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http://today.msnbc...oday-today_people/
By Michael Inbar
TODAY.com contributor TODAY.com contributor
After a burst appendix nearly cost 4-year-old Colton Burpo his life in 2003, his parents were thankful just to have him alive and well. But when he opened up about his brush with death a few months later, they were shocked when he described a very vivid trip to heaven, and spoke of matters about which he had no apparent way of knowing.
During an automobile trip, when Sonja Burpo asked him about his memories of being in the hospital, little Colton replied: “Yes, Mommy, I remember — that’s where the angels sang to me.” A sweet answer, to be sure — but then Colton made his parents’ jaws drop when he told them about sitting in Jesus’ lap, watching his parents while he lay seemingly near death, and meeting his great-grandfather.
But most poignantly, Colton described meeting a sibling in heaven — even though he had no way of knowing that his mother had miscarried two years before he was born, since his parents had never told him.
Jesus and John the Baptist
Todd Burpo began telling of his son’s heaven-sent visions from the pulpit of the Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Neb., where he serves as pastor. Word of mouth spread, and the family landed a book deal. The book — “Heaven Is for Real,” written by Todd with co-writer Lynn Vincent — has become a best-seller, with some 1.5 million copies in print since its release in November.
Appearing live on TODAY Monday with Sonja and Colton, who’s now 11, Todd told Matt Lauer he understands that naysayers may believe Colton’s story is a little too heavenly to be true — initially, so did he and Sonja. “At first we were surprised; we never anticipated to talk to our son about these things,” Todd told Matt Lauer.
“We didn’t share at first, and then once we started sharing, people were amazed,” Sonja Burpo added. “They were encouraged by what we were sharing with them.”
Colton was stricken with appendicitis shortly before his fourth birthday. Family guilt was heavy — for five days he lay getting sicker and sicker with what the family believed was stomach flu, which had previously hit Colton’s older sister Cassie.
Little Colton nearly didn’t make it: He lay in a hospital bed for 17 days. When he finally rallied, the family rejoiced — but they were floored when, months later, the boy began matter-of-factly describing what he had experienced when he was in between life and death: seeing Jesus dressed in royal purple, meeting John the Baptist, having angels sing to him to ease his anxiety.
The Burpos believed these were things Colton could have gleaned from his Bible studies. But he also told his mother he saw her talking on the phone in another room while he was having surgery, and saw his father praying in a small room, all while he was seated in Jesus’ lap.
“What caught my attention was he could tell me where I was while he was in surgery,” Todd told Lauer. “The surgeon couldn’t tell me that, the nurses couldn’t, my wife couldn’t tell me where I was praying. But he could tell me.”
Shocking revelation
Colton also spoke of meeting a long-departed relative in heaven, telling NBC News: “I was just sitting by the Holy Spirit and then this guy comes up to me and says, ‘Are you Todd’s son?’ I say yes, and he says, ‘Well, I’m his grandfather.’ ”
Colton said that everyone in heaven has wings. On Monday, he described his great-grandfather “Pops” as being “very big, huge wings, curly hair, a big smile, and he was very nice.”
But the real shocker came when Colton told his mother, “Mommy, I have two sisters.” Sonja told her son that he had to be referring to his oldest sister, Cassie, and his cousin Traci, but he responded: “No — I have two sisters. You had a baby die in your tummy, didn’t you?”
Sonja told Lauer the family had never uttered a word about the miscarriage to Colton — and what’s more, they never even learned the sex of their miscarried child. “It was a private hurt that we didn’t even share with our friends,” Sonja said, adding Colton’s revelation was at first “shocking, but then a relief that she’s OK, which we didn’t know she was a she.”
In a subsequent TODAY segment Monday, Sonja filled in Colton’s description of his meeting with his sister: “He told us what she looked like, and she wouldn’t stop hugging him. And she doesn’t have a name.”
“When he told us about his sister in heaven, that we hadn’t told him about, [it was] another one of those ‘holy cow’ moments — OK, he can’t make this stuff up, he can’t invent this; no memory was planted,” Todd told Lauer. “But the peace that came over us, and the healing, like, ‘Wow, I have a daughter in heaven waiting for me’ — I think a lot of people need that type of hope and healing, too. And I think that’s what a lot of people are finding when they hear Colton’s testimony, to know what they have to look forward to.”
