The Puritan Hope; Revival and the interpretations of Prophecy
This volume promises, in its title, to inspire hope. I found that it did just that for me. I was struggling with a spiritual weariness this past year and these readings helped restore a lacking balance. I now have a renewed expectancy that prayer and the declaration of the Gospel will have its effect in God's good timing according to Sovereign grace.
The basis of Revival Hope is in unfulfilled prophecy and the testimony of the Apostles. The Puritans held to that hope and it motivated their prayer and preaching. Fruit of this sowing was seen in generations later as the 18th and 19 century missionary movement sent ambassadors of Christ into the world. The author calls attention to the damages of the denial of Scripture inerrancy and the pessimism of dispensational eschatology that arose in the latter half of the 1800's. Christians today, however, can recover a fervent hope in the salvation in ethnic Israel and a resultant blessing to the remainder of the (Gentile) nations. This hope is Scriptural and promises that the return of Christ--our Blessed Hope--will be to a church in revival despite opposition from Satan and the powers under his sway.
Hope revives our spirits to pray and preach with the warrant of Scriptural promise. Though our world appears dark and the church fragmented and divided, Christ will yet be glorified in a vast harvest before His return. While He yet tarries, we can work and pray with great expectation and so fulfill our part before the glorious age to come..
