Come, Lord Jesus!

Summary

Six years ago Tyndale House, an evangelical Christian publisher, released a book called The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life Beyond this World. This book begins with the story of how six-year-old Alex Malarkey, and his father, Kevin Malarkey, were involved in a traffic accident. The accident sent the son Alex into a coma which lasted for two months. When he woke up from the coma, he had an incredible story. He said that during his coma, angels took him through the gates of heaven. He heard the music of heaven. And he met and talked with Jesus. The book sold over a million copies, was translated into Spanish, and led to a documentary DVD.

While the traffic accident and the coma were real enough, it turns out the story about Alex going to heaven was fake. About two years ago, Alex, by that time a teenager, publicly admitted he made the whole thing up. “I did not die,” he said. “I did not go to heaven. I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention.” Soon thereafter, Tyndale House stopped selling the book and all its associated products. In the summer of 2014, the Southern Baptist Convention took the step of passing a resolution warning readers to be skeptical of books written by people who claim to have died, gone to heaven, and then come back. Many of these books have “details that are antithetical to Scripture,” declared the Southern Baptist resolution.[1]

[1] Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra, “The ‘Boy Who Came Back from Heaven’ Retracts Story,” Christianity Today, January 15, 2015, http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/january/boy-who-came-back-from-heaven-retraction.html, accessed March 24, 2016.