Scan barcode
joshrskinner's review
4.0
There are plenty of books that muddy the water on issues of eschatology. Whether they overreach, oversimplify, or just plain over and over and over and over…., it is nice to find a work on “the last days” that doesn’t confuse, doesn’t bore, and doesn’t resort to treating the front page of the local newspaper as a decoder ring.
To find a short and accessible work on eschatological issues that isn’t flooded with words like “eschatological” is a treasure, and is as refreshing and as it is helpful. How Will the World End? by Jeramie Rinne is just the work for those of us who want to know more about our blessed hope but feel overwhelmed by academic treatises and rapture charts that could paper the Great Wall.
Rinne deals succinctly but sufficiently, at a basic level, with issues like the Millenium, the Rapture, the Beast/Antichrist/Man of Lawlessness/ Nero (oops, my eschatology might be showing a bit…although, honestly, I struggle with the interchangeable nature with which many treat those eschatological figures). He also gives an overview of the different ways of viewing Revelation (preterism, futurism, historicism, idealism) and settles on an “eclecticism” that seems most appropriate.
Rinne follows the pattern of Scripture itself in not allowing study of God’s word to culminate simply in some sort of contemplative exercise. Just like Paul, for example, would encourage his hearers to respond in faith to the beautiful truths he was presenting, Rinne closes his book in a manner to not allow the reader to hear but not do. Rinne knows that a sinful temptation we will face is to look at these truths and give a mental assent but no “rubber meets road” response. We so often can be the man who looks in the mirror and walks away forgetting what he looks like so Rinne spends his last chapter encouraging believers to live with a hope that changes every aspect of who we are and what we do.
*I received a review copy from the publisher through Cross Focused Reviews.
To find a short and accessible work on eschatological issues that isn’t flooded with words like “eschatological” is a treasure, and is as refreshing and as it is helpful. How Will the World End? by Jeramie Rinne is just the work for those of us who want to know more about our blessed hope but feel overwhelmed by academic treatises and rapture charts that could paper the Great Wall.
Rinne deals succinctly but sufficiently, at a basic level, with issues like the Millenium, the Rapture, the Beast/Antichrist/Man of Lawlessness/ Nero (oops, my eschatology might be showing a bit…although, honestly, I struggle with the interchangeable nature with which many treat those eschatological figures). He also gives an overview of the different ways of viewing Revelation (preterism, futurism, historicism, idealism) and settles on an “eclecticism” that seems most appropriate.
Rinne follows the pattern of Scripture itself in not allowing study of God’s word to culminate simply in some sort of contemplative exercise. Just like Paul, for example, would encourage his hearers to respond in faith to the beautiful truths he was presenting, Rinne closes his book in a manner to not allow the reader to hear but not do. Rinne knows that a sinful temptation we will face is to look at these truths and give a mental assent but no “rubber meets road” response. We so often can be the man who looks in the mirror and walks away forgetting what he looks like so Rinne spends his last chapter encouraging believers to live with a hope that changes every aspect of who we are and what we do.
*I received a review copy from the publisher through Cross Focused Reviews.
livsu's review
4.0
Couldn't have ever given all the answers, but helpfully separates what's speculation and what the Bible actually says.
More...