Reviewed by Dr. Lauren A. King
Here is a book written not for the scholar in the field but for the thoughtful lay Christian reader. Because the author is not given to elegant variation, the style is smooth and consistent. As a result, especially because of the sparse use of technical terms, and because those used are always carefully explained, the style will be comfortable for most readers.
A book of 237 pages, it may raise the question, How can a simple subject like redemption take so many pages to explain? But this is to think in terms of the individual Christian, as in the hymn, Servant of God, well done! But here a much greater field of thought is involved, the history of redemption from beginning to end, including the redemption of the material world. Thus the book begins with innocent Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and ends with the new heavens and earth. It shows how redemption became necessary, and carefully traces God's developing plan through the call of Abram, the history of Israel, the atoning death and bodily resurrection of Jesus, and his second coming. This last element of the subject alone takes 57 pages.
Another element that involves space is the extensive quotation of Scripture. To collect and organize these citations must have taken an enormous amount of time. But the reader will have been referred to nearly everything the Scriptures have to say on any item of the subject. In short, what we have here is a full discussion of every aspect of redemption in the broadest range of the subject, almost a text in Biblical theology.
Of course, the author has his understanding of the various sub-topics, but where there is among scholars considerable and deep difference in understanding a topic such as the timing of the tribulation, he is careful to give full treatment to all views.
Finally, there is an index and a bibliography for anyone who wishes to go with the author more deeply than he goes here. But one who goes no further than this book will have had a thorough treatment of the subject.
By Dr. Lauren A. King
Professor Emeritus of the English language and literature
Malone College
April 25, 1997
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