A Basic Guide to Eschatology: Making Sense of the Millennium

by Millard J. Erickson

Book Overview

A leading evangelical theologian provides a comprehensive and objective examination of the various evangelical views of the millennium.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801058368
• ISBN13: 9780801058363
• Release Date: December 1998
• Publisher: Baker Books
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Very balanced and easy to understand

Dr. Erikson presents four competing views of end times theology, providing arguments both for and against each view. Although Erickson is historic premillennial, he presents a very unbiased description of each view in a fairly easy to read format. This is an great starting point for those who want to investigate the different end times positions. It has received excellent reviews from the evangelical community.

A Basic Guide tp Eschatology

It was a very informative writing. I was enlightened by all of the different views on end times. The book came on time which is very important because I am in school. Thank you.

Great Overview

Erickson does an excellent job of presenting various Eschatological views on the the Millenium and return of Christ. For each of the major views he presents a brief summary, history, the basic arguement for the position and its advantages and disadvantages. He presents each position from such a balanced perspective that one does not even know what his own view is until the very end. My only disapointment with the book and the reason I give it 4 instead of 5 stars is that he barely even mentions the preterist view, as if it is not even worth considering.

Informative, Organized, and Balanced

What I appreciate most about this book is its organization. In particular, part 2 of the book, the various millennial positions, employs these subheadings for each chapter: Overview, History, Tenets, and Evaluation (both positive and negative); since each view uses the same subheadings, it allows for easy comparison. Part 1 of the book, Background Views, was interesting reading; however, I didn't see how it connected with parts 2 and 3. Then again, I confess I haven't read widely in this field. I thought the presentation of each of the millennial views was more clear in this book than in Clouse's "The Meaning of the Millenium," although I enjoyed and recommend that book, as well.

very scholarly, reads like a textbook

This new edition of an earlier work is a very evenly balanced, scholarly work. It reads like a history book in some places and like a textbook in others. There are no dogmatic assertions made for any position, and the author's own opinion is well hidden -- you do not even know what it is until the end of the book.The book covers a great deal of material including overviews of the traditional viewpoints of the millenium and the timing of the rapture. It includes basic arguments from each position and the persons who are the spokesmen for those positions. One of the prominent features is that evaluations are given of both positive and negative aspects of each position which is a big plus. While the arguments do not go into the greatest detail, they are not unduly brief so as to be unuseful. The scholar as well as the layman will find the book inviting.Although the book is a newer addition and covers the recent trends in dispensationalism for example, it does not have information about the prewrath rapture position, which is becoming a major theory. It does however cover some of the less popular, or "mediating" positions such as the partial rapture view and the imminent posttribulational view.This is a very informative and well written book. The author is quite fair to all positions and never engages in personal attacks. The book was written at the request of seminary students for an objective reference to the different eschatological options they would have when they would someday minister. Written by a scholar with the heart of a minister, their request has been well served in this book.