HEAVEN
Author RANDY ALCORN
Publisher TYNDALE
ISBN 978-0-8423-7942-7
From the outset when reading this book it becomes apparent that the author has studied both the Bible and many other authors in his pursuit of a clear doctrine of heaven, what it will be like and what kind of life will be lived there. He insists that his readers check carefully what he writes with the scriptures and at the same time encourages the use of the imagination as we read. He has evidently been in love with heaven since being a small child. His interest in astronomy clearly moved his heart to consider the life that awaits those who believe and follow the Lord Jesus. At times, I wondered how much the use of the imagination had led him into a fair degree of speculation in many aspects of his description. For some, it might just be too much of the speculative and not sufficient Biblical basis. For instance, when he considers the verses in Revelation chapter six that concern the voice of the martyrs he draws at least twenty conclusions as to the state of the intermediate heaven. This is what he names the heaven before the coming of the New Heaven and the New Earth. In fact, the book begins with “A Theology of Heaven” where he establishes the fact of the present heaven to which those who depart this life go. Having shown that this heaven is not the permanent one he insists that when Jesus comes He shall bring in a New Heaven and New Earth and these may well be the present earth completely revivified and the stars and galaxies innumerable that now are shall be glorious as all that has been subjected to the curse shall be released from its bondage. There are plenty of scriptural grounds for all this. When he gets into Part two there are plenty of questions and in each chapter he attempts to answer them, at least in part. What about animals for instance? What will our bodies be like? In the final section of the book which is by far the shortest, he writes of how we are to live in the light of heaven. His style is readable and interesting. He liberally quotes numerous sources, other authors, throughout the history of the Christian church. There are plenty of little side notes throughout each chapter, a sentence here and there from various authors on the subject of heaven. The book ends with a couple of appendices. It might be wise to read these first because they help us to understand where Randy Alcorn is coming from. One concerns what he calls “Christoplatonism’. He is surely correct when he shows that the church has bought into the Platonic idea that spirit is good and matter is bad. That is what this section deals with. Our reading of scripture has been coloured by this idea, we can scarcely believe that the new earth will be ‘matter,’ and physical, that our resurrection bodies will be likewise, not just ‘spiritual bodies.’ The other appendix concerns the extremes of Biblical interpretation that either over literalise or over spiritualise. In this he strikes a vital chord also. Thankfully he gives us a good Bibliography at the end, other books that have been written through the centuries on this often neglected subject. I believe that anyone reading this book will be helped, challenged and enlarged in their understanding.
