The Heightened Interest In Prophecy
Prophecy in the Making, edited by Carl F. H. Henry (Creation House, 1971, 394 pp., $5.95), Prophecy and the Seventies, by Charles Lee Feinberg (Moody, 1971, 255 pp., $4.95), You Can Know the Future, by Wilbur M. Smith (Gospel Light/Regal, 1971, 118 pp., $3.95, $1.25 pb), Daniel: The Key to Prophetic Revelation, by John F. Walvoord (Moody, 1971, 317 pp., $6.95), Discern These Times, by S. I. McMillen (Revell, 1971, 192 pp., $4.95), Signs of the Times, by A. Skevington Wood (Baker, 1971, 126 pp., $1.25 pb), Christ’s Coming and the World Church, by Guy Duty (Bethany Fellowship, 1971, 171 pp., $3.95), and A Survey of Bible Prophecy, by Arthur E. Bloomfield (Bethany Fellowship, 1971, 238 pp., $2.95 pb), are reviewed by John H. Mulholland, dean and professor of theology, Capital Bible Seminary, Washington, D.C.
Recent world developments such as the emergence of the nation of Israel, the resulting Middle Eastern conflict, the portent of nuclear holocaust, warnings of widespread famine, and threats of worldwide ecological catastrophe have whipped up interest in biblical prophetic studies. In June, 1971, the Jerusalem Conference on Biblical Prophecy assembled many of the leaders of this movement.
Prophecy in the Making contains the messages of that conference edited by its program director, Carl F. H. Henry, who gave a general message on Jesus Christ and the last days. In the first article, W. A. Criswell, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, contends for the literal fulfillment of biblical prophecy from the examples of past fulfillment in Cyrus of Persia, the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, and the survival of the Jewish people.
Several messages were paired on topics of nonmillennialism versus premillennialism. Edmund P. Clowney, Westminster Seminary president, set forth the view that the Old Testament promise of restoration of the Jewish temple has its real fulfillment in the incarnation of Christ, in the present development of the Church as the body of Christ, and in the future glory of both Christ and his Church. Then Charles L. Feinberg, dean of Talbot Seminary, argued for a future literal fulfillment of the millennial temple of Ezekiel 40–48. These two articles should be compulsory reading for all students of the Scriptures as studies in hermeneutics and theology.
Another pairing of messages related to the future of Israel. Herman Ridderbos, who teaches New Testament at the Theological Seminary of Kampen, The Netherlands, judged that many Israelites will join the company of the redeemed; but despite the interpretive luster shown in, for example, his Coming of the Kingdom, he suggests that those attending the conference should speak to Israel rather than to one another. In response, John F. Walvoord. Dallas Seminary president, condensed his work The Millennial Kingdom to thumbnail size and concluded that Israel’s reestablishment in its ancient land is the principal sign of the approaching advent of Christ.
Articles by such evangelical luminaries as Wilbur M. Smith, Harold J. Ockenga. John R. W. Stott, A. Skevington Wood, Merrill C. Tenney, and G. Douglas Young contribute much to the value of this collection. An emphasis on the ethical significance of futuristic prophecy evidently did not fall within the conference purpose.
Another prophetic conference was sponsored by the American Board of Missions to the Jews to celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary, and Charles L. Feinberg edited the conference collection in a volume entitled Prophecy For the Seventies. Included are sermons by Stephen Olford, E. Schuyler English, Feinberg, Walvoord, and others.
One of the Nestors of prophetic interpretation, Wilbur M. Smith, has produced the general survey entitled You Can Know the Future. Smith writes with his usual biblical and literary depth. The low price of this paperback will enable advocates of his position to give it wide distribution.
