I believe this ~~

Who says that one has to die to have a temporary visit to heaven? Wasn't Paul taken to the third heaven while still alive?

If someone (colton burpo) says Jesus is Lord my Savior and acknowledges His death and resurrection, then wouldn't it be right to consider that person a brother or sister in Christ? and if someone's story or painting pushes others towards Jesus, isn't that a good thing??

Can we consider a Monet painting beautiful only if we know that Monet himself walks a straight and perfect walk of a Christian? or can we acknowledge beauty for beauties sake?

and I will say this one time further, thank the good Lord that no one was judging my every word when I was 16 years old, but seriously can we not allow a talented girl some grace to grow along with prayer before we throw her under the proverbial judgement bus??

I understand that it is always good to evaluate the fruit of what someone has produced, but when is this most important? When they preach or are sharing a gospel!

Are we to pick apart every little detail of someone's life looking for something on which to judge them or catch them making an error? I for one am not worthy of this task, I have big enough beams in my own eyes to concern myself with the specks in someone else's. I think it would probably be more beneficial to pray for them, encourage them and treat them with the love and patience that I hope someone would treat me with.

Trust me, I am not calling anyone out or calling anyone foolish for believing these stories. I have probably bought 5-6 heavenly tourism books. I fell for the hype and a desire to learn more about heaven.

It was finally Randy Alcorn's  book on heaven that set things straight for me. John McArthur's book on heaven, too. I don't always agree with him but that book was solid.

We need to use our God given discernment and test the spirits because they are not always from God. It's a war out there, as we are all well aware.

Here is an article by a man who coined the term Heaven tourism:

https://www.challies.com/articles/heaven-tourism/

Here's a timeline on the growth of heaven tourism:

The heaven tourism genre has proven remarkably lucrative to authors and their publishers, tallying well over 20,000,000 books sold over the past decade. 90 Minutes in Heaven is jumping genres and seems primed for box office success, though it may have trouble chasing down 2014’s screen adaptation of Heaven Is For Real which earned over $100,000,000.

https://www.challies.com/articles/greetings-from-heaven-a-modern-history-of-heaven-tourism/

Needless to say, that is a lot of money. Heaven tourism is big, big, big business.

Randy Alcorn's take on heaven tourism is a little more charitable than my take. (Yes, I do have logs in my eyes. I am a work in progress.)

https://www.epm.org/blog/2014/Apr/18/heaven-real-movie

Now, look at that Alex Malarkey story. (The boy who went to heaven and back) God Bless that boy for finally speaking the truth. He's lost out on some earthly money but gained a huge treasure in heaven. Look at his confession and admonition:

“I did not die. I did not go to Heaven. I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible.* People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible.…Those who market these materials must be called to repent and hold the Bible as enough.”

* He was six at the time of his NDE.

https://dancingpastthedark.com/burpo-malarkey-doctrine-dilemma/

Anyway, if I am wrong and have slandered innocent people then may the Holy Spirit convict me and may our Heavenly Father chasten me. :prayer-hands:

Getting down to brass tacks, we are to reject anything that clearly contradicts the Word of God. The Bible is clear on the issue of heaven tourism.

No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. (John 3:13)

 

Barnes’ Notes has something to say about that-

 

And no man hath ascended into heavens – No man, therefore, is qualified to speak of heavenly things, John 3:12. To speak of those things requires intimate acquaintance with them – demands that we have seen them; and as no one has ascended into heaven and returned, so no one is qualified to speak of them but He who came down from heaven.

 

This does not mean that no one had Gone to heaven or had been saved, for Enoch and Elijah had been borne there (Genesis 5:24; compare Hebrews 11:5; 2 Kings 2:11); and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and others were there: but it means that no one had ascended and “returned,” so as to be qualified to speak of the things there. Source- Barnes Notes.

 

We remember Paul was carried up to the Third Heaven, but he was firm that it was unlawful to tell specifics.

 

“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.” (2 Corinthians 12:2–4).

 

It is distressing that people are claiming that they have been to heaven and back when the Bible says they have not. It’s worse when they are unlawful and express the things they allege to have seen there. Even worse, when they make money from their tales by writing books, or approve movie scripts of their alleged heavenly trips to and from the Third Heaven. Trading on the name of Jesus and false notions about His heavenly abode to accumulate riches for one’s self is crass.

https://the-end-time.org/2021/12/23/no-one-has-gone-to-heaven-visited-heaven-or-traveled-to-heaven/

Acts 7

54 On hearing this, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged,q and they gnashed their teeth at him. 55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”(emphasis mine)

Revelation 4

1 After this I looked and saw a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had previously heard speak to me like a trumpet was saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.”

2 At once I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne standing in heaven, with someone seated on it. 3The One seated there looked like jasper and carnelian, and a rainbow that gleamed like an emerald encircled the throne. 4Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on these thrones sat twenty-four elders dressed in white, with golden crowns on their heads.

Acts 2

17 ‘In the last days, God says,

I will pour out My Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,

your old men will dream dreams.

18Even on My menservants and maidservants

I will pour out My Spirit in those days,

and they will prophesy. (emphasis mine)

1 John 4

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3and every spirit that does not confess [a]that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. (Italic emphasis mine)