The most recommended eschatology books

I purchased the first edition of this book. Its major fault—the lack of either a Scripture or a Subject index—has been corrected in the second, expanded edition. A Case for Amillennialism is a strong defense of the amillennial view, particularly in contrast with the dispensational premillennial view. For me, his explication of the “two ages” (“this age” and the “age to come”) was compelling as was his point that “The most serious problem to be faced by all premillenarians is the presence of evil in the millennial age” (86). Riddlebarger deals with the major eschatological passages (Daniel’s seventy weeks, the Olivet Discourse, Romans 11, and, of course, Revelation 20). In short, this is a clear defense of amillennialism and is worth reading.

This is one heck of a good book. 

A mysterious “explosion” on the moon may herald the end of the world, but don’t expect a lot of heavy action. This book is character driven. No cardboard cutouts here. Get ready to meet real people, complicated and contradictory as real people are—my favorite thing in a novel. 

The book’s pace is slow as menace builds. It allows you to revel in the quality of the writing. As I read, I knew I was going to read this book a second time to enjoy the gracefulness of its language. 

I found this book realistic in a really frightening way. The entire societal structure of the world depends on the stories we humans tell ourselves about ‘us’ and ‘them,’ and I think the book plays with this very cleverly.

It has a very tender depiction of what happens to us and our stories when we’re all alone, and I still think about the way generational guilt is woven through the story.

It was one of those books where I kept walking up to my wife to say, “Can I read you something?” and, “Listen to this…” because the ideas are so big, but the language is so clipped and to the point. 

This book came to me when I needed it most. I was having a hard time finding something that called to me and drew me in.

The main character in this story made me want to be her. She was such an amazing badass and so confident in herself even when she had no clue who she was. Pick this us if you’re looking for gods, vampires, end of the world prophecies, and a HEA.

In a Celtic-feeling village the reader follows the story of an absolutely ordinary protagonist, Idris. He’s a poet who chooses great peril in order to discover the truth behind a growing despair plaguing the land.

It is the end of times, according to all the oracles. But Idris refuses to accept annihilation’s cold embrace. As the villagers scrape by despite sickness and blighted crops, the bard goes on a search for hope. In the haunted, banshee-infested moor, he discovers the door on half-bald hill.

I really loved this story because it was all my favorite things—a bleak, earthy landscape with a sharp sense of foreboding haunting every page, and in sharp relief, a group of very real persons, each fostering a flame of hope despite overwhelming burdens and gnawing griefs. 

While this started a little slowly, I was soon completely invested in the life of its unlikely hero. Fletcher Sinclair is a meme personified—he lives in his parent’s basement, plays video games all day, and consumes far too much of a particular sports drink. Then, a strange virus hits the world, eliminating all the men—except for Fletcher.

That the human race’s potential extinction should rest upon Fletcher’s shoulders both horrified and fascinated me. It was filled with twists and turns, which even I, as an author, didn’t see coming. No spoilers and no hyperbole, but Erik Dargitz invented the most brilliant post-apocalyptic cult I’ve ever read! Fans of Handmaiden’s Tale and Animal Farm will love this book.

This book's opening scene is one of the most visceral and shocking I have ever read. Incredibly tragic, it hits you in the gut with the force of a hammer blow before sweeping you along on an adventure of epic proportions. Once I started reading, I was unable to stop.

I just had to know what happened next and what lay in store for the main protagonists, Kati and Jenni. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with them, and I will never forget the hours I spent by their side. My only regret is that the story ended, though I’ve heard rumors of a possible continuation. If that’s true, it will be a dream come true!

I love Bowman’s book for its simplicity and its scholarship. Through it, I discovered Revelation tells the gospel story as a drama! Reading his book, I begin to see, as the curtain is raised on each scene, wonderous mysteries are revealed. I eagerly read each page of the book and read and reread every page of Revelation to find more of its treasures. Having been convinced that Revelation is intended to be a carefully composed and complex drama, I adopted a similar format for organizing my own book.  

Some of the big topics within Bible prophecy are the Great Tribulation Period with the Antichrist at the helm, and whether Bible believers will be raptured before or after this period of distress. The authors tackle this tough question with sound biblical evidence to support their claims.

Unfortunately, their findings go against many popular opinions of the modern Church and there is great debate amongst believers about the Rapture. This is why their book is very important to provide much needed information for those who hold differing views.

The 55th-century-and-counting end-of-times narrative of Millennium is a time-travel story, yes, but it is more than that.

It manages to dodge the gleeful “paradoxes” at the heart of classical travellers-in-time stories while acknowledging the difficulties of interfering in the established timeline.

Bill Smith, the world-weary 20th-century airplane accident investigator, and his connection with Louise Baltimore, a fixer from dozens of millennia in the future, is one of the oddest relationships in fiction, and Varley’s account of the terminal ennui at the twilight of humanity is distressingly plausible.

If humans can only survive by going deep into history to divert “victims” of catastrophic accidents into a new (if bewildered) life in their far future in order to keep a more or less functioning society alive, what does this say about our survival? Pessimistic but riveting.