The best Christian Death & Grief books: Reddit reviews

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NT Wright (former Anglican Bishop of Durham) has addressed this quite a bit. Here is a shorter treatment. His book Surprised by Hope is fairly accessible yet scholarly.

In summary, the rapture comes from a series of Scriptures strung together from Daniel, 2 Thessalonians, Matthew, and Revelation. None of them are overtly about a bunch of people suddenly going missing while the Earth goes bonkers. Rapture is primarily a Western concept that had a few pockets of belief until it was popularized in the 19th century. It has never been embraced by Catholics, Orthodox, Methodists, Anglicans, and other major denominations.

Most of what Scripture suggests about the future is centered around the Resurrection, which is overtly discussed in multiple places. Wright suggests Resurrection is the great hope of Christianity.

That's just terrible. Those are some spiritually immature people.

Personally, I found this article to be an excellent explanation of what a truly Christian response to suffering needs to be, instead of the cruel Bible-thumping that happened to you. It's also been extended into a book, Doors of the Sea.

While not bishops anymore I would still strongly recommend looking into N. T. Wright and John Shelby Spong. Specifically, I would check out Surprised by Hope (Wright) and Liberating the Gospels (Spong).

Again, both are no longer bishops but once were and today remain influential contemporary figures in the Church.

In addressing the problem of pain and suffering consider checking out the following video by Fr Mike Schmitz.

Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen? https://youtu.be/0NOTU1g0Z8w

Additionally, there is the book A Grief Observed by former atheist C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity is also excellent) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060652381/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_QNNCE1F1SS0SDB5YVM7Z

Lastly, Making Sense Out of Suffering by Dr Peter Kreeft (professor of Philosophy at Boston College).

I would suggest Bart Ehrman's book God's Problem: The Bible Fails to Answer our Most Important Question -- Why We Suffer. I don't like the title of the book. It is really pretty misleading. The book talks at length about the answers the Bible gives. But then Ehrman dissects the reasons and finds them lacking.

I would read it apart from your friend, and don't use it to try to deconvert them. But I think the book is a pretty good book to give an atheist insights into how Christians use the Bible. Also, if your friend does have a loss you might be able to draw on some of the insights from the book.

Here is a link to Amazon. It isn't an affiliate link. The book is only $12.99 right now in paperback.

> Ehrman's The New Testament (amazon link) is one of the more widely used. Ehrman is very much on the "critical" end of critical scholarship, to the extent that his studies led to the weakening and eventual loss of his faith.

Ehrman says it was the problem of suffering rather than his scholarship which led him to become an agnostic with strong leanings towards atheism. See God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer

When my mom had cancer, I prayed every day that God would heal her. When she found out the cancer had spread to her liver, she told me to stop praying for healing and to start praying that it would be swift. It was hard for me, but I did as she asked and she died 3 weeks later. Cancer is awful. But God is greater and the good news is that this life is not all there is. We have an eternity to spend in heaven with Christ and the suffering will fade as the joy increases.

If your friend is open to it, suggest that he/she read Revelation 21. It describes heaven in detail and may provide hope.

Randy Alcorn's book on heaven is also really good. https://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Alcorn-Randy-ebook/dp/B000FCKCJC

You bet - maybe you'd enjoy this book by NT Wright:.

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

https://www.amazon.com/Surprised-Hope-Rethinking-Resurrection-Mission/dp/0061551821

It talks about the resurrection and bringing new kingdom life to this earth today.

It is incredibly late in Europe, and I don't have time for you to respond. So I'm going to address any posts I've made to try and find this "misinformation"

1. You could be talking about my mention of Eric not wanting to enlist. This is true. It was done to please his father. This is not misinformation
2. I mentioned that Cassie drew pictures of her stabbing her family This is true. She went through a highly rebellious stage and turned to Witchcraft. She turned to God in the last months before she died. There is a whole book about it. The picture she drew of stabbing her family is on the web, if you look hard enough.

to quote TIME magazine on Cassie's book "Time We expect martyrs to be etched in stained glass, not carrying a backpack and worrying about their weight and their finals. Cassie's is a mystery story, the story of a girl lost to bad friends and drugs and witchcraft and all the dark places of teenage rebellion."

You can read more about her book and her dark past before her death here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/She-Said-Yes-Unlikely-Martyrdom/dp/0743400526

Anything else you claimed to be misinformation? Perhaps do research before claiming I'm giving "misinformation"

1. I said that Zero Day is not about Columbine, it is about Calvin and Andre. Andre being an orphan to a Romanian family. This is true. This a fictional movie about fictional shooters, loosely inspired by Columbine. It isn't a documentary about Columbine. Perhaps you'r;e thinking of Zero Hour?

A lot of people get Zero Hour and Zero Day mixed up Zero Day is a fictional movie about Calvin and Andre.. Zero Hour is a series of docu-drama on 9/11, Timothy McVeigh and other tragedies. One episode is about Columbine.

I'm sorry you're hurting. I know how much it can feel like the entire world isn't working right when we're heartbroken, and I pray that God will comfort you in this difficulty. Here are a few things to consider as well.

