Biblical Teaching on the Doctrines of Heaven and Hell

  • Tim Challies
  • 09/15/07
  • 5

Biblical Teaching on the Doctrines of Heaven and HellSome books receive titles that are a little bit mysterious, only hinting at what the book contains. There are others that just give it all away in the title. Biblical Teaching on the Doctrines of Heaven and Hell pretty well says it all. Edward Donnelly simply turns to Scripture to see what God says about these important doctrines of heaven and hell.

Heaven is a popular subject at the moment. Randy Alcorn's book Heaven has over 300,000 copies in print and there are another 200,000 Heaven-related products in print with it. I'm quite sure that he would have sold fewer than 3,000 had the book been titled Hell. Don Piper's 90 Minutes in Heaven has sold millions of copies and has been on the New York Times list of bestsellers for months now. For obvious reasons, hell is a less popular topic. Bill Wiese's 23 Minutes in Hell has barely made a splash. We would far rather ponder heaven than hell. And for good reason. But in this book Donnelly dedicates equal time to both subjects.

The first half of the book discusses hell in all its fiery horror; the second part turns to heaven with all its beautiful glory. The first half is difficult to read and weighs heavily on the soul; the second is like a sip of cool water on a hot day. The first terrifies; the second elevates. Donnelly is not given to hyperbole or imagination. He does not present a fictionalized vision of hell that owes more to horror movies or medieval art and imaginings than to the Bible. Rather, he simply relates what the Bible tells us, both explicitly and implicitly, about that awful place. He does so under four alliterated headings: Absolute Poverty, Agonizing Pain, Angry Presence and Appalling Prospect. When, in the second half of the book he turns to heaven, he does not guess what it is like or fall into conjecture about what we will experience there. Instead he relates only what the Bible tells us, reflecting on the fullness of joy that is there and waiting for those who love the Lord.

Though only a short book, weighing in at just 127 pages, Biblical Teaching on the Doctrines of Heaven and Hell still seems to be thorough. This is, I believe, because though the subjects of heaven and hell are mentioned often in the Bible, we do not receive a great deal of detail about them. They are so far beyond our experience that God can only give us glimpses of what they will be like by drawing comparisons to what we know and experience in this life. This is a book that dedicates equal time to both subjects, first allowing the heart and spirit to recoil at the though of hell but then comforting it with the knowledge of heaven. Throughout the book Donnelly is pastoral, often challenging the reader and continually returning to the gospel, ensuring the reader knows that the promises of heaven are given only to those who know the Lord and that the horrors of hell can be avoided by those who will turn to Him. For those interested in doing some reading on the subject matter, this book is a worthwhile investment in both time and money. I recommend it.

You can buy it at Westminster Books or Amazon.

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Comments (5)

1
Anonymous's picture
a comment from matthew lipscomb • 09/15 @ 5:47pm
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Thanks for the review - I may get the book and read it. I have spent some time reading from different perspectives, most notably John Weham’s Facing Hell which was particularly challenging to me. It may seem like backwards logic - but if you take the idea of sola scriptural from a serious standpoint and actually enforce it, then the term “scripture interpreting scripture” takes on serious ramifications, in terms that one cannot weightily say that the verse in Revelations that speaks of the smoke of their suffering going up for ever and ever really means a literal eternity - if the same Holy Spirit gave revelation and inspiration to the author of Genesis when we writes of the destruction of Sodom in terms linguistically identical. I cannot profess a full-bore embracement of an eternality in hell for the lost, I have moved a bit more into the Agnostic camp, that given the scripture, which can speak to both sides of the issue (for a good list go to wikapedia and look up “annialationism”. We Evangelicals need to be careful that we embrace dogmaticism but that we make sure that we remain on a scriptural track with it and admit to both ourselves and those that we teach that on certain issues of scriptural exegesis there are things that may be disagreeable that we once thought were not - and things are are not that we once thought were. The idea of an eternality of Hell is deeply ingrained in the Evangelical conscience, probably even deeper then some Southern Fundamentalist’s idea that Jesus only made and drank grape juice and that wine is the grease to the skids to hell. I am still working it out; but I think that there is a connection between a covert spirit of deception in regards to Gnostic Dualism and it’s affects upon the default apprehension of the nature of the soul and it’s nature under it - and if we start to remove ourselves from under it’s influence there are a lot of things may seem different. Again, I cannot say that I think that someone who believes that hell is forever is wrong - I just, now, cannot say the same about someone who doesn’t. It is my understanding - as a footnote - that Wenham was a respected colleague of J.I. Packer - whom he refers to as Jim Packer; I have not double checked the assumption, but I am pretty sure they were friends and knew and respected each other. Wenham was not a far out flake - he was rock solid and wrote the book that replaced J.Gresham Machen’s book on New Testament Greek. It is my understanding Wenham’s Greek text book (which he did not take full credit for; he claimed to have merely made improvements to another existing work) has been in use in many seminaries for many years. I would encourage others to get the book (Facing Hell) and read it; it is partially autobiographical; and consider the full aspects of interpretations purely based on the Word and not reason or cultural history/interpretive leanings.

Just my two cents…

2
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Brian • 09/15 @ 6:26pm

I appreciate the review. I find it incredibly difficult to accept that anyone, even the most heinous, will burn forever without any hope of relief. I just can’t get my brain around this horrific thought.

3
Anonymous's picture
a comment from Norman • 09/15 @ 6:36pm
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Check out Talbott “The Inescapable Love of God” blogged about here:htthttp://normvissschreef.blogspot.com/2007/08/thomas-talbott.html

4
Anonymous's picture
a comment from shaneeckert • 09/15 @ 8:38pm
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Thanks for another good book to read. Between this site, DR, and Westminster Seminary, I always have great books to read.

5
Anonymous's picture
a comment from David White • 09/16 @ 11:52pm
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I believe this book has its origins in the 8 sermons Pastor Donnelly preached on these subjects at our Southeastern Reformed Baptist Family Conference.

You can listen to/download those sermons at our website: http://www.grbc.net/sermons/special/index.php

(The “Hell” series is from the 1997 conference, and “Heaven” is from 1999).