In God’s Time: The Bible and the Future
Digital Logos Edition
Enormous confusion exists today concerning the Bible’s teaching about the future. Millions of contemporary Christians are caught up in “rapture” fever, evidenced by the phenomenal success of the Left Behind novels. At the opposite end of the spectrum are those, such as the leaders of the Jesus Seminar, who believe that Jesus did not teach about the approaching Kingdom of God.
In God’s Time offers an alternative to these two poles in the debate, an alternative that is at once faithful and sane, readable and scholarly. Author Craig C. Hill encourages Christians both to take seriously and to think sensibly about the hope of God’s ultimate victory. His new book includes chapters on the nature of the Bible, the history of prophecy, the meaning of apocalyptic writings, the interpretation of Daniel and Revelation, the expectations of Jesus, and the hopes of the early Christians. It also includes an appendix—“Not Left Behind”—on the subject of the rapture.
Endorsed by a wide array of top scholars and church leaders, In God’s Time is a reliable guide to this often bewildering but always fascinating subject.
Want similar titles? Check out Eerdmans New Testament Studies Collection (23 vols.) for more!
- Provides insight on the Bible’s teaching about the future
- Encourages Chrisitans to take seriously the hope of God’s ultimate victory
- Discusses the nature of the Bible, the history of prophecy, and the meaning of apocalyptic writings
- Are We There Yet?
- First Things First: The Bible
- The History of the Future
- Apocalypse Then
- All in the Family: Daniel and Revelation
- Jesus and the Things to Come
- The Once and Future Kingdom
Top Highlights
“Since all books are presumed to share the same outlook, the perspective of Revelation can be filled out with ideas taken from 1 Thessalonians, and so on and so on. The result is an eschatology that borrows from a wide range of biblical authors but which is actually foreign to all of them.” (Page 203)
“At its core, eschatology is about the character of God. If God can be trusted, then the future can be trusted with God.” (Page 197)
“If the Bible disappoints us, it is more because of our inappropriate expectations than because of its limitations. The Bible is a powerful, precious, and irreplaceable witness to Jesus Christ, but it is not itself a proper object of our faith.” (Page 20)
“It is the third form of communication, the word from God, that dominates the Bible’s prophetic literature” (Page 37)
Sane, convincing, biblical writing. Pastors, teachers, and parents—all of us who are responsible for providing Christian guidance through the verbal clutter and emotional hysteria associated with the “end times”—will welcome Craig Hill’s accessible and timely teaching.
—Eugene H. Peterson, emeritus professor of spiritual theology, Regent College
When Christians talk about the end of the world, they often think that they are repeating what the Bible says when in fact the text is far more subtle and interesting. Craig Hill is both a first-rate scholar and a lucid communicator, and he manages in this admirable book to clarify decisively what Scripture does and doesn’t say about the last days. He cuts through much nonsense and helps us see the really important themes in the texts he discusses.
—Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
This book is written in accordance with the Scripture and simultaneously in accordance with our present time—a wonderful gift and a rare fortune in theology. It is a masterpiece on the biblical foundations of the Christian hope in the coming of God, without doomsday speculations and without the banalities of modern feeling-good-in-the-present-and-after-us-the-flood religion.
—Jürgen Moltmann, professor of systematic theology, the University of Tübingen
Hill writes for Christians who don’t know what (or how)to think about the End Time and what Scripture says about it. He tackles the hard questions and comes up with answers that are both specific and remarkably sane. While completely informed by the best scholarship, his prose is lively, unaffected, and clear. Here is the sort of writing too seldom found—work by an expert who actually says something helpful to ordinary people.
—Luke Timonthy Johnson, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, Candler School of Theology
Craig C. Hill is research professor of theological pedagogy and executive director of DMin and M.A.C.P. programs at Duke University Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina.