Next Life — Dave Swavely

One Christian’s adventure of a lifetime…in the NEXT LIFE!What happened to Tim Carler is so hard to believe that he had to call his story a novel to keep from being mercilessly mocked (or locked up for his own safety). But ironically, his account rings true in a way that other “heaven tourism” books do not. Unlike those supposedly non-fiction titles, there’s nothing in this one that contradicts the Bible.After the shock of finding his soul in the Intermediate State (heaven for departed Christians before Jesus returns), the surprises multiply as Tim finds out who’s there, who’s not, and how different heaven is from our common conceptions. In a dimension not bound by time, he is sent on missions into the past where he meets some extraordinary everyday people, as well as famous ones like the Jewish Patriarchs, Adolf Hitler, and two Victorian Charleses—Spurgeon and Dickens.Speaking of Dickens, this novel is reminiscent of A Christmas Carol, but with more Bible content. It’s a Pilgrim’s Progress where the journey takes place in the life to come rather than in this life. More modern comparisons could be made to The Shack (with much better theology) and Alan Moore’s graphic novel From Hell (except it’s from heaven).Next Life is an utterly unique mind- and genre-bending book that will make you look at life in heaven, and on earth, in a whole new way, and look forward to both like never before.