End Times Retold

End Times Retold – Discovering the Kingdom story that makes sense of the Last Days

 

Author: Paul Parkhouse

Extent: 256 pp

Available via Amazon at:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/End-Times-Retold-Discovering-Kingdom/dp/B0FLWL91YY

 The best thing

I was gifted this book by a friend, who told me that it was quite the best thing he had ever read on the end times, and he had already read the book twice-over. My friend is a former ordained clergyman and a (proper) New Testament Greek scholar. Furthermore, he had already read my book on the same subject! Naturally I was very interested!

Author Paul Parkhouse’s book is unquestionably the best in the field for these reasons: (1) it’s canvass is quite the broadest (2) it is biblically astute (3) it is not beholden to any particular theological schema (as are so many in this end times genre) (4) whilst covering a potentially complex subject, the author’s style is reader- friendly, and the book itself well written with an easy and conversational style.

My first anxiety in approaching the book was that Parkhouse might challenge or disturb my own understanding and presentation of the end times. Praise God, we seem to be aligned on all the major questions – and in that sense we are not contradictory nor mutually exclusive in our key conclusions.

Structure

Ten chapters and one appendix:

Foreword

Introduction

1. A Book of Many Endings
2. Seeing with New Eyes
3. The Firstborn Rule
4. Kingdom of Priests
5. Clock by Covenant
6. The last Seven Years
7. The Birth Pains Begin
8. Endgame (I might have called this chapter Pressure– Ed)
9. Return of the King
10. The Lamb and the Lion

Appendix – Dating History from the Bible

Key Thesis

Having pointed out that most Christians struggle with the End Times, Parkhouse reminds us that God expects His children to understand the end, and that Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day who should have recognised the days in which they were living (Matthew 16: 1-3).

Parkhouse goes on: “my contention in writing this book is the way the Bible story ends is actually relatively clear. Maybe not in all the details, but certainly in its main themes, events and outcomes. The problem therefore is not so much with how the Bible actually ends, but with how we think it should end. For the way we think it should end tends to be the way that best fits what we believe the rest of the story to be about”. He goes on: “This is usually the missing piece of the puzzle in any end times debate – the story being ended. ……… For stories cannot be divorced from their endings or endings from their stories, and yet that is often what we do when we approach the end times – we treat it in isolation, unaware that our story bias is more likely to shape our conclusions than the Bible text itself”.

Very true! If you are a Postribulational Futurist Premillennialist (as opposed to a Preterist Postmillennialist, for example) then you have a built-in story bias that will influence how you read the text (and not only on the end times debate, but on many other subjects as well). It’s great to get back to the Bible! As Parkhouse says, it is not as obscure as so many seem to think.

Parkhouse argues that the Church’s widespread confusion and conflicting interpretations about the end times occur because Christians often misunderstand the Bible’s broader narrative. But by reading prophecy through a “Kingdom-shaped” lens rather than strictly a “cross-shaped” lens, the entire storyline from Genesis to Revelation becomes a unified, coherent framework. While the cross is entirely central to salvation, the overarching story of the Bible is actually about the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth. By reframing the end times around God’s ultimate purpose – filling the earth with His kingdom through humanity – the end times shift from a source of fear and speculation into a narrative of clarity and hope.

Unfolding the subject

The core framework of the author’s thesis is built on several pillars:

“Kingdom-Shaped” vs. “Cross-Shaped”: Parkhouse asserts that many Christians limit their understanding of the Bible by viewing it solely as a story of personal salvation (“cross-shaped glasses”). He challenges readers to put on “kingdom-shaped glasses” to see the wider creation mandate given in Genesis—for God’s reign to be established physically on Earth.

The Law of the Firstborn: The first half of the book establishes an interpretive framework based on the biblical principle that the firstborn represents the whole. Parkhouse tracks this royal firstborn line from Adam (as the representative of humanity) down to Messiah Jesus becoming humanity’s ultimate Saviour and King.

