Recommended Books: on Death and Heaven

This past Sunday evening, I mentioned several resources which I’ve found helpful in thinking through death and the afterlife. Here they are.

Books on Dying Well

• Farewell to My Friends by Adolph Monod — He was called "the Spurgeon of France" on account of his powerful gospel preaching. When death drew near, Monod gathered his closest friends to his bedside and shared a final series of lessons. These were written down and collected into Farewell to My Friends. You can read it online for free or purchase the book from Amazon.

Books on heaven

• (My top pick) The Happiness of Heaven by Maurice Roberts is a sound, scriptural, and practical look at what heaven is like by a Reformed pastor. It skirts most of the unknowable questions and focuses on the joys we can count on.

• We Shall See God by Charles Spurgeon (edited by Randy Alcorn). This is a 50-unit devotional based on the always-enriching writings of the aforementioned C. H. Spurgeon.

• Heaven by Randy Alcorn. This popular book by a contemporary Evangelical author is sizable but easy to read. Its only significant fault is that sometimes Alcorn veers into speculation (he’s confident we’ll play basketball in glory). But I don’t recall anything really problematic.

Finally, the author whose son recently passed, who I said is like a mentor to me, is Tim Challies:

• Here’s the post where he first announced Nick’s death.

• For a solid devotional type book, Run to Win is worthwhile.

• For a Christian perspective on productivity, see Do More Better.

• His Visual Theology Guides are super interesting to look through, especially for ages 13-20. Both are in the church library.

• The easiest place to go just might be his website: https://www.challies.com/. Every day, Tim posts an A La Carte with fresh links to resources he scours from around the Web, including news and Christian articles, as well as sales on books. And every day he posts one article of his own. Always edifying.

O. Palmer Robertson on the Duty of Celebration

This past Sunday, I mentioned the book of Nahum. To whet your appetite for this often overlooked prophet, here's an excerpt from O. Palmer Robertson's excellent commentary on the book of Nahum:

Perhaps a certain element of duty is involved in the summons to celebration. It is an obligation of God’s people to render a full round of thanksgiving for their rescue from misery.

In concrete terms, Israel’s three annual festivals and their new covenant counterparts might be considered as the natural vehicles by which God’s people may give expression to their continuing joy in salvation.

The Passover meal, which finds its NT counterpart in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, reminds that the Death Angel has “passed over” because of the substitutionary blood of the Lamb. All the power of the ultimate enemy has been destroyed.

The festival of Pentecost, which corresponds to the new covenant reality of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, celebrates the newness and fulness of life freely given to the redeemed. The fruit of the Spirit in a person’s daily experience provides continual cause for celebration.

The harvest festival of Booths reminds of the abundance of provision that God makes for his people, even as they continue along their pilgrim pathway. A plentiful harvest in a context of humble tent dwelling combines images that define the contrasting sides of current reality. If they will accept both these facts of redemptive life, God’s people by faith shall be enabled to celebrate continually the goodness of the Lord despite numerous constraints. [...]

The Christian gospel provides the fullest possible framework for permanent celebration of victory. Death has lost its sting. The believer has died to sin. The loss of all material possessions can be only temporary, and soon will be replaced with the permanence of the new heavens and the new earth. Celebration by keeping the vows of the Christian life is always in order.

Pastors' Picks: (Theistic) Evolution

Here are resources addressing arguments for and against evolution, including theistic evolution, which posits God created human beings by guiding the evolutionary process.

Note: In accord with the Three Forms of Unity, I believe God created historical Adam by uniquely fashioning his form from inert dust and breathing life into him, not from pre-existing organisms. 

Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. 
Edited by J. P. Moreland, Stephen C. Meyer, et al.

Featuring two dozen highly credentialed scientists, philosophers, and theologians from Europe and North America, this volume provides the most comprehensive critique of theistic evolution yet produced. It documents evidential, logical, and theological problems with theistic evolution, opening the door to scientific and theological alternatives—making the book essential reading for understanding this worldview-shaping issue.

Crossway | Amazon