The Christian book Heaven Is for Real was published in 2010 and became a New York Times bestseller. Later, in 2014, a feature film based on the book debuted and earned $101 million at the box office. It tells the true story of the author’s son, who had a near-death experience in which he met Jesus in the spirit world. The son had an emergency surgery and during the following months after it, the three year old boy told of meeting Jesus in the spirit world. He also uncovered many secrets kept from him by his parents that he shouldn’t have been able to know.
Some critics pointed out that the use of biblical terms and situations weren’t accurate. Other Christians don’t believe the context of the book is real, and that they just made it up for profit. However, the author and his son stand by the book’s content and say that it is a true story.
A sequel was written, God Is for Real, in 2017. At 163 pages, it has been adapted into a film by Sony Pictures and after only four years, a total of eleven million books were sold.