The Essential Role of Israel: Parkhouse rejects “Replacement Theology” in it’s differing guises. Under his Kingdom lens, Israel is understood as the “firstborn among the nations”. The author argues that God still has a distinct purpose for the physical nation Eretz Israel, and that Messiah will ultimately rule and reign over a combined, single framework of both Israel and the Church – from Jerusalem.

Replacing Fear with Purpose: By adjusting our understanding of the beginning of the biblical story, the ending automatically makes sense. Parkhouse cuts through what might be termed sensation-driven end-times ‘timelines’ to anchor the last days in God’s unshakable, redemptive plan for the cosmos.

Watching the clock

Parkhouse uses the concept of “God’s Clocks” as a theological framework to show that the timing of biblical events is not random or chaotic, but operates on strict, predefined divine countdowns. So, rather than engaging in wild, date-setting speculation, Parkhouse uses these “clocks” to evaluate human history with God’s overarching Kingdom story. His framework relies on two primary prophetic timelines:

1. The Millennial Week Clock (The 6,000-Year Timeline)

Parkhouse utilizes the historical Christian concept of the “Millennial Week,” reflecting the idea that a single day to the Lord is like a thousand years (2 Peter 3:8) and mirrors the six days of creation followed by a day of rest.

• The 6,000 Years of Spiritual Human History:Under this framework, God has allotted 6,000 years for human history under the shadow of the Fall.
• The Early 2040s Milestone:By tracing biblical genealogies and historical timelines from Adam, Parkhouse suggests that the 6,000-year mark from creation might well conclude some time in the early 2040s.
• The Sabbath Rest:The completion of this 6,000-year clock marks the return of Jesus and the beginning of the Millennium (the 1,000-year reign of Messiah), which represents history’s “Sabbath rest” – the seventh “day” where God’s Kingdom is fully established on Earth.

2. The Countdown to the Messiah (Daniel’s 70 Weeks)

The second major “clock” that Parkhouse highlights is the specific prophetic countdown found in the Old Testament book of Daniel.

• The AD 32 Target:Parkhouse argues that God provided Israel, and the world, a precise countdown clock pointing directly to the first coming of the Messiah. According to his calculations, this clock expired with the death and crucifixion of Jesus in AD 32.
• The Final Seven Years:This clock also sets up a “stopwatch” for the very end of the age. Parkhouse positions the final, missing seven-year period of Daniel’s prophecy (the Tribulation) as a distinct clock triggered specifically by a future peace treaty signed between the Antichrist and Israel.

In this latter aspect, Parkhouse’s insights are not dissimilar to many Christians who have sought to shed light on Daniel’s superficially complex prophecy. In this book, then, “God’s Clocks” are not meant to excite unhealthy interest, or cause panic, nor encourage believers to calculate an exact day or hour. Rather, they illustrate divine sovereignty – demonstrating that God is in complete control of the historical timeline and that the final transition into His earthly Kingdom is moving toward a fixed, unshakeable conclusion.

Summary

It is interesting that Paul Parkhouse should explore the possibility that our Lord’s return may well lie within our present generation, or the next. Whilst I avoided focusing on any attempt to calculate times, it is clear that Scripture itself provides tantalizing clues. Another recent book “Examining the End Times Calendar and Waiting for the Lord” (Rosamund Weissman, Fresh Olive Press, 2026,125pp) posits an end time by the 2070s. There is a growing sense that our Lord’s prayer “thy Kingdom come” cannot be long delayed, especially given the reconstitution of Israel as a sovereign nation amongst all the nations.

As God ‘speaks’ to His people, and to this His world, at our current time of growing international omni-crises, then Paul Parkhouse’s book is timely. Compared to my own book, Parkhouse’s canvas is broader in its linkage of end to beginning, and tracing through God’s Kingdom purposes across human time. Both our Lord Jesus specifically, and the Bible itself generally, makes it clear that truths which are ‘sealed’ will be progressively un-sealed as history moves towards its God-ordained climax. A foreword by Canon Andrew White, and an endorsement from Joel Richardson, both internationally well known, show the level of interest that Mr Parkhouse has energised in this splendid and helpful book. Highly recommended.

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Peter Sammons, Lighthouse Haverhill, and author “Last Days and End Times – Making the Connection”.