John F. Walvoord’s Daniel: The Key to Prophetic Revelation is a verse-by-verse commentary. He notes that he has received “invaluable assistance” from his professor of Hebrew at Dallas, Bruce K. Waltke. This work is more specialized and probably more enduring than many other prophetic efforts. With frequent allusion to Calvin, Keil, Young, Leupold, and J. A. Montgomery, Walvoord delineates standard premillennial, dispensational interpretation. While the pastor busy with the next morning’s sermon may feel put upon by the frequent rebuttals of the Maccabean view, the student disturbed by that matter will be grateful. Anyone wanting to be well informed about the conservative interpretation of the Book of Daniel should examine this commentary along with those of Young, Leupold, and Keil.
Discern These Times by S. I. McMillen, who earlier gave us None of These Diseases, is noteworthy, not so much because it was written by a medical doctor and former missionary, but because throughout the book there are references to such varied sources as Toynbee, Albert Einstein, Isvestia, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, Winston Churchill, and Whitaker Chambers. The volume can serve as something of a source-book for preachers—provided they can accept the identification of Babylon as the Roman Catholic Church and the Antichrist as Russia now in control of the United Nations. A companion study guide provides questions, forty-eight appendices, and an index. The perspective is futuristic; the rapture is set immediately before the “Great Day of His Wrath,” but after the “Great Tribulation.”
Other prophetic contributions of 1971 tend to center on signs of the second advent, such as the increase of war, earthquakes, immorality, apostasy, and cults, and the rise of the nation in Egypt. In A. Skevington Wood’s Signs of the Times, chapters on worldliness, expansion, and revival strike to the bone. Guy Duty displays his devotional style in Christ’s Coming and the World Church.
Some of the things Arthur Bloomfield says in A Survey of Bible Prophecy may be entertained only as very tentative suggestions by any school of prophetic interpretation: for instance, such phrases as “that day,” “the day of the Lord,” “the last day,” and “the end” always point to the time of the second coming; the rapture of the saints will occur 10½ years before Armageddon; the great white throne judgment will precede the millennial kingdom; the nations of the eternal period will populate the universe because “of the increase of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
Out Of The Frying Pan
The God Experience, by Joseph P. Whelan (Newman, 1971, 272 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by Samuel J. Mikolaski, principal, Baptist Leadership Training School, Calgary, Alberta.
This book comprises the third and fourth series of the Cardinal Bea Lectures of 1968–70, on atheism in our time. The participating scholars are chiefly Roman and Anglo-Catholic.
To my mind the third series outstrips the fourth. The fourth, developed under the general heading “Faith and Hope in the Future,” picks up the now popular futurism theme. Piet Fransen’s essay on prophecy concentrates upon its eruptive and experiential character without giving adequate attention to norms of revelation and truth. Daniel Day Williams relates the Spirit to the new openness in hope theology and philosophy and to the need in modern thought to unmechanize the world. Absolute determinism, he says, takes all the sense out of moral obligation.
David Stanley surveys the Gospels, Paul, and John on their view of the historical future and the reality that lies beyond history. However Dupré, while stressing God’s transcendence of the world process, declares that only man directs the process. The transcendence of God is restricted to the autonomy of the creature. George Lindbeck on sectarianism and the Church ruefully concedes that Catholic ecumenicity (to him the superior option) will not in the future do as well as the schismatic varieties of Christianity: “It seem likely in terms of our scenario, that it is the schismatics who will inherit the Christian name.” Evangelicals take note! A pastoral essay by Avery Dulles on hope as the Christian’s rightful heritage closes the book.
This series on hope is simply inadequate. No awareness is shown of the very large body of secular literature on futurism that, frankly, anticipates the spate of religious essays now appearing. Modern futurology took off in the early 1960s and is now a serious undertaking by governments, industry, and some special faculties who are concerned about the long-term effects of cybernation, social engineering, biological engineering, space exploration, and the imbalance in nature resulting from man’s abuses of the environment. Theological and religious essayists will have to catch up on the secular mood and activity. Furthermore, no awareness is shown of the large body of literature written by evangelicals on eschatology and hope during the past century and a half. Nor do these lecturers approach the touchstone question of hope: resurrection and judgment. Evangelicals have today a fertile field in which to cultivate the biblical eschatological plant, not along futurist party lines, but according to the total world-view that undergirds biblical teaching on hope and the divine Kingdom.
