About the Movie Heaven is for Real
This morning after church we are going to have a meal and a movie, and I have seen the movie, which left me unsatisfied, so I read the book and decided to give a message this morning with a review of the movie and the book, “Heaven Is for Real”. Starting by questioning is it a “Christian movie”? That question may seem like a no-brainer, since the film is based on a best-selling Christian book and there has been a lot of talk in the media about the Christian faith of writer-director Randall Wallace and some of the film’s producers, including megachurch leader Bishop T.D. Jakes. But we should remember that the film is still a product of corporate Hollywood, and as such, it alters the story in ways that are designed to appeal to a mass audience. The film thus lacks the authenticity of independent Christian films like, say, God’s Not Dead.As it happens, I really liked God’s Not Dead, and I appreciated the fact that the characters in that film spoke in believably evangelical ways, dropping names like C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel and the Newsboys (who were featured in the film) in casual conversation.There is none of that in Heaven Is for Real. The first time we see Todd Burpo (Greg Kinnear) preach a sermon, he talks about some children’s story involving a lion, a bear and a unicorn. While that sounds like the sort of thing that Lewis might have written in one of his Narnia books, and it certainly seems possible that writer-director Wallace could have snuck a reference into the film since he’s an avowed Lewis fan, but Todd never mentions Lewis by name — and a from what I have read of the Narnia sequels the story told by Todd is definitely not in there. So what we seem to have here is a mish-mash of quasi-Narnian story elements — which kind of prefigures how the rest of the film will be a mish-mash of other things, too.Now, just to be clear, I don’t mind that the film changes the story. All films do, to one extent or another. And I can understand why Wallace and his colleagues felt they needed to add “conflict” to the story that wasn’t there in the book.They do this, most notably, by creating church-board members who threaten to fire Burpo from his pastorate if he continues to go public with the fact that his four-year-old son Colton (Connor Corum) claims to have gone to Heaven while he was on the operating table. They also do this by having the Burpos’ neighbours taunt them over Colton’s claims, and by making Todd and his wife, Sonja (Kelly Reilly), more reluctant to believe Colton’s claims than they were in the book.In the book, Todd is constantly saying how Colton’s claims reminded him of one Bible passage or another. In the film, however, there are very few Bible references — only one that was memorable, when Todd quotes the bit about a thousand years being like a day for God — and Todd repeatedly seeks validation from more secular sources.He visits a doubting psychology professor who offers naturalistic explanations for Colton’s visions. He cites Einstein to explain why Colton could have spent a long time in Heaven while only a few minutes passed on Earth. And he even offers naturalistic explanations of his own for some of Colton’s claims: when Colton says that Jesus had green or blue eyes — rather than the darker colours one might expect of a Middle Easterner — Todd remarks that those are the colors of Colton’s parents’ eyes.I actually don’t have a problem with most of this. While I do wish the film had kept more of the book’s distinctly Christian flavor, I can appreciate the fact that the filmmakers wanted to acknowledge and address the sorts of questions and concerns that some of the non-Christians in the audience might have.Where things get sticky, though, is when the film changes the actual content of Colton’s visions themselves, and the lessons that both Colton and his father draw from those visions.First, on a somewhat trivial level, the film modifies the visions so that they won’t seem too kitschy to the average viewer. Colton mentions the rainbow-colored horse that Jesus rides in Heaven, but we never see it. And the BIBLE says it is a White Horse that He rides. And the people who have died and gone to Heaven don’t have wings, as Colton claimed they did in the book. The only biblical figure Colton meets is Jesus, who is such a familiar figure within our culture that his presence in this film doesn’t have the potential to turn away non-religious viewers the way some of the other characters might. And that point I believe is valid in light of the fact that in the Book of Revelations John makes no reference to there being three on the throne only One and that is Jesus! So much for the Trinity!More tellingly, in the film, Colton never sees Satan, nor does he see a vision of the future in which his father joins the angels and the other dead Christians in doing battle with the monsters described in the Book of Revelation. (In Colton’s visions, it is only the men, not the women and children, who take up arms against Hell.)In fact in the film, nobody talks about Hell, except to dismiss the idea. If memory serves, the subject comes up in only one scene, when the church board meets with Todd to give him their ultimatum (i.e., stop talking about the visions or they find a new pastor):Nancy Rawling: Heaven and Hell have always been concepts that have been used to control and frighten people.Todd Burpo: That’s one way to look at it, but all Colton has ever talked about is Heaven and how it’s a beautiful place.As you can see, the Nancy character is afraid of all this “Heaven” talk because she thinks it will lead to “Hell” talk (as it does, indeed, in the book). But the movie version of Todd reassures her that Colton has said nothing about Hell — and indeed, for the duration of the film, Colton never does say anything about Hell.So, both the protagonist and the antagonist are agreed that Hell has no place in the message of this film. And yet, it’s a significant part of the book. Consider what Colton tells his dad on page 136:“There’s going to be a war, and it’s going to destroy this world. Jesus and the angels and the good people are going to fight against Satan and the monsters and the bad people. I saw it. . . . In heaven, the women and the children got to stand back and watch. So I stood back and watched. . . . But the men, they had to fight. And Dad, I watched you. You have to fight too.”What Colton tells his dad here fits perfectly within an evangelical worldview, but the film cuts it out, no doubt because it might seem too divisive.So, without any concept of Hell or spiritual warfare, the film lapses into another form of Hollywood spirituality that is at odds with the book and its evangelical roots: namely, the film leaves the viewer with the impression that it doesn’t matter much to a person’s eternal fate whether that person believes in Jesus before he or she dies.There are at least three significant ways in which the film steers the story in a different direction than the book does, in this regard.First, there is Colton’s insistence — in the book, but not in the film — that people need to have a conversion experience in order to get into Heaven.In the book, Colton comes out of his near-death experience adamant that people need to believe in Jesus before they die, otherwise they won’t get into Heaven. From page 57, after Todd tells Colton about a man’s upcoming funeral:Instantly, Colton’s demeanor changed. His face fell into serious lines, and he stared fiercely into my eyes. “Did the man have Jesus in his heart?”My son was asking me whether the man who had died was a Christian who had accepted Christ as his Savior. But his intensity caught me off guard. “I’m not sure, Colton,” I said. “I didn’t know him very well.”Colton’s face bunched up in a terrible twist of worry. “He had to have Jesus in his heart! He had to know Jesus or he can’t get into heaven!”Later, on pages 58 and 59, the Burpo family goes to the funeral and, standing outside the sanctuary, Todd explains who’s in the casket:Suddenly, Colton’s face gathered into that same knot of intense concern. He slammed his fists on his thighs, then pointed one finger at the casket and said in a near shout, “Did that man have Jesus?”Sonja’s eyes popped wide, and we both glanced at the sanctuary doorway, terrified the family inside could hear our son.“He had to! He had to!” Colton went on. “He can’t get into heaven if he didn’t have Jesus in his heart!”Sonja grabbed Colton by the shoulders and tried to shush him. But he was not shushable. Now nearly in tears, Colton twisted in her arms and yelled at me, “He had to know Jesus, Dad!”These things are glossed over in the movie version and for that reason I believe if you like the movie…read the book which gives a more detailed account of the vision. At any rate I hope you will enjoy the show and remember that after all it is just a movie.Thank you, and I will close by paraphrasing the words of Colton, “You can’t get into heaven if you don’t have Jesus in his heart!” And more importantly to the matter, “Do you have Jesus in YOUR Heart?”