Randy C. Alcorn

Jake is a journalist who commonly slams conservative Christians, but when he and his best friends Doc and Finney get into a car accident, and he receives an anonymous note saying it wasn't an accident, he begins to rethink his attitude

Deadline

Celeste Richardson

This is my third time reading this book, and it was just as impactful to my faith as the first time I read it. It amazes me that this book was written over 20 years ago, because it feels like it could have been written last week. The hot button issues dividing America are largely the same today as those debated within this book. I found Alcorn’s handling of the topics to be respectful in all instances while still making evident his conservative leanings. While hate was mentioned in the story and shown in the lives of some characters, it was evident that the author was not promoting or in any way supporting said hatred. The beliefs of Christians are supposed to come from a place of love, even when we firmly disagree, and that was shown well here.

The novel starts with three best friends in a horrible accident that claims the lives of two of them. One of the friends goes to heaven, one to hell, and one remains on earth, trying to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. My favorite element of the book by far is one character’s experiences in heaven. Alcorn played a huge role in shaping my view of heaven when I first read this book in high school. His theories all feel very theologically sound to me based on the Scriptures we have regarding heaven; they are simply more fleshed out. While we obviously can’t know for certain what heaven will be like until we get there, I think Alcorn’s version is the closest I’ve come across in fiction. I have highlighted so heavily in the heaven scenes that almost entire pages are yellow. This is actually a book I sometimes flip back through simply to read the highlighted parts, which is something I rarely do with any book.

I do have to say that this book is not for everyone. It can come across as very preachy (the author is a preacher, after all), and is unapologetically ultraconservative. The plot also feels like it was almost an afterthought, and is merely a platform for Alcorn to express his beliefs on various issues and present his views of heaven and hell. As I went into this book knowing and expecting it to feel like deep Sunday school literature with a plot, I was in no way bothered by this. I know that there are many who would be rubbed the wrong way by this book, but I absolutely love it. It’s a story I’ve gone back to when life was rough, and I found a lot of comfort in it after the death of a loved one and during my husband’s cancer treatments. I can’t wait to see how close Alcorn’s descriptions of heaven are to the real thing!

Deadline

Reviews