Part One is the longer and theologically more satisfying section of the book. In the third series, the Bea lecturers concentrate on “The Awareness of God.” Included are: Michael Novak of the State University of New York on “The Unawareness of God,” Julian Hartt of Yale on “Encounter and Inference in Our Awareness of God,” Gabriel Vahanian of Syracuse on “No Other God,” Raymond Panikkar of Harvard on “Nirvana and the Awareness of the Absolute,” E. L. Mascall of London on “The Awareness of God and the Christian Doctrine of Man,” and Gregory Baum of Toronto on “Divine Transcendence.”
In line with the contemporary intellectual dallyings between the West and Oriental mysticisms, this collection includes pantheistic and panentheistic essays, namely those by Vahanian and Panikkar. Both essays would provide a field day for the linguistic analyst. To me these essays say nothing, at least not anything that can be understood in our world. Why the series does not include a critique of the idealist mode is hard to fathom. A useful antidote is Leonard Hodgson’s For Faith and Freedom, which effectively contrasts the biblical creationist and idealist views and amply documents their misalliance. It is sheer paganism to define God in terms of the world process and of man’s historical experience, despite the attempt to couch this in the contemporary jargon of historical openness and contingency. This was the real issue at Nicea. Assuredly determinism is the foe of incarnationist Christianity, but so is idealism. We jump out of the frying pan into the fire to think that by taking refuge in idealist metaphysics we can fight determinism and as well defend biblical Christianity. Those who today reject Nicene theology as outdated had better probe more deeply what the Church Fathers rejected in the fourth century and why.
A tribute is due to E. J. Mascall, who has helped many through his writings. In the present essay he furnishes an analysis of modern atheism as reasoned, willed, and assumed. The discussion is useful not only to students but also to pastors who minister to modern men. He rejects the current assumption that in the secular world the Church and its message must become secularized. Secularism has nothing to say about death (what Mascall says is more appropriate to the Hope part of the book than some of the essays there). The promise of the future does not drive out the pain of the present; some people are going to die tomorrow and they want to know why, he says.
Theologically the most stimulating essay is by Julian Hartt. One might superficially conclude that here is yet another bright contemporary piece on God in the tensions of social revolution. More important is Hartt’s argument for the existence of God in ontological categories and his delicate development of the relations between God and history. What he says about the living, intervening God and prophetic encounter, about God’s initiative in history toward freedom for man, about the importance of the (impersonal) divine justice in history when some view the personal relations of God to the world somewhat sentimentally, about recognition of God’s personhood, and about the place of the moral nature of reality (reminder of P. T. Forsyth) in contrast to the abstract scheme of being and non-being, is noteworthy.
Newly Published
The Hungry Inherit: Refreshing Insights on Salvation, Discipleship, and Rewards, by Zane Clark Hodges (Moody, 128 pp., $3.95). The subtitle is right. See editorial, page 29.
Books For Christian Educators, compiled by Evangelical Teacher Training Association (Box 327, Wheaton, Ill. 60187, 48 pp., $1 pb). To guide individual and church library acquisitions, a revised list of 500 titles (with the choice 100 indicated) on the Bible and how to communicate its teachings. Publishers’ addresses are given.
The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues, by John P. Kildahl (Harper & Row, 110 pp., $4.95). A psychologist who participated in a federally funded study of glossolalia reports on further interviews, other research, and reflections. Largely concerns Protestant neo-Pentecostalism—who, how, why, what does it mean?
God and Reason: A Historical Approach to Philosophical Theology, by Ed. L. Miller (Macmillan, 244 pp., $3.75 pb). A good, clear, and generally fair presentation of the arguments for and against the existence of God, the problem of evil, the soul, immortality, and various “new theologies.” A valuable introduction to perennial questions offering much useful apologetic material without urging a particular viewpoint on the readers.
