Healing Hereafter

Part 1: Where Am I Taking You?

Chapter 1
The Strategy

Chapter 2
The Setup

Part 2: I Love It When a Plan Comes Together!

Chapter 3
Why is the biblical God a trinity, and why does he have a perfect nature that
never changes?

Chapter 4
Why did God create the universe, and how did he create humans in his image,
making us unique among all living things on earth?

Chapter 5
What is God’s purpose for humans, why did he create us with free will and
the ability to exist forever, and why are humans able to reject this purpose?
What exactly is sin, why must it be punished and have consequences, and
why are these consequences suffering, death, and hell?

Chapter 6
Precisely how can Jesus eliminate the consequences of sin, and why were his
death and resurrection necessary?
Can any other solutions to sin logically remove its consequences, and is it
possible, sensible, or necessary for God to offer any solution besides Jesus?

Part 3: The Ultimate Publicity Stunt

Chapter 7
Does God ever allow humans to go to hell without them understanding the
gospel, or does he give everyone a fair opportunity to know and believe in
the solution of Jesus?

Chapter 8
Does God ever allow humans to go to heaven without them understanding
the gospel, and how is the eternal fate of those who die in the womb or as
children decided?

Chapter 9
Why do humans without meaningful access to the gospel, particularly
those who die very young or with chronic mental disabilities, need salvation
from sin at all?
What exactly is a sinful nature, and why would a human have one?

Chapter 10
Does God give everyone a fair opportunity to know and believe in the gospel
before they die?
Is the rejection by humans of a general revelation of God (through physical
creation and human conscience) logical and just grounds to be consigned to
hell, or must they specifically know and reject the solution of Jesus?

Chapter 11
What happens to humans immediately after they die?
Are there humans in hell or heaven right now, and why or why not?

Chapter 12
Are there biblical examples of humans who have been to heaven, and would
they confirm the presence of humans there now?

Chapter 13
Are there biblical examples of humans who seemed destined to go to heaven
immediately after they died, and do they confirm the presence of humans
there now?

Chapter 14
Is there only one time or more than one times humans are judged by God in
regard to their eternal fate?
When does such judgment take place, why does it occur when it does, and
what does that confirm regarding the presence of humans in either hell or
heaven right now?

Chapter 15
Where exactly do the unsaved and the saved go immediately after they die?
What does the Bible tell us these places are like, why are they necessary, and
how do they relate to the eternal fates of these humans?

Chapter 16
Where exactly do humans who didn’t have meaningful access to the gospel
during physical life go immediately after they die, what does the Bible tell
us this place is like, how is it fair, and how does it relate to the eternal fates
of these humans?
Is the acceptance by humans of a general revelation of God (through physical
creation and human conscience) logical and just grounds to be allowed
into heaven, or must they specifically know and accept the solution of Jesus?

Part 4: Yes, I Gotta Have Faith, Ooooo, I Gotta Have Faith

Chapter 17
Can human free will play any effective role in salvation if God knows beforehand who will be saved or who will not?
Are the sovereignty, nature, and purposes of God better upheld if he chooses who is saved or not or if he voluntarily restricts his involvement in the salvation process to allow human free will to effectively play a role?

Chapter 18
What does God predestine or have foreknowledge of and why?
Where the Bible speaks of predestination and salvation, does God ever predestine humans to an eternity in hell, does he ever predetermine specifically which individuals will be saved or not, and does he consistently emphasize an essential role for free-willed human faith in the salvation process or not?

Chapter 19
Precisely what must humans have faith in and why does God require that
particular faith?
How is that faith applied to the solution of Jesus, how is God’s involvement
in this application active and necessary while leaving human free will intact
and necessary as well, and why isn’t the salvation that results one that
humans have earned or can take credit for?

Part 5: The King of Spring

Chapter 20
Why are being indwelt with the Holy Spirit, establishing a growing relationship
with God, and increasingly persisting in good deeds all necessary parts of God’s salvation process for humans?
How does this process progress from start to finish, and how are human
faith and God’s work both essential to the entire process?

Chapter 21
Can humans lose their salvation, and are people who abandon Christianity
still saved?
Can humans be assured of their salvation or have it objectively proven to
them while still physically alive?

Chapter 22
How do humans accomplish the increasingly persistent good deeds associated
with salvation, and what are the purposes of these deeds?
What is the purpose of evangelism if there is a safety net for those without
meaningful access to the gospel during physical life, and what does
the hypocrisy of Christians confirm about the validity of Christianity to
skeptics?

Chapter 23
Did God ever intend for there to be human sin and suffering, and
does he desire to maintain either of them for any reason?
What are the true origins of human sin and suffering, what are God’s
many responses to them, and how do the answers to both of these
questions solve the paradox of such a good God allowing such great
suffering?

Part 6: Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, but Words Will Never Hurt Me

Chapter 24
Does everyone eventually go to the biblical heaven, and can we generally
predict who goes there or how they get there?

Chapter 25
In the New Testament, what does “forever” really mean, and what can it
confirm about the biblical hereafter?

