LifeWay pulls all “heaven tourism” titles

LifeWay Christian Resources has stopped selling all "experiential testimonies about heaven" following consideration of a 2014 Southern Baptist Convention resolution on "the sufficiency of Scripture regarding the afterlife."

Among the titles affected by the ruling will be "The boy who came back from Heaven" by Kevin and Alex Malarkey and "Heaven is for Real" by Todd Burpo.

LifeWay told Baptist Press about its decision to halt sales of 'heaven visitation' books this week, in response to an enquiry about the book "90 Minutes in Heaven" by Don Piper, which is being made into a movie that will be released this autumn. The book recounts Piper's supposed experience of heaven following a serious car accident and has sold 6.5 million copies in 46 languages.

The decision follows a 2014 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) resolution that reaffirmed “the sufficiency of biblical revelation over subjective experiential explanations to guide people's understanding of the truth about heaven and hell." The statement was highly critical of the declarations made by people who claimed to have visited heaven – or hell – and returned.

In an interview with Baptist Press, LifeWay spokesman Marty King explained the reasons why they have decided to pull this kind of book: "Last summer, as we began developing Life Way’s new structure and direction... the role of heaven visitation resources was included in our considerations. We decided these experiential testimonies about heaven would not be a part of our new direction, so we stopped re-ordering”.

"Now that we have begun implementing the new direction, the remaining heaven visitation items have been removed from our stores and website and will not be replenished", she added.

The SBC resolution warned Christians against allowing "the numerous books and movies purporting to explain or describe the afterlife experience" to "become their source and basis for an understanding of the afterlife".

THE BOY WHO CAME BACK FORM HEAVEN

In January, LifeWay announced it would stop selling "The boy who came back from heaven" after co-author Alex Malarkey admitted that he lied about having a vision of heaven as a 6-year-old. King said LifeWay was "committed to becoming even more proactive in the next few months in evaluating the resources we carry."

He also stated: "Anything written by man cannot be infallible. It is only through repentance of your sins and a belief in Jesus as the Son of God, who died for your sins (even though he committed none of his own) so that you can be forgiven, may you learn of Heaven outside of what is written in the Bible... not by reading a work of man. I want the whole world to know that the Bible is sufficient. Those who market these materials must be called to repent and hold the Bible as enough."

Malarkey's mother, Beth, addressed the matter last April in a blog, arguing that the book was not biblically sound and that it has hurt her son "tremendously." She also stressed that he has not made any money from book sales.

Another 'heaven tourism' film, 90 Minutes in Heaven, starring Hayden Christensen of Star Wars and Kate Bosworth of Superman Returns, which is based on a book by Don Piper, has just finished filming and will be released in the autumn.