Week 1: Introduction — Developing a Theology of Heaven

1.Alcorn argues that our vague, unappealing picture of heaven is not the Bible's picture at all. Before reading this book, how would you have described heaven to someone? What images or ideas came to mind?

2.Alcorn suggests that our failure to think about heaven has practical consequences — that Christians who don't long for heaven tend to be more anxious, more attached to earth, and less motivated to live for God. Do you find that to be true in your own experience? Why or why not?

3.Alcorn distinguishes between the "present Heaven" (where believers go at death) and the "eternal Heaven" or New Earth (our permanent home after the resurrection). Why is this distinction important? Had you thought of heaven this way before?

4.Alcorn says that much of our wrong thinking about heaven comes from sources outside the Bible — Greek philosophy, medieval art, popular culture — rather than from Scripture itself. Can you think of specific images of heaven from movies, songs, or cultural clichés that may have shaped your thinking more than the Bible has?

5.One of Alcorn's foundational moves is to take the physical promises of the Old Testament (land, feasting, dwelling with God) as pointing forward to literal realities in the New Earth, not as metaphors to be spiritualized away. What is at stake in that interpretive choice? Does it seem faithful to you? What objections might someone raise?

6.Alcorn writes that "if we fail to understand the physical nature of heaven, we will fail to understand what Christ's resurrection means." How does the resurrection of Jesus serve as the key to understanding what heaven will be like?

7.What is one question about heaven that you most hope this book will answer? Share it with your group and note it in your journal — you'll return to it in the final week.