Sunday, July 31, 2011

Book Review: Creation and the Second Coming

I've had the chance to read Creation and the Second Coming by Henry Morris here recently, and this is a unique book.  End Times prophecy, of course, you can find all over the place.  Creation resources are pretty common now too.  But combining the two?  End Times prophecy in light of the Creation account?  I'm sure I've not seen that before.

This book was a nice change of pace for me aesthetically -- a normal-sized font with some actual white space on the page.  That made for a pleasant reading experience.

From the back cover:
To understand the end, you must understand the beginning. Dr. Morris shows how Creation is tied to the Second Coming.
The Bible's prophetic writers give key "signs" of the return of Christ.  The author shows how each "sign" is an outgrowth of evolutionary humanism or pantheism.
God's plan for the Second Coming of Jeus Christ began in the book of Genesis.  The political upheavel [sic] in the Middle East, the New-Age movement, and the call for a one-world government were all foretold in God's Word.
I'll start off with my biggest "issue" with the book... that being that it was written in 1991, which was a bit jarring in all the talk about "current events" in the Middle East.  Had I realized what "current" meant before I started reading, things would have gone a lot more smoothly. 

One thing I really appreciated about this book was that I never really felt that Dr. Morris was telling me that he had it all figured out and this is exactly the way it is.  The tone was more of a friendly (yet serious) chat where Dr. Morris is laying out his studied and educated guess as to how various prophecies are being fulfilled (or are going to be fulfilled), along with carefully explaining why he believes that.

On many of the issues (like who is the Antichrist) he talks about what the church has believed over the centuries, without belittling those beliefs.  In fact, when speaking of Nero being thought to be the Antichrist, his parenthetical statement is "naturally enough."  I don't know, it just felt like he respected the early church, even though their interpretation of that particular prophecy has clearly been demonstrated to have been erroneous.

Respectful.  And open to the idea that later on, biblical scholars could be pointing out where he missed the mark.  That sums up the overall tone of this work.

I'm glad I've had the opportunity to read this book.


Disclaimer:   I received this book for free from New Leaf Publishing Group.  No other compensation was received.  The fact that I received a complimentary product does not guarantee a favorable review.  

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