The King is coming - by Erwin Lutzer

Erwin Lutzer gives a high level overview of the return of Christ and the events that will be associated with this return.  Writing from a premillennial standpoint he examines the events that have yet to take place and helps us think, "how should I live in light of this?"  The chapters are all written in light of our Lord's coming, as is evidenced by their titles, "The King Returns for us", "The King Judges us", "The King Marries His Bride", and so on.  He states that, "Some of the events associated with His glorious return will be shocking, ,especially for those who think of Jesus only in terms of the gospel accounts, when He went about healing the sick, raising the dead, and blessing the poor.   In the event before us, we see not only the love of Jesus but the meticulous justice of Jesus."  And so you also have chapters like, "The King Destroys Nations" and "The King Returns to Conquer". 

I like that Lutzer is careful about the timeline of the events of the last days,  as he says, "It is possible to be right about the facts but very wrong about the timeline".  I also like his emphasis on how our knowledge of the coming events should be sobering, and motivating at the same time.  "The goal of this study in biblical prophecy is to change our lives, moving form the pursuit of happiness to the pursuit of holiness and from the love of the world to the love of God."

 All in all, The book is okay, but I'm not thrilled with it.  Some of his language seems a little too…how do I put it…well, almost irreverentially modern.  For instance, towards the beginning of the book he states that "My desire is for you to fall in love with Jesus all over again."  That seems too much like romance, and doesn't evoke the reverential, respectful, obedient love we are supposed to have for our Lord.  And then another thing I didn't like was his explanation of how we Christians will be judged "fairly".  He explains that, "Because He knows all things, He(Christ) will take all of the contingencies into account.  He will take a careful look at your life:  how you were impacted by your parents, and the positive or negative effect that others had on you, and every other relevant factor as you stand before Him.  His evaluation will be accurate and perfect and fair."  This sounds too much as if Lutzer thinks we'll be 'given a pass' if we weren't  obedient to God in something because someone else influenced us not to, in one way or another.  I doubt whether the effect, positive or negative, that others had on us will be relevant at all.  If we respond the wrong way in any way because of someone else, we are wrong, and have given up an opportunity to exercise faith.  I believe that the Christian who didn't do a good work because a bad influence will not be given a reward for that act of faithlessness.  This conclusion may not be what Lutzer meant when he talked about the judgment of Christians, but it certainly implied something like this to me.   

The book didn't meet my expectations…but like I said it's okay, and gives an interesting look at how Lutzer thinks the order of end times events will probably happen.

 

Thanks to MoodyPublishers for sending me a free copy of this book to review(my review did not have to be favorable)!