Little Boy Who Claimed to Die and Visit Heaven Admits He Made It Up
There's nothing God hates more than a liar, and that's exactly what Alex Malarkey—protagonist and co-author of The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven—has just copped to being. In an open letter posted on a Christian website Tuesday, the alleged paradise tourist says "I did not die. I did not go to Heaven." Wow, we have a little sinner on our hands.
The book, probably hoping to make hay of the vast American Gullibility Industrial Complex that made Heaven Is For Real a successful text and movie (and a family called the Burpos very rich), has been mainstay in Christian book stores, the Washington Post reports. No longer:
The bestselling book, first published in 2010, describes what Alex experienced while he lay in a coma after a car accident when he was 6 years old. The coma lasted two months and his injuries left him paralyzed, but the book — with its assuring description of "Miracles, Angels, and Life beyond This World" — became part of a popular genre of "heavenly tourism," which has been controversial among orthodox Christians.
Earlier this week, Alex recented [sic] his testimony about the afterlife.
This very true story, which has an outstanding 4.3 rating on Amazon and many glowing (like an angel's crown) reviews, includes passages like this one:
"The devil's mouth is funny looking, with only a few moldy teeth. And I've never noticed any ears. His body has a human form, with two bony arms and two bony legs. He has no flesh on his body, only some moldy stuff. His robes are torn and dirty. I don't know about the color of the skin or robes—it's all just too scary to concentrate on these things!"
How could someone make all that up? But in an open letter on the website Pulpit and Pen, Alex wrote that this did not actually happen to him. He didn't visit the Devil, or God, or Heaven—he didn't even die! What the heck:
"An Open Letter to Lifeway and Other Sellers, Buyers, and Marketers of Heaven Tourism, by the Boy Who Did Not Come Back From Heaven."
Please forgive the brevity, but because of my limitations I have to keep this short.
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.
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.
In Christ,
Alex Malarkey."
This makes Colton Burpo the only little adorable liar to still claim he died, saw God, and then came back and cashed in.