 Minutes in Heaven” were selling millions of copies, not to mention generating lucrative film versions.

But the genre — which purports to describe people’s experiences during brief visits to heaven while they’re technically “dead” on earth — isn’t dead itself, unfortunately, as more recent entries like 2023’s “Imagine the God of Heaven” illustrate.

One such entry in this category, “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven,” was thoroughly debunked when its author, Alex Malarkey (name on target in this case) admitted that he’d made up the whole story about seeing heaven while he was in a coma.

But there are still quite a few of these books on people’s shelves, most of which they probably purchased at a Christian bookstore. Which is sad, since they are devoid of sound Christian theology.

There was pushback when this trend started. Tim Challies is the one who coined the phrase “heaven tourism” and was an early critic of the genre. He points out that this isn’t how God works — the Bible clearly states (Hebrews 9:27) that it is appointed for man to die once and then to experience resurrection. And he notes these books represent a faulty theology of heaven, as well:

Those who have a biblical understanding of life and death and heaven and hell will know that for a person to die and visit heaven, to experience sinlessness and the presence of Jesus Christ — for that person it would be the very height of cruelty to then demand that they return to earth. None of these books are at all consistent with a robust theology of heaven and hell, of the work of Jesus Christ, of the existence of indwelling sin.

In a different article, Challies touches on the fact that heaven is by definition of place of sinlessness — and none of these purported “heaven travelers” claim that they were made sinless while they were there. So how could they have truly experienced heaven? As Challies eloquently notes:

Heaven is the place where there is no trace of sin. In fact, the joys of heaven are dependent on sinlessness. We will enjoy the full, unmediated presence of God because our sin will no longer bar the way. We will enjoy all the pleasures of heaven because sin will not draw us toward lesser pleasures. We will enjoy one another perfectly and eternally because sin will no longer alienate us through offenses great or small. Where there is sin there is no heaven; where there is heaven there is no sin.

John MacArthur also addressed this bad theology, issuing a second edition of his excellent book “The Glory of Heaven” just to address the falsehoods and errant doctrine of the heaven books. Regarding the wildly popular “Heaven Is For Real” by Todd Burpo, which purports to tell of his young son’s visit to heaven (and which became one of the top-grossing “Christian” films ever), MacArthur notes:

His stories of heaven are full of fanciful features and peculiar details that bear all the earmarks of a child’s vivid imagination. There’s nothing transcendent or even particularly enlightening about Colton’s description of heaven. In fact, it is completely devoid of the breathtaking glory featured in every biblical description of the heavenly realm. That doesn’t deter Todd Burpo from singling out selective phrases and proof texts from Scripture, citing them as if they authenticated his son’s account.

We need better doctrine, better theology, better teaching about heaven. And to stop believing people who are either lying (like Malarkey admitted) or just misguided as to the dreams or visions they experienced while near death.

Learn the truth about how heaven is for real

And that starts by knowing what the Bible says about heaven. As always, it’s important to rightly divide the Word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15), which as Paul noted in that letter to Timothy, is a practice that pleases God.

There are literally hundreds of verses in the Word that mention heaven. Some are talking about the physical heavens, but there’s a lot of information about the heaven we’re talking about.

• You could start just by searching online for “Bible verses about heaven.” You’ll get a lot to sift through.

• Gotquestions.org has a good summary article about heaven to help you get started.

• Another good starting point is Crossway’s 10 key Bible verses on heaven.

And don’t be scared away from all books about heaven. Some great ones exist, perfect for your God-time basket of books that we’ve discussed before.

• The Glory of Heaven by John MacArthur (as mentioned above) — demolishes bad heaven theology

• Heaven on Earth: What the Bible Teaches about Life to Come by Derek W.H. Thomas — comprehensive and biblical

• Heaven by Randy Alcorn — answers many questions on the topic

• We Shall See God: Charles Spurgeon’s Classic Devotional Thoughts on Heaven (with additional insights from Randy Alcorn) — I really love this one. Diving into Spurgeon’s rich sermons which often mentioned heaven, Alcorn provides additional thoughts for each day’s devotional teaching.

I recently came across this article about the little foretastes of heaven we sometimes get here on earth. It’s not poetry but somehow it’s poetically beautiful. I urge you to take a couple minutes to savor this beautiful truth that we were made for heaven.

Because after all, heaven is such a key element of our faith. So much so, in fact, that Alcorn suggests instead of referring to the “afterlife,” we should call what we’re in now “beforelife” — the life before our real life!