One theme that seems to occur over and over in all kinds of ways is the theme that Christ is coming on a certain date that someone has worked out. The person who calculated that date seeks a donation to publicize their finding or at least has a book to sell explaining why that calculation is right and everyone else's is wrong. In the past, there have been approaches made from biblical sources, from the aligning of the planets, and from history. As the year 2000 approaches, we can expect to see an acceleration in the claims that Christ will come at the change in millennia, and the end is near.

This book is a predominantly theological book showing that anyone who calculates the date of Jesus' return is misusing the Bible. Biblical passages like Matthew 24:36, those dealing with the anti-Christ, the mark of the beast, and the like, are explored and explained. It also deals with the fallacies involved in numerology, current world affairs, modern day prophets, extra-biblical sources, and explores reasons why a lot of the backgrounds of those making these claims explains their predictions.

This is a good book to have on hand when your local predictors start their ads for the end-of-the-world materials. It answers a lot of questions and avoids a lot of the usual denominational pitfalls. There are always differences in understanding of matters like this, but this book is good, useful, and errs in a conservative way when it errs. We recommend it to you as a useful source.

Back to Contents Does God Exist?, March/April 1996