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Book
Review: Beyond the End Times
By Kenneth J. Davies
John Noē is a well-known Preterist writer and speaker, and is president of
the Prophecy Reformation Institute in Fishers, Indiana. He is the author of three other
books, including The Apocalypse Conspiracy. He and his
wife, Cindy, currently reside in Indianapolis, Indiana.
One of Noē’s stated purposes for the writing of Beyond the End Times was to
"stem the tide of world-terminating messages and scenarios" (p. 23), and to open
the eyes of his readers to the deception that has been
perpetrated on them regarding the Biblical "last days." He shows how
destructive the pessimism of the futurist view has been to the Church as well as society.
"Is it any wonder that millions of young people are burdened with cynicism, loss of
direction, dashed hopes and a sense of futility? They see themselves as
disenfranchised, with the future drawn up before them like a gangplank" (ibid.). The
constant barrage of imminent-end-of-the-world messages has affected the worldview of most
Christians in America today, "a most significant reason why the optimism and activism
of the past century have changed to pessimism and withdrawal" (ibid.).
Noē chronicles the abysmal record of the prophet of imminent doom, from AD 500 to the
present, including such famous and popular teachers as Chuck Smith, John Walvoord, Harold
Camping, and, of course, Hal Lindsey (pp. 26-29). Why print such a list of embarrassing
failures? As a warning! "All endsayers will be proven wrong within their due
time, the same as their predecessors. Why?….They are simply failed prophets of a
false premise. If we are slow to learn from them, we are only doomed to repeat their folly
and fall for their schemes" (pp. 29-30).
Beyond the End Times demonstrates that believing a lie has dire
consequences.
"Many who otherwise would be diligent stewards and productive workers
tend to sink into helplessness. They may resort to piety and isolation, or
shirk away entirely. If there is no future for the future, and our planet is
soon going to be destroyed, why bother? Why work to ‘save the Earth’ if its end
is just around the corner?" (p. 31).
Those who have been taught to expect things to get worse and worse
before "the end" are willing dupes in a self-fulfilling prophecy. "Their
withdrawal [from society] plays right into the hands of those hostile to the
Christian faith, who are more than willing to rush in and fill the vacuum. All
of which is interpreted as just another sign that the end is near" (p. 33).
"Some think this [futurist] approach will spur missionary efforts and
cause people to run after God and eternal values as never before. In
reality, this fear approach has had more of an opposite effect, fostering
complacency, ineptness, and laziness. Most people unconsciously react to a message of doom
with a feeling that nothing earthly really matters. It can no longer be claimed that
endsaying inspires faith and hope. Rather, it inspires anxiety, paranoia, and
surrender" (p. 38).
To many in the secular world, the Church is not just impotent, but
laughable.
"Foolish predictions have been an embarrassment for the Church, and
have brought both the Bible and the Church into disrepute" (p. 35). "In
the eyes of the world, the whole Church is commonly lumped together with its failed
prophets of doom. What’s worse, the assumption is made that if the Church isn’t
right on its [prophetic] facts, it probably isn’t right on its faith, either.
Therefore, why take it seriously about anything? This is a major reason the Church has
difficulty being a relevant player and
effective communicator in modern society" (p. 37).
If Jesus "failed" to return as He promised, and His followers continually
fail in their predictions of "the end," Christianity as a whole may be labeled
as a "false religion." The problem is, most Christians haven’t a clue as to
how to counter these attacks on their Faith! When liberals impugn the inspiration
and integrity of our Lord and His Word, Christians, for the
most part, are silent! Those who do speak out on the subject give answers entirely
unsatisfactory. Rather than adjusting their understanding of the nature of fulfillment,
they vainly try to reinterpret (read misinterpret) the clear time statements of Scripture!
In the final analysis, they end up agreeing with their critics! Liberal Christians
"handle the supposed non- occurrence [of the parousia] problem by contending that
Jesus was mistaken and made erroneous pronouncements. Or, they contend that He
never spoke most of the words attributed to Him, theorizing that these
words must have been added to Scripture later by His zealous followers" (p. 125).
"What’s even more amazing, is that conservative evangelicals have had
no effective response to these liberal assertions…except to say that
someday Jesus will come back and finish the job, which only proves the
liberals’ point" (ibid.).
The critics rightly accuse the Church of playing "fast and loose" with the
Word of God. Noe demonstrates the fallacy of this type of hermeneutical
gymnastics. He shows from Scripture that rather than predicting a fiery end of the
universe, the Bible actually says the Earth will last forever,
sustained and maintained by the Creator! (E.g., Gen. 8:21-22; Eph.
3:21). In Chapter 4, Noē debunks the various theories of how the Earth might be destroyed
by mankind, then discusses what this means for us in
Chapter 5.
"Instead of striving to hang on till the end, we can have a strong
reason to undertake dynamic roles in the present, both individually and corporately,
for a better future and for the benefit of coming generations" (p.67).
The "70 Weeks" prophecy of Daniel 9 is analyzed in Chapters 6-7, in
which Noē advocates a chronological interpretation, allowing for no "gaps" in
time. In Chapter 9, he takes on the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24 and its parallels),
discussing and demolishing the common futurist "side- stepping" of the
text’s time delimiters.
Chapter 10 deals with the language of the "last days," and shows that
it was "never intended to be the last days of the world, planet Earth, or
the Church. They were to be the beginning of the Church. But they were
the last days of the…age of Biblical Judaism" (p. 132).
The attacks of liberal theologians, such as Bertrand Russell and Albert Schweitzer, and
Jewish critics are dealt with in Chapter 11, as well as the
inconsistencies of the traditional Christian response. It is shocking to read
the statement of C. S. Lewis, a "defender" of the Christian Faith:
[T]he apocalyptic beliefs of the first Christians have been proved false. It
is clear from the New Testament that they all expected the Second Coming in their own
lifetime. And worse still, they had a reason. ….Their
Master had told them so. He shared, and indeed created, their delusion. He said in
so many words, ‘this generation shall not pass till all these things be done’
[Matt. 24:34]. And He was wrong. He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than
anyone else [p. 168].
With "friends" like this, who needs enemies?
Evidences for a timely return of Christ are given in Chapter 12, and Chapter 13 deals with
commonly-asked questions. Chapter 14 discusses the phrase "new heavens and
earth," and the Conclusion ("What’s Next?") outlines steps for
eschatological reformation.
This was an eminently readable book, one that this reviewer found
enjoyable and refreshing. I found myself at times unable to put it down! Though I would
disagree slightly with Noē’s interpretation of Daniel’s "70 Weeks"
prophecy (I would contend for a 40-year [one generation] "gap" in the middle of
the 70th week—the Biblical precedent being the Exodus), I would still highly
recommend Beyond the End Times. Being written with the layman in mind (no
"fifty-cent" theological terms are used), it would be a useful introduction for
the uninformed to the wonderful truths of the Preterist view!
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