(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best eschatology books

From Kenneth L Gentry's book He Shall Have Dominion (Also free PDF)page 53-55

>The term “millennium” is used in association with prefixes that tend to modify the Second Coming of Christ as to its relation to the millennium: amillennial, premillennial, and postmillennial. The privative a in “amillennialism” emphasizes that there will be no earthly millennial kingdom as such.^9 The prefix pre indicates that system of eschatology that expects there to be a literal earthly millennial kingdom that will be introduced by the Return of Christ before (pre) it. The prefix post points to the view of the millennium that holds there will be a lengthy, (though not a literal thousand years) earthly era of righteous influence for the kingdom that will be concluded by the Return of Christ. Puritan era postmillennialism tended to expect a literal thousand-year millennium introduced by the conversion of the Jews (rather than the Return of Christ) as the last stage of Christ’s earthly kingdom. Modern postmillennialism tends to see the thousand years as a symbolic figure covering the entirety of the Christian era.l”

>There is an important sub-class in the premillennial view that has arisen since the 1830s. It is known as “dispensationalism.” It is worth noting that historic premillennialists strongly disavow any systemic commonality with dispensationalism. Premillennialist George E. Ladd vigorously protests the equation of dispensationalism and historic premillennialism. He even calls any equating of the two a “mistake.”^11 This explains why the popular book edited by Robert G. Clouse is entitled The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views .^12

>Dispensationalists are aware of their own distinctive differences, as well.^13 Ryrie even comments: “Perhaps the issue of premillennialism is determinative [for dispensationalism]. Again the answer is negative, for there are those who are premillennial who definitely are not dispensational. The covenant premillennialist holds to the concept of the covenant of grace and the central soteriological purpose of God. He retains the idea of the millennial kingdom, though he finds little support for it in the Old Testament prophecies since he generally assigns them to the Church. The kingdom in his view is markedly different from that which is taught by dispensationalists since it loses much of its Jewish character due to the slighting of the Old Testament promises concerning the kingdom.”^14

>There is a helpful theological sorting device, created by O. T. Allis and modified by Jay Adams, that works generally well in classifying the three basic millennial positions.^15 Two questions tend to sort the positions into one of the three most basic schools. These questions are: (1) What is the chronology of the kingdom? (2) What is the nature of the kingdom? The question of chronology has to do with the timing of Christ’s Second Advent in relation to the establishment of the kingdom. If His coming is before the kingdom, then the position is premillennial; if it is after the kingdom, then it may be either amillennial or postmillennial. The question as to the nature of Christ’s kingdom has to do with the historical character of the kingdom. If the kingdom is to have a radical, objective, transforming influence in human culture, it is either premillennial or postmillennial; if it is not to have such, it is amillennial.

At the bottom of Page 55 Gentry quotes a amillennialst scholar Hoekema:

> "[the amillennialist] also looks for an intensified form of tribulation and apostasy as well as for the appearance of a personal antichrist before the Second Coming."

TLDR: Because you believe in the early dating of Revelation and the fact that the tribulation (and anti-Christ) were in that time period, you're probably more postmillennial than you're willing to admit.

> A bit yeah, just moved in to my own apartment!

congratulations

> I understand the logic, but I still don't think these things have been demonstrated outside of philosophy essays.

Remember, demonstrability is only a qualifier for empirical evidence, evidence in general can be taken to be more vast and up for debate.

> I would disagree, but I don't even know what this means, unfortunately ;)

If you're interested http://www.amazon.com/Immortality-Defended-John-Leslie/dp/140516204X/

I don't think I can do his ideas any justice on a Reddit forum.

> I have heard of this, but I've never talked to anyone who actually held that view. I would like to talk with them about it for sure. I disagree, but on what part I disagree depends on what they say.

Well, if interested, I would suggest Max Tegmark's book Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality. He holds that our entire universe is literally made of mathematical numbers. He's also a physicist at MIT.

> Eh. So far as I am aware again, these are akin to borrowing theology's word-games in philosophy to demonstrate different things. I mean, sure, people can think of that if they want, but I don't think it shows anything particularly relevant about reality.

I would think that topics as our eternal destination, the fundamental metaphysical makeup of the world and the nature of reality help to bolster and reinforce scientific theory. I would doubt that many physicists would have stumbled onto space time without previous discussion of philosophy of time for example. Not to mention the ability of certain cosmological arguments to predict notions of a universes beginning. They might not be correct in the long run, but do provide certain hypothetical frames for future discoveries.

> True that, there are also plenty of atheists who are not rationalists at all, and believe all kinds of weird/unprovable things. I would be one of those strict materialists however ;)

Sorry to be pick the knits, but you mean empiricists, not rationalists in this case. Rationalist tends to focus on concepts through the work of a priori knowledge and then place it in an overall framework. The Mathematical and Platonic notions I mentioned are achieved through a rationalist frame work.

Empiricists are more about the posteriori verification of these ideas through induction and falsifiability. This does not preclude empiricists of being Platonists (Arif Ahmed is an example of such a case).

According to the philpapers, skeptical materialists make up only 5% of philosophers. So I would say tread lightly to claim these other 95% are being irrational.

"There are giants among us, passing largely unnoticed, intent on carrying out a secret plan to enslave all humanity. They may not look like giants today, but their bloodlines extend all the way back to the Nephilim―the offspring of angels who mated with human women―described in Genesis 6 when giants roamed the land. Gary Wayne, author of The Genesis 6 Conspiracy: How Secret Societies and the Descendants of Giants Plan to Enslave Humankind, details the role of modern-day Nephilim in Satan’s plan to install the Antichrist at the End of Days."

"When God cast the angel Lucifer and his followers out of heaven, Lucifer set into motion a scheme to ensure the Nephilim survived. Why? Because from the bloodlines of these Nephilim the Antichrist will come. To keep his plan alive, Satan has enlisted the loyalty of secret societies such as the Freemasons, the Templars, and the Rosicrucians to conspire in teaching a theology and a history of the world that is contrary to the biblical one."

"This Genesis 6 Conspiracy marches toward the Great Tribulation, when the loyalty of the Terminal Generation―this generation―will be tested. The Bible, along with many other ancient sources, clearly records the existence of giants. Wayne provides copious citations from many society insiders, along with extensive Bible references, other religious references, and historical material to bolster his contention. What he uncovers will astonish you―and it will challenge you to prepare for the fulfilling of God’s promises."

https://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Conspiracy-Societies-Descendants-Humankind/dp/1632692902

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Taking Genesis seriously? Ew.

Life After Death by Farnaz Masumian is a great book that covers not only what Baha'is believe, but what most of the world's religions believe.

Edit Briefly, though: Baha'is believe this material world is like a womb, and upon death we are born into the next world, which is infinitely more complex and real and beautiful than this world. And so forth; there are infinite worlds of God, and we strive to achieve the virtues available to us in each world, which prepare us for the next--in much the same way a fetus strives to achieve the perfections of having limbs and organs which can sustain it in the material world. That's our purpose in life (achieving virtues) and our destiny after death (living in the next world according to the virtues we achieved in this one.)

I'm Amill, so take recommendations with a grain of salt:

Premill: A Case for Historic Premillenialism by Craig Blomberg, The Blessed Hope: A Biblical Study of the Second Advent and the Rapture by George Eldon Ladd

Postmill: Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope by Keith Mathison, The Millennium Loraine Boettner

Amill: The Bible and the Future by Anthony Hoekema, The Promise of the Future by Cornelis Venema

Off of the top of my head,

1. A literal, historical-grammatical interpretation of the OT prophecy texts would lead one to believe in a future, literal kingdom. (c.f. Alva McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom; Roy Zuck, Basic Bible Interpretation)
   
   
2. The New Covenant in Jeremiah 31 is explicitly made with the houses of Israel and Judah, and the fact that the gentiles participate in the New Covenant blessings is the mystery spoken of in the NT. It's partially fulfilled today in the Church Age in it's seed form, and will sprout and blossom (including a literal fulfillment of the land promises) during the millennial reign. (c.f. Barry Horner, Future Israel; Larry Pettegrew, "The New Covenant", The Master's Seminary Journal (Fall 1999), pgs. 251-270)
   
   
3. The Church is never referred to as Israel, or explicitly replaces Israel in the divine plan of God. (c.f. Michael Vlach, Has the Church Replaced Israel?)

Timothy Paul Jones has good materials on this subject; he respectfully discusses the most popular views on the end times and what the Bible actually says. Hope this helps!

http://www.amazon.com/Four-Views-Times-Timothy-Jones-ebook/dp/B006ORCI76

http://www.amazon.com/Guide-End-Times-Prophecy-Timothy-Jones-ebook/dp/B007I75UL2

>We can only know what has been revealed to us about heaven, since nobody has ever gone there and lived to tell about it.

Jesse Duplanits has visited heaven.

In this book, Jesse Duplantis shares several events that have happened to him in his relationship with God--events he calls close encounters of the God kind. One of these events is his trip to heaven in 1988.

I don't have one that will guide you through a whole year, but I do have a recommendation to get you started.

​

Remember Your Death is a Lenten devotional, but it's still useful throughout the rest of the Church year. Each daily meditation includes a journaling prompt. I tried to do this during Lent, but I found it to be a bit repetitive. That said, it would be a good launch point for someone looking to start Catholic journaling.

​

As an alternative, for something less structured, you might consider reading each day's Scripture readings and journaling your thoughts on them -- any themes you pick up on, parallels you notice, points that resonate with you.

It doesn’t mean we should just give up though. If enough people rallied and fought against these atrocities they could be resolved.

Check out the books The Deaf Phoenicians and The Blackest of All Magic .

I dislike how so many people feel it’s up to others to expose the facts when it’s really up to all of us to continue the work others started. One person can only do so much but many people united can accomplish what many deem impossible.

Also check out Can You Stand the Truth?

My brother, David, is a Full Preterist and an author.

http://www.amazon.com/House-Divided-Bridging-Eschatology-Preterist/dp/1615290087

I honestly do not know why he is a full Preterist rather than a partial Preterist. Preterism (at least the "full" variety) is pretty labyrinthine and convoluted if you ask me. Kinda strains the concept of perspicuity. But where I really draw the line is at the Full Preterist contention that we are now living in the New Heaven and the New Earth. Did you know death has been conquered? Hallelujah.

Interesting that a similar story happened to David Hatcher Childress in the book of his that I am currently reading. He was worshiped as a cargo cult god on the island of New Hanover where he went on an archaeological expedition to find some ancient megaliths. He tells the story in A Hitchhiker's Guide To Armageddon.
http://www.amazon.com/HITCHHICKERS-GUIDE-ARMAGEDDON-Cities-Series/dp/0932813844

(Amazon, a book site, can't spell hitchhiker. Troubling.)

Pretty good introduction to/summary of millennial thought from Jesus through about 2000 CE: http://www.amazon.com/Longing-For-The-End-Millennialism/dp/0312238347

Well, you also have books like this being read and rather praised in reviews;

> The name “Donald” means world ruler, and no he is not the antichrist, but he is a man of destiny. Open a King James Bible and read Daniel chapter 8 with a dictionary and you cannot help but see that he is the prophesied king of the west who “at the time of the end” will fulfill the prophecy in making his nation “very great.”

https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Prophecy-Trump-Stubborn-Prophecies-ebook/dp/B01MUKGJJU

The same guy also wrote some trilogy of books about how the theory of evolution came around because English slave traders wrote out "the father of the Black race" from the bible to justify slave trade, etc.

> Yet, these three religions do not seem to want to acknowledge Zoroastrianism's contributions. I mean, Judeo-Christian-Islamic ideas concerning the Apocalypse and the eternal struggle of God, as a god of light, against the great adversary and his forces of darkness are owed to Zoroastrianism.

Woah there. That's quite a strong claim.

A definitive study from which most scholars arguably begin is Semeia 14: Apocalypse: The Morphology of a Genre

The table of contents, since it's not listed anywhere online that I've seen are (not necessarily in this order)

• Introduction: Toward the Morphology of a Genre
  
  
• Persian Apocalypses
  
  
• Jewish Apocalypses
  
  
• The Greek and Latin Apocalypses
  
  
• The Early Christian Apocalypses
  
  
• The Gnostic Apocalypses
  
  
• Apocalypses in Rabbinic Literature
  
  I have scans of these if anyone is interested.
  
  EDIT: here's a link which contains the chapters above. This was published with no frills back in '72, so forgive the typewriter formatting. John Collins (currently at Yale) is the world's foremost expert on apocalypticism.

I know we've had discussions before, and I feel like you are currently at a place I was a few years ago on some level (although you are in a different position considering you have a family).

This book I want to recommend to you is a bit heady, and has very little to do with Christianity (though there is a very interesting chapter on Cain & Abel), but it propelled me from sitting on the sidelines to wanting to finally throw down and begin my catechism.

The book is The Reign of Quantity by René Guénon, and it is really the book on metaphysics from a modern perspective.

If you want to take it to the next level after that, read this book by Jean Borella for the Christian response to Guenon. I have really come to feel that this 1-2 combo is a necessity for Christians who want to recover something of their heritage in the modern world.

I agree. Anything by him is good, particularly Eschatology.

I know this book can be somewhat controversial in some Orthodox circles, but, I recommend Fr. Seraphim Rose's Soul After Death, which explains what's probably the most popular Orthodox viewpoint. Fr. Thomas Hopko seems to argue for Rose's tollhouse theory here too.

Kingdom Come by Sam Storms is a pretty thorough critique of dispensationalism: http://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Come-The-Amillennial-Alternative/dp/1781911320.

Hope this helps!

200 Proofs Earth is Not a Spinning Ball

https://www.amazon.com/Terra-Firma-Planet-Proved-Scripture/dp/1445507897

https://www.amazon.com/100-Proofs-That-Earth-Globe/dp/1523463317

https://www.amazon.com/Zetetic-Astronomy-Earth-Not-Globe/dp/1523612126

https://www.amazon.com/Zetetic-Cosmogony-Conclusive-Revolving-Stationary/dp/1534909184

https://www.amazon.com/Atlantean-Conspiracy-Final-Eric-Dubay/dp/1304634396

https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Heaven-Earth-Globe/dp/0986130540

https://www.amazon.com/Flat-Earth-Clues-Skys-Limit/dp/1523851430

https://www.amazon.com/Firmament-Vaulted-Earth-Zen-Garcia/dp/136507384

https://www.amazon.com/Babylon-Rising-updated-expanded-First/dp/1492170097

https://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Conspiracy-Societies-Descendants-Humankind/dp/1632692902

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Inception-Satans-Psyops-Armageddon/dp/0998142646

https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Torah-Book-Portions-Testament/dp/1492112097

https://www.amazon.com/Books-Enoch-Watchers-Extensive-Commentary/dp/1936533073

https://www.amazon.com/Zetetic-Astronomy-Earth-Globe-Forgotten/dp/1605064173

https://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Beyond-Poles-Physical-Continuity/dp/0986130532

https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Lie-Earth-Proof-Moving/dp/1943056013

Sam Storms discusses replacement theology in his new book. His treatment is rather good. I'd suggest looking into it, if not to just have talking points to discuss with him.

I would recommend this book.

I'm going to throw one out that doesn't get as much love as others that have been mentioned.

Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life

J Marcellus Kik An Eschatology of Victory

Keith A Mathison Postmillennialsim: An Eschatology of Hope

Loraine Boettner The Millennium

This is what I am wanting to use this Lent.
https://www.amazon.com/Remember-Death-Memento-Lenten-Devotional/dp/0819865176

Kingdom Come by Sam Storms is an awesome book for your situation. Very thorough, but not overly technical, so it's not hard to grasp his arguments.