There are movies and many books that have been written about out of body experiences people and what they have said of heaven.
All of them tell about the beauty and magnificence of what heaven looks like and the peace and tranquilly of the people they were able to see and talk with. Nothing but great things has ever been written or said about heaven.
In the movie Heaven is for Real a young child had emergency surgery at the age of three. After this near death experience this young child began relating stories of people he visited including his unborn sister and details of his great-grandfather who died 30 years before he was born. These were people he never knew about but yet was able to tell his parents about.
He told of seeing Jesus and sitting in His lap while angels sang songs to him. He saw Mary kneeling before the throne of God and at other times standing beside Jesus.
This book, as well as others that has been written in near death experiences, has been criticized and labeled as a hoax by many Christian and Atheist writers. Christian writers say it is unbiblical and of course, Atheist don’t believe in God and say these are fictional stories.
To me these are exceptional variations of the views that people have of heaven. In the book of Revelation heaven is described by the Apostle John in detail and his account of heaven is quite different from what these other books and movies describe. Not only does John tell about what he saw in heaven but his account of heaven is backed up by the Old Testament in the books of Isaiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel.
Revelations 4:2-3 says: “Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald.”
The apostle’s description of heaven is nothing like what is described in these other publications.
Reading in the following verses gives us a further description that no one has ever spoken of in their account of visiting heaven.
All of us that know Jesus and believe in Him look forward to the day we see Him in our heavenly home. No one on earth knows what we will experience when we see Him again.
These stories and movies that have been printed about heaven are good and give others hope of something better to come when they leave this earth.
What all of us need to realize is that no one will experience the glory and magnificence of heaven unless we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
GARY ANDREWS is the author of Encouraging Words: 30-days in God’s Word. His devotion appears each week in the Clarksdale Press Register.
