Customer Reviews

Biblical Prophecy

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Many books on biblical prophecy today are an attempt to use the events of the Middle East to help interpret the mysterious and figurative language of the prophetic literature in the Bible. This book does none of that! Instead, professor Sailhamer undertakes an overview of biblical prophecy in biblical terms to help the reader better see the big picture of the Bible. In other words, he presents a clear and powerful summary of the message of the Bible, so that the reader will be able to understand and interpret his or her world better by viewing it in terms of Scripture.

Sailhamer begins with two chapters which serve an introductory role. "Introduction to Biblical Prophecy" and "Hermeneutics of Biblical Prophecy" introduce the topic and give several underlying principles on how to read biblical prophecy. He then devotes a chapter to "Biblical Theological Foundations". This chapter gives summaries on topics such as creation, nature, the story of redemption, etc., to help lay the groundwork for the meat of his book, which comes next. The fourth part analyzes and summarizes prophecy in the Old and New Testaments. His expertise in the Hebrew Bible, and especially the Book of Moses (Pentateuch) shines brightly here. [Note: InterVarsity just released the book which he spent his whole life working on, and I highly recommend it!]. In two final chapters he reviews the central themes of biblical prophecy and gives several summaries of how different theological systems (e.g. covenant theology and dispensationalism) incorporate these themes.

I highly recommend this book for both ordinary church folk and those more inclined to academic studies. The author's ability to explain difficult subjects simply and cogently will help any reader better understand the purpose, function, and message of biblical prophecy. There are several other books from this series that John Sailhamer has also written. Most are worth the $7. Of those, I recommend "How We Got the Bible", "The Books of the Bible", and "Christian Theology". I also would recommend his "NIV Compact Bible Commentary", which is probably the best $7 I spent in my life.