First, I would encourage you to read a book by C.S. Lewis called "The Problem of Pain". I read this after my dad passed away, and while it didn't make the pain go away, it did help to give me a different perspective on pain. It was really helpful, and I think it could be for you too. To (very briefly) sum it up, pain is a guardrail, it tells us where the boundaries in life are, and while it's unpleasant, it's often a sign that God is trying to keep us from the really bad things. You can learn from pain, if you can wrap your mind around a different perspective.

Second, if God didn't allow pain, then we would have no free will. Pain is the result of choices - ours or those made by others - that diverge from His will. But if He only ever allowed us to choose things that were in His will - and as a result, avoid pain - then we wouldn't really be free, would we?

Third, Scripture does not say that God will not give us more than we can handle. 1 Corinthians 10:13 is the often-cited justification for this belief, but it's also misquoted. It says that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability, but also that He will give us a way of escape. This doesn't mean we'll never get more than we can handle, it means that when we're overwhelmed God will provide a way out. And the usual way? Relying on Him.

Again, I hope that God will help to mend your wounded heart and help you to rely on Him through this time.

Grace to you in your grief. These are deep waters. Without going into details, I was in a very similar situation a decade ago, with some level of surprising similarity to what you said happened with your mother. I have ongoing anxiety and panic attacks that have lessened over the years; a few years back I got a diagnosis of PTSD.

Do you have a church community that is holding the ropes for you in this season? Do you have a pastor or elders who have reached out to you in your grief?

A counselor / therapist is needed. Find someone with some expertise in trauma, and perhaps someone with family systems background. Stay away from alcohol and other substances that might numb the pain temporarily but lead you towards long-term addiction.

Consider these two resources, especially as a theology student. I don't commend or agree with all their conclusions, but I think both will help as you process eternity and our temporary heavenly destination (one more for the heart, the other more for the head).

I'm not sure where you're getting a lot of this from.

For example, while a little gruesome (and dependent on your interpretation of Revelation), there are spirits under the throne who remember being slain and were asking God for justice (Revelation 6). That's the Bible showing that people remember their life on Earth, so I'm not sure where you're getting that we'll forget everything.

It might be worth picking up a copy of Randy Alcorn's Heaven. He did a lot of good work digging into what Scripture actually says about the renewed Heaven and Earth instead of leaning on pop-culture interpretations of it. He (from what I remember) argues that the renewed Earth will be a dynamic place of culture and work. For example:

>Will Our Life's Work Continue?Because there will be continuity from the old Earth to the new, it's possible we'll continue some of the work we started on the old Earth. I believe we'll pursue some of the same things we were doing, or dreamed of doing, before our death. Of course, people whose jobs depend on aspects of our fallen world that will no longer exist on the New Earth--such as dentists (decay), police officers (crime), funeral directors (death), insurance salespeople (disability), and many others--will change their work in Heaven, but that doesn't mean they'll be unemployed. What's now an interest or hobby may become their main vocation. Others, however, may continue with work similar to what they do now, whether as gardeners, engineers, builders, artists, animal trainers, musicians, scientists, craftspeople, or hundreds of other vocations. A significant difference will be that they'll work without the hindrances of toil, pain, corruption, and sin.

Heaven won't be a bunch of people sitting around on clouds strumming harps for a trillion years.

Bro be coming into r/ChristianMemes calling us cultists for acknowledging the attributes of God; cool story. Fodder for philosophy/religion class, I’d wager.

Also, I never said God was omnibenevolent; by virtue of the fact that some people were created for the ultimate purpose of spending an eternity in hell, that attribute is irreconcilable with the character of God as we know Him.

C.S. Lewis has a decent book addressing the problem of evil, if you’re so inclined.

Not sure about Watts, but check out "A Grief Observed" by C.S. Lewis. That one helped me after losing my dad.

https://www.amazon.com/Grief-Observed-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652381

At least CS Lewis wrestled with the concept and wrote a whole book about it. The fact that these people don't seem to learn anything from it and just wave it away as "God's Plan" is very telling of their faith.

You’re not going to find a single ever to a question this hard. My favorite book on the subject, though, is The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami?.

Any ever will always involve the imperfect falleness of the world: free creatures choose to do bad things.

The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami?

God created free creatures. Free creatures make bad choices. Ultimately, you’re question is “Why hasn’t the final judgement happened yet?” We don’t know the answer to that, but broadly speaking, because God is merciful even to the evil.

I'm sorry to hear that you are having such trouble, I presume, through health problems. C.S. Lewis deals with this issue in his book "The Problem of Pain." We can learn from it about what to avoid, for example. It's not an end in itself, but a means to another end. https://www.amazon.com/Problem-Pain-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652969

Check out NT Wright's book Surprised by Hope, it goes into some pretty solid exegesis about heaven. Most Christians have this misconception of heaven being a place in the clouds where we just lounge around and sing for eternity. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Humans were created to be God's imagers on Earth, or in other words, his representatives whose job it is to see to it God's will is accomplished in this physical realm. Just as how angels are God's imagers in the spiritual realm.

