Book Review by Terry James

Anytime I receive a book or other document to read that is purported to be a study course on Bible prophecy, I quickly scan it, whether planning to possibly review it or just to check it out. I have, after all, been studying and writing on the topics involved for forty-plus years? I surely must know most everything there is to know.

I hope the reader of this review knows I’m kidding around with that statement, but it is true that my tendency is to simply read quickly through and either begin writing the review or toss it aside as “been there, learned that.”

I intended to continue with this modus operandi with my long-time friend Don McGee’s study book, Framework for Understanding Bible Prophecy. I would, I considered, simply glance over the material, then write the review. I know Don well, and he and I share the same basic understanding of what God’s Word has to say about end-times things. I didn’t have to read the details…right?
Wrong!

After a few pages, I forgot that I was the reviewer. I again became the student, hungry to snatch the next spiritual morsel of nutritional insight and nuance of wisdom the author had poured upon my cerebral plate. Such is the quality and richness the author has wrapped within his title. Yet the material is presented in simple, easy-to-understand language and concepts. Every reader who desires to comprehend what God intends to impart from His love letter to mankind can delve as lightly or as deeply into this study as he or she cares to investigate.

The study course is constructed in such a way as to make it easy to access in every regard. It is in a high-quality, wire-bound binding so the pages rest flat on desk or table.

Don McGee, president of Crown and Sickle Ministries, is a much-sought-after speaker at Bible prophecy conferences and other forums. He frequently appears on television and radio programs, nationally and internationally. He disseminates an in-depth newsletter of prophetic insight, analyzing news issues and events under the prophetic light of God’s Holy Word.

I believe the spiritual understanding and counseling wisdom with which he has been gifted can be discerned from the following excerpt from the book:

As with any other portion of scripture, a study of prophecy must first be immersed in prayer. It is also important to go into each study time with freshness of mind. That is, do not allow external issues to hinder your thinking. Further, do not be afraid to change your mind about things. Any person who interprets and believes all scripture today in exactly the same way as he did on the day he became a Christian was either omniscient then or is negligent now. To change your mind in light of a growing and deepening understanding of prophetic scripture is not necessarily a bad thing.

A related thought is to remember that your teachers could have been wrong. Not that anyone would intentionally mislead someone, but remember that no teacher, no matter how learned, can be a final authority on every issue in Bible prophecy.

However, if I were limited to only one recommendation it would be the following:
Study all scriptures in their context, for context brings clarity to the use of figures of speech. Studying the Bible in its context also means to draw a conclusion on a matter in light of all that is written on the subject. It is the “sum” of God’s word that is truth, not the “some” of His word (Psalm 119:160).

This approach can bring peace to a student’s heart. It can relieve a Christian of the pressure of having to parrot the party line when the results of his personal study do not fit the party line. That is, the student is free to not agree with the interpretations of his church, convention, denomination, synod, brotherhood or any other religious association. A Christian’s allegiance is personally and solely to Jesus and His word. It is not to anyone or anything else no matter their religious credentials or heavy-handed insistence.

Each of us will stand before our Lord to give account of what we did with the truth we understood, and to give account regarding the opportunities we were given to understand the truth.

McGee further writes in framing his methodology for presenting the study:

Because this book is an informal guide and not an academic thesis you will find no formally noted references. And, you will see that it is written in the first-person. The reason is to make the reading of this book as informal and comfortable as a home-church Bible class.

While the author has made things comfortable for the student, the points of prophecy covered therein touch on and probe deeply into the deepest areas within biblical eschatology (study of end things).

I recommend you get this study course. I’m not worried that it will then collect dust on one of your shelves—not after you crack the first couple of pages.

To purchase this study course: visit crownandsickle.org

Book Review by Terry James

This is a book for which I wrote the foreword, so this will be a positive review, as you might expect. Beyond that, however, I give it an even moreglowing report, because I have had a chance to digest it another time since first reading this excellent work by one of the nation’s foremost scholars and broadcasters in Bible prophecy: Dr. Larry Spargimino of Southwest Radio Church Ministries.

My thoughts began, in constructing the foreword:

It is exceedingly rare that I find a book that brings the mind of God and the human mind together in such an almost-tangible way as this one. Its author purports it to be a volume aimed at “teens and the Jessica generation.” That descriptive makes me feel quite good, because the book connects with my own sixty-nine-year-old brain and spirit in all the right places. It will do the same for most everyone who reads it, I suspect.

That analysis of Dr. Spargimino’s excellent work, Today, Yesterday, and Forever, received reinforcement by my second reading. Although the teenage and young adult audience comprise his primary target with this volume, the author has hit a home run with this book for anyone who reads it, of any age, from teenager until–well—an old guy like me.

I also wrote the following for that foreword, which continues to be true:

[Dr. Spargimino] did write it specifically with young, maturing adults in mind. Certainly, this generation is where the future resides, and there could be no more noble an ambition than to touch young people with the message that God loves them and has plans for all who will follow His divine precepts for their lives.

In Yesterday, Today, and Forever, in addition to many other Holy Spirit-laden treasures of wisdom, the author writes the following:

• “There are things that we don’t understand, nor will we ever understand them. But we need to surrender our questions, doubts, and fears to God, knowing that He can get the glory in every tragedy.”
• “The back seat of a car is no place to decide how you feel about personal purity.… Make your choice before the crisis comes. Choose to do right before you are tempted to do wrong.”
• “When you do get the opportunity for public visibility, always you do your best, and be sure to give all the credit to God, both privately in your innermost being and also publicly. It’s a wonderful thing to be successful and to achieve what we want to do, and to do it well. But never forget who is to get the praise.”
• “As always, Jesus is our best example. He knew the right thing. He had come to seek and to save that which was lost. That was the Father’s will for Him. But He was also willing to do the right thing. In His case, die on the cross. This was not easy for Jesus. He knew what He had to face, and what He would have to experience. He even prayed to His Heavenly Father that IF possible, the Father would let this cup of suffering pass Him by, but Jesus added: ‘Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt’ (Matthew 26:39).”
• “It’s all about what you do when no one is looking. When you do the right thing, your courage will grow. Take that first step to establish integrity in your own heart, and the follow­ing steps will be easier.… the fact is that God has chosen to use people. He has chosen to use us…”

The author lays down some tremendous faith principles for the young–and for the rest of us. Such wisdom marks this book as one that will help make straight the pathway of Proverbs 3:5–6, through practical advice and powerful, Spirit-filled suggestions on how to conduct life.

I’m especially awestruck with the powerful dynamism yet at the same time absolute clarity which Dr. Spargimino uses to touch —sometime in great depth—on everything from philosophy and government (the many isms that have ruled mankind) to history of the causes and effects of war-making by fallen mankind over the centuries. He takes apart and makes understandable the decades of developments from America’s founding to the present hour, during which challenges must be faced during every waking moment.

All of this he has done in one of the most cohesive treatments, written at a level that teenagers can understand, that I have read. To my thinking, it is a breakthrough in communication, one that should engender among the young—as well as among those of us not so young—a desire to develop our worldview from an increasingly godly perspective–all the while watching for Christ’s any-moment call to His church in the Rapture.

You will want to get this one to give to someone of the younger generation in your life. But, better get at least two copies, because I promise that you are not going to want to give up yours.