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Title: The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views by George Eldon Ladd, Robert G. Clouse, Anthony A. Hoekema ISBN: 0-87784-794-0 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: June, 1977 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Helpful introduction to Second Coming views
Comment: Many people are unaware that there are several views of how we should interpret the New Testament's teaching about Christ's Second Coming. In many churches, only one view is ever presented, and often this is the most recent one, unknown in the history of the church until the mid-1800s.
Books like this one help you to see that evangelical Christians have different ways of interpreting the Bible's teaching about the end of the world. This may prove unsettling at first, but it is good to be aware of other people's views when the New Testament is not as clear as some would like us to believe.
It is also helpful to see that the main teaching, that Jesus is coming again to take those who believe in him to be with him forever, *is* clear.
Another helpful book, also available from Amazon, is Steve Gregg's Revelation: Four Views - a parallel commentary, which presents several of these views side by side, in their authors' own words.
Both books are warmly recommended.
Rating: 4
Summary: Quite Good, but could have been better
Comment: Eschatological views within evangelicalism have long been a source of serious division between believers. This book, in a succinct way, offers the presentation of 4 major views of the millennium, each view represented by one scholar. Like other books of its kind, the book is presented in such a way that each eschatological position is presented by the scholar advocating such a position, and then the other 3 scholars representing other points of view have the opportunity to critique the presentation. Given that the four scholars represented in this book are all respected to varying degrees, I felt that this format worked quite well in this book.
I felt that the two views represented the best were by far the historic premil and amillennial views articulated by Ladd and Hoekema respectively. Both did a good job of providing a rather thorough presentation of their respective views. I also felt that Hoekema did the best job of critiquing the other 3 views in his short rebuttals to the other 3 proposals. Ladd certainly could have been better in this regard.
I frankly wasn't expecting much from Hoyt, and both his presentation of dispensational premil and his rebuttals were about what I expected - which was disappointing. As was pointed out in the rebuttals to his view, Hoyt did not even attempt to provide an exegesis of Rev. 20:1-6 in his proposal, which is a monumental deficiency in his presentation. In addition, Hoyt, like many dispensationalists unfortunately, had no effective way to defend their 'literal' interpretation technique against the many well argued points made against it by the other 3 scholars. Since interpretation technique is the central issue in each millennial view presented, Hoyt's inability to effectively defend the technique he is adopting to argue his position is another serious deficiency in his presentation.
But in my view, the biggest disappointment was Boettner's presentation on postmillennialism. Like Hoyt, no analysis of Rev. 20 is found in his proposal, and even worse, Boettner doesn't offer up any significant exegesis of any Biblical passages at all. Boettner's entire argument is not one that is Biblically based, but is one that tries to experientially look at the world and argue that it's getting better over time. As Ladd points out, this is a double edged sword, but even more than that, even if one accepts Boettner's premise, that doesn't automatically mean that postmillennialism is the correct eschatological view. His presentation was universally deficient, and that's a real shame coming from a scholar as respected as Boettner. And this is the main reason why I'm giving this book 4 stars instead of 5. As a view, postmillenialism was not represented well at all here, and that's unfortunate. Put simply, this view was not presented with any Scriptural basis at all.
The other major criticism I have of the book is Clouse's postscript which seems to heavily criticize premillennialism. I found Clouse's postscript to be flat out inaccurate in parts, or at the very least, seriously outdated in its criticisms. Premillennialists, as a group, do not shun the liberal arts as a legitimate and necessary field of study, nor do they shun social activism as a result of their eschatology. It is true that there are way too many end times hunters on the scene who repeatedly make themselves look bad by trying to predict certain end times events by interpreting supposed present day signs of the end of the world. I certainly agree that to the extent that these end times hunters are 'teachers' in the Biblical sense, they should be held to severe accountability when their teachings prove to be wrong, but that way too often, these guys are instead given a free pass to continue teaching error and that this is an embarassment to the entire Body of Christ. But Clouse's other negative contentions regarding premillennialism are decidedly out of place and inaccurate.
Overall, I think many readers will come away from reading this book with a much better understanding of what the points of contention are between the varying millennial views, and why such points of contention exist. While the postmillennial view clearly should have been presented better, the book still provides a solid basis to understand what each view is saying and why they are saying it. The reader may also conclude, as I did, that each view presented has certain strengths and weaknesses, and that no system of millennialism has been proposed that doesn't have weaknesses in it. But this book will provide a very good jumping off point for readers to further explore these views in more detail and reach their own convictions about which millennial view is most faithful to the entirety of Scriptural truth.
Rating: 5
Summary: Indispensible (IMHO) for Understanding the End Times
Comment: Like most modern evangelical Christians, I was brought up in the faith to believe that the bible taught that there would be a rapture, followed by a seven year tribulation period, followed by the second coming of Christ where He would set up a millennial kingdom in Jerusalem where he would reing for 1000 years, followed by a final coming where he would usher in the eternal state with a new heavens and a new earth.
Back in the early 90's I was studying for ministry and I figured that someone would probably ask me my view of the end times some day, so I decided I needed to study it for myself. So, I acquired a 28 tape set on the end times by one of the leading conservative scholars in America. I listened to all of them, as he explained and defended the above scheme and I came away from that thinking that I would never be able to persuade someone of that position unless they were already heavily predisposed to believing it. What I mean is that I couldn't find a rapture/tribulation, etc. in any of the Scriptures that this teacher used.
So, scratching my head, I did a little more research and came across this book. It opened my eyes to the fact that there were other views of the end times that were held by Christians who believed the Bible was the word of God. I had been told in the past that the only people who don't follow the rapture/tribulation etc., scheme were people who didn't believe the Bible.
I won't tell you what view I adopted, other than to say that I found that all of the views had much to commend them, from a Scriptural standpoint, except the one I formerly held.
This book does an excellent job of letting the representatives from the various schools of thought speak for themselves, and it allows critiques in a scholarly and irenic manner. I would urge anyone who feels strongly about their view of the end times to read this book. It may or may not change your mind, but hopefully it will at least open your mind to some new possibilities when it comes to end times scenarios.
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Title: A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times by Kim Riddlebarger ISBN: 080106435X Publisher: Baker Book House Pub. Date: February, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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Title: Three Views on the Rapture by Gleason L. Archer, Paul D. Feinberg, Richard R. Retter, Richard R. Reiter ISBN: 0310212987 Publisher: Zondervan Pub. Date: 02 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond by Darrell L. Bock, Kenneth L. Gentry, Robert B. Strimple, Darrell L. Bock, Richard B., Jr. Gaffin ISBN: 0310201438 Publisher: Zondervan Pub. Date: 01 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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Title: The Bible and the Future by Anthony A. Hoekema ISBN: 0802808514 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: August, 1994 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Four Views on the Book of Revelation by C. Marvin Pate ISBN: 0310210801 Publisher: Zondervan Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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