Last Days Madness: Obsession of the Modern Church

DeMar's volume is annotated enough to be respectable to the average scholar, yet straightforward enough to be readable to the average student. He is thorough, yet concise. Even for persons who may not hold a preterist viewpoint, this book is a classic critique that no theological bookshelf should be lacking.

DeMar explores all the hot end-times themes, including the rapture, the great tribulation, the nation of Israel, the "seventy weeks" of Daniel, the antichrist, the dragon, the beast, the mark of the beast, the man of lawlessness, mystery babylon, the battle of Armageddon, and the "day of the Lord."

I have a very high regard for the Bible, believing it is God's inerrant word and MUST be allowed to speak for itself. I am very pleased with the way DeMar has simply sought to interpret what the Scriptures say, rather than trying to fit them into a preconceived system as so many other persons have done.

Get it! Read it! It will be money well-spent.


Amazing Work   May 10, 2006
Jedi Batman
17 out of 19 found this review helpful

Compare this book to something like "Are we living in the End Times?" by LaHaye and Jenkins and you will see what a well written, well researched book DeMar has put forward for us to read.

If you have ever thought the predictions of propetic "experts" are a little bit weird pick up this book and you will be amazed. Despite what a previous reviewer has stated the book does inspire you. You are inspired by the trustworthiness of God's Word and to make this world a better place.

Get it and read it. I am glad I did!


Compelling case for partial preterism   August 31, 2007
The Actor (Chicago)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

If you're like most evangelicals, most of what you've been taught about Bible prophecy is wrong. If you're anything like me, you were taught dispensational eschatology as a Biblical "fact" and it never occurred to you to question it. If you've ever been bothered by any of the following:
- Why "date setters" have been wrong so many times
- The hopeless sensationalism of many Bible prophecy "experts"
- Why Jesus claims that the events described in Matthew 24 would occur during "this generation"
- Why the Book of Revelation claims to be describing things that would happen "shortly" and that the time was "near"
- Or anything else about eschatology
He shows that dispensational eschatology is neither the most straightforward reading of the Bible nor the historic position of the church. He points out that much of what is taught hangs on an exegetical thread and that dispensationalism imports a lot of ideas into the text that aren't there. For example:
- The New Testament NEVER teaches that the Temple will be rebuilt.
- There is no evidence for the Rapture. This was a doctrine that was made up in the 1830's and is the result of a pre-conceived grid being forced on the text, NOT an exposition of the Bible.
- Russia was often identified as an eschatological "bad guy" because the Bible refers to "Rosh," which "obviously" refers to "Russia." If you don't see the connection, you're not alone; the main "reason" that Rosh is supposed to refer to Russia is that they sound similar. Talk about reading ideas into the Bible.

The author exposes dispensational eschatology as a crock. He shows that most of their doctrines, such as the Rapture, the alleged gap in Daniel's 70 weeks, and the rebuilt Temple to name a few are not supported by the Bible. At the same time, he makes many compelling arguments for the partial preterist position (the idea that most of the prophecies in the Bible were already fulfilled). Among the many important concepts he addresses are:
- How to interpret Biblical time texts (which dispensationalists mostly ignore)
- The identity of the Beast, the Antichrist, and the Man of Lawlessness (which he argues aren't necessarily the same; most people try to combine them into a conglomerate figure, which Demar argues isn't really Biblical).
- Why we're not living in the end times. Also why attempting to set a date for the Second Coming or trying to guess when it will be never has worked and never will.
- What the Mark of the Beast is - in particular, is it a microchip or some other form of technology as so many people seem to believe? What is the number of the Beast?
- A very detailed exposition of Matthew 24, which is often interpreted to be referring to a future Tribulation culminating in the Second Coming.
- And many more important topics.

There were a few omissions though:
- Dating of Revelation - if partial preterist eschatology is true, then Revelation MUST have been written before A.D. 70 (rather than the later date in the 90's). I don't think that Demar covered this topic adequately though, and that's a potential Achilles heel in his argument.
- I suppose he was dealing with this throughout the book, I wish the author had dealt more explicitly with the "two-people" idea (the idea that ethnic Israel is still God's chosen people).
- Maybe have spent more time explicitly defining and explaining his hermeneutics.
Hank Hanegraaff deals with these three topics in more detail in his book "The Apocalypse Code," especially the last two topics. (Actually, the hermeneutics is the main point of the book, and he spends a lot of time dealing with the second point). Although there is a lot of overlap between these two books, I'd definitely recommend reading both books together. I think they really complement each other well and you'll get a more complete picture of eschatology if you do. If I had to pick one of the two, I'd say that Gary Demar's book is better written and more complete, but as I said, if you read both they will reinforce each other and you will get a more complete picture of eschatology. Another book that compliments this book is "Thine is the Kingdom", edited by Kenneth Gentry.

