Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 112:448 (Oct 1955)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous


Book Reviews

Israel And The New Covenant. By Roderick Campbell. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Philadelphia, 1954. 336 pp. $3.75.

The central thesis of this volume is that there is no Scriptural or historical warrant for the alleged pessimism of the premillennial interpretation. Christians should press forward in the task of fulfilling the kingdom promise of righteousness on earth in the present age. In the words of Oswald T. Allis who writes the foreword, “The most serious error in much of the current ‘prophetic’ teaching of today is the claim that the future of Christendom is to be read not in terms of Revival and Victory, but of growing impotence and apostasy, and that the only hope of the world is that the Lord will by His visible coming and reign complete the task which He has so plainly entrusted to the church. This claim is rendered formidable and persuasive by the all too obvious fact of the past failures and present feebleness of the church. But it is pessimistic and defeatist. I hold it to be unscriptural” (p. ix).

The author who is a Canadian layman writes with the skill of a scholar in presenting the Augustinian concept that the present age is the fulfillment of the prophesied millennial kingdom. He holds that the new covenant of Jeremiah is being fulfilled today and that there will be no millennial reign of Christ after the second advent. He writes, “Christianity is the fulfillment of the New Covenant spoken of by Jeremiah” (p. 53). While his work is an able statement of his doctrinal position, like most amillenarians he assumes rather than proves his major premises. He sums it up in two leading questions, first as to whether the second advent will end time and history in ordinary sense, and the second as to whether it is not the duty of the church “to press forward in her appointed missionary task in the confident hope that the Christian faith will one day prevail over all organized opposition and be recognized as the only true religion and way of life throughout the world” (p. 168). To both of these questions he gives a confident affirmative.

While the arguments of this volume have been refuted many times by premillenarians, the work will serve a useful purpose of collecting the major elements of the amillennial interpretation of the present age.

J. F. Walvoord

Bible Doctrines. By Mark G. Cambron. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1954. 291 pp. $3.75.

Embraced in one volume, the entire range of Scriptural doctrine is presented in a systematic and concise statement. Considering the length of the book, the author has achieved remarkable completeness and faith...

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