Why I read the book: Colin Smith recommended it from the pulpit when it first came out. We bought a copy at the church bookstore, and I started reading it a chapter a night. I found it redundant and thought I’d grasped (and agreed with) his basic point, so I quit about a third of the way through. Sally read it recently and found it thought-provoking. She asked me to read it so we could discuss it.

What the book was about: Alcorn’s basic premise is that heaven is vastly different than how it is usually pictured. We won’t be floating around on clouds playing harps in an eternal church service. Instead, we’ll be on an earth very much like this one, but without the sin and pain and failure. We’ll have personalities and purpose and joy. We’ll learn and work and explore and build and invent. We’ll make new friends and enjoy new experiences throughout eternity — all of it centered on the person of Jesus Christ.

What I liked about the book: I felt that Alcorn was definitely on to something. He made heaven a much more real, exciting place than any other account of it I’ve read or heard. He centered everything on Christ. He wasn’t afraid to speculate and dream, and he obviously did a lot of research. At times, he went further than I would go in his speculations, but his overall concept, I think, is dead on.

What I didn’t like about the book: It was redundant and long-winded. I felt he could have said what he had to say in probably half the pages. He often built speculation on speculation — I think there will be machinery … Since we’ve seen there will be machinery, there must be … But again, I think his basic concept was correct. He was weak doctrinally in some places — he believes in guardian angels and he isn’t at all sure the Millennium is literal.

The most interesting quotes: It’s hard to know where to stop here.

— Quoting Pascal — All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end.” And if we all seek happiness, why not … seek it where it can actually be found — in the person of Jesus and the place called Heaven.

— Set your hearts on things above (Colossians 3:1). The command implies there is nothing automatic about setting our minds on Heaven. In fact, most commands assume a resistance to obeying them, which sets up the necessity for the command. We are told to avoid sexual immorality because it is our tendency. We are not told to avoid jumping off buildings because normally we don’t battle such a temptation. The command to think about Heaven is under attack in a hundred different ways every day. Everything mitigates against it. Our minds are so much set on Earth that we are unaccustomed to heavenly thinking. So we must work at it.

— God has never given up on His original creation. Yet somehow we’ve managed to overlook an entire biblical vocabulary that makes this point clear. Reconcile. Redeem. Restore. Recover. Return. Renew. Regenerate. Resurrect. Each of these biblical words begins with the re- prefix, suggesting a return to an original condition that was ruined or lost.

— We malign our God-given instinct to love the earthly home God made for us. We turn on our favorite music, … barbecue with friends, watch a ball game, play golf, ride bikes, work in the garden, or curl up savoring a cup of coffee and a good book. We do these things not because we are sinners but because we are people. We will still be people when we die and go to heaven. … These experiences are not Heaven — but they are foretastes of Heaven.

— On whether the inability to sin is a denial of free will — My inability to be God, an angel, a rabbit, or a flower is not a violation of my free will. It’s the simple reality of my nature. The new nature that will be ours in Heaven — the righteousness of Christ — is a nature that cannot sin, any more than a diamond can be soft or blue can be red. God cannot sin, yet no being has greater free choice than God does.

— On whether animals will be in heaven — Adam, Noah and Jesus are the three heads of the three Earths. When Adam was created, God surrounded him with animals. When Noah was delivered from the Flood, God surrounded Him with animals. When Jesus was born, God surrounded Him with animals. When Jesus establishes the renewed Earth, with renewed men and women, don’t you think he’ll surround himself with renewed animals?

— I can’t find his exact quote, but somewhere he says something to this effect — This present world is the closest Christians will ever come to Hell and the closest unbelievers will ever come to heaven.

Recommendation: I gave it a 9 because, over all, it painted a beautiful picture of my future with enough basis on Scripture to convince me it will be even more fantastic than I’ve previously considered. My recommendation is that you read it with discretion, but that you definitely read it.