Why I wrote a book on heaven

On 20 December 2019, the entire family and two friends were present for my son Joel’s final hours. Just a few months earlier, he had been cutting down trees on our land. Now his body was but a shadow of its former strength. A number of medical staff stayed, because they had never experienced a death like it. There were blessings over Joel’s children, prayers, and then as his father, I had the privilege of declaring the last scriptures. As the last scripture left my lips, his last breath left his. There was the last holding of his rapidly cooling hands, the last kisses for the one we had all loved. As I laid my head against his beard, still slightly warm, troubling questions were already forming.

David Oliver

Where did my son go? What is he doing? How did he get there?

Why is there so little written about present heaven, and why do so few Christians want to talk about it? And when they do, why don’t they have much enthusiasm for the prospect of going there?

All these questions and many more, rolled over and over in my mind, and I needed to find some answers.

Writing a Book on Heaven

Writing is not a new discipline to me. I have written more than fourteen books in the last forty years, but this book has been strangely different. I was apprehensive about what I would discover; nervous because, having just lost my best friend, somehow this had an emotional as well as an intellectual importance. Where is my son? The answer, inevitably, is so deeply important to me, so painfully important that I was afraid of what I might find out about his current location and his current activities. I have to admit, the early months of research felt a little like being on a rubber ring at the mercy of a fast-flowing current of anxiety.

I made a commitment to a friend to face this head on, and whatever the discoveries from the pages of scripture, I committed to write them. This book All About Heaven is the result.

All About Heaven - the book

Find out more about the All About Heaven book

1 comment

  • Thankyou Dave for writing such a book that sounds like will answer all my questions! Have always enjoyed listening to you and your introductory video is brilliant. Can’t wait to start reading! Much love to you and Gill

    Alison Casebow

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