The newest mark against so-called heaven tourism may cast doubt on the dubious belief that any mere human has come back from heaven following a near-death experience, but it certainly provides evidence that there is a God. Because who but God could have worked it out that the young man who at first claimed to go to and return from heaven and now has come forward to debunk his own story should be named, of all things, Malarkey. If I were to write this scenario into a novel, people would call me heavy-handed.

Yes, Alex Malarkey is his name. And his story, according to him, is also malarkey. He wrote an open letter to Lifeway Christian Books, asking them to stop selling his book, The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, and to stop profiting from heaven tourism.

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

So. What did Lifeway do in response to this open letter? Nothing, as far as I can tell. They still carry the book. Alex’s mom has since divorced the father, who is apparently the sole financial beneficiary of the erroneous book. She has much more to say in her blog, about how Alex’s life and identity have been callously abused for the sake of money. Seriously, this situation is despicable.