When Lauer asked Colton what heaven looked like, the 11-year-old replied, “Well, there’s a lot of color. There are a lot of people and a lot of angels.”
In his second segment later on Monday, Colton gave Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb some additional details — such as the fact that there are no old people in heaven. “Nobody wears glasses, [and] you’re in like your 20s, 30s.”
Todd Burpo told The New York Times that the family is donating much of the money they make from the book sales. As for Colton, he’s mostly happy his story is helping people.
“People are getting blessed, and they’re going to have healing from their hurts,” the boy told the New York Times. “I’m happy for that.”
“You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.” | |
Very interesting. Glad to see they are donating the money from the book, makes me feel less like its just a cash grab type thing.
Ezekiel 25:17 | |
I'm sure that Mandias and Samurai will find some way to hate on a four-year-old.
Also, I LOLd at the name "Colton Burpo".
Oh good, my slow clap processor made it into this thing.
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No. I am now convinced. God bless you all.
mutantMandias may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime. ++++ mutantMandias has to return some videotapes ++++ Do not taunt mutantMandias
mutantMandias is something more than human, more than a computer. mutantMandias is a murderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed, non-being | |
Posted by HarvestmanMan
I'm sure that Mandias and Samurai will find some way to hate on a four-year-old.
Also, I LOLd at the name "Colton Burpo".
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near death experiences most always produce hallucinations.
settle down.
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Posted by Esoterik
Todd Burpo began telling of his son’s heaven-sent visions from the pulpit of the Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Neb., where he serves as pastor. |
Ding ding ding! That should make you suspicious right there. Why does this never happen to atheist, or even non-religious believing, parents?
“We are not going to have the kind of cooperation we need if everyone insists on their own narrow version of reality. … the great divide in the world today … is between people who have the courage to listen and those who are convinced that they already know it all.”
-Madeline Albright | |
Posted by splumer
Ding ding ding! That should make you suspicious right there. Why does this never happen to atheist, or even non-religious believing, parents?
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Right. It's a sweet story, the sister he never had hugging him, etc - but that makes it suspect. Plus the fact it happened years ago.
“You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.” | |
Posted by Esoterik
Right. It's a sweet story, the sister he never had hugging him, etc - but that makes it suspect. Plus the fact it happened years ago.
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in other words... another pile of blazing horseshit.
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Posted by Samurai
in other words... another pile of blazing horseshit.
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That's another way to put it 
“You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.” | |
Posted by Samurai
in other words... another pile of blazing horseshit.
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Well, I don't think the kid is lying, I just think his interpretation of what he experienced was 1. influenced by his expectations from his religious upbringing; B. influenced by his parents.
Of course, a believer would say that I'm engaging in the same kind of logic that I accuse believers of using: starting with a conclusion and finding & adjusting the evidence to fit my conclusion. And that's probably true.
“We are not going to have the kind of cooperation we need if everyone insists on their own narrow version of reality. … the great divide in the world today … is between people who have the courage to listen and those who are convinced that they already know it all.”
-Madeline Albright | |
Posted by splumer
Well, I don't think the kid is lying, I just think his interpretation of what he experienced was 1. influenced by his expectations from his religious upbringing; B. influenced by his parents.
Of course, a believer would say that I'm engaging in the same kind of logic that I accuse believers of using: starting with a conclusion and finding & adjusting the evidence to fit my conclusion. And that's probably true.
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Thank you for atleast admitting that.
Ezekiel 25:17 | |
Posted by jeepdave
Thank you for atleast admitting that.
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And, of course, don't wait around for the other side to admit the same thing.
mutantMandias may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime. ++++ mutantMandias has to return some videotapes ++++ Do not taunt mutantMandias
mutantMandias is something more than human, more than a computer. mutantMandias is a murderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed, non-being | |
See, that's a huge gap with religion and science. We don't require proof to believe what we believe. We allow for faith, and I totally understand that science requires proof. You will never be able to prove religion using science because then it would not be religion requiring faith, it would be science fact.
