A couple of weeks ago, Jason Boyett was kind enough let me know that he was sending me a review copy of his new book Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse, published by Relevant Books. Jason is also the author of A Guy's Guide to Life, Things You Should Know By Now, and a few others. With this new book he is branching out
into the field of end times prognostication and date setting. Or, maybe
I should say that with this book he is branching out to show the folly
of those who would try to be end times prognosticators and date
setters.
Jason's books are targeted at a younger audience,
those in and around the quarter-century age range. As such, while I was
reading his book I felt very old, almost as if I was in my forties or
something. The book is full of youthful slang and otherwise hip
language. It's not what I am used to or the way I usually speak, but
ol' gramps here can understand that it communicates especially well to
youngsters. Which is not to say that it doesn't communicate well to us
old timers, because it does. But the style is definitely aimed at a
younger audience.
In fact, after I read it I came home one day to find my 13 year old son reading it. My son is an avid reader of sci-fi, especially the Star Wars books. He will read 2-3 Star Wars books in a week at times but he has never been excited about reading religious books. But he is enjoying this one very much.
The book is written in a very snarky, comedic tone. But, Jason has done a remarkable thing in being snarky without being mean spirited. I have to admit that, when I started reading the book I had my antennas up a bit, thinking he might go overboard. But, though he poked fun where fun needed to be poked throughout the book, there was no malice in any of it. While some may want to scold Jason for being so flippant, the truth is that all of the date-setting and anti-Christ predicting that goes on these days is quite ridiculous and there is something to be said for treating these things as the ridiculous things they are.
Because of the slang, the hipness and the snarkiness of the book you might be tempted not to take it seriously. And while this may never be a Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society Book of the Month selection, you would be surprised at the depth of material he has included here. There is a good deal of research beneath the humor. Jason has done an excellent job of describing all of the major eschatological positions and has fairly outlined their positions, along with their strengths and weaknesses. I particularly appreciate this, because when you are talking eschatology, it is easy to caricature the different views, especially the ones you disagree with.
The book is most effective in chapters 2-3 where he gives an extensive catalogue of end times date setters throughout history. I'm no eschatological scholar, but I've done a fair amount of research into eschatology and he has found a bunch of date setters that I was unaware of. I say that these chapters are the most effective because this is where his snarkiness is most appropriate. If there is one group of people throughout history who deserve snark, satire and caustic wit it is date setters. As Jason says, if there is one passage of Scripture that many eschatological literalists fail to take literally, it is the words of Jesus that no man knows the date or hour of his return.
These two chapters list dozens of end-times date setting scenarios and the cumulative effect is greater than the sum of the parts. While I don't remember every detail of every date-setting scheme that is listed in this book, the sheer volume of them speaks volumes. Someone who reads something like this and still wants to predict the date of Jesus' return will have to ask themselves, "what makes you different from every other date setter who has been wrong throughout history?"
Along with chapters 2-3, he is also effective in chapter 4 as he lists several candidates for Anti-Christ. If the favorite sport of some is date setting, the second favorite is "guess the anti-Christ." Jason lists several potential anti-Christs, including Nero, Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbechev, Bill Clinton, Saddam Hussein, the Pope, Prince Charles and Bill Gates. Again, his sarcastic style is effective here in showing the silliness of the whole enterprise of seeking to guess the anti-Christ.
I will quibble with him on a few things. As he went through all of the date setters I was aghast that he could have left Harold Camping off his list. Jason, Jason, Jason - you'll have to include something on him in a future edition. We amils have always been pretty smug, thinking that date setting was the private domain of wacked out dispensationalists. But Harold Camping is an amil and his antics have wiped those smug looks off our faces. Camping is the closest thing we've got to a William Miller for this generation. Hal Lindsey is a close second, but Camping takes the lead.
Also, just because it is one of my pet hobby horses, I want to point out that this book makes the mistake of saying that premillenialism was the dominant belief of the early church. It's understandable why the author would say this, as it is a point that has been proclaimed by nearly all premillenialists and conceded by most post and a- millenialists. However, it is not at all certain that all, or even a majority of early church fathers were premil. In his book Regnum Caelorum, Dr. Charles E. Hill shows that there was a diversity of opinion of millennial views amongst the church fathers. True, there were some premils, there were many who weren't, and there were many more for whom a millenial position was hard to nail down. I only bring this up because, as I said, it is a hobby horse of mine (and probably no one else really cares) and because this argument carries great weight with many. Many believe that the doctrines held by the early church fathers carry greater weight in these debates because they lived closer to the time of Christ. Their nearness to the time of Christ is what gives them the greater weight.
He also includes an interview with Paul Meier, formerly half of the Minirith-Meier team, who is also an end-times aficionado. Meier is interesting and puzzling. He thinks you can tell alot about a person by their millenial view. Because I believe that the church has inherited the eschatological promises given to Israel I am supposed to be a guilt-ridden, yet well educated and financially well off perfectionist who is so insecure that I have thrown Israel out as God's favorite child and put myself in his place - huh?? On the other hand, Meier, being a dispensationalist, shows a fair amount of humility regarding end times views, and this is refreshing.
All in all I enjoyed the book and can recommend it highly. Like I said at the beginning, the writing style is not exactly up the ally of many of us old geezers, but this would be a good book to give to a younger person who wants an introduction to eschatology. It would also be a good book to give to someone who is an eschatological fanatic. Hopefully, the witty, sarcastic tone will help them to see that no one is really taking them seriously, so they shouldn't take themselves so seriously.
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