Tyndale House says it will be recalling copies of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven after the boy in question, Alex Malarkey (yes, that’s really his name), said he didn’t make the trip after all.
Malarkey made the claim after having been injured in a car accident when he was 6. The book became a best-seller for Tyndale, which, according to NPR, called it
a supernatural encounter that will give you new insights on Heaven, angels, and hearing the voice of God.
But NPR reports that in a letter to the Pulpit and Pen website, Malarkey now admits:
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.
Those who market these materials must be called to repent and hold the Bible as enough.
I believe any G*d worthy of the name would retract the Bible, Koran and Torah for fabrication, falsification and plagiarism. Unlike ORI, G*d’s misconduct policies have no statute of.limitations,
Too bad G*d’s publishers are so loathe to retract or correct his best sellers.
Apparently there are some things even G*d can’t change!
This is the most incredible retraction I have seen so far. That someone who is, first, so young, and second, making such an incredible claim, and third, actually retracting it, is just astounding. My lower jaw just fell to the floor. This is almost equivalent to having “Chicken Soup for the Soul” retracted. How could I express my amazement in more emphatic terms? The claims made in the original book are, of course, completely unverifiable, not to mention false; yet, someone who writes something so devoted to religion seems unlikely to be able to change his mind–thus my shock at his recantation.
Perhaps he has not recanted his religious beliefs, only renouncing his personal experience, as he seems to be saying in his last sentences. He still seems to believe that the Bible is inspired or even written by a supernatural force.
Goodness gracious, what would happen to “The restaurant at the end of the universe” by Douglas Adams?
I must say, this book is even more controversial than Oolon Colluphid’s trilogy of philosophical blockbusters: Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes, and Who Is This God Person, Anyway?
That was avowedly fiction, probably not retractable even if the author wanted to.
Not a problem at all. Sell the book as a piece of fiction now, and even better, make a follow up: the real place the boy has been to while pretending to have met God. Spoiler: featuring Gandalf, Harry Potter and Spiderman.
The book has been cited 860 times, according to Thomson Scienti… Sorry… Amazon Customers Review web page.
Headlines in Canada:
https://ca.celebrity.yahoo.com/news/boy-claimed-had-heaven-retracts-story-bestselling-book-163151792.html
The comments section is entertaining, especially by those who read, or half read, the book.
Sorry to say I seem to get a 404 error on this link… it is a year later, but you’d think… I wanted to see the comments… Ideas?
“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.”
“anything written by man cannot be infallible”. Satire?
This is just wow.
Especially since the Bible itself claims to have been written by man (well a bunch of men really)
I bet this will give a huge increase in sales. A brilliant marketing strategy!
Didn’t a Hollywood studio make a recent movie based on this case? Mom is claiming that the father put the child up to this and the child has never received a penny for his story–either from the book or any film adaptations–which, if true, means that God not only works in mysterious ways, but he’s a bit of a child labor exploiter, as well.
Oh well, at least the child can now pen a follow-up about his road to redemption after scamming an entire community of the pathologically gullible and rake in millions on his apology tour.
Actually, I feel bad for this kid. Sounds like he has been exploited by everyone in his life from the time he was tiny.
The writer of the post and the commentators should show some decency. If you actually read a little bit more about the story, you will find out that it was the father of the boy who capitalized the story and made money of it – money that the paralyzed boy and his divorced mother never received. I mean guys, that guy was 6 years old and suffered from traumatic brain injury and is tetraplegic for life! Does anyone blame him for making up a short story about heaven? There are others to blame and the father of the boy is right on top of the list – along with greedy christian book publishers who make millions by publishing such fairy tale books.