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CW Steinle
5.0 out of 5 stars The High Road in the end-times discussion of Heaven
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2017
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For such a time as this… Huffman and Woodward offer the right food, in season, to the body of Christ! The discussion of sanctification and glory has been neglected in Christian teachings to such an extent that these terms might sound like “Old Fashioned” concepts, from the by-gone days of King James English. The authors skillfully provide overwhelming biblical support for God’s plan for sanctification. Not only that, Gary and Doug draw the reader to consider the actual process of glorification – a fascinating discussion that creates a hunger to experience all that God has in store for His children. Creative analogies, images, “Deep Dives,” and bountiful Bible citations guide the reader into a full understanding of exactly what will be revealed, in us, in heaven, and in our eternal environment. Those who have ministered in the church understand how difficult it can be to convey what the Lord has revealed to the minister. The Revealing succeeds in developing these precious insights so that the reader can lay hold of them personally. Truly a kingdom work – recommended to every believer who is ready to put on their most holy faith.
D. Riggs
5.0 out of 5 stars In Christ our eternal hope of glory it’s “Revealing”!
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2017
It is with gratitude to our Lord and with great enthusiasm I am privileged to introduce you to the newly-released book The Revealing: Unlocking Hidden Truths on the Glorification of God’s Children by my friend and colleague Doug Woodward and new friend Gary Huffman. Doug is a prolific author who has written or co-authored fourteen books! I first met Doug W. several years ago at a conference in Branson and since that time the Lord has established a friendship that has become a great personal blessing for me! We have had many discussions on eschatology and various biblical themes over the past several years in the context of Doug’s authorship of some of his books.
I personally consider Doug and Gary’s most recent book The Revealing as the quintessential work of Doug’s which he has written or co-authored to-date! Doug gives substantial credit of the theme of this book to his colleague, Gary Huffman. The emphasis on personal as well as corporate sanctification and maturation of believers as members of the Body and Bride of Christ as the necessary prerequisite for glorification is phenomenal! The fact is that for every believer God’s supreme goal is to conform us to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29) as the Holy Spirit continues the work of travailing “until Christ is fully formed in us” (Gal. 4:19); as we corporately continue to “grow up into Christ our head” (Eph. 4:15) until the Body of Christ attains the purpose for this dispensation stated in Eph. 4:13 “until we all reach oneness in the faith and in the (full) knowledge of the Son of God, [growing spiritually] to become a mature believer (literally until we all attain the corporate goal of one united perfect Man i.e. Eph. 2:15), reaching to the measure of the fullness of Christ [manifesting His spiritual completeness and exercising our spiritual gifts in unity] (Amp). Before the creation of the universe, including angels, God predestined the Body of Christ to gain possession of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ as our inheritance (Eph. 1:4 w/ 2 Thess. 2:14 w/ Col. 1:27). The Holy Spirit through Paul references this supreme goal in the context of the second advent in 2 Thess. 1:10: when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day [that is, glorified through the changed lives of those who have accepted Him as Savior and have been set apart for His purpose], and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed and trusted [and confirmed in your lives].
Let us continue to follow Paul’s example and exhortation of Phil 3:7-17 until we, as one glorified Body of Christ, are caught up to meet our Lord face to face in the air and so “we shall ever be with the Lord.” Unto that glorious end I commend this book!
Doug Riggs, Pastor
Kindle Customer J R
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2020
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Unfortunately the concept of magnificent Glory is not easily defined or taught. Every Christian will find this book edifying as it defines our destiny. In the days ahead, understanding our destiny will be indispensable. This book will impact your spiritual life as few books have done in the past.
The buzz word of tranhumanism abounds in society, For the Christian however, the buzz word is transformation. This transformation needs to be understood despite any seeming impossibility of comprehension. “The Revealing” is just that, it reveals a process of assurance endowed with God’s Magnificent Glory which is our final destiny. It is one to read and reread.
The intentions in writing the book (as described in its introduction) was commendable, as saintly sanctification and glorification truly are underrepesented eschatological themes in said genre. This was complemented well with a consistent call to persevere in righteous living after one’s justification of coming to faith.
I found it respectable just how inclusive the book was to as many Rapture timing views as possible (besides post-trib), yet not crossing over all that much into the controversy anyway. An included table depicting the different tribulation and rapture timings and which Bible teachers stood by each one, was quite helpful. Admittedly though, there was a lot of Rapture talk in the book though.
It was quite helpful how the Tabernacle(/Temple) model–with their outer court, holy place, and holy of holies–was related to both the process of salvation (including the furnishings), as well as to the 3-tiered cosmological model of the Hebrews to help readers better understand what spiritual warfare looks like between the realms.
As an added bonus to the book, the quotes from Douglas Woodward’s book Blood Moon: Biblical Signs of the Coming Apocalypse were both relevant and helpful to this book, and it was astute how The Way was acknowledged as being the original name of followers of Messiah (according to Acts). Also, co-author Mr. Woodward did a wonderful job editing the book, as there was a neglible amount of typos in it.
It was great to get reminded (thanks to a couple of footnotes) about how Dr. Michael Heiser’s book Reversing Hermon posited that the 10 Lost Tribes are to be understood as “the nations” or “gentiles” who are to be grafted into the household of God, albeit the authors don’t fully agree or disagree with this. Another helpful contribution of Heiser’s work looked like their incorporating of the Divine Council view from Heiser’s The Unseen Realm–bravo!
I was also delighted to see an included quick summary and plug of the scholar David Burnett’s incredibly thourough essay about both the quantitative AND qualitiative
aspects of what becoming as the stars of heaven was understood scripturally and literarily.
Another memorable takeaway was the book’s emphasis on being on (ideal) family terms among believers, and even a neat explanation of how our Big Brother Jesus is also called “Everlasting Father.” I am not convinced though plus I really dislike the Oneness cherry picking potential, and personally believe the correct reading of Isaiah 9 is found in Codex Vaticanus (and perhaps Sinaiticus), where that title and most others are not included.
To round this review off, there were several things that were disagreeable, some of which even had me cringe:
- Talking about the saints of the past as being alive already and somehow witnessing all this time (cloud of saints, etc.), instead of that being the unique exception to the rule at the very end times, such as the ones crying from under the throne
- The mention of Christian Sabbath, as opposed to the Biblical 7th day Sabbath
- Very futurist oriented, assuming that the majority of prophecies have not already been fulfilled
- The claim that certain Christians twist Scripture that we are still “under the law“ and must observe feast days
- The reliance of Jewish tradition as if they are fact, sometimes not even citing a text about it, such as the unbiblical distinction between a civil year and a religious year, to then argue for an end times fulfillment of certain feast days
- A knowledge gap of Second Temple literature about the glories of its contemporary Temple, had a citing of a Haggai prophecy of the latter Temple being better than the 1st one, misapplied to “the Church” body. After all, the second one was being built during his day, and would later become respected all across the world
- The doctrine of a “Church Age” being used to dismiss the celebration of Appointed Days of Atonement and Tabernacles (as well as the rest) as if they were put on pause, yet will be reinstated to be celebrated afterwards anyway. Why wait until then if they can be rehearsed and have their edifying and building up enjoyed here in this life?
- The assumption that “all Israel” of the very end-times (their interpretation of the woman with child of Rev 12) consists primarily of the people currently residing in a political state that was given that name, as if the people claiming to somehow be one (or two) tribes are actually all 12 of them
- The amount of pages that were taken up by lengthy Bible passages & frequent verse quotations, some of which were repeatedly found throughout (although the italicising and bolding helped)