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    Heaven: Biblical Answers to Common Questions
    Heaven: Biblical Answers to Common Questions
    Heaven: Biblical Answers to Common Questions
    Ebook49 pages35 minutes

    Heaven: Biblical Answers to Common Questions

    By Randy Alcorn

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    This pocket-sized 60-page booklet provides a sampling of some of the questions and answers found in Randy Alcorn's Heaven. This handy little booklet makes a great gift!

    Features:
    • 18 easy-to-understand questions and answers adapted from the best-selling Heaven
    • Perfect gift for non-believers
    • Great evangelism piece
    • Convenient pocket-size, easy to fit in purses, backpacks, and briefcases
    • Affordably priced
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTyndale House Publishers
    Release dateSep 27, 2013
    ISBN9781414358246
    Heaven: Biblical Answers to Common Questions
    Author

    Randy Alcorn

    Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspectives Ministries and a New York Times bestselling author of over sixty books, including Heaven and Face to Face with Jesus. His books have sold over twelve million copies and been translated into over seventy languages. Randy resides in Gresham, Oregon. Since 2022, his wife and best friend, Nanci, has been living with Jesus in Heaven. He has two married daughters and five grandsons.

    Read more from Randy Alcorn

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    Reviews for Heaven

    4.5/5

    229 ratings19 reviews

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    • 5/5
      If you ever wanted to read a book about heaven this is the one book that you must read! This is by far the most definitive book on the subject of heaven.It clears up the speculation and confusion while giving precise and thrilling answers to the most asked questions. An absolute must read that you need to add to your library!
    • 4/5
      Very good, but I'm not sure that he is always right! And in some cases, I hope that he is not!
    • 4/5
      An eye-opening look at what the Scriptures have to say about heaven. It is a little long-winded, but SO worthwhile.
    • 4/5
      Well, this is certainly an interesting look at our eternal resting place. It is a far cry from any picture of Heaven that I have ever heard about before. However, there are plenty of scriptural references. So you can decide for yourself if this just might be an accurate portrayal.
    • 3/5
      In Randy Alcorn’s eponymous book on Heaven, the place where good people go when they die, he starts off by setting the record straight: Heaven is not boring. It’s not a place where we float around, singing Hosannahs, playing a harp, and thinking only of God and praising him nonstop. Alcorn says that this way of thinking is not biblical, to which he provides countless passages from the Bible to back up what he’s saying.Alcorn says that Heaven is a real, physical place where we will have real, physical bodies. He speaks against Christoplatonism, which was largely inspired by Neoplatonism, and totes a belief that the physical world is weak and impure, and the the spiritual world is the ideal, quintessential (quite literally), state. While Christoplatonists says matter is evil, Alcorn says: God created matter before the Fall (the fruit incident, not the season) therefore it can’t be evil.It’s this thinking that drives the rest of the book, answering all manner of questions about what Heaven will be like, usually supporting this theory with another Bible verse.While I thought that Alcorn did an excellent job studying what the Bible had to say regarding Heaven, and putting aside people’s fears that it would be intolerably boring (even including quotes by Twain and Asimov indicating as much), I felt that at times, his own rhetoric was laced with nonbiblical suppositions that he warns the reader not to fall prey too. Without delving into extensive theology in a book review, I’ll just leave it at this: I had issues with some of the theories he presented, especially in the absence of supporting text from the Bible. The casual manner at which he tosses out one belief or another which may not be founded on scripture, but is instead a commonly held belief among Christians perpetuated by teachings of the Church, sometimes set me on edge, especially due to his disfavor of such circumstances propagating a boring Heaven, something he refers to as “heresy.”Ultimately, I thought it presented an interesting perspective of Heaven, one closer to the images one sees when they read of Aslan’s Country from Narnia, or Valinor from the Lord of the Rings, but not inherently medieval. This perspective may be useful for those with a little more curiosity in their ultimate destination, especially those who fear going to Heaven more so than going to Hell, or dying. However, like Alistair Begg is known to say in his Scottish accent: “The plain things are the main things, and the main things are the plain things.” So, if something is not made absolutely clear through a reading of the Bible, it’s (a) subject to interpretation, and (b) not all that important for being a good Christian. So, don’t fret too much if you don’t agree with him either. Everybody who gets to Heaven is more of an expert on it than Alcorn could ever be while here on Earth.
    • 5/5
      This is one for the soul. This book was a eye-opener. I read this on a cruise and I was so impress at Randy Alcorn vivid imagination on how he would interpret the bible and it's meanings of Heaven and beyond. A must read
    • 4/5
      Very inspiring and got me excited for Heaven in a way no other book ever has. Just a bit long and pretty hefty reading for me, but worth it!
    • 4/5
