Breaking News: the Book is for Sale!

This morning (Aug. 4), McGahan Publishing House began offering my book, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days, for sale in advance of the Aug. 18 publication date. The retail prices are $19.99 for paperback and $29.99 for hardcover. MPH has listed the paperback for $18.00 and the hardcover for $28.00, discounted prices that include taxes and shipping.

I have seen pictures of the paperback proof and anticipate having it in hand later this week. I think it looks great but admit to more than a little bias. We will be going over it one last time searching for those pesky typos and formatting errors that lurk inside.

August 18 is still the official publication date, but the COVID-19 crisis has affected the printer’s schedule and introduced a measure of uncertainty.

MPH’s announcement contains a blurb by Wade Burleson. Wade “is a writer, avocational historian, and teaching pastor at Emmanuel [Baptist church in] Enid, Oklahoma. Burleson was twice elected President of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (2002–4), and served as a trustee for the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board (2005–8).”¹ His books include Happiness Doesn’t Just Happen: Learning to Be Content Regardless of Your Circumstances; Hardball Religion; Radically New: The New Covenant Will Change the Way You Think and Live; and others. He said:

I’ve always had the conviction that Christians should be “people of the Book.” Theological creeds and confessions can be helpful, but in one sense, they can at times be detrimental. If a Christian trusts more in what others say about the Bible than investigating for himself the language, context, and theme of the biblical text, then that Christian misses out on thinking for himself. Apocalyptic literature in Scripture is an example. Denominational creeds or confessions typically lock the Bible student into a particular interpretation, ignoring potential life-transforming truth because “it isn’t taught like that in the creeds.”  Mike Rogers’ book Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days is a great way to begin understanding the Book trumps any creed or confession. Mike doesn’t demand conformity of the reader, nor does he denigrate past confessions or creeds. What Mike does is expertly call Christians to let the Scriptures speak for themselves. I came away from reading Inmillennialism with a fresh sense of God’s providence, the power of God’s grace in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, and a deeper understanding that this world is headed toward that time when the Prince of Peace reigns in the hearts of all men and rules over all the nations.

Burleson’s blurb caused me to think about my reasons for writing the book. As I say in the Preface, I started because of the upheaval James Stuart Russell’s book, The Parousia, created within my soul and spirit. He denied the future bodily resurrection of believers and the final judgment, teachings embedded in the historic Christian creeds and confessions. Inmillennialism shows a way to remain faithful to the text of Scripture, affirm the strengths of Russell’s arguments, and still maintain the orthodox positions regarding these matters. 

I am particularly happy to make this claim in relation to the Apostles’ Creed and the 1689 London Baptist Confession. The Creed says, 

I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born from the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried, descended into hell, on the third day rose again from the dead, ascended to heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, thence He will come to judge the living and the dead; I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic² Church, the communion of saints, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and eternal life. Amen.³

Inmillennialism recognizes that Jesus said he would return in his generation (e.g., Matt 16:27-28; 24:34). His new-covenant parousia (presence) with his churches would last throughout the messianic age and culminate in the resurrection of the saints’ physical bodies and the final judgment. These last two events require a bodily coming of Christ to be with his saints, who will then possess their glorified bodies, too. The saints will then remain in fellowship with their Lord throughout eternity. 

This view of our future also accords with the 1689 Baptist Confession, which resembles the Belgic and Westminster Confessions. It says,  

At the last day, such of the saints as are found alive, shall not sleep, but be changed; and all the dead shall be raised up with the selfsame bodies, and none other; although with different qualities, which shall be united again to their souls forever. (Chapter 31, Of the State of Man After Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead, paragraph 2)

God has appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, by Jesus Christ; to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father; in which day, not only the apostate angels shall be judged, but likewise all persons that have lived upon the earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ, to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds, and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil. (Chapter 32, Of the Last Judgment, paragraph 1)⁴

Inmillennialism agrees with these statements. 

Burleson’s statements apply most directly to later expositions of the Apostles’ Creed and the 1689 Baptist Confession. For example, the original 1689 Baptist Confession does not use Acts 1:9–11 to support the above statement on the resurrection,⁵ but a later exposition of the Confession does.⁶ Inmillennialism says this is a mistake; this passage is describing the same coming of Christ as Matt 16:27–28—a coming not visible to the natural eye in Jesus’ generation. So, I do, as Burleson says, want “Christians to let the Scriptures speak for themselves” and not assume the expositors of the creeds and confessions are always rightly dividing the Word of God on these matters.

I pray that this book will give you, too, “a fresh sense of God’s providence, the power of God’s grace in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, and a deeper understanding that this world is headed toward that time when the Prince of Peace reigns in the hearts of all men and rules over all the nations.”

1. “Wade Burleson,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade_Burleson
2. Capitalization removed.
3. Elliot Ritzema and John D. Barry, “Apostles’ Creed,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016). Emphasis added
4. See, for example, The Baptist Confession of Faith and the Baptist Catechism (Birmingham, AL: Solid Ground Christian Books, 2010).
5. William Lumpkin, Baptist Confessions of Faith, 3rd ed. (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1969), 203.
6. Samuel E. Waldron, A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, 3rd ed. (Durham, England: Evangelical Press, 1999), 375.