A new year brings a new way to talk about an old subject, heaven. Men, women, and children have shared their stories and imaginations about what heaven is like. Many have claimed that they have been to heaven and back. The Bible gives us much information about heaven. Yet, we still wonder what heaven will be like. Some wonder if heaven really exists.

Scot McKnight has taken a fresh approach to heaven and uses the Bible as his authority. He writes that Heaven is Gods promise. I had never thought of Heaven as a promise, but, rather, a fact.

Herein lies the difference, McKnight writes that the first heaven (lowercase) is the undisclosed, hidden reality of the presence of God and the final Heaven (uppercase) is the disclosed, visible reality of the presence of God on earth. (p. 45) In other words, when a Christian dies, McKnight writes that the Christian goes to the first heaven, which can be compared to moving into a dormitory, and when the Christian moves to the final Heaven (the new Heaven), its like moving home.

Im thinking about that. If God created the heavens and the earth, if God is perfect, if God is holy, then His dwelling place is perfect and holy magnificent beyond our imaginations. Indeed, God will create a new heaven and new earth, and it will be splendid and different. Jesus promised His disciples that He was going to prepare a dwelling place for them and He would return to get them.

Im struggling with the idea that God presently dwells in a lesser heaven than He will in the future. Presently, I think that it is just as splendid, just different.

Although we have little information about the Holy Spirit in heaven, I would have liked to have read about an additional promise about heaven: The Holy Spirit will be the Holy Spirit.

Clearly, since the Holy Spirit is a member of the triune God, he will be present for all eternity, no doubt taking an active role in the creation and among Gods people. However, the Bible doesnt specifically answer the question of exactly what His role will be. (Randy Alcorn)

McKnight answers questions that are commonly asked about heaven, questions like the validity of near-death experiences, pets in heaven, and children who die.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. Revelation 21:1

The new Heaven is McKnights Heaven Promise, and the resurrection of Jesus is the heart of the Heaven Promise. (p. 15) Jesus is the focus for Christians, isnt He? His work, His sacrifice, His death, His resurrection, His coming again.

There is a way to die that I call standing in the empty tomb upon the promise of the resurrection and looking forward into the great beyond with hope. (p. 52)

This sentence was precious to me. In 2014, I watched my Mama stand in the empty tomb, focused and peacefully waiting to step from the tomb into the Light. In that empty tomb, she waited in great expectation, sometimes smiling.

McKnight explores six promises about heaven:

God will be God

Jesus will be Jesus

Heaven will be the Utopia of Pleasures

Heaven will be Eternal Life

Heaven will be an Eternal Global Fellowship

Heaven will be an Eternal Beloved Community

Traditional expectations are challenged in "The Heaven Promise: Engaging the Bibles Truth About Life to Come," and McKnight identifies Christians as Heaven people. He asks how Heaven people should live in todays world.

This book caused me to rethink some of my ideas about heaven.Thank you, Mr. McKnight.

I received "The Heaven Promise: Engaging the Bibles Truth About Life to Come" from Blogging for Books for this review.

I selected this book because I run into so many people who have questions about heaven. I was hoping that this book would answer their questions Biblically and for the most part it did.

If someone needs their questions answered, I believe this is a good book to get them started. It should inspire them to seek the Bible to see what God has to say about the subject of heaven. But I believe ultimately, we just have to trust God to know that yes, there is a heaven, you can only go there through salvation in Jesus Christ and yes, there are some questions or concerns we will not know the answer to until we get there. i.e. pets in heaven

I would recommend this book as a good starting point to discussions on heaven in your study/life groups.

I received this book for free from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group. for

There are plenty of books out on Heaven currently. This is one among them. Scot Mcknight is a talented writer. His book is interesting to read. I can agree with much of what he said, if I give him the benefit of the doubt in some areas.

The difficulty I have with Christian books is that I look for books that will add value to the Christian's library. In the world of Christian books, I read works of scholarly endeavor, and works for the laymen. In those two groups I apply the same standard, "Does this book rise above the current crop and add value to my library?" Both categories are flooded, and in my opinion encumbered by copious amounts of average to damaging works. Every once in awhile I run into a book that does add value to my library. I heartily recommend those books. In the laymen's category, I loved, "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. I also loved, "The Holiness of God" by R. C. Sproul. In the scholastic category, I relished, "Evangelical Influences" by J. I. Packer. Books like those don't come around often.

To answer the question formulating in your mind, "Nope, this isn't one of them." Like I said above, "Scot Mcknight is a talented writer." Unfortunately, this book just sets in the middle of the field. This book was not aimed at scholars. It was aimed at the average Christian. It kept things pretty simple. It is obvious that Scott leans a little to the left theologically. He seems like, "emergent lite." He obviously thinks Calvinists are wrong. (Read page 174) He quotes John Henry Newman and Richard Foster. One is a Roman Catholic, and the other is an emergent Church mystic. He makes speculations based on only four options expressed by Jerry Walls, about how God ensures that everyone, even the dead get to hear the gospel. He does this without ever really presenting the gospel. The four presupposed options are severely lacking. This is done on pages 160, 161.

In Chapter 23 he claims purgatory is a doctrine that has divided the Church. To that I can only shake my head in astonishment. Unless, in his horrible ecumenism he thinks the Roman Catholic Church is part of the catholic faith, he is including them as Christian. It also seems that he is teaching that we do things for an eternal reward primarily. He fails to teach that we should be doing things primarily for the glory of God. We know that there are rewards for us in Heaven, but that should not be our primary motivation for doing things that are pleasing to God. He also seems to place an undue amount of importance on the environment. I don't know if he understands that God is going to destroy the world with fire. He tends to speculate where scripture is silent.

So if you are looking for a book on Heaven, that will add value to your library, purchase, "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn instead. "The Heaven Promise" by Scot McKnight is just mediocre. It has some problems. It gets some stuff right, but ultimately it is just o.k.