Chapter 26
If the biblical hell exists and is eternal, do people reside there forever or
eventually cease to exist?

Chapter 27
In the Old Testament, what does “forever” really mean, and what can it
confirm about the biblical hereafter?

Chapter 28
Regardless how long hell exists, can people ever leave there to go to heaven,
and will they desire or try to upon entering hell?

Chapter 29
What is the biblical origin of hell, and how did the Bible’s original audience
understand and describe it?

Part 7: Beyond the Point of No Return

Chapter 30
How would warnings of coming wrath and judgment throughout the Bible
have been interpreted by its original audience, and do they actually refer to
hell or to more immediate or temporary outcomes?
Is one of hell’s purposes to correct or restore people to make it possible for
them to go to heaven?

Chapter 31
Does God give every hell-bound human, even the most evil ones, a chance
to be restored to heaven, and if so, does this opportunity occur before or
after their arrival in hell?

Chapter 32
When God promises people restoration throughout the Bible, is escaping
hell to go to heaven a type of this restoration, or do these promises refer to
significantly different kinds of restoration?

Chapter 33
If people can leave hell to enter heaven, is there any convincing reason during
this life to adopt the Bible’s urgency in doing the good it teaches, to submit
to God’s high moral standards, or to believe the solution of Jesus is the
only way to be saved?

Part 8: Having Your Cake and Eating It Too

Chapter 34
Can heaven stay perfectly free of sin and suffering if free-willed beings exist
there forever, and if so, how?

Chapter 35
Would hell last forever simply because God or the Bible says so and it’s too
great a mystery to understand why?
Is the ability for the inhabitants of hell to exercise the faith that initiates
salvation removed there, and why or why not?

Chapter 36
Why would hell have to last forever, does God want it to last forever, and
how are the answers to these questions reconciled by the accomplishment of
God’s purpose for creating humans?

Chapter 37
Once in heaven, will humans be able remember their existence before that
time without experiencing suffering, and why or why not?
What are the reasons the belief that humans will remember their pre-heaven
lives is so prevalent among Christians, and are they valid?

Chapter 38
Are suffering and the memory of suffering truly distinct entities, and
how could we remember or observe loved ones—or any humans—in hell
without suffering in heaven?
Is there any way in heaven to remove our painful or inaccurate pre-heaven
memories while keeping the rest of our pre-heaven memories meaningfully intact and purposeful?

Chapter 39
Does a heaven where we remember our previous life make it easier or harder
to make sense of the Bible to others and to address our own doubts about
God’s goodness and reliability?
Are the experiences and details of our life on earth continuously transferred
to the afterlife, in which postmortem places does such continuity exist or
not, and why is the resulting hereafter the best one for humans?

Chapter 40
Will humans recognize or remember people they know on earth in the biblical
heaven?
Would humans recognize or remember people they know on earth in a logical
heaven, and would they truly want to or not?

Chapter 41
How can we most accurately determine what the biblical New Earth (i.e.
heaven) will be like?
Will the current earth continuously become the New Earth, or will this
planet come to a final end before God creates a completely New Earth?

Chapter 42
How do our emotional desires about heaven limit how accurately we
understand it and how optimal it can be?
Is it more biblical and logical for the New Earth to be the best the current earth could possibly be, or a place that transcends some constraints
of, but also some familiarity with, the current earth?

Chapter 43
In what ways does human sin affect non-human creation?
Does this creation need to be saved along with humans, how would the
solution of Jesus accomplish that, and what does that confirm about how
non-human creation is restored on the New Earth?

Chapter 44
Can the current earth undergo meaningful, continuous restoration if it must
first be rendered unrecognizably damaged, and does God more victoriously
get his way if this planet becomes the New Earth or if it meets a final end?
If the current earth continuously persists as heaven, how could this occur
with equal familiarity for humans from different time periods or for non-humans who never primarily resided here?

Chapter 45
How much continuity or similarity will human bodies exhibit between
physical life and heaven, and what can Jesus’ resurrected body confirm
about what our bodies will be like there?
Will relationship dynamics, particularly concerning marriage, sex, and
childbearing, be continuous in the biblical heaven or not, and how does
that result in a more optimal eternal existence there?

Chapter 46
Upon entering a continuous heaven, precisely what might a person’s experience be like, and is this the heaven that God would create or that humans would consider perfect and best?

Chapter 47
Upon entering a discontinuous heaven, precisely what might a person’s experience be like, and is this the heaven that God would create or that humans would consider perfect and best?

Chapter 48
If the ideal New Earth is a place of eternal, perfect community with God
where its inhabitants can freely choose to do anything except sin, then why
didn’t God just create the current earth to be that way?
What is the primary purpose of human life on this earth, and how can such
an existence only make sense within the framework of the biblical hereafter?

Part 9: Where Are You Taking You?

Chapter 49
The Synopsis

Chapter 50
The Send-off

Appendix A
History in Physical

Appendix B
Your Fast-food Option

Notes