Heaven: Biblical Answers to Common Questions Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B002IT3VOS | Format: PDF
Heaven: Biblical Answers to Common Questions Description
After years of research, Randy Alcorn offers answers to common questions about what heaven will be like. His answers will surprise listeners, stretch their thinking about this important subject, and inspire them to long for heaven while living on earth.
Please note: This audiobook is a unabridged recording of the print booklet Heaven: Biblical Answers to Common Questions, which is a shortened, Q&A version of the author's full-length book Heaven.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 59 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Oasis Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: July 23, 2009
- Language: English
- ASIN: B002IT3VOS
In his new book on heaven, appropriately titled HEAVEN, Randy Alcorn tells the story of an English vicar. When asked by a colleague what he expected after death, he replied, "Well, if it comes to that, I suppose I shall enter into eternal bliss, but I really wish you wouldn't bring up such depressing subjects."
If we're honest, a lot of us might agree with that vicar. The thought of spending eternity floating about on a cloud, strumming the proverbial harp, sounds a bit, well, boring. Huckleberry Finn certainly thought so.
"She (Miss Watson) went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do was go around all day long with a harp and sing forever and ever. So didn't think much of it.... I asked her if she thought Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that because I wanted him and me to be together."
It's exactly this kind of bland vision of eternity that Alcorn's book seeks to dispel.
"The pious Miss Watson had nothing to say about Heaven that appealed to Huck. What would have attracted him was a place where he could do meaningful and pleasurable things with enjoyable people. In fact, that's a far more accurate description of what Heaven will actually be like. If Miss Watson had told Huck what the Bible says about living in a resurrected body and being with people we love on a resurrected Earth with gardens and rivers and mountains and untold adventures --- now that would have gotten his attention!"
Indeed, and it got my attention too. Despite my education at a Bible college, I've spent little time thinking about or studying the logistics of eternity. And I'm not alone.
The first thing most people do when they pick up a book is to check the endorsements. Heaven by Randy Alcorn comes with an array of them. Interestingly enough, Jerry Jenkins--co-author of the Left Behind series--and Hank Hanegraaff--author of The Apocalypse Code--both give Alcorn's book the thumbs up. While Jenkins and Hanegraaff have written about cosmic eschatology and the book of Revelation, it is interesting to see two people with divergent views on eschatological issues endorsing a book dealing with eschatology. The obvious question is, "What has Alcorn done in this book!?"
Alcorn is a former pastor, and the founder of Eternal Perspective Ministries. He has authored numerous books, including a few on Heaven, ethics, and some fiction volumes. He has taught at Western Seminary and Multnomah Bible College. In some ways, his book Heaven is a sort of magnum opus for someone who has studied, written and taught about Heaven and the related theological issues.
Heaven contains two appendices, which Alcorn commends to the reader at different points throughout the book. However, it is possible that they should be read first, as it will help to understand where he is coming from and where he is going. The first is called "Christoplatonism's False Assumptions," and it deals with the dualism pervading most of Christianity--a sort of matter is bad, spirit is good. He asserts that Christians have, in a sense, baptized this Platonic philosophy, and therefore constantly interpret matters, such as heaven, in a purely spiritual manner. The second is called "Literal and Figurative Interpretation." Here, he asserts that medieval theologians began to allegorize much of Scripture, particularly about
Heaven, and that those allegorizations have been maintained until the present.
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