Fraud on visits to the Afterlife

The conservative evangelical magazine Christianity Today reports on case involving a boy who claimed he had gone to heaven after being nearly killed in a auto accident: Kate Shillnut, Tyndale Sued by Boy Who Didn’t Come Back from Heaven 04/12/2018.

The religious publisher Tyndale published a book said to be co-authored by the young man, Alex Malarkey, and his father, Kevin Malarkey, The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven (2010). Their surname turns out to be rather unfortunate to be attached to the book now. Alex is suing them on several civil claims, as shown in the court document. "The recent lawsuit reiterates Malarkey’s denial of the heaven story portrayed in the book, alleging that his father was the one behind the story and that he does not remember what happened while he was a child in a coma after the accident. Malarkey, a quadriplegic, lives with his mother in Ohio, collecting Social Security," reports Shellnut.

As she also recounts:

His retraction drew criticism toward Tyndale for publishing the book, which it said had been vetted for biblical principles at the time, and led many Christians to challenge the subgenre of books about visiting heaven, including Heaven Is for Real and 90 Minutes in Heaven.

As a result, LifeWay Christian Stores stopped selling all “experiential testimonies about heaven” in 2015.