This really is a very helpful book that guides us through some of the scary and confusing issues that come up when we start thinking about the future and God's plans. John & Greg do a fair bit of 'mythbusting' especially regarding some of those vexed and much argued areas of the rapture, the tribulation, the millenium, the anti-Christ, the end of the world,...and of course that particular number. There's some great stuff on how to be reading apocalyptic literature properly without having to do some theological degree.
I especially appreciated chapter 9 'The fate of those who have never heard the Gospel', which is no doubt an issue we've all struggled with. Also there is some wonderful stuff on the hope we have in Christ, the reality and expectation of heaven and what happens when we die.
This book is a great companion to our current series on Revelation and it covers the breadth of the Bibles teaching on some key issues we perhaps don't always talk about really succinctly...the book is only 200 pages. It will give you great confidence in the future....and probably clear up a whole heap of areas you often 'muse' over, but don't quite know what to do about. Get yourself a copy!
Overall I found the book very good, but there were a few issues with it that I thought should be in the review. They skim over a lot of things; for example, the title: They claim that "'666' is a symbolic mark which could be a numeric code for an individual's name... it could refer to a system of government, or it could be more broadly symbolic of an oppressor." (p105). iirc, that's about as much coverage as they give it. (They don't give Revelation 13:18: "...If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the bbeast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.")
ReplyDeleteI found their theory that we'll live on a renewed Earth after the End to be both Biblically sound and very helpful.
- Mik Bennett
Yah fare call, they don't spend a lot of time on the whole 666 thing, it seems their objective is to quickly debunk stuff and encourage people to stop messing with their calculators. I think I agree with their broad conclusion...and it is broad, but more attention could have been given to the number...especially as the book is named after it.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently swamped with it all at the moment...but I've not got out my calculator...last time I did that it seemed to suggest my friend who I sat next to in geography was the antichrist.