Customer Reviews

Iran: The Coming Crisis: Radical Islam, Oil, and the Nuclear Threat

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Enough already about the madman leader of Iran and his nuclear intentions and his rantings about obliterating Israel from the face of the earth. Hitchcock spends too time and effort focusing on yesterday's and today's headlines. Anyone with an ounce of sense and any degree of rationality knows that Ahmadinejad and his Islamic fanatical followers are rushing the world headlong down the path of universal annihilation.

The thrust of his book should have been on the role of Iran and its anti-semitic cohorts, namely Russia and most of the Middle East, in prophetic endtimes. Hitchcock does get around to it eventually but not until he has exhausted the readers patience with what has been and continues to be news concerning Iran's diabolic designs. He could have gotten to Ezekiel 38&39,as it relates to Iran, much sooner than all the rehashed verbiage that preceded it.

Next time, Mr. Hitchcock, get to the point. John Hagee's "Jerusalem Countdown" does a much better job of doing just that.

It is obvious that North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan having the bomb is dangerous. I believe all strategists know that these unstable regimes might be tempted to blow the planet up if they are going down the drain. Hitchcock tries to bring Bible readings as a justification for showing the end of the world. I believe any philosophy colored by religious fundamentalism causes problems in the world. Hitchcock might have a PhD in religion, but I feel he does not understand the Mideast enough to write a valid, scholarly work that would make strategists understand the problem of nuclear weapons better. This is a book written stating the undesireability of Iran getting nuclear weapons with some scripture thrown in.

This is not a well thought out book. There are better books out there to understand the crisis.

So a pastor from Oklahoma is going to tell us the future of the Middle East. And, not surprisingly, it's all war and flames. Odd, how these people love to dream of fire and destruction. But what's really odd is that they've been peddling the same story of the coming end of the world for two thousand years. And they've been wrong consistently for two thousand years. What sort of madness can keep people like Mark Hitchcock betting on the end of the world when their predecessors have lost that bet ninety generations in a row?
Perhaps it's the fact that ninety generations of preachers have grown rich on that losing bet.

With the onslaught of materiel being poured out on the subject of Iran and its supposed role in Bible prophecy, it would be a challenging task for anyone to write anything fresh and original on the subject. Nevertheless, Mark Hitchcock has thrown his hat into the ring. This may not be the most sensational books on the subject, but it is one of the fairer treatments that you will see.

There are several things about this book that are good. First, Mark writes with a reader friendly, teaching style instead of the loud preachy style of someone like John Hagee. Two, his historical information about Persia and Babylon was presented in a memorable way. Third, the information on Iran was fair, informative, and quite possibly right as regards to their being a nuclear threat. Fourth, he at least makes an effort to deal with objections to his view of Ezekiel 38-39 and does not just assume that everyone is on board with him. I do think, however, that he is wrong when he says the "vast majority" of scholars see Ezekiel 38-39 as having a future literal fulfillment in the sense that they see Russia, Iran, etc, coming down to attack the modern day nation of Israel. In fact, I think the only safe thing to say there is that the vast majority of dispensational scholars see it as fulfilled in this manner. For a past fulfillment, he seems to indicate that only preterists take a past fulfillment view of this passage, but that is far from accurate. One does not have to be a preterist, to believe that Ezekiel 38-39 has been fulfilled or all of the OT for that matter.
Hitchcock does, in a footnote, deal with Gary DeMar's view that the Ezekiel passage was fulfilled in what happened in Esther, but he was a little too quick to dismiss some of the very good verbal parallels that were made by DeMar. The good thing is that Hitchcock did list what he calls the inconsistencies between Esther and Ezekiel.

Another problem, I find with Mark's handeling of Ezekiel 38-39 is that he fails to address that when Ezekiel writes this that the very first Temple (built by Solomon) was still standing. There was still another Temple to be built in 516 BC and then attacked and shut down by the Syrian's, and later remodeled by Herod, and then destoryed in 70 AD by the Romans.