      This book is part of my collection that really focuses in on Biblical Commentary more than anything else (including some well known authors in the theological world). All of these books haven't been read cover to cover, but I've spent a lot of time with them and they've been helpful in guiding me through difficult passages (or if I desire to dig deeper).
    • 5/5
      This very informative book has certainly opened my eyes and has given me a totally new perspective of heaven. I’ve had questions in my mind for much of my life about heaven, and this book addressed many of those questions. You will feel encouraged to delve deeper into the Scriptures to understand even more. After reading many of the Scriptures, I found myself thinking that I hadn’t thought about a particular verse in that much depth, or in that way – very inspiring, indeed!Two of the most interesting concepts presented in the book were the Intermediate Heaven – not our permanent destination, and the New Earth – our final destination. Just thought provoking! And, of course, Satan hates the New Heaven and the New Earth, and will do everything he can to keep us from redemption and rob us of the joy we will know in heaven. There is so much information about the world to come, and this book deals with it in detail. It is hard to wrap your mind around many parts, but it’s enough to fire up your imagination and give you a driven desire to spend eternity in heaven.It is very clear that there are two possible destinations after death: heaven and hell, and each is just as real and just as eternal as the other. Heaven is not our default destination. We cannot enter heaven as we are. Unless our sin problem is resolved, we will go to our true default destination --- hell. Matthew 7: 13-14 - “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”“The best of life on Earth is a glimpse of heaven; the worst of life is a glimpse of hell. For Christians, this present life is the closest they will come to hell. For unbelievers, it is the closest they will come to heaven.”I have highlighted many parts of this book and I will be keeping it close by to read sections again and again. It is one of the most interesting and profound books I’ve ever read! My rating is 5+ stars.
    • 4/5
      First 1/4 was amazing. 5 stars. Appendices were good as well. I'm sure the rest was good. It it just didn't interest me as much so I skimmed most of it. Overall fantastic book. I found it incredibly encouraging and resolved many of the issues I've had reconciling the beliefs I was raised with with what I found in scripture.
    • 5/5
      This has been an important part of a work that God has done in my heart, enflaming a longing for heaven and for God in whole new ways. If Christians lived with this perspective it would transform our daily lives. I feel as if the engine of my Christian life just got supercharged. I don't know that Randy is right in all of his perceptions, but I do know that it won't be less than this! This is what Christ saved us for, so make sure you know what the Bible has to say about heaven.
    • 4/5
      Randy Alcorn brings forth a lot of ideas I'd never thought of before (like an intermediate Heaven where believers go between the time they die and the bodily resurrection to the New Earth - it makes lots of sense and there is Biblical grounds for it, I'd just never heard that theory before) and while there are a few where I think he draws broader conclusions than the Scripture allows, on most of his theories I completely agree. I highly recommend it to any Christian. If you don't really look forward to going to Heaven, because you think it'll be boring or unlike what you're used to here or for whatever other reason it'll shake you up and give you something new to think about. I know that for me, personally, it's made me look more forward to going to Heaven than ever before, and I just wish I could take all my loved ones with me.
    • 5/5
      Heaven is a topic truly unknown by most Christians. This book answered questions from a Bibilical perspective personally, radically changed my life and how I live it. May be read straight through or according to specific questions.
    • 5/5
      I read this book on the enthusiastic recommendation of a friend, and now I have become one of those people enthusiastically recommending it to my own friends. Between us, the first friend and I make a pretty good tag-team! If you know us, your chances of reading this book have just shot up. It's not too much to say that this book has completely changed the way I view the life to come, and my attitude toward this life as well. Alcorn starts by confronting many of the myths that we've unconsciously swallowed about what Heaven will be like (note that I am capitalizing the word following his example, treating Heaven as a real place). We have a vague idea that Heaven will be so spiritual that we will just float around as disembodied souls in a kind of saline solution of hyper-holiness. It almost sounds like the Matrix — but I think if we really scrutinize our beliefs, we'll find this isn't an inaccurate description. We've been influenced by what Alcorn terms "Christoplatonism," the heretical idea that the material world is inherently sinful and that the spiritual world is the only thing that matters. We have a guilty feeling about Heaven because this picture of it sounds so incredibly boring. We try to comfort ourselves by saying there is no way we can appreciate what Heaven will be like, with our puny minds and sinful flesh in the way. I remember being told as a young believer that though Heaven's nonstop singing and worship sounded boring, it wouldn't be, because all I could understand was the weariness of my currently sinful flesh. This answer satisfied me somewhat, but I still couldn't quite make myself look forward to a Heaven