The best-selling book ‘The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven’ has been hit by a scandal. According to new testimony from ‘The Boy’, he didn’t go to heaven at all, and has claimed that the story was a lie to get attention.

Alex Malarkey, the boy upon whose story of a near-death experience the book is based, wrote a retraction of his account earlier this week in blog Pulpit And Pen. In the article, he wrote: “I did not die. I did not go to Heaven. 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.”

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Malarkey, who was left a quadriplegic after the accident, continued in his open letter: “It is only through repentance of your sins and a belief in Jesus as the Son of God, who died for your sins (even though he committed none of his own) so that you can be forgiven may you learn of Heaven outside of what is written in the Bible... not by reading a work of man. 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.”

The book, co-authored by Alex and his father Kevin Malarkey, told the story of a car accident in 2004 that left six year old Alex paralysed and in a coma. While unconscious, he claims that he went to Heaven and visited Jesus, and that he saw his father Kevin being rescued from the accident by angels. It became a huge success in 2010, hitting the top of the New York Times Bestsellers List, and made into a TV movie later that year by Franklin Films.

As a result of Malarkey’s account, some Christian publishers and retailers have withdrawn ‘The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven’ from its shelves or have discontinued printing it. Tyndale House, the publisher of the book itself, made the announcement shortly after Alex’s retraction that it “has decided to take the book and related ancillary products out of print.”

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