Wilson is a prolific writer who clearly embraces a Reformed worldview. Although I do not agree with all of Wilson's theological views, this book provides a much needed overview of the biblical doctrine of heaven. Thank you Wilson and Canon Press for this book!

Heaven Misplaced: Christ's Kingdom on Earth is another book by pastor and provocateur Douglas Wilson. It's about the end times - but it's not one of those books. Wilson argues against the common pessimistic view of the end of this world held my many Christians: that the world will get worse and worse before it gets better. He introduces a view he calls "historical optimism." I don't exactly share his view, but I'm closer to his view than you'd think. If you've only ever heard the Left Behind version of the end times, you owe it to yourself to read this book ( )

This is the second of Douglas Wilson's books that I have reviewed. And I'm happy to say this is a much better book. However, he makes some methodological choices that hurt his argument and toward the end of the book he has lost his flow of coherency. But his project of historical optimism is a good one, I just wish he'd spend more time unpacking it.

The book is a very reformed reading of Kingdom theology. That is he is developing a theology about the concept of God's reign, its implications for Christian life and thought, from a reformed position. In fact he imagines a more dispensational view of history as an opposing view. Several times I truly agreed with his conclusions but would never have tackled the issue in the way that he does. In many cases his evaluation of theological problems is simply not sustained enough to get the reader where he wants them to go. This is important because of his methodological choices.

Early on Wilson asks us to read this book as if it were a story, that is suspending out judgment until it is done. That would be great if he were telling a story, but his style is polemics - he is arguing. So this tactic is not helpful, it sets up the reader to expect a piece of exploratory theology only to serve up a completely different dish. As a reader this was disappointing, a missed opportunity on Wilson's part.

The other methodological problem I have is one of target audience. This book is definitely written to a popular audience. It comes complete with bible studyish questions on each chapter. It also has some nice break out definitions (and while he does some nice defining, every now and then he drops something in without really explaining it) that are aimed to help the reader who might not have a theological or historical background. The reason this is disappointing to me is that I think he has some good insights and I'd like to see more of his underlying thoughts. For example, he tries to expand our notions of atonement, but his clear bias towards penal substitution are resoundingly clear. What is worse, he introduces alternate views and never pursues them - perhaps he doesn't know how/where they fit?

Despite these weaknesses, I did enjoy the book. He does a good job re-interpreting the classic "end times" texts. And he also does a good job making the Kingdom of God a central theme in his theology. ( )

Some wag once wrote that Doug Wilson leaves no thought unwritten. His voluminous output makes me suspect this is true. Still, what's amazing is the quality of his writing, even when one disagrees with much of what he writes. He has gotten beyond his earlier habit of creating straw man arguments (although this does crop up occasionally still) and has given us a good book that explains exactly where he stands eschatologically.

For those that may not know, Wilson is a postmillennialist and this book is his justification for that position. As with any position that is held dearly, it is a full-orbed belief for Wilson and so it's not easy to find a starting point. No matter where you start, there are going to be presuppositions that are made. But if you want to put your presuppositions on the table first, you can spend most of your exposition just doing that and not actually explaining your position.

I praise Wilson for just diving in and asking for his reader's patience to see how it all hangs together by the end of the book. And, as Wilson explains it, it *does* all hang together. Of course, it's those presuppositions that might cause a problem for those who aren't already post-millennialists. If you are already postmill (I'm not; I'm amill), then this is a great, short explanation. If you're not postmill, you're going to be frustrated at many turns with many 'yeah, but' responses.

For those who are not already postmill, I highly recommend reading with a pencil in hand so you can take copious notes. Then, when done, read over your notes to see how many of those questions get answered. You'll actually be surprised by how many are.

In short: a great primer on postmillennialism, but not a conclusive argument for it. ( )

Doug Wilson's short primer on a postmillenial, partial preterist eschatological (end times) position is a needed basic introduction to the perspective.

Wilson is winsome and accessible. He begins by making an appeal to his reader to set aside their eschatological assumptions and entertain for a brief time a different perspective. And this is probably not a bad exercise for Christians who have confused so much of the popular, dispensational speculative mythology with what the text of the Bible actually says.

For one already convinced of a different perspective--which for me is a historic premillenial understanding--Wilson's book will probably not change his mind. Nevertheless, if you're looking for a good, quick summary of the preterist view, you could do worse than Heaven Misplaced. ( )