like that. But worship is not just standing and singing in church. Romans 12:1 says that offering our bodies to God as a living sacrifice is our spiritual act of worship. And worship is not just singing, but a lifestyle. I worship God in my treatment of other people, in every detail of everyday life. This verse also underscores one of Alcorn's main points in this book: the physical world, and our physical bodies, are not evil. Our physical bodies can actually be used to worship God! All creation is currently suffering under the Curse, but it will not always be this way. God's big plan is not to harvest our souls from this world and then trash the planet. Oh no — He is going to redeem it. He is going to make all things new, yes, but not alien, not completely different. It's the New Heavens and the New Earth, not a new place altogether. Alcorn gives a Scriptural breakdown of what happens to Christians who die before the Second Coming, the sequence of events at the time of judgment, and the believer's sure destination of the wedding-feast with the Lamb. He also speculates quite a bit on what life in Heaven will be like. Will we forget who we were on Earth? Alcorn says that's silly; why would we? In Revelation chapter 6, the saints pray for vengeance on those who killed them; how could they do that unless they remembered their martyrdom? Alcorn also points out that those saints were told to wait, which implies that there is time in Heaven. John even gives specific amounts of time in Revelation, like when he says there was silence in Heaven for about one half-hour (Revelation 8:1)! How have we missed that all these years? Will we know everything instantly in Heaven? Is that what it means to be perfect? Alcorn argues that no, we will not instantly know everything, and perfection does not mean complete omniscience. There will be learning in Heaven. The saints in Revelation chapter 6 are asking a question ("how long, O Lord?") because they do not know the answer. Learning is not inherently sinful, nor does it imply that the learner is imperfect. We will continue to develop and explore new things throughout eternity. Will Heaven contain human works of art? Alcorn argues yes. There is verse in Revelation that says the glory of the nations will be brought into the New Jerusalem. Human art created under the Curse can still bring honor and praise to the Creator, and Alcorn talks about the works that have moved him to profound worship of the Father. I can identify with that; certain books have taught me beautiful things and enriched my love for God. Sin-glorifying works will perish, certainly, but I don't see why God would destroy the beautiful. I am dreaming of Heaven's libraries with a sort of quiet ecstasy... Will our pets and animals be in Heaven? Alcorn discusses this question from a perspective I haven't really considered before. Most Christians agree that animals do not have souls, but perhaps we ought to be more specific and say they don't have human souls. It is possible that they do have souls. And if the New Heavens and the New Earth are going to be faithful to the original unfallen Eden, animals will have to be there! God delights in giving gifts to His children and enjoying their enjoyment of those gifts. Everything will glorify Him, but that doesn't mean we will simply be singing "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" in His direction nonstop forever. Alcorn believes that our love for our pets glorifies the Creator, because they are His gift, and there's no reason why our pets would not be in Heaven. Because we will be perfect, there will be no fear of idolizing a created being in place of God. All loves and all joys will glorify the Godhead and find perfect fulfillment in Him. The cover of my copy has a quote by Stu Weber, saying "Other than the Bible itself, this may well be the single most life-changing book you'll ever read." He isn't too far-off in that claim. This book has opened my eyes to the Scriptural truth about eternity, and I have learned to long for Heaven. When I see something beautiful, I realize that I am experiencing just a shadow of Heaven's beauty. When life's bitternesses and regrets pain me, when I look at people I love suffering chronic pain, when I live in imperfect and misunderstood relationships — I rejoice in my hope of Heaven. And the hope of the future helps sustain me in the now. I cannot recommend Heaven highly enough, and I'm very thankful for the Scriptural perspective it is restoring to believers around the world. If I could give it ten stars, I would! I urge you to read it... I can't promise that it will radically change your perspective, but it certainly did mine. Great book, great truths, and a fantastic addition to the literature on Heaven.
    • 5/5
      This is by far the most exhaustive study done on the topic of Heaven. I anxiously awaited this book for years and was even more impressed with the finished product than I imagined. It has strengthened me and my resolve to be a better follower of Christ. It is an exciting read and a must read for every Christian and everyone who just wants to know what happens next.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the best books about Heaven that I have ever read. It comes straight from scripture. Alcorn describes what we can learn about Heaven and backs his opinions up with various Bible verses. If Heaven is where we ultimately want to go, it's wise to see what to expect. He answers a lot of questions that people have. Two thumbs up for this one!
    • 5/5
      Straight to point and clear answers. Biblical and helped me a lot in understanding many things about heaven.
    • 4/5
      Very insightful. It broke a lot of preconceptions I have had about Heaven, which were clearly wrong. Easy to ready and follow.
    • 5/5
      nice

