This year has been an interesting one for me in the province of books. I have been a recipient of a tremendous blessing in that an acquaintance has provided much reading material. Instead of my usual rivulets of reading, these books, chosen and sent, have instead been the method of selecting what I read to a large extent. It has provoked my mind and spirit into different places, which is significantly beneficial.
The book that I am about to review is about Biblical prophecy. A subject that, though I have taught both in the church I pastor, and in Purpose Institute. I find to be fraught with the failures of seemingly brilliant men to interpret accurately, and to be frank, a place where much lunacy lives and perhaps my own.
Still, when I read some of the ideas in Richardson’s book about of what Revelation, Daniel, and end-time prophecy means, I was baffled. The premise of the book is that:
A) The Beast, the AntiChrist, will be Muslim
B) The Tribulation will be severely localized (Israel/the Arabian Peninsula and a minimal territory besides those)
C) The Roman Empire has nothing to do with Biblical prophecy in the Endtime.
Structurally, the book is organized weirdly as well. It seems that the book is more a series of a call-in television shows or perhaps a call in prophecy radio show where the author speaks in the first person to the reader (at least at times). Prophecy book or not, this style of writing is off-putting in the least, and I almost hear George Noory’s Coast to Coast radio show voice reading the text.
Be that as it may, the author does at least try to set up a reasonable interpretation method for his thoughts, and even goes as far as to set a series of seven rules to abide by for this tome.
The conclusions of this book are like nothing I’ve ever come across, and the interpretation of Scripture so localized that it is nearly impossible to believe. For instance, the idea that the Jewish peoples will accept a Muslim as Messiah is challenging, but that is precisely what this book espouses.
After starting and failing to complete the book twice, it occurs to me that for this book to be worth finishing, you must have a particular bent toward reading prophetic literature, and probably need a significant base in the normative schools of prophetic understanding before reading this. It may be that I am the one that is a complete fruit loop and will have egg on my face for this review, but I felt like I was going off-road in an ’82 Caprice Classic with bad tires, the lifters hammering and the engine smoking when reading this book.
Usually, I review books that are books that I loved or found provoking to my life and mind. However, this book is so far off the beaten path that it is hard to imagine recommending to anyone. For sheer audacity, I give the book 1/5 stars, but honestly, this book is not worth reading if you do not have anything else to read.