I definitely recommend this book. A lot of people try to avoid the topic of eschatology, either because they don't understand it very well, it's "too divisive", or they say "I'll find out when it happens", but the Bible talks a lot about the topic so God clearly intended us to understand it. If God spoke, it's our responsibility to find out what He said. This book will help clear the haze and bring common sense, sanity, and solid Biblical exegesis back into eschatology.


Intriguing alternative to modern newspaper exegesis   December 2, 1999
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

Heed the simple time statements. This is the heart of DeMar's book. If you assume that the wide variety of eschatological timing indicators found in the New Testament should all be understood to be REALLY referring to "the next event on the prophetic calendar, which can happen at any moment (ever since the mid 1st century), although it may not actually happen for a very, very long time (even when relative to us in the 20th century), but once the next event does finally happen, then the rest of the prophetic chain of events will all subsequently come to pass in rapid succession," then this book is not for you. DeMar insists that the timing indicators are just ordinary and plain words found throughout the New Testament, not only in apocalyptic portions, and thus they should be dealt with consistently. While many people do, in fact, spiritualize and redefine the meaning of the timing indicators in order to literalize the New Testament's apocalyptic imagery, others, like DeMar, take these common timing statements literally, and thus spiritualize the vivid apocalyptic imagery. Which seems more reasonable? DeMar points out several Old Testament passages that employ similar imagery and are interpreted in a spiritual manner by nearly everyone. Why not in the New Testament?

A truncated synopsis of the timing indicators communicated by 1st century NT authors to their originally relevant 1st century audiences:

- "this generation will not pass away til all these things take place,"

- "things which must shortly take place,"

- "the time is near,"

- "the coming of the Lord is at hand,"

- "the end of all things is at hand,"

- "and when they persecute you in this city flee to the next. Truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes,"

- "I am coming quickly,"

- "If therefore you will not repent, I will come to you quickly,"

- "The Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father, with His angels, and will then render to every man according to his deeds. Truly I say to you, there are some of those standing here today who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom,"

- "and escape all of these things that are about to take place,"

- "I will keep you from the hour of testing which is about to come,"

- "as you see the day approaching,"

- "five have fallen, one is [thereby establishing the time frame of the angelic interpretation as being relative to the 1st century, and thus the angel later continues by speaking of...] ...the beast that is about to come,"

- "Christ, who is about to judge the living and the dead,"

and etc.


Hard to Beat   September 6, 2001
Christopher C. Alsruhe (Baltimore, Maryland United States)
19 out of 23 found this review helpful

Here is a book that just has to be faced if one is to be honest in their belief that the Bible, and God, is of full integrity. If one truly wants to prove with integrity that they are willing to face the truth of scripture regardless of personal feelings, intuitions, traditions, trends, etc., then this book is one of the most important books before which one must place their hermeneutical presuppositions.

First, I mention that there is one flaw with the book, and that is that after having so well proven what the scripture says about Christ's coming in judgement, DeMar still thinks that the Second Coming is a yet separate and future coming of Christ. Yet his book is one of the best in proving that all the "coming" prophecies are fulfilled and that the coming in judgement is the same as the Second Coming. DeMar fails to realize that he proved full preterism in his book.

That being said, the issue at stake concerning preterism vs. futurism is the very integrity of God and His Word. DeMar thoroughly puts his readers before the bar to confess that either yes, the Bible is fully inerrant and therefore Christ has come in 70 AD just as the prophecies clearly stated; or no, the Bible is not fully inerrant and therefore it, and God, cannot be trusted completely; Jesus and the apostles, though led by the Spirit, were wrong. A non-preterist must ultimately believe that Jesus, the Spirit, the apostles, and the Bible is wrong in order to continue in a non-preterist position.

To be a futurist, one must remove the integrity and trustworthiness of God and His Spirit, Jesus, the apostles, and the Word itself from his/her hermeneutical approach. This is a book that I believe is so important in facing ourselves honestly concerning our view of God and His Word, that I give this book to people if they are interested.

No person who claims not to be afraid of having to change their mind about certain issues should be afraid of reading this book. If you are a premillennialist, amillennialist, or dispensationalist, you must get past this book, with its solid and consistent biblical proof, in order to continue believing the myths of the "left behind" theology.