What in the World Is Going On? is a highly interesting book written about the end time prophecies and is written rather well. This book is probably one of the most simple and easiest to understand, which is often a major hurdle when reading about prophecy. The book speaks of ten signs that you cannot ignore about future events. These 10 signs present themselves as 10 chapters within this book as Dr. David Jeremiah focuses on each for a while. The 10 signs are these:
The Israel Connection, The Crude Awakening (a chapter on the current and future oil crises), Modern Europe…Ancient Rome, Islamic Terrorism, Vanished without a trace, Does america have a role in prophecy? , When one man rules the world, The new axis of evil, Arming for Armageddon, and The return of the king.
The first thing that I noticed was that these 10 chapters seem at first to be 10 signs, but as I continued on within those chapters that they were simply different topics as Dr. Jeremiah talked about the progression of end time events. They were more of a timeline that went through from now until the last chapter, The return of the king. Obviously the return of the king or Jesus is not a sign of the end times as it has not happenedyet and also is what happens at the end of all of that prophecy. In fact chapters 5-10 seemed to not be talking about signs of the end times at all but simply a retelling of one interpretation of end time prophecy.
Once I began reading these chapters however I did enjoy the way that the prophecy is described and explained in such a way that is not very hard to understand. There however lies my second problem with the book. Dr. David Jeremiah has very accurately portrayed his interpretation of end time events within the later chapters. He does not, however, explain any kind of other interpretation of the same set of verses. He fails to acknowledge for the most part that there are other interpretations at all! Basically if you are a fan of the Left Behind book series and subscribe to that brand of biblical prophecy you will enjoy this book, though you will probably not hear much that wasn’t said first in the Left Behind book series. This book offers little modern input for the interpretation of the prophecies, and does not accurately portray the contents of the book when it says there are 10 signs.
I say all of that about the book and yet I find myself enjoying what I have read within its pages. It is an interesting read and certainly well written, but I don’t personally see any reason why this book was written in the way it was. I would have enjoyed an in depth study into the prophecy that describes events leading up to the second coming and the rapture and such but that is not what this book is. If you asked me to describe this book to you in one word it would be this: Stale.
If you are someone who has done any kind of reading about end time prophecy I would not recommend this book to you as you would be better off finding your information elsewhere. The same goes to those who have read all or part of the Left Behind series of books. However, if you are a newer christian who would simply like an introduction into biblical prophecy then you might enjoy this book. In fact you might absolutely love it. But keep in mind that there is a lot more information out there, some of which is more open minded and some is more in depth so keep your eye out for other books on the topic.
Dr. David Jeremiah is the senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California, and chancellor of San Diego Christian College. He is also the founder of Turning Point, a ministry committed to providing sound Bible teaching through national radio and television broadcasting. Dr. Jeremiah has authored numerous books, including the best-selling “Captured by Grace,” “Life Wide Open,” “My Heart’s Desire,” and “Sanctuary.”
This book was provided to my by BookSneeze to review. I was not required to give a positive review and anything I have said is purely my own opinion of this book.