Our ultimate destiny is to be reunited with our bodies and to rule in a renewed universe. It will be like the Garden of Eden restored, but even more magnificent than that. We will all likely be given things to do, but it won't be exhausting and draining work like how it currently is.

The quote is from ‘The Doors of the Sea’ by the theologian and philosopher David Bentley Hart, but it’s in reference to a discussion in Karamazov, yes.

I'm not Fr. Andrew, but I think The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? is really helpful in seeing how a star, volcano, tectonic plate, or tsunami can be both material and spiritual. There is only one reality, and it is inhabited by bodiless beings as well as us bodied beings.

I feel the same way, friend!

And I do! I actually believe that when we're resurrected we will live on the new earth, but ne in perfect harmony with God and our fellow humans. I think we'll likely still have jobs of some sort and maybe even some challenges, but that these things will come with pain, hate, or death. It will be life as it is meant to be. I'm very excited for it :)

I would recommend N.T. Wright's book Surprised by Hope. I'm only about halfway throughout, but it really helps to reorient.

>When adam and eve had kids and all, they are the only humans in existence, incest must have happened

I don't think they

>After god drowned the earth and Noah survived, they are the only humans, incest must have happenedwere the only humans.

I don't think the flood was global. But that being said, I do think incest happened here (Ham and his mother / Noah's wife).

>Why aren't we all born with birth defects, and why does incest cause birth defects then?

I'm not a biologist so I won't even attempt this answer. I don't know the exact mechanism that causes birth defects.

>Why does he need to test us? He already knows the outcome

The wisest words I've ever read on this come from CS Lewis. He uses the example of God testing Abraham to sacrifice Isaac before stopping him.

“If God then is omniscient, he must have known what Abraham would do, without any experiment. Why then this needless torture?” But as St. Augustine points out, whatever God knew, Abraham at any rate did not know that his obedience would endure such a command until the event taught him: and the obedience which he did not know that he would choose, he cannot be said to have chosen. The reality of Abraham’s obedience was the act itself; and what God knew in knowing that Abraham “would obey” was Abraham’s actual obedience on that mountain top a that moment. To say that God “need not have tried the experiment” is to say that because God knows, the thing known by God need not to exist. (<em>The Problem of Pain</em>, 101)

For a Nietzschen atheist I'd suggest The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? since it confronts challenges to faith that are actually substantive and not based in misunderstanding.

The Brothers Karamazov for bonus points.

You might be interested in the Randy Alcorn book Heaven. He does a deep look at everything the Bible has to say about heaven.

I can't remember if it was him or someone else who said something like a good scheme of the devil is to make heaven seem worse than it is and make hell seem better than it is. Our pictures of heaven being an eternal harp fest on some clouds and hell being a rock and roll party with your buddies are way off.

Read Where Was God in the Tsunami? if you’re genuinely asking about theodicy. I think you’ll get more from that book than asking random redditors, unless you‘re just looking to argue and challenge people’s beliefs.

You might find David Bentley Hart's The Doors of the Sea a good start in this reflection. He has written more on the topic and given lectures that you can find online, but the book is a good start.

https://www.amazon.com/Doors-Sea-Where-Was-Tsunami/dp/0802866867

John Darby, a preacher in the early 1800's, basically made it up (probably with good intentions). His teachings influenced Cyrus Scofield, author of the Scofield Reference Bible (the first study Bible). Scofield's study Bible influence a lot of people for a long time in America. More recently, authors Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye wrote fictional books dramatizing the rapture and related ideas (The Late Great Planet Earth and The Left Behind series, respectively), which gained enormous popularity in America and nowadays form the primary source of people's belief in the rapture.

Some people have attempted to use a handful of Bible verses to "prove" the rapture, (mainly 1 Thess 4:17) but a brief glance at scholarly studies of those verses dispels that interpretation pretty quickly. There is no verse in the Bible that unambiguously refers to the rapture. It is an incorrect interpretation created and perpetuated by (well-meaning) amateurs. No serious Biblical scholar accepts it.

American Fundamentalists are really the only branch of Christianity that believe in the rapture. Most Christians across the world do not, and it's only about 200 years old.

I came from a fundamentalist church, so I understand how difficult it can be to hear and process stuff like this. Do your own research and give yourself time to figure it out. I highly recommend Surprised by Hope, by N.T. Wright, if you're interested in what the Bible actually says about eschatology (the end times). I also recommend The Bible Project in general; they've been unimaginably helpful to me in all areas Bible-related.

There was a religious writer name CS Lewis who married late in life. His wife developed Cancer soon after the marriage and she passed within 3 years. He wrote a book on his experience called A Grief Observed. It has religious undertones but it is basically his musing about that event.

You are still in shock but when you have time, I would recommend you read it. I also recommend I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye.

So sorry for your loss. May you find the strength.

If you want to read a fantastic book about this I’d suggest “Surprised by Hope” by NT Wright.

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061551821/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_UQuqFb1MEFYFR