Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 149:594 (Apr 1992)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

BSac 149:594 (Apr 92) p. 243

Book Reviews

The Promise of Dawn: The Eschatology of Lewis Sperry Chafer. By Jeffrey J. Richards. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1991. viii + 259 pp. Paper, $27.50.

This published version of the author’s PhD dissertation at Drew University reflects Richards’s interest in Lewis Sperry Chafer and his theology, an interest that began when Richards was a student at Dallas Seminary in the 1970s (ThM, 1978). Richards has served several pastorates and is now professor of systematic theology at Hood Theological Seminary and a visiting lecturer in the department of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

The book title undoubtedly refers to 2 Peter 1:19, a verse that underscores the importance and practicality of biblical prophecy and affirms the Lord’s return. Though the focus of the study is Chafer’s eschatology, his dispensational perspective is also discussed because it is integral to his premillennialism. To a lesser degree the other major areas of systematic theology are considered as well, because Chafer’s theology is a whole piece interwoven with the consummation of God’s eternal plan for His universe and His creatures.

Richards’s work is significant not only because of the uniqueness of Chafer’s theology—the first unabridged theology of dispensational premillennialism—but also because of its immediate and widespread success worldwide. Eight volumes in length, the first printing of 2,500 sets was almost completely sold before the work’s official publication date of June 1948. By Chafer’s death in August 1952, 7,500 sets were in circulation. Translations of the eight-volume work have been published in several languages. (A two-volume abridgement was produced in 1988 by John F. Walvoord, Chafer’s associate and successor as president of Dallas Seminary.)

Richards has produced a carefully and thoroughly researched study of an important American theologian and systematic theology. His evaluations and conclusions are valid and adequately supported by his research. University Press of America has produced an attractive and well-designed book. This reviewer noted more than a dozen typographical errors and two minor historical errors. Richards referred to Melvin Grove Kyle’s first name

BSac 149:594 (Apr 92) p. 244

as Marvin and he placed C. I. Scofield’s founding of the Central American Mission in his second pastorate in Dallas, Texas, beginning in 1902 instead of its actual founding in 1890.

Adding to the book’s usefulness is an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources concerning Chafer and his theology. Also helpful are the complete persona...