Posted by Ben Curran on April 28, 2013 at 02:34:34:
Good morning Dr Janson!
It seems as if a confirmation of your time-line to the Return may be coming from an unexpected source; a four-year old boy named Colton Burpo.
(HEAVEN IS FOR REAL BY Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent (2010). Published by Thomas Nelson, Nashville. ISBN 978-0-8499-4615-8.)
In 2003, Colton died for a few minutes on an operating table. After he had recovered, over a period of many months he gradually gave his parents a wealth of information about what he had seen while he had been with Jesus. His father, Todd Burpo, is a pastor, and this information was in many cases an education for him, as it is for us.
....................................................
Burpo?!!? What sort of name is Burpo? And why would God choose a four- year old boy with such a name to give us some of the clearest instruction and admonition that he has ever bestowed on mankind?
Well, maybe it has got something to do with the expression ‘hidden in plain sight’. Perhaps he has given it to us in this way for the same reason that Jesus spoke in parables – so that “only those with the ears to hear, will hear”. Can you imagine ambitious, upwardly-mobile people paying much attention to this story? No, they will glance at it, laugh, and go on their way. “Nothing useful here......”
But to my mind this book contains information which is a little frightening. It seems to make it quite clear that God has no intention of shouting loudly into the ears of those who do not wish to hear. It seems to confirm that the way into the Kingdom of God is through a narrow gate which is not easy to find, and that the way to Hell is through a wide gate at the end of a broad and easy road. And it seems to confirm that Jesus is not going to take those-who-will-not-hear by the collar and march them into Heaven. He is going to allow them to continue to drift carelessly down that wide and easy road to Hell.
Colton’s information includes a clarification of the Armageddon event which is electrifying in its simplicity. And it implies that it is very close. Also, it seems that Jesus allowed Colton to encounter Satan. And Colton’s reaction to his father’s questions about this encounter agree with my personal limited experience of concentrated evil.
But of course the book is not only frightening. It gives the most glorious affirmation of the joy that awaits those who seek the face of Christ with patience and obedience and longsuffering. And it will set the minds of those who have lost babies at rest.