Puritan Hope

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding summary of Puritan's motivation for missions.
Review: From a historical survey, Murray details the relationship of Puritan postmillennialism to their motivation for world missions. Missionaries went boldly into various parts of the earth knowing that Christ has already won the victory over Satan's kingdom at the cross and had promised the victory of the church in history. "All authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth, go therefore and teach...make disciples of all nations...I am with you even unto the end of the age." "I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful defense of Puritan eschatology
Review: Murray's thoughtful book challenges evangelicals to re-examine their thinking about the return of Christ. He carefully develops the basis for the sense of conviction and purpose that motivated Carey, Wilberforce and many others to do great works for Christ. Arguing that the "fullness of the Gentiles" must precede the conversion of Israel as prophecied in Romans 11, and that both of these events have not yet occurred, and that they portend far greater influence and triumph for the Church on the Earth, Murray lovingly challenges those who are of a "sit at home and wait for the rapture" mentality. He explains how and why the Puritans came to their eschatological beliefs; how these were perverted, primarily in modern times, by men like Edward Irving and J.N. Darby; why we've stopped thinking critically about these theories; and how we must recapture the confident expectation of Christ's triumphant end-time revival of Gentiles, then all Israel, before his return in glory. Excellent and thought-provoking.