The End Times, Again?
Description
From the Middle Eastern politics of Donald Trump to the UK's 2016 EU Referendum, large numbers of Christians are making decisions based on the alleged "end-times" aspects of modern politics. Such apocalyptic views often operate beneath "the radar" of much Christian thought and expression. In this book, historian Martyn Whittock argues that while the New Testament does indeed teach the second coming of Christ, complications occur when Christians seek to confidently identify contemporary events as fulfilments of prophecy. Such believers are usually unaware that they stand in a long line of such well-intended but failed predictions. In this book, Whittock explores the history of end-times speculations over two thousand years, revealing how these often reflect the ideologies and outlooks of contemporary society in their application of Scripture. When Christians ignore such past mistakes, they are in danger of repeating them. Jesus, Whittock argues, taught a different way.Product Details
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Reviews
"In Whittock's excellent volume, we have a book to savor. . . . Are we living in the end times? Has there ever been an age without 'wars and the rumors of wars, ' as the Gospels warn? Whittock's first-class study helps us to reengage with some of those central questions and concerns that are common to all faiths: What time is it? Where are we going? And are we nearly there?"
--Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford
"This is a nicely written, very readable, and thoroughgoing review of the centrality of 'end-times' thinking within the history of Christian thought from the Hebrew Scriptures to the present. The importance of Whittock's book lies in his demonstration that eschatology is not the sole preserve of the modern political and religious right but is, and has always been, compatible with many different religious, social, economic, and political agendas."
--Philip Almond, Professor emeritus, The University of Queensland
"Whittock writes a highly accessible and abundantly helpful account of how Christian writers through the ages have interpreted apocalyptic Scriptures. Such readings have often, but not always, led to culturally and politically divisive movements. Whittock, however, offers a hopeful vision, reminding us that Christians can remain devoted to the Scriptures and still embrace the world and its challenges."
--Glenn W. Shuck, author of Marks of the Beast: The Left Behind Novels and the Struggle for Evangelical Identity
"The End Times, Again? is truly a book for our time. It is a wonderfully well-written survey of a vast sweep of Western history and the ways in which interpretations of biblical prophecy have influenced culture, politics, religion, and even armed conflicts. . . . The book is particularly noteworthy in that it includes our post-9/11 world, Trump's MAGA movement, and the profound ways in which recent ways of recasting 'prophecy belief' are shaping our society."
--James D. Tabor, Professor of Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
