I have been meaning to review some of my favorite books that were so good I kept in my library to either reread or have as a reference. If you click on the book cover you can go buy it from WTS (a not-so-subliminal prodding: go buy it now! ).
Wow!...and again I say wow! This work is monolithic. It is about the "Now but not yet" The Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God properly understood is the rule of an eternal sovereign God the way He meant it and means it to be. This book leaves no stone unturned in its attempt to explain to the reader exactly what that means to a Christian reader. Ridderbos starts from the beginning with Jesus' statements in the Synoptic Gospels and expounds on what it meant to 1st Century Jews since in context, this is who Jesus was speaking to.
As believers we are told this is the place we are to aspire to. It is the pinnacle of out existence, physical and eternal. This is an excellent place to start on that journey of understanding. It is a little heavy in some spots but the theological lessons to be gleaned from this book are nearly superfluous. Anyone that reads it cannot help but come away with a vastly expanded view of their destination as Christians. The once nebulous almost fragmentary image of God's intended goal for us is put in much more lucid terms that we can actually grab on to in this book.
Obviously it is not the kind of detail that is going to tell us whether of not angels will have wings or if Uncle Bill will be in heaven but it helps us understand where we need to be...as if the Bible leaves any doubt. Ridderbos does and amazing job of taking what can be a rather complex theological subject and making it readable.
Rating:
For initiated into the Christian Faith or people that actually read their Bible this is a resounding:
100 out of 100
For the uninitiated
90 out of 100 (due to terminology)
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