Will Christians vanish in a rapture? Will a future antichrist control the world? Will earth’s nations attack Israel at Armageddon? These are some of the questions Steve Wohlberg is addressing in this book which carries the subtitle “The Rapture, the Antichrist, Israel, and the End of the World.” The book is divided into four sections: (1) Rapture Delusions; (2) Seven-Year Tribulation Delusions; (3) Antichrist Delusions; and (4) Israel Delusions. The bulk of the book deals with the last two delusions.

The pre-tribulation rapture doctrine, says Wohlberg, has become “the great evangelical escape clause for the avoidance of the end times” (p. 36). On the basis of Scripture, the author shows that the second coming of Christ will be unmistakably visible and that the church will go through the tribulation. Furthermore, he refutes the idea that those who will not be raptured will have a second chance during the seven years of tribulation.

“The seven-year period of tribulation” theory, says Wohlberg, is a “massive mega-myth. It may even go down in history as the ‘greatest evangelical misinterpretation of all time’” (p. 47). He provides ten cogent reasons why the 70th week in Daniel 9 cannot be applied to the future, and why he believes that it was fulfilled nearly two thousand years ago.

The “Left Behind” theology teaches that the antichrist will be an evil person who will appear after the rapture, enter the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, and declare himself to be God. The implication of this popular interpretation is that Paul’s antichrist prediction in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 has nothing to do with the Christian Church. Wohlberg argues that whenever Paul used the word naos (temple) “he always applied it to the Christian Church and never to a rebuilt Israeli temple” (p. 74). Using Paul’s letters and texts from the books Daniel and Revelation he shows that the antichrist Paul was referring to was to appear soon after Paul’s days.

Wohlberg cites a number of theologians and historians (pp. 78-79) who for hundreds of years have claimed that the antichrist has been active in the Christian Church since the “restrainer” (the Roman Empire) was taken out of the way in A.D. 476 (2 Thess 2:6-7). To support his identification of the antichrist with the institution of the papacy Wohlberg cites scholars from Martin Luther to Martin Lloyd-Jones (pp. 90-93).

While the book focuses on the “Left Behind” theology with its future antichrist, Wohlberg also takes issue with the preterist interpretations of the antichrist as the Roman Emperor Nero. Throughout the book he defends the historicist interpretation of the symbolic visions of Daniel and Revelation (p. 132).

The last 70 pages of the book deal with the issue of Israel and biblical prophecy. Has modern Israel a role to play in the biblical end-time scenario? Wohlberg says “no.” He carefully goes through the biblical texts concerning Israel and comes to the conclusion that there are two Israels – Israel after the flesh (the physical descendants of Abraham) and spiritual Israel (Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ). What about the promises God made to Israel in the Old Testament? These, says Wohlberg, will be fulfilled “to any human being who follows Abraham’s example and who becomes part of His Israel in the Spirit through faith in the Messiah” (p. 157). Thus the “seventy weeks” of Daniel 9:24 “represented the limits of national forgiveness for the Jewish nation – as a nation” (p. 166), and “all Israel” that will be saved according to Romans 11:26 consists of “believing Jews and Gentiles who have responded to the good news” (p. 170).

End Time Delusions is a welcome academic and theological challenge to the popular dispensationalist theories of the end-time. In a readable and engaging style Wohlberg lays out the various errant ideas and refutes them with Scripture in one hand and history in the other. He is not afraid to call Mohammed a “false prophet” (p. 119), or to characterize the popular prophetic theories about modern Israel “delusions” (p. 143). This book, like a heat-seeking missile, is seeking to explode and destroy dangerous theories. Its intention is not to promote anti-Semitism (the author is himself a Jew), or to offend Bible-believing Christians. Rather, its goal is to expose error, promote truth, and save souls. Any pastor and church member who is interested in prophecy, or who is in contact with evangelical Christians, will want to read and digest this volume.