Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 149:595 (Jul 1992)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous


Book Reviews

Major Bible Prophecies: 37 Crucial Prophecies That Affect You Today. By John F. Walvoord. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1991. 450 pp. $19.95.

Prophecy forms a significant and strategic part of the Bible, God’s message to mankind. “Almost one quarter of the text of Scripture” was predictive at the time it was written (Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, 8 vols. [Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 1948], 7:257). The pattern of fulfillment in the past is not only evidence of the Bible’s inspiration as God’s Word but also the guarantee that what remains unfulfilled will come to pass.

This latest book by Chancellor Walvoord of Dallas Theological Seminary underscores these truths concerning biblical prophecy. Chosen as one of Zondervan’s “Academic and Professional Books,” it is the product of a lifetime of study and interpretation of the Bible in general and biblical prophecy in particular. As the subtitle of the book indicates, however, the book is not esoteric and theoretical but extremely personal and practical.

Though not organized as an encyclopedia, the book is encyclopedic in scope, covering everything in Scripture that was predictive at the time it was written, beginning with the prophecy of sin and death (chap. 2) and following through in more or less chronological order to end with the prophecies concerning the future eternal state (chap. 37). The book’s use as a reference tool is greatly aided by a 9-page subject index and a 12-page Scripture index.

The book deals with prophecy from the dispensational premillennial viewpoint without apology. In the preface the author writes, “Events of the twentieth century have alerted Bible students to the tremendous potential for fulfilled prophecy. With Israel restored as a nation in 1948, the panorama of end-time prophecy came into a focus in which Israel will be a prominent player…. In this whole context, the rapture of the church looms as an imminent event that will occur before many of these end-time events are fulfilled” (pp. 7-8).

Also without apology Walvoord repeatedly makes the point that “prophecy is not only fulfilled in general terms but specifically corresponds to the details of each prophetic pronouncement…. Prophecy is not only to be interpreted in detail, but literally” (p. 24). Though he is preeminently a theologian, as this book demonstrates, Walvoord deals with prophecy (as

with all theology) from the standpoint of its practical impact on the spiritual life of individuals, whether a more complete commitment to Christ for believers or a trusting of Jesus Christ as Savior for unbelievers.

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