This last month at our church we have begun "family nights". Family night is an intergenerational program of our church that focuses on outreach and fellowship. We have a movie night once a month. We have a work night once a month. We have a game night once a month. And we have a book club once a month. Its nothing fancy, but it is a big step for our little church.
Our first book club book is 90 minutes in heaven. It is a book about one man's experience of dying in a car accident for 90 minutes, being resussitated through prayer, and recovering from the injuries of the car accident. It is a story about how his faith guided him through his healing process, and how his experience in heaven impacted his ministry as a pastor in the future.
So far, the response to this book has been very positive in our church. People have been excited primarily about the brief outline of what heaven will be like. One octogenarian lady said, "I could not sleep at night. I just kept thinking about what heaven is like."
I have a lot of mixed emotions about this book. And a lot of questions that it created. I enjoyed reading about the man's recovery, the lessons he learned, how he has overcome his disability, and how God has used his heartaches and bone breaks for his glory. It is a great story about what God can do through an open and teachable heart. Depite the occasional corniness and cheesiness of the writing, I thought it was a very heartfelt memoir and testimony.
On the other hand, the actual part about heaven to me was a little disappointing. First of all, the description of heaven was really from the suburbs of heaven, instead of downtown in heaven. He shared how he was greated by a welcoming committee, which sounded like all the people he knew and admired with cosmetic surgery. The pearly gates were really transluscent gates with "pearl like icing--like on a cake". He starts to go through the gates and then in brought back to earth.
He meets the welcoming committee but never encounters Jesus. My friend Becca said, "That sounds like some chuches I have been to!" I laughed when she said this, but it was kind of sad. First of all, because a lot of churches that I have attended are like that. Second, because I think a lot of people are caught up with some pretty shallow things when they think about the afterlife.
Why are we so enamoured with the ammenities and geography of heaven, but then we talk so little about God's eternal presence? Why are we so fixated on the trappings of wealth and power in God's eternal kingdom, and so little focused on God's presence and his love?
Why is there so much focus on heaven being somewhere we go, and so little emphasis on the new heaven and new earth as one kingdom redeemed by God as the pinnacle of our eschatology? Is our view of heaven clouded by our fixation on power and wealth, so much so that we forget the themes of shalom and redemption?
These are the things I am struggling with. I have no doubt about the honesty of this man's experience. I am just not sure if I trust it as concrete reality, or as more of a vision he recieved in a semi-conscious state.
7 comments:
I have seen this book and considered buying it. After reading your review, I am still on the fence as to whether to buy it or not. Considering I am much simpler minded than you - maybe I would like it?
I got this book for my mom (not a Christian) for Christmas. I read it before I gave it to her, and I was also a bit disppointed that he never made it past the gates! I thought the book might be more about heaven, but it was more about his healing process, which is good, but my mother really is into the afterlife episodes, so I had been hoping for more of that. She said she read it and she liked it but she found it 'repetitive'.
What I found interesting was that he said that in heaven you don't miss the people that aren't there. Which is a bit hard if there are people you love but they aren't there, do you really just forget them to wash away the pain. Or maybe he was talking about not missing people who haven't arrived yet.
@michelle--It is a good read. Just don't base your world view on it. It is about a Southern Baptist in Texas, so you will relate to it I think.
@aphra--or maybe he wasn't really in heaven (just the entrance)and really did not know what heaven was like completely.
Years ago there was a book by a woman that had, I believe, cerebral palsy and went to heaven shortly. I don't remember everything about the book. Her experience was suppose to be real,but her experience was different than his. She had a house/room with her favorite parts of life. . . flowers maybe. Anyway, books like this give one much to think about. I believe as humans is natural to think about heaven in a material sense - as humans, we need something tangible.
Having been subjected to the left behind type videos in high school, movies that, for me produced fear, not joy in God, I decided long ago to attempt to think more about Heaven in the light of being with God. I believe whatever Heaven is, it will be greater than anything we ever imagined, dreamed of etc.
I will have to check out the book.
A book I was on the fence about was the Shack. I read it as fiction, and enjoyed it and it stirred in me thought and more to ponder about the trinity and how I should be relating to God. This book sounds like it may be similar in that it provokes an inquisitiveness that keeps us looking to God and our walk with Him.
I just love reading your insights, dear Friar. I am blessed to know you, be encouraged and challeged by you. Thanks! It also gives me hope in the body of Christ. We aren't all just believing everything we read and hear from 'famous' sources.
I read this book about a year ago. I had mixed feelings, but I think about his experience all the time.
I was skeptical. I've read so many books since then, I can't remember why. But skeptical was how I felt at the time.
And he came across kind of whinny.
My mom read it, too. It sounds like a book from The Oprah. But I do trust Piper over The Oprah.
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