Christ’s Prophetic Plans: A Futuristic Premillennial
Primer
General Editors: John MacArthur & Richard Mayhue
Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2012. 220pp. ISBN:
9780802401618
Can a person really know what the Bible says about
prophecy? Is Israel, Israel? Are you supposed to take the Old Testament
prophets literally? It is little wonder some Christians shy away from the study
of the end times.
Christ’s Prophetic
Plans: A Futuristic Premillennial Primer provides a beneficial introduction
to Futuristic Premillinalism and lays out a scriptural foundation for what the
Bible teaches about the promises God made in the Bible. Each of the five
contributors provide a Biblical explanation and overview of the theological end
times position known as Futuristic Premillinalism, which teaches the Biblical
prophesies concerning the nation of Israel, the return of Jesus Christ, and His
kingdom are to be believed literally and are future in fulfillment. This primer, or basic introduction, defines,
discusses and defends Futuristic Premillinalism while showing that Biblical
prophecy is both profitable and knowable if we hold to the sufficiency and
perspicuity of scripture and we treat prophetic passages as we treat other
passages in our interpretation.
The strength of the book excels in what so many books on
end times fail to do – it begins at the beginning, the interpretation of
scripture. The differences in eschatology can be boiled down to one question:
“how do we interpret the Scriptures?”
The overall theme of the book derives from the necessary principle that
we must interpret Scripture literally and read them as the author intended.
Later chapters deal with the inconsistencies in many in the reformed camp who use
a literal interpretation but switch to an allegorical method of interpretation
when coming to end times prophecy. This issue is addressed in the chapter Does Calvinism Lead to Futuristic
Premillinalism? John MacArthur
explains that “Futuristic Premillinalism
results from understanding and applying prophetic Scripture in a way that is
most consistent with the normal or literal approach for interpreting Scripture.”
However, this is not a book on hermeneutics - rather the book illustrates how a
literal interpretation of scripture applied to prophesy must by necessity leave
one to a Futuristic Premillennial view.
Richard Mayhue skillfully tells us why we should study
prophecy in the introduction - that the Biblical message of the end times is plenteous
and is Christ centered. We can be certain about Biblical prophecy because God’s
Word is clear and authoritative. This book is not a sensational “interpret the
headlines” kind of book and condemns such attention grabbing works. The plethora
of fantasy novels, books, diviners of the nightly news along with the
unscriptural view of salvation by some dispensationalist have muddied the
waters as to what dispensationalism actually teaches. Michael Vlach spends a
couple chapters telling us what Dispensationalism is and what it is not. The
term Futuristic Premillinalism is helpful in defining this eschatological view
and as John MacArthur explains in the preface that the term “serves as a more
focused term than dispensationalism when addressing prophetic issues.” There
have been some dispensationalists who combined their eschatology with their faulty
soteriology to add peripheral issues to define dispensationalism, and that is
unfortunate. To quote MacArthur again “…dispensationalism
shapes one’s eschatology and ecclesiology. That is the extent of it. Pure
dispensationalism has no ramifications for the doctrines of God, man, sin, or
sanctification. More significantly, true dispensationalism makes no relevant
contribution to soteriology or the doctrine of salvation.” The book then sets out to prove the basic
tenets of Futuristic Premillinalism that:
1. A normal
interpretation of scripture is used for prophesy
2. God’s
promises to Israel in the Old and New Testament are future
3. God’s
promises in Revelation are future
4. The church
is not Israel
Chapter three begins the study of Biblical prophecy by
defining the common eschatological views, how they differ, and then on to why
the Bible teaches Futuristic Premillinalism. The introduction of other views is
important to the work as these other views will be mentioned throughout while
comparing them to Premillinalism. Every chapter title is a question (i.e. “Why
a Pretrib rapture?” or “What about Israel?”) so every chapter is both
explaining the position and answering common objections.
The book is written by different authors, so you have
different voices and different styles from chapter to chapter. There is a few
instances overlap in some of the arguments of different portions of scripture
(Acts 1 and Revelation 20) made by different contributors in different chapters.
Chapter four answers common objections to Futuristic Premillinalism and I felt
it interrupted the flow of the book and may have been better served as an appendix
for future reference. However, the book will likely be most beneficial as a
study guide or to come back as a reference book, so these are minor quibbles.
The teaching style of the book was well written, plainly introducing each topic
and leading the reading into the next. This will be helpful for those
unfamiliar with prophetical study.
Christ’s Prophetic
Plans set out to be an introduction on Futuristic Premillinalism and
succeeds. This book would well serve anyone who is unfamiliar or intimidated by
Biblical prophecy or one who may think that eschatology is vanity and not
important. I also believe that those in the postmil/amil camp would benefit
from reading what Futuristic Premillinalism actually teaches. Christ’s Prophetic Plans: A Futuristic
Premillennial Primer is a readable introduction to the subject - but is by
no means lightweight or frivolous. This could also be a great resource for
pastors and teachers who are looking to do a study on eschatology to help map
out a plan of attacking the series - it does a great job of laying out the
basic beliefs on a logical and easy to follow path. I received a copy of this book from the
publisher for the purpose of this review. My thanks to Moody Publishers.