Thomism and the Ontological Theology of Paul Tillich: A Comparison of Systems, by Donald J. Keefe, S. J. (E. J. Brill, 360 pp., n.p.). A detailed study of Thomas Aquinas and Paul Tillich as two complementary approaches to the same nexus of theological problems; maintains that Tillich’s system requires a full Mariology to make it complete and viable.
Personal Living: An Introduction to Paul Tournier, by Monroe Peaston (Harper & Row, 107 pp., $4.95). A warm welcome to this biographical and topical summary of the most popular writer on the relations of psychological and Christian insights.
Paul: Envoy Extraordinary, by Malcolm Muggeridge and Alec Vidler (Harper & Row, 159 pp., $5.95). Two old friends, one long a theologian, the other zealous of late in his Christian affirmation, retrace the travels of Paul for BBC television, chatting as they go on what it all means. Most of the sites are ruins or remnants of their former glory, but the extraordinary envoy’s words are as vital as ever. Excellent color photographs. Worthwhile.
Liberating Our White Ghetto, by Joseph Bamdt (Augsburg, 128 pp., $2.95 pb). An outstanding book to influence thought, discussion, perhaps even behavior. In assessing the harmful effects of their racism on whites themselves, Barndt remains calm and does not try to arouse false guilt. He neither romanticizes other races nor offers easy solutions, and he draws on insights from the Christian view of redemption.
Growing Old Is a Family Affair, by Dorothy Bertolet Fritz (John Knox, 93 pp., $2.50 pb). A thorough survey of the problems—and possibilities—of old age.
A New World in the Morning: The Biopsychological Revolution, by David P. Young (Westminster, 217 pp., $3.25 pb). Full of information and useful discussion suggestions on drugs (including commonly prescribed ones), electrical brain stimulation, and non-sexual reproduction. Optimistic, but does not consider theological issues involved.
Decisions! Decisions!, by George A. Chauncey (John Knox, 127 pp., $1 pb), Rich Man, Poor Man, by Donald W. Shriver, Jr. (John Knox, 112 pp., $1 pb), and Foreign Policy Is Your Business, by Theodore R. Weber (John Knox, 125 pp., $1 pb). Under the general editorship of George A. Chauncey, “Christian Ethics for Modern Man” is a series of discussion guides intended to present the complexities of ethics in our modern, industrialized, consumer-oriented society in such a way that the concerned churchgoer can grapple with them intelligently. As tools to bring the discussion of ethics out of the arena of academic moral philosophy, they are excellent, especially Chauncey’s opening book, Decisions! Decisions! Unfortunately, the Christian basis for ethics is only a general underlying assumption, rather than a well-defined foundation. Situation ethicist Joseph F. Fletcher is presented as one extreme within the Christian position, Carl F. H. Henry as the other. Rich Man, Poor Man notes the problems of free enterprise but not those of state-run economies, but is generally well-balanced, unlike Foreign Policy Is Your Business, which reflects many of the current slogans of leftist dissent from U. S. foreign policy and its motivation.
The Doctrine of Baptism, by Edmund Schlink (Concordia, 228 pp., $7.50). The theology professor at Heidelberg offers a major study interacting with biblical, historical, and contemporary data. Though supporting infant baptism, Schlink’s reflections can benefit all serious students.
All the Damned Angels, by William Muehl (Pilgrim, 126 pp., $4.95). The title quotes a four-year-old venting his frustration at a fouled-up Christmas pageant. The book is a rare combination of random, amusing, new, thought-provoking, and borrowable reflections. Includes a splendid critique of abstract art.
So Help Me God, by Robert Alley (John Knox, 160 pp., $4.95), Politics, Poker and Piety, by Wallace Fisher (Abingdon, 205 pp., $2.95 pb), and Love It or Leave It?, by Erling Jorstad (Augsburg, 93 pp., $2.50 pb). Books on American civil or cultural religion continue to pour off the presses. Alley, with a penchant for dubious classifications, looks at presidential religion from Wilson to Nixon. The other two are reflections on the contemporary cultural role of religion and how it got that way. Jorstad especially offers good discussion-group material.
