Arthur Katterjohn offers the modern reader a cogent and biblically solid presentation of eschatology (end-times issues)that is different than the currently popular dispensational paradigm.

Dispensationalism dates from the 1830s. But reaching further back, from the time of the church fathers (the patristics) through the Protestant Reformation, the Old Testament Day of the Lord and the New Testament Day of Jesus Christ were held to be one and the same event.

Katterjohn goes into the major passages on the Second Coming and tactfully exposes where dispensational theology comes short of putting the puzzle pieces of eschatology together. The result is a book that puts those same pieces together in a way that thoroughly integrates all of the passages into a meaningful whole.

For instance Katterjohn uses Jesus' parables to show the church that the church needed to have a faith for the long haul through the Tribulation period by showing how the images used in Jesus' teachings point to that very reality for the Christian Community. In many of Jesus' parables where the Second Coming is the main theme, the main character who leaves at the beginning of the story comes back at "midnight" - the darkest hour of the night - or may possibly come back even later than that.

Katterjohn is of the opinion that the church is given so much information about the Tribulation period because the church will actually have to know that information for its own survival and spiritual vitality until Jesus comes.

Katterjohn shows that fallacy of the dispensational "secret rapture of the saints" scenario to show that the rapture will take place when Christ returns with all the saints and that His coming is not a secret event, but as plain as lightning in the sky (according to Jesus).

If you are looking for an alternative to dispensational theology and are interested in how a more historic view and interpretion of end-time passages plays out, this is a wonderfully and clearly written book to get you going in just that direction.