HEAVEN & HELL

In a profoundly personal and theologically rich exploration, Rubel Shelly invites readers into a deeply human conversation about eternity. In a book written at his dying wife’s request, he shares some of their conversations as he and Myra tried to visualize what she was about to experience.

A biblical view of Heaven strengthens faith, makes hope more genuine, and embraces God’s love for us. Combining scholarship, pastoral experience, personal grief over Myra’s death, and confident hope in God’s promises, you are invited to become a conversation partner with them about what lies ahead.

This book challenges you to see Heaven not as escape, but as renewal. Not as some ethereal place “beyond the azure blue,” but as the fulfillment of God’s original purpose for this planet and our mission as people in his image.

With biblical clarity and personal grace, Rubel Shelly explores what the Bible says about Hell. Reasoning that its symbolism and apocalyptic language are properly read in light of Scripture’s narrative language—rather than the reverse—he explains the textual evidence and logic that combine to require rethinking the views of Augustine,
Jonathan Edwards, and many contemporary evangelists.

The God of Holy Scripture is holy and just, and the judgment of sin must not be compromised. That same God is also love and grace, and his just wrath is not the merciless torture of bloodthirsty pagan deities—the image of eternal conscious torment that drives people away from the Christian gospel. How, then, should we understand what the Bible says about Hell?

God honors human choice and allows each of us to decide.