The Meaning of Righteousness in Paul: A Linguistic and Theological Inquiry, by J. A. Ziesler (Cambridge, 255 pp., $17.50). This 1969 London Ph.D. thesis seeks to show, by careful analysis and exegesis, that Paul held the doctrine of justification by faith as subsequently taught by Reformed theology, but with social, corporate, and ethical implications sometimes better grasped in traditional Catholic exegesis. Tactful in handling the disputed Pauline epistles, thorough, persuasive, and valuable.
Making It to Adulthood: The Emerging Self, by Arthur De Jong (Westminster, 206 pp., $2.95 pb). Grasps the problems of maturation and provides some sound advice for parents and children, though without giving specific biblical guidelines.
God Still Makes Sense, by Ben M. Herbster (Pilgrim Press, 126 pp., $1.95 pb). A popularly written interpretation of some of the great teachings of the Bible (e.g., Incarnation). Neglects topics less capable of bland, inoffensive presentation (e.g., sin, the Atonement).
Christianity: A Historical Religion?, by William Wand (Judson, 176 pp., $4.95). An Anglican bishop examines the nature and basis of Christianity’s historical claims and concludes that they are impressive. Criticizes weak points of skeptical modern theologians but does not fully accept the trustworthiness of the Bible.
Ambassadors For Christ, by Edward Wagenknecht (Oxford, 310 pp., $8.50). A popular look at seven disparate nineteenth-century American preachers: two Beechers, Channing, Brooks, Moody, Gladden, and Abbott.
Myth America 2001, by Richard E. Moore (Westminster, 176 pp., $2.95 pb). An attempt to chart a hopeful future by developing certain ideas about the cultural role of myths. By a Presbyterian executive not well grounded either in mythology or in historic Christianity.
Moral Nexus: Ethics of Christian Identity and Community, by James B. Nelson (Westminster, 255 pp., $7.95). A technical discussion of the relation between church membership, individual and community attitudes, and personal conduct.
Black Christian Nationalism: New Direction For the Black Church, by Albert B. Cleage, Jr. (Morrow, 312 pp., n.p.). Rantings of a well-known pastor who perverts Christianity at least as much as Elijah Muhammad (whom he admires), perverts Islam, and attacks almost all other black leaders along the way. Cleage says that “Jesus was a revolutionary black religious leader fighting for the liberation of Israel” and that “the whole Pauline interpretation of Christianity is historically false.”
Torah and Canon, by James A. Sanders (Fortress, 124 pp., $2.95 pb). An attempt to reopen the question of Old Testament canonicity via form criticism. Sanders presupposes all the “assured results” of higher critical scholarship and tries to salvage an abidingly meaningful Torah (= instruction) out of the resultant shambles by identifying a continuous thread of meaningful experience and valid religious concerns.
Live Now, Brother, by Clark H. Pinnock (Moody, 48 pp., 75¢ pb). An evangelistic appeal by a leading younger theologian.
Creative Parenthood, by Frank Cheavens (Word, 183 pp., $4.95). A digest of thought-provoking discussions by sensitive, intelligent parents. Casts light on common problems and offers useful suggestions but without any distinctively Christian emphasis.
Tell the World: A Jesus People Manual, by Arthur Blessitt (Revell, 64 pp., 95¢ pb). A very practical guidebook to aggressive witnessing in all sorts of places.
Training in the Art of Loving: The Church and the Human Potential Movement, by Gerald J. and Elisabeth Jud (Pilgrim Press, 191 pp., $7.95). Report of a retreat attempting to synthesize encounter-group methods and Christianity, resulting in strong emphasis on “celebration,” “exorcism,” and “self-affirmation.” Many specifics for those interested in retreats of this nature.
