The Footsteps of the Messiah

by Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Christiane K. Jurik (Editor), Matthew Lipsey (Illustrator)

Using the Book of Revelation as an end time road map, Dr. Fruchtenbaum weaves the prophetic writings of the Hebrew Scriptures and Messiah's teachings to reveal God's plan for the future of Israel and the world. Dr. Fruchtenbaum gathers the many pieces of the prophetic puzzle and places them in sequential order with the result summed up by Dr. Charles Ryrie in his Those who read this book cannot help but be instructed and stimulated by his work. Footsteps is detailed, thorough and scholarly, yet written in a style that the average reader can easily understand. With a wealth of wisdom drawn from his Jewish background and extensive research, the author even tackles the problem passages to provide a comprehensive overview of the entire range of prophetic truth.

Genres: Nonfiction

816 pages, Hardcover

Published August 1, 2020

About the author

Arnold Genekowitsch Fruchtenbaum is the founder and director of Ariel Ministries, an organization which prioritizes evangelization of Jews in the effort to bring them to the view that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.

Reviews

[Leslie Fanchon · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! I liked it from the minute I started reading it -- and I took my time reading small sections at a time hoping to retain what I learned.
Dr Fruchtenbaum is so thorough! The book is organized by topic, extensively reference with scripture and he breaks things down so they are easy to understand.
I am enriched in my faith, love for my Hero Jesus and the glorious wisdom and ways of our LORD!

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book and a deep book. It is a deep look into the Book of Revelation and is "pre-Trib" in nature (i.e. - the author believes the Christian church will be taken up to be with Jesus before the seven-year Tribulation occurs). Back when I first became a Christian, I was a "pre-Tribber" and then gradually shifted to "I don't care when Jesus comes back as long as I am ready for His return". After reading this book, I find myself leaning again towards "pre-Trib" but am still staunchly "I don't care - I just want to be ready when Jesus returns" and living a life that points to Jesus. It is a long book, on the one hand. It took me a while to read through it - partly because I was pondering what I read, and partly because I was reading it in my limited free time. Also, the "main part" of the book is close to six hundred pages in length, and then there are twelve appendices with a lot of additional material. So, well over eight hundred pages in length.

The author takes the position that in order to understand the prophecies in the Book of Revelation, we need to interpret the in light of what is given and revealed in the Old Testament. I felt this was a reasonable proposition, and I thought the author did a great job in supporting that view in how he interpreted verses in the New Testament in light of the Old Testament. He also states that we moderns need to stop trying to shoehorn prophecies in the Bible to fit events that are happening to day, to stop using modern events to interpret the Bible. I thought this, too, was a reasonable proposition.

I thought it was interesting that he felt that after the Church is raptured out before the Tribulation, Yahweh would work through the Jews to bring salvation to the rest of the world during the Tribulation. He shows prophecies in the Old Testament where it refers to Jews as being pure and holy and righteous standing before Yahweh, and the only way this can happen is if they become believers in Jesus. I thought he made an interesting case for this, and his comments reminded me of Paul talking in various Epistles about how Yahweh chose to work through the Jews first and still wishes to work through them to reach the world.

Another case he makes in one of the Appendices is that before the Garden of Eden was a vegetable garden, it was a mineral garden, a rock garden composed of precious stones and minerals, of beautiful rock formations. He bases this premise upon Ezekiel 28:13, where it says that the king of Tyre was in Eden, the Garden of God, and that this garden is filled with nine precious stones. He also proposes that the Earth was originally fully Lucifer's home but was then destroyed in some kind of cataclysm and laid to waste (as described in Genesis 1:1-2). The Earth was not originally created to be "formless and empty" but was created to be inhabited (as indicated in Isaiah 45:18). This is taken from Isaiah 45:18 where the Lord says He did not create the earth to be an empty wasteland but to be inhabited. He does not believe there was any water originally covering the surface of the Earth but that it came after the cataclysm (because of Ezekiel 28:13 in conjunction with Genesis 1:2 and 1:9-10); he also believes that on the New Earth there will be no more seas or oceans because Revelation 21:1 states that when John had a vision of the new Heaven and the new Earth, he did not see any seas or oceans on the new Earth. It was an interesting proposal on his part, and I liked how he pieced verses together to come up with this theory of his. I realize there is a danger to "cherry picking" verses to fit your theory or beliefs or whatever, but I did not feel like he was creating his own theology or whatever, if you will. In any case, it was an interesting theory that seemed reasonable.

Let me see if I can explain why the author believes in a pre-Trib rapture of the Christians. The author believes that the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and the Anti-Christ is the beginning of the Tribulation. If the rapture has not occurred once this treaty is signed, then Christians (and the world) knows that Jesus has to return within that seven-year time period. This would challenge the statement that no man can no the day or hour of Jesus' return; it would narrow that time down to sometime in the next seven years and possibly give people a false sense of security. He postulates that the Rapture when then have to occur by the mid-point of the Tribulation, which further would narrow down the time in which Jesus would be returning. This is partly because there are events that would occur "after" the Tribulation had supposedly ended if Jesus did not rapture the Christians out by the mid-Trib point that should have occurred before the Tribulation ended but after Jesus raptures out the Church. Then, he points to various verses that talk about how unsafe it will be in the great and terrible day of the Lord (aka - the Tribulation period) and how if the Christian Church were still around, then there would be a contradiction between the danger of the times and the deaths that occur versus the verses that promise to keep Christians safe from harm.. No doubt this is a badly paraphrased explanation on my part, but there it is.

There is so MUCH in this book, it is practically impossible to retain it all. In the end, after having finished reading it, I find myself more than ever wanting to be ready for when Jesus comes back for His bride and to be living a life that points the way to Jesus. I am glad my wife's friend gave me this book to read, and I am glad that I took the time to read it (even thought it took for-EVER it felt like, at times, to read it). As long as it took me to read it, I am still glad I took the time to read it and ponder what I read, to not just whip through and try to get another notch of a book read under my belt, so to speak.

[Anthony A · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a Christian believer who loves to know as much about God (the Bible) as possible, then this book is for you. From a theological point of view, this is probably the best book I have ever read. From my own studies, I have a pretty good knowledge of the Bible - of God - but Dr. Fruchtenbaum provides one with a lot of good/great information. This, in my opinion, is a MUST-READ for any Christian believer who has a thirst for the word.

[Don Harton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fruchtenbaum approaches the Bible as a dispensationalist. He uses hundreds of scripture references to make his case for his understanding of God’s plan and purposes. His use of scripture is impressive. For Fruchtenbaum, the resulting timeline and map to the end of the world is settled and certain.

But everything seems mechanical. I don’t get a sense of wonder or a revealing of Jesus for God’s glory. I expect that will be part of the plan.

[Susan Mays]

An extremely intense esoteric study of Eschatology wonderful read for anyone who is at all interested in prophetic events and the end times.