Honestly, I feel guilty giving this book 1 star!

To begin with, it is quite true that heaven is a place of perfect bliss—devoid of all sorrow and sin, full of exultation and enjoyment—a place where grace and peace reign totally unchallenged. Heaven is where every true treasure and every eternal reward is laid up for the redeemed. Anyone whose destiny is heaven will certainly experience more joy and honor there than the fallen mind is capable of comprehending—infinitely more than any fallen creature deserves. But if you actually saw heaven and lived to tell about it, those things are not what would capture your heart and imagination.

Now, my question is, it the biblical Heaven recounted in this book, or not? The short answer is a big NO! The Stories presented in this book are dangerous as they are seductive. Readers not only get a twisted, unbiblical picture of heaven; they also imbibe a subjective, superstitious, shallow brand of spirituality. Studying mystical accounts of supposed journeys into the afterlife yields nothing but confusion, contradiction, false hope, bad doctrine, and a host of similar evils. They sound as if they viewed paradise in a mirror, keeping themselves in the foreground. They say comparatively little about God or His glory. But the glory of God is what the Bible says fills, illuminates, and defines heaven. Instead, the authors of these stories seem obsessed with details like how good they felt—how peaceful, how happy, how comforted they were; how they received privileges and accolades; how fun and enlightening their experience was; and how many things they think they now understand perfectly that could never be gleaned from Scripture alone. In short, they glorify self while barely noticing God’s glory. They highlight everything but what’s truly important about heaven.

There is simply no reason to believe anyone who claims to have gone to heaven and returned. John 3:13 says, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” And John 1:18 says, “No one has seen God at any time.” Not one biblical person ever gave any recorded account of his or her postmortem experience in the realm of departed souls.

It is, however, right and beneficial for Christians to fix their hearts on heaven. Scripture commands us to cultivate that perspective: (Colossians 3:1–2; 2 Corinthians 4:18); Philippians 3:20). Such a perspective is the very essence of true faith, according to Hebrews 11. It will be the eternal abode of the redeemed. No wonder Christians are intrigued with the subject.

But no matter how much they might obsess over what heaven is like, people who fill their heads with a lot of fantastic or delusional ideas from others’ near-death experiences have not truly set their minds on things above. If the inerrant biblical truth God has given us is the only reliable knowledge about heaven we have access to (and it is), then that is what should grip our hearts and minds, not the dreams and speculations of human minds.

P.S. Additional quotations from some sermons by Pastor John MacArthur on Heaven.

Author and pastor John Burke's Imagine Heaven is a bit dry at the start as the author carefully lays the premise of NDE's and heaven. As his book moves forward the writing perks up and becomes more interesting.

I do love his elegant explanation of John 3:16 found in chapter 11 and how this verse explains how NDErs experience compassion rather than condemnation during their experience.

I noted, and loved, how the author placed a chapter concerning pets at the end of his book. Any pet lover would read to the end of the book (or some may cheat and that's written with a smile) to read whether their pets will be found in heaven. I liked his explanation which I will not divulge here as I would love to have people buy his book.

If you are looking for a book that offers hope and joy, I would highly recommend reading Imagine Heaven.

Recommend.