Books that Changed my Life

Some people have asked me what books I’d recommend, so here’s a list of them!

Most of these books are by theologians and scholars apart from Gerry Beauchemin, who was a YWAM missionary, Dr. Melvin Morse, a pediatrician and neuroscientist and Dr. Raymond Moody, a psychologist and medical doctor.

1. The journey that took me from believing in an eternal hell to Christian Universalism all started with the book, ‘Shades of Sheol: Death and Afterlife in the Old Testament’ by Philip Johnston.  I learned that Israelites were quite agnostic about what happened after death and did not have a firm belief in either heaven or hell.  A summary of the belief would be:

Ecclesiastes 3: 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

9:2 All share a common destiny–the righteous and the wicked… The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead… 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave (Sheol), where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

From there, I thought if the Israelites did not believe in an eternal hell, then should Christians (seeing that our faith is based on the fulfillment of the Israelite hope)?

2. Once I read ‘Christian Thought Revisited’ by the church historian, Justo Gonzalez, I realised that Early Church orthodoxy varied in what they believed about salvation, the Bible and even the purpose of Jesus.  I realised that maybe the Evangelical way, based on Protestant (and therefore Roman Catholic) thought may not be the only way of looking at things.

At this point I shifted from believing in Eternal Hell to believing in Conditional Immortality and Annihilation.

3. After reading ‘Unity and Diversity in the New Testament‘ by James Dunn, it was evident that even the authors of the New Testament itself did not necessarily believe the same things.  If this was the case, then we can all be allowed some leeway in what we believe as Christians.

4. Once I read some of the quotes of the church fathers, and learned that the Greek word aion was age-long rather than eternal, I started to change my views.  This is explained in the book ‘Hope Beyond Hell’ by Gerry Beauchemin, a copy of which you can download from http://www.hopebeyondhell.net/.

5. The influential theologian, Jurgen Moltmann wrote a book called ‘The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology’ who writes about the different forms of Christian Universalism.  This helped me see that not only the Early Church Fathers but also the world’s greatest theologians seem to believe in Universal Reconciliation.

However, it still took some months after I finished my first year in Biblical & Intercultural Studies that I was able to swallow Universalism since I was training to be a missionary and convert the world!  After a couple of supernatural experiences, I realised that no one could truly be blamed for what they believed, and seeing as this seemed to be popular in the Early Church as well as recent theology, I decided to go for it and become a Christian Universalist!

6. The book ‘Surprised by Hope’ by NT Wright again re-emphasized the point that a post-mortem Heaven was not the point of Jesus Christ. (even though Wright is no Universalist).

7. The books ‘Closer to the Light’ by Dr. Melvin Morse and ‘Life after Life’ by Dr. Raymond Moody, describes the Near Death Experience of those they have examined.  These people have all literally died and have been resuscitated.  This showed me that God seems to do a lot of weird things that many Christians may not have an answer for.

8. The book ‘Jesus and the Victory of God’ by NT Wright, really showed me how Jesus’ predictions that many Christians believe are a future post-mortem Judgment actually refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD.  This is one of the best books on the purpose of Jesus based on the cultural context of 1st Century Israel.

9. Once I read ‘Misquoting Jesus’ by Bart Ehrman, I saw what had been added to the Bible by later scribes, and why they did so.  It again reconfirmed my belief that perhaps none of us should be too dogmatic about what we believe.  Only God knows the Absolute Truth…all of us only know partially, and will only know fully once we all meet each other again on the other side of death.

10. At present, I am reading ‘The Meaning of Jesus’ by Marcus Borg and NT Wright – this is a debate between the leading Conservative and Liberal scholars and historians about who Jesus was, what he came to do, and what the gospel is.  Both highlight the importance of the context of 1st century Israel, and both believe that Jesus is God, but they have radically different ways of interpreting the Gospel.

All of these books finally led me to the place where I believe that all of the references to Gehenna in the Bible refer to either the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and/or a temporary corrective punishment for the wicked.  Hope they help!

Tags: books, universalism, evangelical, Hell, Heaven