“Heaven is for Real” by Todd Burpo - book review

My amazon review of “Heaven is for Real” by Todd Burpo

I really found this hokey. First, as a confessional Baptist with a love of Christ and the Scriptures, I'm not doubting the existence of heaven (or even near-death experiences, for that matter, which I find frequently to fascinating and illuminating) but this particular work just came across as stale, contrived and somewhat goofy. I mean it's a sweet story, but page after page you have to bite your lip at the sheer maudlin corniness of the narrative and the cringe-worthy theology (pg. 100. Young Colton describing what he thinks he saw, “And do you know that Jesus sits right next to God?... Jesus' chair is right next to his Dad's”, followed by the remark from his father, “that blew me away. There's no way a four-year old knows that.”) Well, maybe if your a father who doesn't shepherd your children or read the Bible to them. But this type of narrative is what punctuates the book sadly. Odd and debatable descriptions of what little Burpo saw in heaven followed by the Dad's remarks of surprise or breaking into tears, etc, etc. This one could really be a painful chore to read. Again, I love a good NDE account, but this one didn't even qualify.

Plus here's the other thing. As a Reformed Baptist I hold strongly to the view of Scriptural inerrancy and the perfect, completion of God's word. But if you think about it, if the Burpo boy's accounts are true, then technically, everything about heaven that he saw and described should, technically, be just as binding as anything else that the Bible says about heaven, so in a goofy way it takes the same level as Scripture and Christians should respect this as a valid description of what to expect of the heavenly realms that we are bound for, and this just doesn't seem right to me (plus consider that the Apostle Paul never really talked about or saw fit to describe heaven himself, as he himself was caught up to third heaven – 2 Cor. 12:2. Maybe there was a reason for that?) Or, maybe, just maybe, Burbo's father was just using a little bit of creative license here in describing some of the things his son dreamed about during surgery. I find that a little more likely, and that works for creative fiction, but there is a caution as well involved in that Burpo should heed the caution of Scripture in what appears to be largely a creative outlet in adding to God's Word (Rev. 22:18-19)

Paedocommunion

At "Theological word of the day" (one of my favorite sites) the word of the day is paedocommunion, which "describes the practice of allowing infants or small children to the Lord’s communion table."  As someone who personally sees infant baptism as something NOT in Scripture, I've long wondered why Presbyterians and Methodists don't also practice paedocommunion as well, or feeding the elements to babies as well.  It wouldn't be any different than infant sprinkling: the baby has no idea what's going on, has no understanding of the nature of sin, and basically an ordinance is incorrectly applied to someone who doesn't understand what's going on.  So why don't ALL churches that sprinkle babies also feed the communion bread to those "covenant babies" as well?  There's a pretty substantial inconsistency going on there.  As a reformed baptist, I believe that the table, and baptism, are ordinances that should NOT be observed by someone until they are at an age of maturity to understand the true meaning of what Christ established in these ordinances.  Anything else would be heretical.

I've wondered:  If a church practices paedocommunion, what happens with a parent that is exclusive breast-feeding a child?  Would they introduce foods like this when the child is only consuming the mother's milk?  Would they be forced to observe this as part of the "sacrament" of the church?

Daniel Akin - Resources for Pastors and Teachers of the Bible

Link to Daniel Akin's website, the President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.  The site includes a lot of information, including a number of audio sermons for downloading.