Sorting Eschatological Literature

[2PhiloVoid]

Obviously, Eschatological/End Times issues are a concern to many of us who are Christians. But which sources on these issues are most pertinent, I wonder? Out of the following list of books on these issues, which of these in your view do you think I should keep and which ones should I ignore? Thanks in advance for your input ...

General Survey of Biblical Prophecy

Armerding, Carl E., and W. Ward Gasque, eds. A Guide to Biblical Prophecy. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2001.

Bock, Darrell L. Ed. Three views on the millennium and beyond. Zondervan Academic, 1999.

Brower, Kent E., and Mark W. Elliott. Eschatology in Bible and Theology: Evangelical Essays at the Dawn of a New Millennium. InterVarsity Press, 1997.

Clouse, Robert G., Robert N. Hosack, and Richard V. Pierard. The new millennium manual: A once and future guide. BridgePoint Books, 1999.

Erickson, Millard J. Contemporary Options in Eschatology: A Study of the Millennium. Baker Book House, 1977.

Lightner, Robert. Last Days Handbook. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1990.

Oropeza, B. J. 99 Reasons Why No One Knows When Christ Will Return. InterVarsity Press, 1994.

Pate, C. Marvin, and Calvin B. Haines. Doomsday Delusions: What's Wrong with Predictions about the End of the World. IVP Academic, 1995.

Pate, C. Marvin. What Does the Future Hold?: Exploring Various View of the End Times. Baker Books, 2010.

Vine, William E., and C.F. Hogg. Vine’s Topical Commentary: Prophecy. Thomas Nelson, 2010.

Historical Trends of Prophetic Interpretation

Kyle, Richard G. The last days are here again: A history of the end times. Baker Books, 1998.

Historic Premillennialism

Blomberg, Craig L., and Sung Wook Chung, eds. A case for historic premillennialism: An alternative to" Left Behind" eschatology. Baker Academic, 2009.

Dispensationalism

Benware, Paul. Understanding end times prophecy: A comprehensive approach. Moody Publishers, 2006.

Gundry, Bob. First the Antichrist: Why Christ Won't Come Before The Antichrist Does. Baker Books, 1996.

Hitchcock, Mark. The Late Great United States: What bible prophecy reveals about America's last days. Mulnomah Publishers, 2009.

LaHaye, Tim. Rapture: Under attack. Multnomah Publishers, 1998.

Amillennialism

Riddlebarger, Kim. A case for amillennialism: Understanding the end times. Baker Books, 2013.

Partial Preterism

DeMar, Gary. End Times Fiction: A Biblical Consideration of the Left Behind Theology. Thomas Nelson Inc, 2001.

Hanegraaff, Hank. The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible REALLY Says About the End Times... and Why It Matters Today. Thomas Nelson, 2010.

Mathison, Keith A. When Shall These Things Be?: A Reformed response to Hyper-Preterism. R&R Publishing, 2004.

Sproul, Robert Charles. The Last Days According to Jesus. Baker Book House Company, 2000.

Critical or Liberal Eschatology

Carroll, John T., et al. The Return of Jesus in Early Christianity. Hendrickson, 2000.

Holman, Charles L. Till Jesus Comes: Origins of Christian apocalyptic Expectation. Hendrickson Pulblishers, 1996.

MacPherson, Dave. The Incredible Cover-Up. Omega Publications, 1995.

Moody, Stan. Crisis in Evangelical Scholarship. ACW Press, 2001.

Murphy, Frederick J. Apocalypticism in the Bible and its world: A comprehensive introduction. Baker Books, 2012.

Pagels, Elaine. Revelations: Visions, prophecy, and politics in the book of Revelation. Penguin, 2013.

Reddish, Mitchell G. Apocalyptic Literature: A Reader. Abingdon Press, 1990.

Travis, Stephen H. Christian hope & the future. InterVarsity Press, 1980.

Ziegler, Philip G. Militant Grace: The apocalyptic turn and the future of Christian theology. Baker Books, 2018.

Studies on the Book of Revelation

Barclay, William. The Revelation of John, Volume One. The Westminster Press, 1976.

Daniels, T. Scott. Seven Deadly Spirits: The message of Revelation's Letters for today's church. Baker Academic, 2009.

Gregg, Steve. Revelation: four views; a parallel commentary. Nelson, 1997.

Metzger, Bruce M. Breaking the Code: Understanding the book of revelation. Abingdon Press, 1993.

Poythress, Vern S. The Returning King: A Guide to the book of Revelation. R&R Publishing, 2000.

