90 Minutes in Heaven – Don Piper

This book has set a new record for any book I have ever read. The lowest rated book ever! I rate this at only 0.5 stars out of 5 stars. This book I really didn’t like and recommend no one to read it!

This book has the same fallacy as “The Martyr’s Song” by Ted Dekker, it fails to talk and focus on Christ. The problem is that this is supposedly a true story! The man claims that he died in a car crash and went to heaven for ninety minutes, and then returned when a pastor prayed for him.

The book is called Ninety Minutes in Heaven, but the description of heaven is only about ten pages long. The rest of the book is just an inspiring recovery story. If the guy really went to heaven, why did he wait ninety minutes and not even see Christ? He couldn’t have been to heaven! Christ is the ultimate focus of heaven and to ‘be’ there for ninety minutes without seeing Him is preposterous! I think that good verse for this are Luke 23:43, 1 John 3:2-3 and Philippians 1:23.

Also, I think that the book would even had been better had he left out the part about heaven. Sharing his testimony of recovery could have helped many people a lot more than sharing his ‘view’ of heaven. Quoting from the review on Challies (link at the bottom of the post)

The book is, in reality, a biographical sketch of Don Piper and a lengthy description of the trials he faced as he recovered from devastating bodily injuries. Following the description of heaven, there is little further reflection on paradise. There is little attempt to describe how the author’s life and perspective on Scripture have changed because of his experience. There is little interaction with the Bible. There is little gospel.

I whole-heartedly agree with all that this says, and raises some big doubts about the truth of Don Piper’s book. Also, I think that Piper’s version of heaven is very centered on him and his perspectives. All the people he sees are the ages he last knew them. Even with all of it's problems, the book has caused a few people to comment things like the following:

I just read 90 Minutes in Heaven and I was blown away. I unlike most of you believe that Rev. Piper died and went to the gates of Heaven. When I read his description of Heaven I was filled with joy. The Bible says that God works in many ways, and I feel that he allowed Rev. Piper to die and come back to earth to share his experience so others might be saved. Many people have taken most of the book out of context. Rev. Piper said that he didn’t see Christ because he knew if he did he couldn’t return to earth. I like Rev. Piper am a Baptist so we have the same Doctrine. And if anyone can think that what happened to him is not a miracle then think again.

I am only 17 years old and I have seen many people escape death by prayer. My Dad is a preacher and I have seen him pray for someone at deaths door and saw the person improve before my eyes. Prayer does change things. It wasn’t Don Pipers time to leave the earth. God allowed him to get a small taste of what was to come. Reading this book has made me look forward to Heaven even more. It has strengthened my walk with God. And has shown me that anything is possible through God. I believe that Don Piper died and went to Heaven and one day will return again forever.

It makes me sad to see someone who has obviously been taken in by the many falsehoods in this book.

I don’t know exactly where or how this guy saw heaven, but all I say is that the Devil can be very convincing, and I am very inclined to believe this because his description doesn’t jive with the Bible’s. And I am definitely going to believe the Bible a lot quicker than Don Piper.I believe that Don Piper sincerely believes he went to heaven. I also believe that he is sincerely wrong. I am not judging Don Piper, just what he thinks he saw.

I highly recommend that IF you are going to read this book that you read this review on Challies.com and all of the comments as well. The comments are very good and they are where I got a lot of the verses and all of the quotes from. Anyways, check the review out here.

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90 Minutes in Heaven
By Don Piper

$9.87 at Amazon.com
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