    Book preview

    Heaven - Randy Alcorn

    Introduction

    Maybe you feel as if you’ve passed your peak, physically or emotionally, and that your best opportunities are behind you. Perhaps you’re burdened, discouraged, depressed, or even traumatized. Perhaps your dreams—your marriage, career, or ambitions—have crumbled. Perhaps you’ve become cynical or have lost hope.

    An understanding of the true Christian teaching about Heaven (not the popular caricatures of Heaven) can change all that. That’s why I wrote Heaven, a full-length treatment of the subject that deals with all the questions people ask about this great subject.[1] The purpose of this little booklet is to give you just a taste of the glorious truth about Heaven.

    God’s people in ages past had a source of strength and perspective largely unknown to us today: Heaven. It was their central reference point, the North Star by which they could navigate their lives. But in contemporary society, Heaven has fallen off our radar screens.

    Whenever I think about Heaven, a pastor said to me, it makes me depressed. I’d rather just cease to exist when I die.

    Why? I asked.

    I can’t stand the thought of that endless tedium. To float around in the clouds with nothing to do but strum a harp . . . it’s all so terribly boring. Heaven doesn’t sound much better than Hell. I’d rather be annihilated than spend eternity in a place like that.

    Where did this Bible-believing, seminary-educated pastor get such a view of Heaven? Certainly not from Scripture, where the apostle Paul says that to depart and be with Christ is far better than staying on Earth (Philippians 1:23). My friend was more honest about it than most, yet I’ve found that many Christians share the same misconceptions about Heaven.

    Our unbiblical assumption that Heaven won’t be a real, earthly place blinds us to what Scripture actually says. Rarely do we hear descriptions that capture what the Bible portrays as a New Earth with a great capital city made with precious stones; a New Earth that contains trees and rivers, and where resurrected people come in and out of the gates, engaged in meaningful relationships and productive activity.

    J. C. Ryle, a nineteenth-century British theologian, said, I pity the man who never thinks about heaven.[2] We could also say, "I pity the man who never thinks accurately about Heaven." It’s our inaccurate thinking, I believe, that motivates us to think so little

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