Let us grant, however, that Ezekiel 38-39 is yet future. Mark's placement of the battle of Gog and MaGog after the rapture is simply guess work. He fails to deal with the fact that Revelation places a battle of Gog and Magog after the 1000 year reign (Revelation 20:8). It is rather odd that he at least attempts to deal with many of the other problems of the Ezekiel passage, but does not deal with its placement in Revelation.

Mark assumes a dispensational position throughout the book without defending that position as valid. He puts his hat on the rack of what is currently popular in pop theology. I am certain, however, that Mark does in other books defend this position, but he assumes it in this book.

Let me now state what I view to be the biggest problem with the book. Mark does not deal with the calling or role of the Church at all. He does have a call for his readers to get saved at the end, but even informs the new believers to find a local church, but he in no way defines what the voice and position of the Church should be on the complex conditions that are currently facing the Middle East. Several times he unashameably says that the Church is "whisked away" in the rapture to be with the Lord. Now I know that Mark would likely say that the Church should be telling people to repent and get ready for the rapture, because of the conditions in the Middle East, but what about the Church's voice concerning justice, mercy and peace in the Middle East? He is so sure of the rapture (this he will take as a compliment I am sure) that he does not see the Church as having any real role, other than to wait to be "whisked away." The problem I have with, not just Mark, but most of the dispensationalists preachers that I hear is that they are ready to abandon God's creation, rush off to Heaven and let Hell break lose for seven years. The problem with this view is what if thirty years from now, the rapture has not taken place and many are dead in the Middle East and in the world because of this crises, what should the Church be saying or doing? Mark seems to be writing as an American preacher and not taking seriously his calling to be a preacher is God's universal Church. In my opinion, he makes the mistake of seeing the West and especially the USA as Christian and the rest of the world, well, not so much. He talks in a supportive way about Israel and the USA taking out Iran's nuclear facilities and stopping them, but that is the role of militaries and government, but what about the role and voice of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Should we not be groaning and crying out at the place of the World's pain and praying for peace and working toward it? Look back at the various crises throughout history. Look at the Holocaust, Rwanda, or South African Apartheid. What should the Church's role have been in these situations? We need to be asking the same questions today about the Middle East. It may be that the rapture takes place 200 years from now or even 2000 years from now and we cannot just sit around and waith to get "whisked away." There is power for salvation and deliverance in the gospel of Jesus Christ, not just for individual privatized salvation, but for the world. A new creation has been unleashed in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the Church needs to live and speak in light of this power and not just wait to be taken out and escape. Mark could add a great deal of depth to his perspective if he would consider these things.

There is much more I could say about this book, but I will close on a positive note and that is that Mark Hitchcock has written an informative and sencere book that rightly states that their is a real crises with Iran and nuclear weapons. Let us all pray for the coming of the Lord and look for it, but let us be praying for peace in the Middle East and let us work toward it. It may be that the Lord hears and heals.

Mark Hitchcock's book, Iran: The Coming Crisis, is an important book to be read even if you are not fully interested (which you should be, if you are a Christian) in prophecy. Even if you are not fully interested in eschatology, the book holds a wealth of information involving what is going on in the Middle East by way of Radical Islamics right at this very moment. The heart of the growing threat toward Israel and toward the Western world is that of Iran. Iran's focus in life is to bring forth a jihad against anyone and any nation that strives to oppose Iran's worldview of Islamic totalitarianism. The more we sit back and think that tomorrow will be a better day in the Middle East, as many a liberal minded person might suspect (these are the people that actually believe that the base person is good, which is shown to be false if you believe and trust the Bible that is Yahweh's words through both Testaments), the closer we get to the point where Iran will practically point a bomb toward our doorstep and toward Israel's doorstep (since radical Islam believes that Zion and the United States are together Satan). We must know and we must be diligent when dealing with such a nation as Iran because it holds its claws in the very lifeblood of much of the Middle East. This is not paranoia nor is this thought based upon trying to find prophecy under every rock, so to speak, this is cold hard fact--Iran will if not already has a nuclear arsenal that will be used against anyone and everyone they hate based upon their radical Islamic desire for extermination of all Christians and Jews. Again, this book is an important eye opener toward anyone who wants to see the truth, the truth at how Iran and those countries that do indeed support Iran (such as North Korea who has sold much of their own products to Iran, and we all have witnessed over the past day or two the "testing" of North Korea's missile system) want nothing less than world domination. Whether you are a preMill like myself, or an Amill, or a PostMill, you must realize that there is threat coming out way. We cannot hide our heads under rocks, nor should we.

