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John: Shattering the Left Behind Delusion. Pavilion Press, 2000. 152 pp. Reviewed by H. Edward Rowe, B.A., Th. M., D.D. Premillennialist believers in the "rapture of the church" as an event yet future vary from responsible and sincere biblical interpreters to the far-out fringe. Operating beyond the pale of biblical warrant, the latter are famous for purveying emotionalized conclusions drawn from virtually every statement and policy initiative issued by heads of Middle East, European and Russian governments. Too often, responsible interpretation is replaced by irresponsible speculation which fails to edify the people of God. In this volume the author offers a carefully researched and intelligently presented eschatological paradigm that differs remarkably from the prevailing evangelical understanding of "end time" events. Examples: Removal from earth by "rapture" is a concept foreign to historic Christian creeds, and appears to have been developed by J.N. Darby and the Plymouth Brethren beginning around 1830. In the preeminent "rapture" passage (I Thes. 4:13-18), the events described are time-referenced to Paul's lifetime by his use, three times, of "we" (as in vv. 15&17 - "..we who are still alive..."). Therefore, the context does not envision a future time frame down the corridors of time 2000 years and counting. Proper understanding of symbolic language is a vital component of interpretation. "Caught up" does not necessarily mean physical bodies are lifted off the planet, as the same word conveys the snatching away of Philip after he witnessed to the Ethiopian (Acts 8:39). The "dead in Christ" who "will rise first" (v. 16) were the Old Covenant saints confined, at the time of Paul's writing, to Hades, from which they were destined to be released by Jesus during the lifetime of that generation of people to whom I Thess. was adressed. The New Testament terms "last hour," "last days" "last times," etc. consistently refer to the period culminating with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in the late summer or early autumn of A.D.70, and not to some far distant period more than two millennia away. The "trumpet call of God" (I Thess. 4:16) must be understood not as the audible sounding of a physical brass horn by God but, consistent with the symbolic language in the Jewish tradition, as a spiritual episode involving the calling together of people - in this case the saints in the Hadean realm. Jesus returned in judgment in connection with the cataclysmic events of A.D.70 and wrought the end of Old Covenant Judaism, which had rejected Him, and there will be no future "return" of Christ. The basic meaning of the Greek (parousia) is "presence," and connotes not a centuries remote "second coming" of Christ, but His personal presence with His people as promised repeatedly in the New Testament - a presence realized by faith today. The Christian believer's resurrection must be comprehended not in terms of physical corpses breaking forth out of the ground, but rather in spiritual terms as described in I Cor. 15:38. Indeed, our present physical bodies were made of dust, and will return to dust permanently, having served their purpose during the earthly phase of our existence. The physical body will never rise from the grave. We'll be given a new, permanent, spiritual, immortal body ("eternal house") immediately when we leave our present body (2 Cor. 5:1-5). Every pastor and Christian will be well advised to read this book and to ponder its contents very carefully. For many it presents a "different" eschatological viewpoint that, due to the thorough research behind it, is eminently worthy of consideration. Superbly written and compellingly argued, this volume is destined to influence the thinking of numerous evangelicals who, like its author, are desirous of gaining thoroughly biblical insights into the doctrines relating to the "last days." Buy
It Now!
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