Daniel I. Block

The Return of the Kingdom

Theology

“In this delightful handbook Stephen Dempster takes his readers on a royal tour of the Christian Scriptures. He invites us to picture the Bible as a royal garden consisting of vast variety of trees whose foliage and fruit stimulate all our senses as we pass by. As he leads us through this literary paradise, he highlights its major structural features and theological themes, but he adds color and brilliance to the picture with exegetical nuggets and gemstones that leave us in awe of this place. Of course, this thousand-year-old literary enterprise was not about the canon itself, any more than the empire of Great Britain was about Buckingham Palace. Here our tour guide introduces us to the Creator of this universe, the King of kings and Lord of lords, incarnate in Jesus Messiah. While much of the Scriptures are taken up with the failures of his images (whether as humans generally or Israel specifically) to live up to their vicegeral status, above and beyond all cosmic history we see the One enthroned overall. For the context of our degraded, conflicted, angry, and deluded environment, this book offers hope and heightens our excitement at the prospect of the imminent return of the King. Hallelujah, what a Savior!”