'The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven' Author Says Book Is Made Up Of Lies

“The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven,” is a best-selling Christian book by Alex Malarkey and his father, Kevin Malarkey which purports to answer the question of whether God and Heaven are real.

The book was first published in 2010, and supposedly narrates Alex's experiences while he lay in a 2-month coma after a car accident when he was 6 years old. His injuries left him paralyzed, but the book said while he was in the coma, he died and went to heaven and moved around and met and spoke with Jesus.

Now, 16-year-old Alex says everything in the book was made up. "I did not die. I did not go to Heaven," he states in an open letter to Christians everywhere who are reading the book.


First posted on the Pulpit and Pen Website. Alex continues the letter as follows;

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.

He also added in reference to the publishers and marketers of such works;

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.

Since the announcement went out, Tyndale House, the book publishers, has announced that it will stop selling the book. Todd Starowitz, public relations director of Tyndale House, told The Washington Post on Thursday, “Tyndale has decided to take the book and related ancillary products out of print.” On Friday, Tyndale released this statement:

“We are saddened to learn that Alex Malarkey, co-author of ‘The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven,’ is now saying that he made up the story of dying and going to heaven. Given this information, we are taking the book out of print.”

 LifeWay Christian Resources, the denominational publisher of the Southern Baptist Convention, which maintains a large chain of religious bookstores also announced on Thursday that it was pulling “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven” from its shelves.

“LifeWay was informed this week that Alex Malarkey has retracted his testimony about visiting heaven as told in the book “The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven.” Therefore, we are returning to the publisher the few copies we have in our Stores."

But this is not the first time the veracity of the book has been questioned. Last April, Alex’s mother, Beth Malarkey, posted a blog stating how she and her son were not in support of the book, nor benefiting from it.

It is both puzzling and painful to watch the book The Boy who Came Back from Heaven to not only continue to sell, but to continue, for the most part, to not be questioned. I could post facts and try to dispel many of the things contained within the pages of that book(have done a bit of that), I could continue to try to point out how Biblically off the book is(a few strategically placed scriptures does not make a book Biblically sound) and how it leads people away from the bible not to it (have done that as have others including John Macarthur and Phil Johnson), I could talk about how much it has hurt my son tremendously and even make financial statements public that would prove that he has not received monies from the book nor have a majority of his needs been funded by it...

The ones making money from the book are NOT the ones staying up through the night, struggling for their breath, or were they the ones at six years old, waking up unable to move or breathe and in a strange place after last remember seeing a car coming right at the car he was riding in.

Alex’s name and identity are being used against his wishes. … How can this be going on??? Great question. … How did it get this far? … another great question....sometimes bits of truth can become so twisted and distorted that it seems impossible to straighten out. Your words can get taken, twisted, and out right fabricated!”

AP Photo/Tony Dejak