Puritan Hope

In an age were all we hear is the end is near, the end is near it is great to hear a voice, or voices from the past that say yea it maybe but lets keep on shining the Light of Christ instead of getting into a bunker and hiding from a broken world, an excellent book!!

I read this book as part of an extensive research project in eschatology, and it had a definite and important impact on my thinking, not just in "end times" events, but in understanding the Puritan theological heritage of modern Christianity and it implications for today. Released in the early 70's when dispensationalism was at it's height, this book resurrects the old Puritan view and gives it a new hearing. This book is not a text on eschatology in the proper sense of the word. Murray does not delineate various views and weigh them against different kinds of evidence. Instead what he does is demonstrate that the theology of the Reformation, and especially the Puritans was a victorious-minded postmillennialism which looked forward to Christ's conquest of the nations, and the conversion of the Jews. He then demonstrates convincingly that many good fruits sprang from this hope especially world missions, and many cancers appeared when it was progressively replaced with a dispensational hope of Christ's 'imminent' return. For those from a strong dispensational perspective this may be too much to digest in one session, although the work is not abraisive, however for the rest of us who have been affected by dispensational thought indirectly the ideas in this book are a powerful antidote. This book would be an excellent tool in any study of Church History, World Missions, or Eschatology.

Murray's thoughtful book challenges evangelicals to re-examine their thinking about the return of Christ. He carefully develops the basis for the sense of conviction and purpose that motivated Carey, Wilberforce and many others to do great works for Christ. Arguing that the "fullness of the Gentiles" must precede the conversion of Israel as prophecied in Romans 11, and that both of these events have not yet occurred, and that they portend far greater influence and triumph for the Church on the Earth, Murray lovingly challenges those who are of a "sit at home and wait for the rapture" mentality. He explains how and why the Puritans came to their eschatological beliefs; how these were perverted, primarily in modern times, by men like Edward Irving and J.N. Darby; why we've stopped thinking critically about these theories; and how we must recapture the confident expectation of Christ's triumphant end-time revival of Gentiles, then all Israel, before his return in glory. Excellent and thought-provoking.

From a historical survey, Murray details the relationship of Puritan postmillennialism to their motivation for world missions. Missionaries went boldly into various parts of the earth knowing that Christ has already won the victory over Satan's kingdom at the cross and had promised the victory of the church in history. "All authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth, go therefore and teach...make disciples of all nations...I am with you even unto the end of the age." "I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."