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Death is a daily topic of conversation but eternal life is not, even though what lies beyond death has long fascinated humans. For the next 184 pages, Train explores eternal life, using logic that clicks as tightly and builds as sturdily as a LEGO® village. Train has a solid footing as a retired Australian pastor with twenty-seven years of experience, a Master of Ministry degree, and two degrees in theology. With a dry diligence religious scholars will appreciate, he establishes that the Bible is the word of God, versus a mode of conveyance containing the word of God—a distinction that greatly influences one's interpretation of Jesus’s statements about eternal life. With copious research (353 footnotes), Train dissects the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the intertestamental period (450 years of non-prophetic writings) to build a solid platform to support his belief that Jesus provides the bridge to eternal life.
The chapter on non-Biblical insights into eternal life is fascinating. Train analyzes whether or not seven “alternative beliefs” (Seventh-Day Adventism, Roman Catholicism, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormonism, Freemasonry, Islam and Hinduism) support the concept of eternal life. His answers may surprise. Reincarnation and near death experiences are included, but beg for references later than 1991; Train states he wrote this book in 2016. The final chapter reveals the Biblical version of heaven: will we remember loved ones, continue to learn, and have a vocation? The answers are worth discovering.
Train writes well and conveys the bounty of his theological mind and research in a scholarly book that provides clear, Bible-based definitions of life, physical death, and spiritual death. Through well-buttressed logic, footnotes, and an extensive bibliography, he validates his belief that Jesus is the bridge between this life and eternal life, which is a comforting message of hope.