The Reign of God, by Richard Rice of Loma Linda University, is an introduction to Christian theology from a Seventh-day Adventist perspective. It consists of 16 chapters, each with study helps and suggestions for further reading.
The prolegomena concerns the task of Christian theology. The second chapter begins the system with the doctrine of revelation, and succeeding chapters cover the doctrines of God, man, Christ, the church, last-day events, and in conclusion, the Sabbath.
Rice places soteriology within ecclesiology to guard against individualism, so personal salvation is considered within the corporate context. His eschatology also focuses on social rather than individual rewards. He ends with the Sabbath because he believes it to be the "cap stone" of SDA theology and Adventism's most valuable contribution to the larger Christian world. A link is revealed between the Sabbath and each major doctrine.
Rice chooses "the reign of God," however, as his central theme that holds together and shows the interrelatedness of each of the doctrines. He traces this theme in a way that enables one to see the wholeness in Adventist fundamental beliefs, rather than seeing them as 27 unrelated entities. This is Rice's greatest contribution.
It is my opinion that eschatology could serve as a logical capstone to this theme. Adventist eschatology provides insight into God's foreknowledge of events, and His continuing reign leading up to triumph. It is also an area where Adventists can make a contribution that is in contrast to Dodd's realized eschatology, Bultman's timeless (or existential) eschatology, and Moltmann's proleptic eschatology on one hand, and the dispensational-secret-rapture- Israel-centered final events focus on the other. But Rice limits his inquiry to basics, focusing on the "meaning" rather than sequence of endtime events. He hints that he will examine these unique sequence features later. So one looks to the heading "An Adventist Outline of Final Events" to find such an examination. All that is found is that the differences between those who accept and those who reject God's reign become sharper until probation closes (a mere half page compared to two pages on William Miller). There is no hint of a preprobation sequence of events.
The investigative judgment has no apparent reference to the antichrist little horn in Rice's presentation. The pre-Advent, millennial, and postmillennial judgments do not appear to be brought together in their great controversy context.
The rich Adventist contribution to Daniel and Revelation studies is missing in Rice's eschatology, as is the unfolding of Armageddon, the final outworking of the reign of God in human history. He admits a "brief review of Adventist eschatology," which is much too sketchy. I see it as the weakest part of his system when it could be the resounding climax of his theme.
Rice's presupposition for his eschatology is apparently found in his doctrine of God. He calls that chapter "a constructive proposal," in which he takes the view that God does not know all the de tails of the future because He is in a dynamic relationship with man. Hence many predictions are not ironclad forecasts. Instead, they describe what God will do in the event that certain things happen. So God "does not foresee their occurrence as inevitable; He intends to cause them to happen, but He may change His plans according to human actions." This seems to be a qualified "process theological" perspective.
Moltmann's proleptic eschatology, expressed in Theology of Hope, pictures God as one not bound by biblical predictions because He is sovereign. Rice, on the other hand, seems to question God's absolute foreknowledge on the basis of man's freedom. I believe a better understanding can be achieved by accepting the fact that our all-knowing God knows how man will choose and has revealed the future in biblical eschatology.