Stanley N. Gundry, Pate, C. Marvin. Four views on the book of Revelation. Zondervan, 1998.

Tenney, Merrill C. Interpreting Revelation. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1988.

Weinrich, William C., and Thomas C. Oden, eds. Ancient Christian Texts: Greek Commentaries on Revelation, Oecumenius and Andrew of Caesarea. InterVarsity Press, 2005.

[Catholic] Williamson, Peter S. Revelation. Baker Academic, 2015.

Outlier Eschatology

Klein, Ken. The False Prophet. Winterhaven Publishing House, 1992.

 

[The Righterzpen]

Obviously, Eschatological/End Times issues are a concern to many of us who are Christians. But which sources on these issues are most pertinent, I wonder?

My "advice" is to get out a concordance and start comparing Bible passages to each other.

Commentary can be informative to read; particularly commentary that's been written in past centuries; (as opposed to modern commentary that came from a position that originated in a particular era). Historic commentary can be informative because it gives one some idea of what the prevailing beliefs were in that era. But also understand that historical figures didn't always get their doctrines right either.

A lot of eschatological schemas are actually "born" out of issues that come from the historical eras they were originally written in.

There's actually two version of "historic premillennialism". There's one from the 4th century and there's one that more resembled dispensationalism that came after the reformation. (Maybe more 18th century.)

The "early historic pre-mil" would more resemble what we'd call "replacement theology" today; as the 4th century had no concern over Judaism. Judaism wasn't even "on their radar" as being relevant to the end of time.

Amillennialism was pretty well established from about the 2nd century in both east and western churches. Though particularly in the Roman Catholic Church prior to the Reformation; trying to predict when Christ would come was considered heresy; so there's not a whole lot of historical data on eschatological schemas before the Reformation.

Preterism was the response of the Roman Catholic Church to the Reformation that claimed the RCC was "Babylon the Mother of Harlots". So that came out of the Reformation.

Dispensationalism appeared about 1830 and came out of the Quaker tradition. It wasn't really popular until the Schofield Reference Bible became more in use post WWII. And much of Dispensationalism is connected to political Zionism.

And you don't really see Judaism coming into Christian eschatology much before the 1830's. Although aspects of Preterism and what the Reformation Protestants believed about the RCC came out of post 1st century Jewish folklore.

For example the idea of Nero coming back (being the head on the beast in Revelation that's healed.) Although it's stated by Judaism to be "a prophecy" that goes back prior to the 1st century; it doesn't show up in history until post 4th century. Some of these bits and pieces of what made its way into Christian eschatological schemas came out of the Talmud. Which a lot of stuff in the Koran came out of post 1st century Jewish folklore too.

Mid 18th century on; folklore from the Masons starts to converge with Christian eschatology too. Which much of Mason and even Mormon ideas also comes out of the Kabbalah and other Jewish "spiritism" writings. And the "Jewish influence" starts to come into play in eschatology mostly from the Reformation on.

Although Jerome; who translated the Latin Vulgate in about 400 AD was influenced in opinions of the Old Testament translation by Rabbis just before they got kicked out of Jerusalem by Constantine. There was some morphology going on there of what comes to be known as the The Hebrew Masoretic Text. The Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew is closer to the Septuagint in some passages than the Masoretic Text. A lot of the OT quotes written by Paul that make it onto the NT came out of the Septuagint; because that was the translation they had.

 

[Jeffwhosoever]

Excellent list! I look forward to learning more, and am currently reading the "Three Views on the Millenium and Beyond" by Darrell Bock, so I wanted to just say THANK YOU. Also good post on the history of Eschatology too.

I'll add another resource to consider. This has several classes that are free that involve Eschatology:

Dallas Theological Seminary

also: Eschatology: Biblical, Historical, and Practical Approaches by D. Jeffrey Bingham and Glenn R. Kreider, Editors. Kregel Academic, 2016.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

My "advice" is to get out a concordance and start comparing Bible passages to each other.

Commentary can be informative to read; particularly commentary that's been written in past centuries; (as opposed to modern commentary that came from a position that originated in a particular era). Historic commentary can be informative because it gives one some idea of what the prevailing beliefs were in that era. But also understand that historical figures didn't always get their doctrines right either.

A lot of eschatological schemas are actually "born" out of issues that come from the historical eras they were originally written in.

There's actually two version of "historic premillennialism". There's one from the 4th century and there's one that more resembled dispensationalism that came after the reformation. (Maybe more 18th century.)