This book was the fourth book I read by Mark Hitchcock. I have never been disappointed with his books and this one is no exception. He ties the current crisis with what could happen in the near future as predicted in the Bible. It's the only way to clearly understand what is happening today and what may well happen in the near future.

My only disagreement with the author is that he believes Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18 is the city in Iraq that is rebuilt there. I disagree with that view as I believe Babylon in the end times (Revelation 17 & 18) is a reference to Rome. Space does not permit why I believe it's Rome but that is what I believe.

The slight disagreement I have doesn't take away from recommending this book. I liked it so much and read it in one day. It easily deserves five stars. A must read and a serious wake up call for America before it is too late!!

Mr Hitchcock has a fairly good grasp of Bible prophecy when it comes to the dream interpretations of Daniel, but these are readily available just about anywhere, including Daniel's own interpretation in scriptures.

Beyond that, this book unfortunately falls victim to excessive hyperbole, neocon propaganda, and one-sided portrayals. The book also contains a couple common fallacies about history that are shamelessly used to promote the hysteria. The book is literally schizophrenic when it comes to Iran and God. On the one hand, we are breathlessly warned that Iran is about to nuke the entire world within a matter of months (as of 2006), but on the other we are treated with some cheerleading about the fulfillment of God's prophecy. The book is replete with "strawman" constructions and the repetition of mistruths.

Worst of all, the book spends inordinate time informing us of things we already know; namely that Iran and Persia are the same. But then the book neatly avoids spending any time identifying the anti-christ's kingdom and instead inserts the typical cliches that have absolutely no scriptural basis. While being thorough over Daniel's dream, the book then avoids the passages where God draws a literal bullseye to where AC's kingdom will arise. The author carefully avoids those "tricky" passages and just tells us that Europe will be AC's kingdom even though this contradicts several areas of scripture dealing with AC's kingdom.

The book also neatly avoids the aspects of anti-christ himself that further paint bullseyes to his country of origin. Again, we are presented with cliches that have no foundation in prophetic scripture and told that some European statesman fits the bill.

Then the book astoundingly avoids the primary factor of the peace that anti-christ will make: the rebuilding of the temple on the Temple Mount. Apparently, the book wants us to believe some Frenchman will be able to convince the Muslims to allow the Jews to rebuild their temple. The book even claims that the 7-year pact is merely to bring peace. The disconnect with scripture at this point is obvious and you can tell the author simply is ignorant of this key area.

Lastly and least, the book claims America has no mention in prophecy. While the word "America" certainly does not occur, the presence in prophecy is denied only by those who haven't taken the time to read passages normally skipped over by typical preachers. The author even mentions the direct chapter dealing with America but dismisses it without reference and likely due to the mistranslation common in nearly all Bibles at the opening of that chapter.

This disappointing book is merely agitation for an American war with Iran.

Mark Hitchcock has flown under the radar as today's foremost authority on Bible prophecy. He does'nt predict the future or name dates, he just compares what the Bible says to what is happening today and everyday. This reveals some startling information for the scholarly as well as the layman.

Mark Hitchcock has done a remarkable job in relatively few pages to bring home the reality of the building crisis in the Middle East. His analysis of the situation there as it relates to prophecies from Ezekiel, Daniel, and others is well researched and convincing. We would do well to pay close attention as this terminal drama unfolds. It should also gives some urgency to decision making regarding a relationship with God, our Creator. We cannot know the precise time of end-time events, but many of the signs are already present. In any case God is sovereign and we can do nothing to stop or change the things and events that are in God's eternal plan.

EASY TO READ, INFORMATIVE. I GOT A LOT OUT OF THE BOOK. IT DISCUSSES THE MANY POSSIBLITIES THAT CAN PLAY OUT FOR THE END OF TIMES PROPHESY. EASY TO READ AND INTERESTING. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.