Are Visits to Heaven for Real? - Answers in Genesis

With the upcoming April 16th release of the movie 'Heaven is for Real' based on the story of Colton Burpo as told by his father Todd Burpo, I thought it fitting to share with you a Biblical response to supposed visits to Heaven and those who tell [sell] their stories. 

Article: Are Visits to Heaven for Real? - Answers in Genesis

This article is by Pastor-Teacher Dr. John MacArthur and is one of the best articles I've read on this subject, and I have read many. Below is an excerpt that really hits home what it means to search for or demand more information about Heaven than what scripture reveals to us:

Those who demand to know more than Scripture tells us about heaven are sinning: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Deuteronomy 29:29). The limits of our curiosity are thus established by the boundary of biblical revelation. In the words of Charles Spurgeon:

It’s a little heaven below, to imagine sweet things. But never think that imagination can picture heaven. When it is most sublime, when it is freest from the dust of earth, when it is carried up by the greatest knowledge, and kept steady by the most extreme caution, imagination cannot picture heaven. “It hath not entered the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Imagination is good, but not to picture to us heaven. Your imaginary heaven you will find by-and-by to be all a mistake; though you may have piled up fine castles, you will find them to be castles in the air, and they will vanish like thin clouds before the gale. For imagination cannot make a heaven. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered the heart of man to conceive” it.

What God has revealed in Scripture is the only legitimate place to get a clear understanding of the heavenly kingdom.

My personal opinion on the book and the movie is that it has taken many people down a different path away from the true God and His Word, the Bible. Personal experience can NEVER supersede what Scripture says. And anyone who claims to have had an experience that doesn't line up with Scripture is someone we don't want to listen to as discerning Christians, even if they claim to be Christians themselves. Furthermore, I also have huge reservations about the fact that his father Todd has essentially sold this story to millions of unsuspecting [undiscerning] people around the world. A prophet is anyone who claims to speak on behalf of God or who claims to have divine revelation/visions/experiences/etc. The Bible also speaks many times about false prophets. 2 Peter 2:3 for example says:

And through covetousness shall they with feigned [false] words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

Has Todd Burpo made merchandise of many, many people with this story? - YES. No doubt tons of money has been made from the many variations of the products sold by this author. Is the story about a boy going to Heaven and back and living to tell about it and all the details, Biblical? - NO. Then it would seem to me that this book/movie/author is something we should stay FAR away from.