Book Review by Rev Norman Holmes
Heaven Is So Real
(…but this book is not)
The book, “Heaven Is So Real,” contains many inconsistencies, false doctrines, and deception. While most of the book seems to glorify God and be scriptural, it also contains much spiritual poison- and if you place even only a little poison within good food, it can be deadly.
UNSCRIPTURAL DOCTRINES
1) On page 56 the author said that when she saw Abraham in heaven, he looked old and had long white hair and a flowing white beard. However, on page 69, she said everyone in heaven will be young and will have no wrinkles in their faces, or gray hair. The author, who is about 50, says that in each of her visits to heaven she has a transformed body of 15 or 16 years old. But Abraham remains old, with long white hair and beard?
2) On pages 38-39 the author says that the babies aborted on earth are kept naked in a warehouse-like room in heaven. “Jesus” tells her that if the mothers become saved they can have their babies back, or if their mothers do not become saved, then other mothers will have them. This seems to teach that aborted babies that go to heaven will be sent back down to earth in another body, similar to what the Mormons teach. The only other possible interpretation is that mothers, when they get to heaven, must raise these babies in heaven. But many true visions of heaven all show that babies, when they go to heaven, are taken care of by the guardian angels, who help them to grow and mature and become fully ready for their heavenly life. It would seem weird for babies to wait in heaven, unloved and not maturing, until mothers will get them. Why should naked babies wait in heaven to see if their mothers become saved and will want them back? And why are they remaining naked in heaven? In Revelation 3:18 the Bible says that we are to be clothed with white garments to cover the shame of our nakedness. God also clothed Adam and Eve in the garden to hide their nakedness. The true character of God would suggest that the babies in heaven would be clothed, cared for, and would be maturing.
3) On page 172 she said that Christ told her that the angel Michael is 7 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds, and has blonde hair and blue eyes. However, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 1:7 (and many other places) that angels are spirits. They do not have natural, fleshly bodies that could weigh 300 pounds.
4) When the author said that Jesus showed her the heavenly mansion for her, it had a bathroom and bathtub (page 64). What would she need a bathroom and a bathtub for? The purpose of a bathroom is to keep a person clean. However, there is no corruption or dirt in the real heaven. The Bible says that in the New Jerusalem there will be nothing that defiles (Rev.21:27).
5) On page 54 the author says there is an “animal mountain” in heaven. This is a wrong interpretation of that scripture she is quoting from the book of Isaiah, which refers to the peaceful animals on the earth during the millennial reign of Christ.
6) On page 97 she says they catch fish in heaven and Jesus grills them on a cooking grill. However, Revelation 21:4 states that there is no death in heaven. Yet they kill fish…. On page 100 she also sees a wheat field filled with cattle in heaven, which the “Lord” then says shows there will be food to eat in heaven. Does that also mean we will be grilling steaks in heaven? Slaughtering cows as well as killing fish?
THE AUTHOR AND HER VISIONS OF “JESUS”:
The author claims to have a very strange relationship with Jesus. On Page 157 she claims that since May 27, 1996, the Lord Jesus has taken her every Monday morning in a transformed body to a beach. Throughout the book she says that in her transformed body, as she walks with Jesus, she is about 15 to 16 years old. They walk down the beach, often holding hands, while the Lord repeatedly calls her, “Sweetheart.” The Lord touches her hair and tells her she is beautiful. Every Monday at the beach (as recorded on page 217) she dances for the Lord, and “after the dancing is finished, the Lord pays so many wonderful compliments to me that I always feel embarrassed.” Their bodies (hers and Christ’s) “move as if they were figures in a video,” page 218. Then page 218 also says that before the Lord sends her home each week, they always part with a big hug.
Also, on page 200, on Christmas Eve the Lord appears to her and says, “Sweetheart, I am happy to be celebrating My birthday with you.” This started in 1999 and has continued yearly. On page 243 the Lord supposedly said to the author, “You are the best celebration for my birthday…I love you sweetheart. Be happy.” This woman’s ‘revelation’ of Christ is earthly and sensual (James 3:15). Her whole revelation of Christ is inconsistent with the biblical character of Christ. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the Eternal One- does He want to celebrate His earthly birthday, and does He need an individual person as His ‘sweetheart’ to celebrate it with? Also, Christ was not born in December- December 25 is only a human invention of His birthday. According to Biblical details, (ie. the shepherds watching their flocks at night, grass in the fields, warm enough for them to not have sheep indoors…), it would have probably been sometime in October when Jesus actually was born.
She says the Lord often took her to heaven. As they traveled around heaven, they often changed their clothes. As one example out of many, on page 67 she wrote, “We revisited the white building and the powder room. We both changed into our heavenly robes and crowns. Then we went to the throne room where the Lord took His seat” (and then she met many of the apostles and prophets).
The book is full of this weird romantic relationship. When the Lord appears to people in the Bible, He is the Awesome, Holy, Glorious One- not a “Heavenly Sweetheart” who weekly takes them to the beach, watches them dance in their young teenage body, and then hugs them.
