Two Errors in our View of Future History

Reading Heaven Misplaced by Douglas Wilson. I'm in Chapter 5 - Inexorable Love. This chapter opens this way: 

We tend to veer into one of two errors in our view of future history. Either we plunge into a very exciting study of the “end times” and become consumed with the book of Revelation and newspaper reports about the European Union, killer bees, trouble in the Middle East, and so forth; or we dismiss the whole thing with a wave of the hand and a joke—and it is usually the same joke. “I’m a pan-millennialist. Everything will pan out in the end.” But much more is involved in this subject than the particular “chronology” we set for the events at the end of the world. Christians must come to understand that our doctrine of the power of the cross—and the love of God exhibited there—will necessarily be at the heart of our doctrine of the future history of the human race.

I've been both. I've even used that joke. 

If you've ever been interested in why the New Testament writers always seemed so optimistic in their accomplishment of the great commission, I would encourage you to read this book. I've actually read it before, but thought I would come back to it again. Very interesting.  

Heaven Misplaced: 
Christ's Kingdom on Earth