The "early historic pre-mil" would more resemble what we'd call "replacement theology" today; as the 4th century had no concern over Judaism. Judaism wasn't even "on their radar" as being relevant to the end of time.

Amillennialism was pretty well established from about the 2nd century in both east and western churches. Though particularly in the Roman Catholic Church prior to the Reformation; trying to predict when Christ would come was considered heresy; so there's not a whole lot of historical data on eschatological schemas before the Reformation.

Preterism was the response of the Roman Catholic Church to the Reformation that claimed the RCC was "Babylon the Mother of Harlots". So that came out of the Reformation.

Dispensationalism appeared about 1830 and came out of the Quaker tradition. It wasn't really popular until the Schofield Reference Bible became more in use post WWII. And much of Dispensationalism is connected to political Zionism.

And you don't really see Judaism coming into Christian eschatology much before the 1830's. Although aspects of Preterism and what the Reformation Protestants believed about the RCC came out of post 1st century Jewish folklore.

For example the idea of Nero coming back (being the head on the beast in Revelation that's healed.) Although it's stated by Judaism to be "a prophecy" that goes back prior to the 1st century; it doesn't show up in history until post 4th century. Some of these bits and pieces of what made its way into Christian eschatological schemas came out of the Talmud. Which a lot of stuff in the Koran came out of post 1st century Jewish folklore too.

Mid 18th century on; folklore from the Masons starts to converge with Christian eschatology too. Which much of Mason and even Mormon ideas also comes out of the Kabbalah and other Jewish "spiritism" writings. And the "Jewish influence" starts to come into play in eschatology mostly from the Reformation on.

Although Jerome; who translated the Latin Vulgate in about 400 AD was influenced in opinions of the Old Testament translation by Rabbis just before they got kicked out of Jerusalem by Constantine. There was some morphology going on there of what comes to be known as the The Hebrew Masoretic Text. The Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew is closer to the Septuagint in some passages than the Masoretic Text. A lot of the OT quotes written by Paul that make it onto the NT came out of the Septuagint; because that was the translation they had.

That's a good overview of some of the issues. Do you have two or three sources that have been most influential in how you understand or interpret biblical prophecy, Righterzpen?

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Excellent list! I look forward to learning more, and am currently reading the "Three Views on the Millenium and Beyond" by Darrell Bock, so I wanted to just say THANK YOU. Also good post on the history of Eschatology too.

I'll add another resource to consider. This has several classes that are free that involve Eschatology:

Dallas Theological Seminary

also: Eschatology: Biblical, Historical, and Practical Approaches by D. Jeffrey Bingham and Glenn R. Kreider, Editors. Kregel Academic, 2016.

Thanks for the added resource! It always helps to see more since whenever I go to the Christian bookstore these days (unlike 20 years ago or so), all I see now are Mark Hitchcock books and a dozen clones of his viewpont on the 'Prophecy' bookshelves.

 

[The Righterzpen]

That's a good overview of some of the issues. Do you have two or three sources that have been most influential in how you understand or interpret biblical prophecy, Righterzpen?

A lot of the historical information I've come across was just from research done on the Internet. And to find some of that, you have to find what they may have called a particular doctrine like 4 / 5 / 6 hundred years ago. Sometimes you can stumble across some of this information on "Reformation" websites.

It can be a lot of "hit or miss" as to what you find and some of the information you'll have to go away from Google to search engines like Duck Duck Go or Yandex to find, because of the Google censors. Particularly if you're digging for historical information about post 1st century Judaism. Because unless organizations like the ACLU "approves the narrative" it get's buried / or removed from Google.

There's a lot of what they now call "revisionist history" that you can't find on Google. So thus for example, if you're looking for Medieval Christian perspective on Judaism, or information on what's written in the Talmud, you're going to have to dig for that. Google is the "narrative approved" (propaganda) search engine; because for most of church history Rabbinic Judaism was not seen in a positive light whatsoever.

Much of what's published on the content of the Talmud has been "Internet published" by those today who identify themselves as "traditional Catholics". Traditional Catholics see Vatican II as apostate of what they deem as "original Roman Catholic faith". And as you start digging through historical information; there's a lot of rabbit holes you can go down.

The dispensational political zionism "angle" of the eschatological view of Judaism doesn't change in general Christianity until after WWII. And even into the 60's much of those changes come in that decade.

There's a lot that happened socially starting in the 50's related to Kinsey Institute "research" that targeted conservative Christian values to degrade Western society. Which the "sexual revolution" / "homosexual agenda" actually had its origins in the 1920's with the film industry and what I'll call "the Khazarian mafia"; who were the source of the Bolsheviks overthrowing the Czar in 1917. You start going down those rabbit holes and it gets "dark" pretty quick because there's a lot of occult practices tied in there.

And if you go from there and start to dig into the prevailing opinions of Hitler starting in the 1920's to the end of WWII, you will get a VERY different story than the narrative you were taught in school. And thus why you can't find this information on Google because it's all "classified" as "anti-Semitic".

Which brings me back to the subject of eschatology period:

And this is why I say that if you want a Biblically sound understanding of end times events; get out a concordance and start comparing Bible passages to each other.

Eschatology is a complicated subject and there's a lot of "fluff", false doctrine and just plain BS out there.

As per redemption of Jews? Just as with individuals from any other nation on earth; if you're coming to the Father, you're only coming as an individual, through the blood of the Son. There's only one salvation plan that is equally accessible to all humanity regardless of ethnic origin. There's no "special era" for the Jew. That's one of the lies that's propped up by the agenda of political zionism.

As of my personal research into eschatology and Bible study?

I'd "generally" fall into the amillennial camp; although a lot of my understanding of the prophecy of things like the Book of Daniel or the Book of Revelation, doesn't fall into any one given historical eschatological category. And this is why I tell people to get a concordance and start digging.

For example; the number 666. What does that mean? What is (what's often referred to as) "the mark of the beast"?

The number 666 is used 3 different places in the Bible and "referenced" in a 4th place.

1st is in Ezra 2:13 and it's a census number of those of a certain man (who's a descendent of David) who all his progeny came out of the Babylonian captivity.

2nd is the number of gold talents given to King Solomon at a certain point from other kingdoms. (2 Kings 10:14 and 2 Chronicles 9:13) It appears to be part of a tribute paid to Solomon from the "king of Tyre" and as Jesus describes in the New Testament "the binding of the strong man" and "goods" (redeemed souls) plundered out of the kingdom of Satan.

There's a lot of metaphoric explanations of these types of things in Scripture.

The "reference" to "marking" (the 666 census number) place is Ezekiel 9 which talks about post Babylonian captivity; where people who are bemoaning their idols from Babylon are marked on their foreheads by God's servants for destruction. Ezekiel 8 states this happens on "the 6th year of the 6th month of the 5th day". (The "day before" "666".) This is something God tells His servants to do. And those who actually destroy the idolators are the servants of God. (In New Testament context this actually happens via the preaching of the gospel, when people either become regenerated, or they are further condemned by God for their disobedience.)

3rd (last) is the book of Revelation. The wise are told to "calculate out from the number of the beast, the number of the man and his number is 666".

So the 666 isn't actually the "mark of the beast" it's "the number of the man" who's descendants are not part of the number of the beast. The descendants don't have "the mark of the beast" on their foreheads because they have the name of "the man's" Father on their forehead. So "the man" who's a "descendant of David" who's "census number" of "descendants brought out of the Babylonian captivity" is "666". "The man" is actualy Christ.

Now in no "eschatological schema" are you going to find that information. You will only uncover things like that, by digging through the Scripture itself.

That's just one example of the information I've come across just by comparing Bible passages to each other.

So if you are interested in reading the research that I've done. Here's a link to it on Fan Fiction. Some of it is historical research. Some of it is Bible study stuff and the rest is trying to make some sense out of current political events.

Fair warning; there's a "boat load" of information here!

There are two "End Times" studies I've worked on. This is the first:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12505087/1/Bible-Study-END-TIMES-I-2017-2021

And this is the one I've just started:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14073423/1/Bible-Study-END-TIMES-II-2022

 

[Christian Gedge]

Kim Riddlebarger's book, 'A case for Amillennialism' would be my choice.

George Ladd is great too. Im surprised you don't have him at the top in Historic Premillennialism.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Kim Riddlebarger's book, 'A case for Amillennialism' would be my choice.

Ok. I'll have another look at that one.

George Ladd is great too. Im surprised you don't have him at the top in Historic Premillennialism.

I've heard about Ladd, and I may have to find some material from him as well. Thanks!

 

[The Righterzpen]

Kim Riddlebarger's book, 'A case for Amillennialism' would be my choice.

Ok. I'll have another look at that one.

I'm assuming that a lot of what's covered in his book would be in this lecture; if you want a free example:

I've listened to this guy before. I just didn't realize that's who it was. He's got some good points!

 

[Christian Gedge]

I've heard about Ladd, and I may have to find some material from him as well. Thanks!

‘The Blessed Hope’. It bowled this dispie for a six when I first read it.