Ezekiel 25:17 | |
Posted by jeepdave
See, that's a huge gap with religion and science. We don't require proof to believe what we believe. We allow for faith, and I totally understand that science requires proof. You will never be able to prove religion using science because then it would not be religion requiring faith, it would be science fact.
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So, we just need to prove that you're right, and you'll cease to exist?
mutantMandias may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime. ++++ mutantMandias has to return some videotapes ++++ Do not taunt mutantMandias
mutantMandias is something more than human, more than a computer. mutantMandias is a murderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed, non-being | |
Posted by MutantMandias
So, we just need to prove that you're right, and you'll cease to exist?
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Basically, proof of God removes faith from the equation. So yeah, prove God does indeed exist 100% and there would be no need for church, or people to witness to you. It would be fact that after death you would be judged on how you lead your life and it would decide on how your next level of being would be, good or bad. But this would remove freewill from the system, and make for a boring life while on earth, so feel free not to prove God exist, I still will believe. I think Gods greatest gift was freewill. The freedom to accept or deny Him. Meh, thats all I can think of.
Ezekiel 25:17 | |
Posted by jeepdave
prove God does indeed exist 100% and there would be no need for church, or people to witness to you. It would be fact that after death you would be judged on how you lead your life and it would decide on how your next level of being would be, good or bad. But this would remove freewill from the system, and make for a boring life while on earth, so feel free not to prove God exist, I still will believe. I think Gods greatest gift was freewill. The freedom to accept or deny Him. Meh, thats all I can think of.
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As little Ronnie Regan liked to say, "There you go again...." Making leaps and assumptions that don't logically follow.
If I were to design a science experiment that proves "the existence of God," there would still be no reason to think that there is "life after death", or the even more strange idea that a "life after death" would somehow be affected by how you lived before death.
Yeh, and by the way, I don't completely accept the idea of free will either.
mutantMandias may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime. ++++ mutantMandias has to return some videotapes ++++ Do not taunt mutantMandias
mutantMandias is something more than human, more than a computer. mutantMandias is a murderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed, non-being | |
Posted by MutantMandias
As little Ronnie Regan liked to say, "There you go again...." Making leaps and assumptions that don't logically follow.
If I were to design a science experiment that proves "the existence of God," there would still be no reason to think that there is "life after death", or the even more strange idea that a "life after death" would somehow be affected by how you lived before death.
Yeh, and by the way, I don't completely accept the idea of free will either.
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Well, I did do some assuming, as in you could communicate with the God and get some answers ( you know we would try ).
And as for free will, the fact that you can do anything at any moment kinda proves that. Why would you think otherwise?
Ezekiel 25:17 | |
Posted by jeepdave
And as for free will, the fact that you can do anything at any moment kinda proves that.
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I would say, "Prove it," but that never seems to get anywhere with you.
* To be specific, I'm saying Prove that you can do anything at any moment. Prove that you have some choice about your choices. What you did is what you did. Could you have done something else? Prove it.
[last edit 3/28/2011 6:27 AM by MutantMandias - edited 1 times]
mutantMandias may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime. ++++ mutantMandias has to return some videotapes ++++ Do not taunt mutantMandias
mutantMandias is something more than human, more than a computer. mutantMandias is a murderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed, non-being | |
Posted by MutantMandias
I would say, "Prove it," but that never seems to get anywhere with you.
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You prove you don't. You have free will to do anything you wish. You can expect consequences in our society, but you are free to break any social norm you wish.
Ezekiel 25:17 | |
Posted by jeepdave
You prove you don't. You have free will to do anything you wish. You can expect consequences in our society, but you are free to break any social norm you wish.
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I disagree. I say that every action and choice that you have ever made was pre-determined by the precise bio-chemical-electric state of your neurons, cells, and tissues, and their inputs. There is nothing that you could do to change the physical reality of your moment-to-moment brain chemistry and neural firings, so therefore, all of your actions are a complex, yet ultimately predictable, function of the reactions and connections made in your brain.
mutantMandias may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime. ++++ mutantMandias has to return some videotapes ++++ Do not taunt mutantMandias
mutantMandias is something more than human, more than a computer. mutantMandias is a murderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed, non-being |
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