Customer Reviews

Millennium

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This is the first book I have read on eschatology, and it did not disappoint. Boettner is a postmillenialist who thoroughly examines all three views on the millenium: postmillenialism, amillenialism, and premillenialism (including dispensationalism). I grew up in a premillenial tradition and had always been taught two contradictory views concerning the end times: 1) the Rapture could occur at any time without warning or sign, and 2) there are many signs around us (e.g. Jews moving back to Pallestine) signifying that the end is near. Boettner does a great job destroying both of these myths by using the scriptures exhaustively. The picture he paints is that of a church victorious on the earth with Christ as its leader.

Loraine Boettner was a generous-hearted man who used to buy his own books and sell them at cost-price. This is how I got my copies.In each book you will find the statement: "Anyone is at liberty to use material from this book, with or without credit... The writer's desire is to further, not restrict its use."

As a child I was taught the Dispensational view of the Second Coming, and was blissfully unaware that it was a very recent development, unknown to the Apostles and everyone else until the mid-Nineteenth Century. Reading Boettner's book was a helpful corrective, combined with reading Robert Clouse's "The Meaning of the Millennium."

It is worth reading Boettner to gain an understanding of Postmillennialism, which is the least-known of the various views held by evangelical Christians [though it is quite prominent in some Presbyterian and Reformed circles].

Boettner's books are easily found on the internet, where they are legally available, but it is worth having the hard copy. There is something about a book!
Highly recommended.

Loraine Boettner (1901-1990) was an American theologian and author, and author of such books as Reformed Doctrine of Predestination and Roman Catholicism.

He states in the Introduction to this 1957 book, "The primary purpose of the present work is to make available in summarized form the information concerning those eschatological problems that has been wrought out through generations of careful study by the best scholars that the Church has produced, to separate truth from error, and to express that truth as clearly and convincingly as possible."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Trying to pinpoint the date on which the Millennium begins is like trying to distinguish the day or year when Medieval history ended and Modern history began." (Pg. 58)
"We should point out, however, that in Revelation 20 the 'thousand years' of verses 1-3 and the 'thousand years' of verses 4-6 do not relate to the same thing. The Millennium of verses 1-3 relates to a period of the future ON EARTH, during which time the Devil is bound so that he can no longer deceive THE NATIONS. The Millennium of verses 4-6 ... relates to the INTERMEDIATE STATE, and for each individual soul it covers the period between death and resurrection." (Pg. 65-55)
"(T)rue Postmillennialism does not depend on Peace Conferences or Leagues of Nations or any other merely humanitarian forces to bring about a better world, but upon the effective proclamation of the gospel and the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit to change individuals..." (Pg. 135)
"Yet not one single reference in Daniel or Ezekiel or Paul or the Book of Revelation which the Premillennialists allege refers to the Antichrist is connected in any way with the verses of the epistles of John that mention antichrist. All is based on inference." (Pg. 210)
"But there are no grounds either in reason or in Scripture for inserting a parenthesis of many centuries duration between the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel's prophecy, a parenthesis which strangely has already extended nearly four times as the entire period of the 70 weeks themselves... Certainly the natural inference is that in this prophecy time runs concurrently as it does in any other prophecy." (Pg. 221)
"It may seem harsh to say, 'God is through with the Jews.' But the fact of the matter is that He is through with them as a unified national group having anything more to do with the evangelization of the world. That mission has been taken from them and given to the Christian Church (Matt. 21:43)." (Pg. 319)
"Premillennialists make a great deal of the fact that Premillennialism was found in the early Church, and that it continued in some degree up through the fourth century. But that in itself means practically nothing. The fact of the matter is that numerous errors crept into the early church almost from the days of the Apostles." (Pg. 363)

About ten years ago,I tried to read this trash-book.I didn't finished this trash-book.This book again, tells about the end of the world, using the bible.If you go to internet, you can read free, so absurds things as this book.On internet there's many articles from books writen in XVIII and XIX centuries talking about, the end of the world.

I read the book(available here on Amazon) by Ellen G. White, "The great controversy".Using the same bible, as the author of this book, she claims that the end of the world was/is near because:



1-The pope is anti-Christ.Catholic Church wil enslave mankind.

2-Spiritism will be a massive religion in USA.



After more than 100 years later, what happened?Lenin, Hitler, Mao, Stalin killed more than 150,000,000 people.They were living in times, whyle Mrs. White was living, but in hundreds of books and articles, writen by Mrs. White, there's nothing about any of these anti-catholic men.Spiritism in USA reduced from 1890 decade onwards and today, less than 0.2% of american population is spiritualist.Brazil has just 2% of spritualists and has the biggest spiritualist population in the world.In other words, using the bible, you can't be more prophet, than any mad in a hospice.



Using the same technics, as Mrs. White, Mr. Loraine Boettner uses the bible, to tells us about the end of the world.He claims that return of jews to Israel is the sign, to "near" end of the world.Well, since this book was writen, Israel retired from Gaza Strip.Is this the next step from end of the world?Loraine Boettner never told us nothing clear, except his own believes.



This book is good, only if you don't have a good brain.If you are a smart person, please, don't waste your time and money, reading this kind of trash-book.