The final chapter in Scot McKnight's book 'The Heaven Promise' is his own personal statement of belief on heaven. In fact, that's the title: "Why Believe in Heaven? A Personal Statement of Belief."
This is a longer chapter than many of the previous have been, so I will merely list the headings. I realize I am leaving out a lot, but it would be much too long if I didn't.
Scot says the first three reasons he gives are reasons why Christians believe in heaven. Following those are some reasons why humans generally have believed. This is his take:
"Christianity stands or falls with the resurrection of Jesus, and if resurrection teaches us anything, it teaches us that death will not have the final word and that life, eternal life with God in Heaven, is the final word.
Here then are Scot's reasons why he believes in Heaven:
- BECAUSE JESUS AND THE APOSTLES DID
- BECAUSE JESUS WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD
- BECAUSE THE BIBLE DOES
- BECAUSE THE CHURCH ALWAYS HAS
- BECAUSE OF BEAUTY
- BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE DO
- BECAUSE OF DESIRE
- BECAUSE OF JUSTICE
- BECAUSE SCIENCE DOESN'T PROVIDE ALL THE ANSWERS
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IN CONCLUSION -
I hope you have enjoyed - or at least been able to tolerate - the number of posts from this book. I thought it best (for myself) to just blog from one chapter per day, rather than write an overall review of the book. Personally, I found it an extremely good and helpful book. It was easy to read, had a fair amount of stories but as I have found with Scot they were rather brief and to the point, and he covered a lot of ground on an important subject for many people.
I would highly recommend this book for book clubs, small groups, Sunday school classes, or anyone with that's ever wondered about heaven from a biblical perspective. Very solid, in my opinion. Glad I read it!