Book Review: The Heart of Revelation by J. Scott Darvall

I recently heard Greg Beale say that people in the church want Revelation preached while pastors want to avoid preaching it. The book of Revelation has been a great deal of confusion and controversy over the years especially here in America. If you have a collection of commentaries by John Calvin, you will notice there is not one for Revelation because he thought it was too weird.

J. Scott Darvall, in his book, The Heart of Revelation, said there are two responses from Christians regarding Revelation. The first response is we avoid it. We avoid it like we would avoid Leviticus in our Bible reading plan. When sermons are preached on Revelation, people will tune out. No one wants to a buy a new commentary on Revelation.

The second response to Revelation is becoming obsessed with it. Think about it. We have more movies and fiction books on Revelation than any other Biblical writing. We become obsess over who the Antichrist is, what is the Mark of the Beast, and who are the 144,000. How many of you have seen preachers using charts to calculate the return of Christ. I personally have seen prophecy books sold at Wal-Mart right next to Fifty Shades of Grey.

What Darvall does in this book is not give another one of those books which we guess what we think God showed the Apostle John on the Island of Patmos. He communicates that Revelation is all about God. It is all about how God will bring into fruition His eternal plan that He had since the beginning of time.

Darvall does not specifically tell you what end time philosophy he believes, but one would assume from reading this book, he is not dispensational. As I said, he does not stress any of those end time beliefs but points to the beauty of the book which is the worship of God, the end of evil, and Jesus reigning forever and ever.

I loved this book. I think book will help those who are scared of Revelation. Those who wish to read Revelation should have this book by their side. I would definitely use this book in my studies of Revelation.

Thanks Baker Books for letting me review this book.

Book Review: How Will The World End? by Jeramie Rinne

I became a Christian during my freshman year of High School and I remember hearing some interesting theories about the return of Christ. I remember that there is going to be some time in the future where all Christians will disappear without a trace and the world goes into chaos. One summer, the head of the 11-12th grade Sunday School department decided to go through the book of Revelation, which was interesting, and gave his reasons why Jesus would return midway through the Great Tribulation.

Throughout the years, many men have come out to say when Jesus will return and gave proof through charts and have even written best selling books. I remember hearing one guy saying Jesus is going to return I feel it in my bones. What makes this interesting is he did not preached from the Bible during his sermon. Basically, his proof for the return of Christ was the "feeling in his bones."

Jeramie Rinne has written a short book to help those confused with the return of Jesus, called, How Will The World End? The focus of this book is to help Christians regain the "big picture about the end of the world" (pg.9). Rinne writes about what will happen before Jesus comes back and what will happen when he comes back. He wrote about the last days. Many Christians are confused by that expression because of some TV preacher. The end times have been around for the last 2,000 years because of the first coming of Jesus. In fact, I love that Rinne called the Second Coming, "Christmas The Sequel."

Rinne takes time to go through the different positions Christians have had over the years regarding the return of Christ which can be confusing if you do not know what each "theory" holds. The last chapter of the book deals with how Christians are to live prior to Jesus coming back which you will not hear from many of the doomsday preachers because they are more focused on scaring people into the kingdom, which can produce false converts.

If you are confused with the teachings of the Second Coming, this book will be a resource for you. If you are a Bible teacher or even a preacher, this book will be a great resource for you to use in preaching/teaching on the return of Christ.

Thanks Good Book Company for letting me review this book.

What Was Suppose to Happen Today?

Today is December 21, 2012. If you are reading this is means that we are still here. The Mayan calendar ended today so I guess they got it wrong which means you need to pay your bills, go to work, and do that Christmas shopping you just thought you were getting out of.

This is not the first time our culture has had the "end of the world" craze. Who can forget what happened last year with Harold Camping? Y2K was one that got all computer geeks breathing a sigh of relief knowing they fixed a problem. Many Christian leaders have come out to say when the world may end. Hal Lindsey predicted the rapture would happen in the 1980's. The late Jerry Farwell said Christ will return between 1999-2009. I have also heard some church leaders say that Christ will comeback before I die. For one church leader that was not the case, a friend of mine said Pope John Paul II made that claim a couple years prior to his death.

Generation after generation, people have guessed when the end would come and they were wrong. Remember what Jesus told us "concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son,but the Father only" (Matthew 24:36). Peter wrote, "the day of the Lord will come like a thief" (2 Peter 3:10). The Apostle Paul said the same thing while also writing, "Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:1-2).

When will it stop? We have not business to guess when Jesus will return because he told us he does not know. When the disciple, right before Jesus ascended to the Father, asked Him if He was going to restore the kingdom to Israel, He said, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:7-8). It is not for us to know when, but to faithful witnesses of Jesus. That is our mission. We know He is coming, but when is another story because we were not told.

If God did not tell His only Son when the end will be, what makes you think he told a group of people who no longer exist. Same thing with guys like Harold Camping and Hal Lindsey. One of my roommates in college said it best, right after hearing a guy saying the return of Christ is near, who called a bunch of college students boys and girls (fruitcake), if anyone knew when the end was, that person had a closer relationship to God than Jesus did because Jesus did not know when the end was.

One final thought, when a person or a group of people say when the end is and it does not come, do not drift from believing Christ will return. To paraphrase Voddie Baucham, those who have guess when Christ is coming to doing it as if they were joining a country club. Don't guess, just believe. Christ has come. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again on God's terms not ours nor anyone else's