Best Christian Books on Heaven: 15 Classics on the World to Come
The classic Christian book about heaven is Richard Baxter's The Saint's Everlasting Rest. Baxter wrote it when he thought he was dying, and it has lifted believers' eyes upward for more than three hundred years. For something shorter and simpler, read E. M. Bounds' Heaven: A Place, a City, a Home, about three hours. And if you have never read The Pilgrim's Progress, read it now. The whole story is a pilgrim's road to the Celestial City.
What do the old writers teach about heaven? First, that it is real. Jesus spoke of His Father's house and said He was going to prepare a place. Second, that the heart of heaven is God Himself. They didn't picture heaven mainly as a reunion or a reward, though it is both. They pictured it as seeing Christ face to face, loving Him without sin, and resting in God forever. Third, that heaven begins now. A believer has eternal life already, and the Puritans told Christians to set their hearts on heaven every day, because a heart set on heaven is a heart set on God. And fourth, that the body will be raised. Heaven is not a ghostly existence. It ends in the resurrection and a new creation.
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:2
Here are fifteen of the best books on heaven in TheWay Library, all free to read.
Start here
1. The Saint's Everlasting Rest, by Richard Baxter
An abridged edition of Baxter's great book. He describes the rest that remains for God's people, what leads up to it (Christ's coming, the resurrection, the judgment), why it is so glorious, who it is for, and how to examine your title to it. The last chapters teach "heavenly contemplation," a way of meditating on heaven that has helped many cold hearts.
The worth of everlasting rest is not felt, because it is not considered; it is forgotten because a thousand trifles are preferred before it.
The Saint's Everlasting Rest, Preface
See Richard Baxter's books. Read The Saint's Everlasting Rest.
2. Heaven: A Place, a City, a Home, by E. M. Bounds
Bounds insists heaven is a real place, not only a state of mind, and then gathers the Bible's pictures of it: a kingdom, a crown, an inheritance, a home. The middle chapters ask what kind of people heaven is for.
Heaven will give us fullest possession of God, and heaven will give God the fullest possession of us, But heaven is only for those who are God's possession here.
Heaven: A Place, a City, a Home, chapter 7
More of Bounds is in E. M. Bounds' books. Read Heaven: A Place, a City, a Home.
3. The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan
Christian leaves the City of Destruction and travels, through the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair and Doubting Castle, to the Celestial City. The crossing of the river and the welcome at the gate is one of the best-loved pictures of heaven in English.
Then I heard in my dream that all the bells in the city rang again for joy
The Pilgrim's Progress
See our Pilgrim's Progress summary and Who Was John Bunyan?. Read The Pilgrim's Progress.
What heaven is like
4. The World to Come, by Isaac Watts
The hymn writer's discourses on death, judgment and eternity. He sets the joys of the righteous beside the sorrows of the lost. The sermons on dying in peace, on heaven with no night or pain, and on the foretaste of heaven are the ones to read first.
The regions of light, and peace, and holy love, are never violated with such scenes of villany and guilt.
The World to Come, No Night in Heaven
5. The Many Mansions, by Jonathan Edwards
One of the seven sermons in Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards. Preached at the opening of a new meetinghouse, it takes Jesus' words in John 14 and tells anxious seekers that there is room in heaven for them. Read it beside the more famous Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God in the same book.
There is room enough in our heavenly Father's house.
Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards, The Many Mansions
See Who Was Jonathan Edwards?. Read Edwards' sermons.
6. Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints, by Thomas Guthrie
Twenty sermons on Colossians 1:12–20 by a great Scottish preacher, full of vivid pictures. The first, on "the inheritance of the saints in light," is the one for this subject.
Compared with the difference between a man, as grace finds him, and heaven gets him, how feeble are all earthly distinctions!
Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints, chapter 1
Read Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints.
7. The Victor's Crowns, by Alexander Maclaren
The first seven sermons take the promises "to him that overcometh" in Revelation 2 and 3: the tree of life, the hidden manna, the white stone, the white raiment, a seat on Christ's throne. Maclaren sees all seven as one gift, Christ Himself.
We may, indeed, say that the inmost meaning of them all is the gift of Christ Himself.
The Victor's Crowns and Other Sermons, The Victor's Crowns: I
8. The Believer's Life, by Arthur T. Pierson
A one-hour study of Ephesians 2 in three tenses: what we were, dead in sins; what we are, seated with Christ in heavenly places; and what we will be in the ages to come, when God shows the riches of His grace. A good way to see that heaven is where the gospel is heading. Read The Believer's Life.
The resurrection
9. The Ineffable Glory, by E. M. Bounds
Short chapters on the resurrection of the body from 1 Corinthians 15. The same body will be raised, changed, incorruptible and glorious, with Christ's resurrection as the firstfruits and pledge.
Our bodies are God's work, God's workmanship, God's temple, God's property.
The Ineffable Glory, chapter 18
10. The City of God, Volume II, by Augustine
The second half of Augustine's great work traces the earthly and heavenly cities to their ends. The final book, on the resurrection of the body and the eternal Sabbath, ends with one of the most beautiful sentences ever written about heaven. See Who Was Augustine of Hippo?.
There we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise. This is what shall be in the end without end.
The City of God, Book 22
Read The City of God, Volume II.
Seeing Christ
11. The Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ, by John Owen
This edition joins two of Owen's works, including his Meditations on the Glory of Christ, written near the end of his life. Owen's heaven is the sight of Christ's glory, begun by faith here and finished by sight there. Demanding, but rich.
For love proceeding from sight, is the life of the church above; as love proceeding from faith is the life of the church below.
The Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ, chapter 12
Read The Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ.
12. The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded, by John Owen
Meditations Owen first wrote for himself in a time of weakness, on Romans 8:6. He shows how to set your thoughts and affections on things above, on heavenly glory and on God Himself, and what to do when you can't keep your mind there. Read Spiritually Minded.
Running for heaven
13. The Heavenly Footman, by John Bunyan
A short, urgent book on "So run, that ye may obtain." Heaven must be run for, Bunyan says, not just wished for, and he gives directions for the race and reasons to keep going.
Know also, that now heaven's gates, the heart of Christ, with his arms, are wide open to receive thee.
The Heavenly Footman, chapter 3
14. Eternal Life, by Henry Drummond
A short essay on Jesus' words "this is life eternal, that they might know thee." Drummond argues that eternal life is a quality of life, knowing God, and not only endless time.
The quality of the Eternal Life alone makes the heaven; mere everlastingness might be no boon.
Eternal Life
15. The I Wills of Christ, by Philip Bennett Power
Nine "I will" sayings of Jesus, arranged in the order of a Christian life, from "Come unto me" to "I will that they be with me where I am." A warm book that ends where every believer's story ends, with Christ. Read The I Wills of Christ.
More to explore
If you are reading about heaven because someone you love has died, our guide to Christian books on grief has gentler books, including Bonar's The Morning of Joy, Baxter's Dying Thoughts and S. D. Gordon's Quiet Talks About Life After Death. Heaven and Christ's return go together in Scripture; see the best Christian books on the second coming.
Where to start
- A short, simple book: Bounds' Heaven.
- The classic: Baxter's The Saint's Everlasting Rest.
- A story: The Pilgrim's Progress.
- Ready for something deep: Owen on the glory of Christ, then Augustine.
More books are on the heaven topic page.