Last Disciple (Last Disciple)

Rating:
Summary: Misguided souls who think eschatology is 'fun'
Review: Eschatology is fun?!? A diversion? Amusement?

That's where things have sunk to today. Take one of the most serious books of Scripture with more references to 'blood' than anywhere in the Bible, give it an errant spin of misinterpretation, shove all its relevance and prophetic fulfillment back to the past or way ahead to the future, throttle it down and package it in pop-fiction format for easy consumption, cater to an audience which has done little serious study or soul-felt reflection on this key divinely-inspired perennial prophetic warning, then hope for strong sales and follow-up interviews/speaking engagements to continue the fictionalization of the Word of God.

Ironically, this very phenomenon is unwittingly fulfilling the warning of 'plagues'for those who dare trivialize/trifle/tamper with this prophecy and treat it as mere fun pop-fiction and diversionary reading than a personal Revelation of Jesus Christ for His wayward church to be taken with utmost seriousness as eternal life or death matters: Plagued or Paradised!

In all seriousness, is this how the Lord wants readers of His final Kingdom message to believers to be treated - fictionized for fun?!? Truly in love it is urged to heed the warning of what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches: Repent!

Rating:
Summary: The Last Straw
Review: For years I have been struggling with understanding the interpretation of Revelations and I hoped the Bible Answer man would have some answers. But now I am more confused than ever. My favorite Bible teacher R.C.Sproul says one thing, my other favorite John MacArthur says the other, reading a friend's book More than Conquerors says still another, I can't get a straight answer. This book was the last straw. Where does a Christian go to get Revelations figured out not by a novel like this one or a movie like Left Behind or the latest scholar's opinionating, but what the Bible has to say unraveled for itself? Help~ if anybody can?

Rating:
Summary: ENTERTAINING AS FICTION, UNEDIFYING AS THEOLOGY
Review: Good fiction? o.k. Gripping Theology? Not o.k. When I read Christian fiction, I look for solid Bible teaching as a storyline foundation: clear Gospel referencing, underlying power of God's truth in text's words, allusion or allegory or parable or symbolism to my Lord Jesus, and by the end of the book a sense of uplift or biblical edification. Regrettably, just not enough here to unambiguously point to Christ's Very Word.

Rating:
Summary: Bias Only Ruins The Fun of a Good Book...
Review: I have a habit of reading the customer reviews of books I read, am reading, or in the process of reading. I like to find out what others think.

When in comes to eschatology, I try to keep an open mind. Only God knows when our Lord is returning and that's fine by me. I just finished reading the Last Disciple and I absolutely loved it! I have read the entire Left Behind Series, I lean towards a premillennial belief in eschatology, but this book was so much better in my honest opinion.

I've read some of the low rating comments for this book and all I read are comments from people who already have a bias towards a particular eschatology. I know it's hard to read something that you don't entirely agree with, but first and foremost, this book is FICTION. Give it a chance people! I think Mr. Hanegraaff and Mr. Brouwer did an excellent job describing 1st Century Rome and telling what it might have been like for 1st Century Christians.

Bias only ruins the fun of a good book!

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but don't discourage others from reading because you differ with the stance on eschatology. If anything, I would be inclined to be turned off by a pretribulational premillennial stance if I saw how quickly its supporters will talk negative about other points of view. It would only spark my curiosity as to why alternatives are attacked.

But anyway, READ THIS BOOK! The story is great! I couldn't put it down until I finished it! As far as eschatology, it's well worth the study and investigation. May the Holy Spirit guide you to His Truth.

Rating:
Summary: Preterism doesn't pass test
Review: I have done extensive research on Johannine writings: John's Gospel, John's Epistles, Revelation.

1) I can find no credible conservative evangelical scholarship, past or present,which withstands serious scrutiny, that dates John's Gospel before 80's. Vast majority are in 90's.

2) I can find no credible conservative, etc. scholarship withstanding serious scrutiny that dates Revelation BEFORE John's Gospel HOWEVER dated.

Therefore, Revelation cannot be credibly dated pre-80's based on definitive boundary conditions of 1) and 2).

Quite simply, Preterism's sine qua non of pre-70 dating doesn't pass the Johannine corpus test.

Of course, any view that entails exclusive dependency on criteria which cannot be definitively established by a preponderance of internal and external evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, is fatally flawed. Early dating pre-temple & Jerusalem destruction may be argued, but in the final analysis can never be more than de facto inconclusive at best. Wisdom would be to incorporate a 'partial-partial preterite' contextual component of late 1st century oppression of the Asia Minor church into one's comprehensive gridwork of reading the text. But full-partial preterism doesn't pass muster.

Only when the predominance of critical Johannine scholarship shifts to warrant alteration of 1) and 2) can Preterism even be for a moment entertained seriously.

This book does not factor such manifest contra-indicators into credible consideration, thus the lone star rating.

Try Grant Osborne commentary on Revelation for your money.

Rating:
Summary: Perennialism seems to be key to Revelation
Review: Made for enjoyable reading (4 stars). Belongs securely in Fiction section of bookstores and NOT dependable Theology (deduct 3 stars). It did not persuade me into Priorism. It did not adequately refute Laterism (LaHaye/Jenkins opinion). I can't say it was helpful in moderating the debate between Premillennial, Postmillennial, Amillennial frameworks.

As much as the book tried to change minds, I remain a Perennialist: Revelation relates the Kingdom throughout time until Jesus returns on Judgment Day.

Rating:
Summary: Where are the writers?
Review: Setting aside the theological arguments...and maybe that should have been done before this book was conceived...I wish there were more writers with a biblical worldview. And, I mean _writers_...you know, those people that can actually write well and be engrossing storytellers? I'm sure you've heard of them before. Well, maybe not you "5-star" folks in this review section...

I'm not familiar at all with Brouwer's other work, maybe it is just his collaboration with Hannegraaff that created this painful collection of thesaurus-derived adjectives. "The Last Disciple" is awful. For the sake of full disclosure, I have to say that I couldn't even finish it. I can read my bible and a bit of history and get their point; I don't need to subject myself to...well, I think you get _my_ point. There are very few movies I've walked out of in my life and even fewer fiction books I didn't finish--_couldn't_ finish--but this is one of them.

I have no end-times ax to grind. I was really hoping that this would be a good historical fiction that laid out this alternative view. It's too bad that it is so poorly written.

Save your money, or go buy another set of the Chronicles of Narnia or something. May we hope that volume two doesn't make it out.

Rating:
Summary: Leaves "Left Behind" in the dust!!
Review: Sigmund Brouwer, as a writer, is at least 2 orders of magnitude better than Jerry Jenkins. His characters have depth. They are believable. The prose flows naturally. The book is engaging and hard to put down. The plot is 3-dimensional. Furthermore, it seems to be written for thinking, literate adults rather than teenage television addicts. In contrast to the almost cartoonish "Left Behind", this book's theology does not call attention to itself, but instead weaves itself very realistically into the story. Hannegraaff's theology is plausible and based on sound "plain reading" exegesis. This is a novel worth reading totally apart from the eschatological component, however. I'm looking forward to future installments of the series.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't work. Too far gone.
Review: The plot doesn't work. The theology doesn't work. When a book doesn't work, (you fill in the rest...)

The author is asked to please research the definition of the following terms: APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE; ESCHATOLOGICAL PROPHECY

First Century Jerusalem, Israel and Judaism have been long gone.
The Roman Empire has been long gone. Revelation's audience-relevance and purpose-fulfillment under preterviewism are also too far gone.