The End Times Made Simple: How Could Everybody Be So Wrong about Biblical Prophecy

Rating:
Summary: Simple, Straightforward End Times Theology
Review: Although the author doesn't directly say it, Waldron presents in this book a simple, straightforward case for amillennialism. He does a good, thorough job of addressing the flaws of the extremely popular dispensational premillennialism ("Left Behind" theology). He avoids excessive use of technical jargon, and is easy to follow.

Waldron here, contrary to what many people may think of amillennialists, is very emphatic about the Bible being God's inerrant, inspired Word. He uses a simple approach to interpreting the Scriptures' stand on the end times -- start with the clear, literal passages as a basis, then build upon them with the less clear, figurative passages. He provides a several diagrams to make his views even easier to grasp.

This title is an excellent alternative to the "Left Behind" theology so prominent today. I recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: Good, Simple Introduction to Amillennialism
Review: This book is a good and simple introduction to Amillenialism. This was not a complicated read, but it is a profittable read for someone new to the issues.

First the positives: This book does an excellent job showing the two-age (already/not yet) perspective from the Biblical perspective. Waldron does a good job on exegesis of the parables of Christ (Matthew 13), Paul's prose (1 Corinthians 15) and John's apocalypse (Revelation 20). He is sensitive to the diverse literary genre, unlike many.

Waldron also does a great job to show that Amillenialists do take the scripture seriously, and that we do do not spiritualize everything, as many Dispensationalists contend. Then towards the end of the book, he shows other important things to how you view Eschatology.

Now to the negatives: He holds to a strict Grammatico-Historical interpretation of the Bible, and this tends to have an autonomous bent. The Redemptive-Historical perspective (taking best of Grammatico-Historical and adding to it), however, says thatwe must view Christ as the ultimate end of all of scripture.

He also does not show that Eschatology starts in Genesis. This is to be expected since the book is an introduction, but it is a caveat of mine. The only other problem I had with the book is that on page 80 he spoke of the "plain meaning" meaning of a passage. This shows a naive view of language.

The only other problem has nothing to do with the author but the editor. There are problems with spelling, punctuation, etc. This is not the author's fault, but rests on the editor. That aside, this book is a must read for anyone new to the area of Eschatology.

Rating:
Summary: A book that lives up to it's title
Review: Waldron's book is titled "The End Times Made Simple," and for the most part he demonstrates the truth of that title. I have to add the caveat that understanding the end times will never be as simple as many other biblical doctrines. However, in this book, Waldron shows that the end times don't have to be as hard to understand as we tend to make them.

He begins the book with some simple principles of interpretation that are very helpful. When reading the bible we should read the clear before the difficult, the literal before the figurative and the general before the detailed. Such simple advice will go miles in helping us understand prophecy. For the most part, people who want to understand the end times run straight to the books of Daniel and Revelation, two of the mmore difficult, figurative and detailed books in the bible. Although he didn't state it this way, one of the strengths of the amillennial position that Waldron espouses is its emphasis on interpreting the prophetic books in light of the rest of the bible, rather than the other way around. Waldron's three simple principles of interpretation help the reader do this. The bible is full of prophetic material, which, if read first will give the student of bible prophecy a trajetory for reading books like Daniel and Revelation.

From there, Waldron goes on to show the two-age view of world history and it is at this point that he shows the beautiful simplicity of God's prophetic plan. He spends a good deal of time describing this and comparing the various end-times views with this model. His exposition of Revelation 20 is a particular strength in this regard. In my opinion Waldron proves his case when he states that the amil view is the biblical view.

The latter part of the book answers many of the knotty questions surrounding prophecy such as the relationship of the church and Israel, the intermediate state, heaven, hell, eternal punishment and things like this. In doing this he covers most of the bases on issues that come up.

I am thankful for this book because it is scrupulously Biblical. It is unfortunate that those who hold the amil position are often dismissed in evangelical circles. Books like this one need to be widely circulated so that the church can see that the amil view (which is the dominant historic view of the church) is clearly taught in the Scriptures. That is not to say that there are no problems or issues that can't be debated. However, those who write amils off as "non-literalists" or as those who don't take the bible seriously will have to reconsider their view if they read books like this one.