Daniel Brown: What the Bible Reveals About Heaven
Daniel A. Brown, What the Bible Reveals About Heaven: Answers to Your Questions (Ventura, CA: Regal, 1999), 239 pages.
I know Dan Brown. He had recently left the staff at Church on the Way when I joined that group sixteen years ago. In the years since then, I have watched him establish and grow a fine church in Aptos, California. If I remember correctly Dan’s Ph.D. from UCLA is in English, and his skills in that field are evident when you read one of his books.
His most recent is a pleasant and well-reasoned treatise about Heaven. Dan takes the reader through eight steps which provide a straightforward description of most of aspects of our eternal destiny or reward. While it is written to a wide audience, I think pastors will enjoy it. It answers many of the everyday questions that seem to haunt someone in ministry.
Here are examples of those questions: Will my dog go to Heaven? What will Heaven be like? Do we have guardian angels? What about near death experiences—are they real or reliable? Where is Heaven anyhow? What will we do there? Will we recognize our loved ones and friends? Will I be able to sing in Heaven (I can’t here)? What kind of relationship will we have with our enemies in Heaven (Not that any of us have an enemy that might make it to Heaven and surprise us there by popping up one unexpected moment)?
Dan starts by recalling his own experiences with death, and his grappling with its meaning and reality. Each of us has gone through similar situations personally dealing with death nearby and even the more distant shock and grief of events like the Oklahoma City bombing, the massacre at Columbine High, and the attacks on the World Trade Center. Few have bothered to write down how they have developed a theology or understanding death. Some of us even try desperately to escape such thoughts and grief. Try as we might, none of us can really escape dealing with the reality of death. Dan calls this Eternity in our heart, something the Bible says God has placed in all of us.
In a personable, story-telling style, Dan goes on to teach about Heaven, where it is and who lives there. This is followed by a discussion on the supernatural and how that world affects us here in the natural. Then he gets into death and what it is like to be dead, our life in that state—the place called Heaven. He also has a chapter about the new Heavens and earth, and since Dan is dispensational in his theology, much of his thoughts are framed in that dimension.
Category: Biblical Studies, Winter 2002
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