Book Review: Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End

Ehrman, in his book Armageddon, examines the New Testament book of Revelation and its prediction of the end of the world. The author, who has been a devout Christian since he was a teenager, believes that the book's dire predictions are not about the earth's end but about the end of ancient Jerusalem. The book's author, John, was urging the Christian community to remain faithful and not give up, fearing the worst, and to keep praying for deliverance from the powers of evil. The author explains how the idea of the earth's impending doom became popular in the 1800s, especially with the book The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey, which strung together random verses from the Bible to make wacky predictions. This belief has affected US foreign policy and the planet's welfare. Hundreds of millions of people believe in the coming rapture, which they believe is simply what the Bible teaches. The author of this review notes that the book of Revelation is not a blueprint for the future but a product of its time and that the horrors described in it were meant to describe the fears of the past. The book also discusses the violence in other Bible chapters and its historical context. Finally, it highlights the difference between the teachings of Jesus and the ideologies promoted in the book of Revelation.

This book would interest Christians and those interested in Bible prophecy and biblical history and is moderately complex to understand.