WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT HEAVEN…
But Were Afraid To Ask
By Catherine Butcher. CWR. 108 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978-1-85345-444-8
Heaven — we all yearn for it, for God ‘has set eternity in the hearts of men’, but what is it exactly? What will it be like? Does it start now, when we become Christians, or is it all in the future?
Catherine Butcher tackles a tricky and often confusing subject in a short, easy-to-read book. She looks at what God has revealed about heaven in his word, and admits that there are many questions that remain unanswered, yet there are patterns, themes and truths in Scripture that we can draw on to help us understand what God wants to teach us about heaven. This is definitely not a treatise of end time theology (thankfully!), but don’t be deceived by the size of the book and the conversational tone; the author has researched thoroughly and covered a great deal of ground. Each of the short chapters asks a question: How, What, Who, Where, and When, and then draws on biblical revelation for an answer. So, what is heaven like? It’s a garden, like Eden and Canaan, but infinitely better. It’s a royal city, like a bejewelled Jerusalem, full of the glory of God and of the Lamb. It’s a coronation and it’s also a victory parade. It’s now and, paradoxically, not yet, and I can’t wait for what is to come!