Books

Will Catholics be Left Behind, by Carl Olson

Reviewed by Envoy Magazine

Contents - Aug 2003 - Buy a copy now Editorial: 'Do this in memory of Me' - Peter Westmore Documents: Ecclesia in Europa - Pope challenges Christians to re-evangelise Europe - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World - AD2000 Bioethics: End-of-life decisions: the moral issues at stake - David Perrin US research survey: younger priests are generally more orthodox - AD2000 Catalyst for Renewal Address: The legacy of Vatican II - Archbishop George Pell Church architecture: overcoming iconoclasts and cult of ugliness - Larry Henderson Is Pope John Paul II canonising too many saints? - Michael Casanova Priesthood: Clerical celibacy 'for the sake of God's Kingdom': the Church's teaching - John Young Letters: Catholic hymns (letter) - Noel Decker Letters: Beautiful hymn (letter) - Therese F. Sellick Letters: Confession (letter) - Joe Slowiak Letters: Papal infallibility (letter) - Fr Brian Harrison OS Letters: Sex education in SA (letter) - Kevin McBride Letters: Martyrdom ignored - Tom King Letters: Orthodoxy? (letter) - Brian Dethridge Letters: Pantheism (letter) - Fr G.H. Duggan Letters: New Mass (letter) - Kevin Beck Letters: Lourdes appeal (letter) - Jenny Davies Books: Will Catholics be Left Behind, by Carl Olson - Envoy Magazine (reviewer) Books: The Divine Primacy: The Bishop of Rome and Modern Eastern Orthodoxy - Fr Peter Knowles OP (reviewer) JESUS: According to the Gospel of Luke (CD-ROM and Book) - Roberta Wilson (reviewer) Priests 24/7 : A video documentary - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: Great books at the best prices! Reflection: The Apocalypse: proclaiming the final victory of Christ and His Church - Fr G.H. Duggan SM

WILL CATHOLICS BE "LEFT BEHIND":
A Catholic Critique of the Rapture and Today's Prophecy Preachers
by Carl Olson

(Ignatius Press, 2003, 394pp, $31.95. Available from AD Books)

Will Catholics be "Left Behind" is the most thorough and detailed Catholic examination of the "Rapture" and premillennial dispensationalism (the best-selling "Left Behind" theology) ever written.

Written for both the lay person and the serious student, this book combines an engaging, popular approach with detailed footnotes and exhaustive research. Beginning with the big picture, it focuses first on key concepts such as eschatology, the Parousia, and the relationship between the Kingdom and the Church.

It then examines the Book of Revelation, providing insights into the nature and purpose of that difficult, final book of the Bible. Another chapter looks at the concept of the millennium and how it has been understood by various Christians over the centuries.

Olson then shows how Left Behind creator LaHaye's many works on Bible prophecy are filled with attacks on Catholicism, and often rely on sensationalism, shaky scholarship, and subjective interpretations of Scripture

Olson, himself a former dispensationalist, also presents a history of apocalyptic belief and theology, beginning with the Early Church Fathers and including the Montanists, St Augustine, Joachim of Fiore, the Protestant Reformers, and the American Puritans. He shows how John Nelson Darby, an ex-Anglican priest, developed the premillennial dispensationalist system, which hinges on the Rapture, in the 1830s, and how he relied upon faulty assumptions about Jesus Christ, the Church, and the Bible.

The second part of the book, "A Catholic Critique of Dispensationalism", focuses on three important topics: the relationship between Israel, the Church, and the Kingdom; the interpretation of Scripture; and the nature of the Rapture event.

Filled with a wealth of information drawn from both Protestant and Catholic sources, this section provides a complete rebuttal of the premillennial dispensationalist system and the Left Behind theology. The book concludes with a reflection on the Catholic understanding of the end times, salvation history, and the final judgement. Glossaries of key persons and terms are also included.

Michael O'Brien, author of several popular books, including Father Elijah, offered the following endorsement of Will Catholics be "Left Behind"?: "In this extraordinary book, Carl Olson uses a surgeon's scalpel to cut through the mass of confusion that dominates contemporary reflection on the Last Things. Achieving far more than a refutation of millennialist errors and other disordered apocalyptic theories, he illumines the Church's majestic vision of time and eternity and demonstrates that Jesus Christ is the Lord of History and its end."

Reprinted with permission from 'Envoy' www.envoymagazine.com

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 16 No 7 (August 2003), p. 17