Randal Rauser

Home of progressively evangelical, generously orthodox, rigorously analytic, revolutionary Christian thinking (that's what I'm aiming for anyway)

heaven

How I’ll Know When I’m Ready For Heaven (Hint: it has to do with dog turds)

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Over the last month the snows have gradually receded from Edmonton as spring has tepidly taken hold on the northern prairies. It’s an exciting time of year, except for one thing: dog turds. Yes, dog turds. I try to get out for runs on a regular basis and as the snows melt away on the […]

Does God demand love under threat of damnation?

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A reader emailed the following question to me. With permission, I’m reproducing and responding to the question here: One recurring thought I keep having that I’d be interested in reading your thoughts on relates to the nature of salvation vs punishment and the way in which Scripture seems to call us to respond to God. Now, […]

My Conversation on Heaven with Paul Arthur

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A few months ago I was on the television program “Insight” with Paul Arthur to discuss my book What on Earth Do We Know About Heaven? I’ve included an audio track of the one hour program below. Apart from my smiling visage you don’t lose too much by being limited to the audio (although I agree […]

When you are so free that you’re not free to choose evil

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The 59-Second Apologist podcast on the topic “Will we have free will in heaven?” elicited the following comment from Mike D: “If the only possible choices in a Heavenly moral dilemma are all morally perfect ones, then you’ve basically just neutered the concept of free will into meaninglessness, because all possible choices are equally valid […]

10. The 59-Second Apologist: Will we have free will in heaven?

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Mark Twain once quipped: “Let us swear while we may, for in heaven it will not be allowed.” That piece of advice, however questionable it may be, does raise an interesting philosophical question: when a person becomes unable to sin, must they give up their free will? Some theologians have supposed so. To note one […]

Randal provides some heavenly insight to “Insight”

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Yesterday I appeared on the Canadian television program “Insight” with Paul Arthur via Skype to talk about heaven and my book What on Earth Do We Know About Heaven? The hour long interview is available at the program’s website here. In the program I fielded several phone calls from viewers which always keeps things interesting.

Did you hear the one about the boy who went to heaven … except that he didn’t?

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Did you hear the one about the boy who went to heaven? Except that he didn’t. Because he made it all up. Because he wanted attention. (But give him credit. He felt guilty, admitted it, and wanted to set the record straight.) And then there is the Christian publisher who published the book and promised to take it […]

My heaven interview with a Bold Cup of Coffee

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I recently had the opportunity to sit down with the folks at boldcupofcoffee.com to talk about some of my recent work on heaven, apologetics, and dialogue. This is the first of three interviews and it focused on the topic of my book What on Earth Do we Know About Heaven? You can visit the accompanying Bold Cup of […]

“Heaven is for Real” A Review

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Last night I saw “Heaven is for Real” available to rent at Redbox. Having read the book, and presented seminars critiquing it, and having written a sixty page book proposal titled What on Earth Happened to Colton Burpo? which was rejected by the publishers because they were worried that I (and they) would appear to […]

My interview on heaven at Theologues

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I recently did an interview on the topic of heaven at the website Theologues.com. Thanks to Arni Zachariassen for the opportunity. In the interview we discuss several topics including disability in heaven, the concept of hell, and bestselling “I visited heaven!” books like Eben Alexander’s Proof of Heaven and Todd Burpo’s Heaven is for Real. If you’re […]

My Book “What on Earth Do we Know About Heaven?” is FREE June 5 (eBook only)

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Good news for those who like freebies and steep discounts. Baker is running a promotion for the Kindle, Nook and eBook versions of What on Earth Do We Know About Heaven? 20 Questions and Answers about Life after Death. The book is going to be *FREE* for download on June 5th. And then from June 6-12 […]