God, Heaven, and Har Magedon

Book excerpt: From the Author's Preface: It could be this octogerian's last book and there were several things I wanted to do. One was to provide a primer in covenant theology. Another was to make more accessible the gist of some of my previous biblio-theological studies and to do so in a form serviceable to a wider readership than most of my publications. The major move in this democratic direction was to enliven the analysis of the covenants by introducing the series of covenant administrations within the intriguing story line of Har Magedon, the mountain of God. Extending as it does from creation to consummation, the tale of Har Magedon readily accommodates the total history of the covenants . . . Moreover, quite apart from such considerations the current state of secularized and dispensational versions of Armageddon (fantastic fiction all) makes a review of the biblical Har Magedon motif timely. Though the covenants remain the theological foundation and heart of the matter, by its adoption as our narrative framework, Har Magedon becomes the dominant surface theme. As we track this theme through the Scriptures we discover a recurring pattern, an eschatological megastructure that appears in each of the typological world ages culminating respectively at mounts Ararat and Sinai/Zion and then once again, climactically, in the antitypical New Covenant age. This Har Magedon paradigm, which shapes our telling of the covenantal tale, consists in the following complex of elements: establishment of a kingdom covenant by the Lord of Har Magedon; a meritorious accomplishment by the covenant grantee, triumphant in the Har Magedon conflict; a common grace interim before the coming of the covenanted kingdom; an antichrist crisis; consummation of the Glory-Kingdom through a last judgement victory of the covenant Lord in a final battle of Har Magedon. If only in condensed, digest fashion the present work is thus a comprehensive biblio-theological survey of the kingdom of God from Eden to the New Jerusalem.