LOSING CONTROL OF HER BODY
Throughout the book the author describes how she regularly loses control of her body. She often shakes from 30 minutes to two hours on her bed, so much so that her husband started sleeping in the guest room (page 14). Before her heavenly visitor regularly arrives at night, she says she on page 158 that “I have no control over my body for a period of two to four hours.” When she dances she loses control of her body, and often “on these occasions, My hands touch my eyes fourteen times. After each touch, my hands make a symbolic cross.”
On page 66 the author describes how these physical shakings were taking a toll on her body and health. She said, “After my body quivers so intensely for a period of two or three hours, I am left reeling. My mind feels as if it is spinning, and I get very dizzy. Sometimes this sensation is so strong that I am hardly able to walk…The sleep deprivation and lack of food caused me to feel weak and emaciated. In fact, I had already lost 5 pounds. I frequently felt nauseated, and I often experienced pain in my stomach and joints.”
In pages 161-162 she wrote much about how her body was controlled by the “Holy Spirit.” She said that “my entire physical being would become black and cold… this scared me.” Her hands, eyes, face, head, hands, and entire body would do uncontrollable things. “My body took the form of a cross…it was stretched so severely that I experienced great pain.” ‘Many times He would raise and lower my body 49 times a night.” “Upon occasion, I felt as if I were losing my mind.”
On page 165-166 the author described how her body is repeatedly controlled in many strange and painful ways. She wrote, “Thirty-three times He “unlocked” the various parts of my body….Some of my “body locks” needed to be ‘unlocked” seven different times each session. When He unlocked my hands, for instance, they shook so hard that I grew frightened, and when He did the unlocking of my eyes, they became intensely hot…. Each time the Lord…unlocks the locks of my body, my physical being responds with violent shaking, jerking, intense heat, groans….my voice takes on the quality of fright, and I become breathless. Before these things occur, the unusual spiritual voice comes forth from deep within me.”
All of these descriptions of her losing control of her body show that she becomes controlled by another spirit. Her descriptions do not follow any Bible pattern of how the Holy Spirit works in the believers’s life, but her descriptions do all follow the symptoms of a person who is demon-possessed.
In a letter that the author wrote for pastors who would be given a free copy of her book, she begins by saying, “Heaven is so Real is our Lord’s end time book. He only used my body to write this book.” Do we read that any of the authors of the Bible had their body completely controlled while they wrote, or has this happened to other men and women of God who write godly books? 1 Peter 1:20-21 says that the writers of the Bible’s prophecies were “moved” by the Holy Spirit, but they were not blindly “controlled” so that their bodies were used like a robot.
SHE DECIDES TO DISOBEY HER PASTORS BECAUSE OF HER UNCONTROLLED DANCING
In pages 192-194, after attending a church for four years and saying her pastor was anointed and godly, when he rebuked her for her repeated uncontrolled ‘dance’ up in front of the worship team, she left the church and never returned to it again. She said the “Lord” said of her pastor, “He quenched the Holy Spirit. You must never return to that church.” This has got to be wrong. Who is she submitted to? She was out of control in her dance saying that she does not move her own hands and body, rather the Holy Spirit moves her. She certainly should have been rebuked by her pastor and asked to sit down and stop dancing.
In pages 215-216 she says that she cannot focus on God while she is “worshipping ever since she had to do this dance.”
In pages 219-220 A different pastor in her new church refuses to let her dance on the platform in front of the church and worship team. She decides to disobey him, except that the voice tells her that she does not need to do disobey him.
Pastors and church members had told her that her dancing in the front of the church on the platform was distracting to the worship services. So in page 238 The Lord then tells her that people are not supposed to watch her dance. They must close their eyes and pray instead from the beginning to the end of her dance. However, while the Lord told her that people are not to watch her as she dances, on her website, she offers a video clip to download and watch her dance. Furthermore in pages 233-234 she is also instructed to only wear a white gown which she calls a wedding gown. Her “Miracle Dance,” which has not produced any miracles, becomes stranger and stranger.
A GREAT PROPHETESS?
In page 225 it says, “The Lord has chosen me for End Time prophecy so He can show me some things that are not clearly outlined in the Bible.” This is how the Mormon religion and many other cults begin, as when Joseph Smith claimed that an angel appeared to him and showed him things that are not in the Bible.
The author says many places in the book that Jesus has told her she is a great prophetess for the last days (pg.168). However, she never speaks a single predictive prophecy about anyone, other than about herself becoming great and writing a book. She never performs any miracles or signs, or heals anyone. The Lord Jesus said in John 10:37, “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me.” The author has not done any works, miracles, or signs from the Father, so we should not believe her.
The Lord Jesus did not meet the author during her Monday walks at the beach; rather it was an angel of light (study 2 Corinthians 11:4, 13, & 14). She never challenged the spirit that met her and completely submitted herself to it. By the end of the book, she is referring to her guide as “the vision voice.”
It is true, heaven is so real. This book, however, does not portray it accurately or scripturally, and it is full of false and deceptive teachings.
