In one passage he defends premillennialism by arguing that a future earthly kingdom is necessary because of God's promise to Abraham, he wrote "The promise remains steadfast. But they want to get God off the hook, so they say Hes really not responsible, Hes really not in charge of anything; Hes just trying to figure it out. Nevertheless, early in his career Augustine converted from premillennialism to amillennialism. Its just a lot of material. Seventy percent - by the way - of Scripture is the story of Israel, start to finish. Now, against those two is the view called premillennialism; that means there will be a millennium and prior to that millennium, Jesus will come. Not that they were the end, but they were the means to the end. . John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, where he has served since 1969. Particular to this framework is the eschatological position known as "premillennial dispensationalism" which holds that Christ will return prior to a literal one-thousand-year reign on earth. So, if were going to change the rules of interpretation to inject into Scripture a preconceived idea or to avoid what is obvious, we better be sure that we have a word from God. And that was over the gospel, and over the nature of Christ, and over salvation by grace through faith and over the authority of Scripture. Dispensational premillennialism[61] generally holds that Israel and the Church are distinct entities. Now, why am I making a case for this? That is a large part of evangelical Christianity, the Wesleyan movement, Charismatic movement, Methodists, etc., etc., many Baptists. You can figure it out. Amillennialism is consistent with Arminianism. I have even called thee by thy name Isaiah 65:9: Mine elect shall inherit it - the promises of God. . . Ive preached through many of the books of the Old Testament, the first eleven chapters of Genesis through Daniel, Zechariah, the minor prophets, and pieces and bits of Isaiah and others in the Old Testament. / ( .) What you have here is a benediction from God: blessed is he who reads and understands the book of Revelation. Erdman refers to the premillennialism of Asia Minor in the second century as "Asiatic millennialism.". But not us, who live and breathe the rarified air of sovereign grace and election; it makes no sense to me. Regarding this Dr. Timothy Jones writes, "Dispensationalism emphasizes the differences and discontinuity between the physical descendants of Abraham and followers of Jesus [2]. He is best known for his voluminous tome written against the 2nd century Gnostic threat, commonly called Against Heresies. Theres a rapture, and theres a bma seat judgment; we know that. The catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in paragraph 676 that the millennium is to be understood as "beyond history". But they never got around to eschatology; they never got around to applying their formidable skills. You would assume that they are confused because the Bible is confusing, and if the Bible is confusing, then God Himself is confused, and so, working hard - and it is often hard work - to understand prophetic passages is needless. If you interpret Old Testament prophecies literally, they cannot be fulfilled in this present age. Premillennialism is distinct from the other views such as postmillennialism which views the millennial rule as occurring before the second coming. Christ will return, He will come in a glorious second coming to earth - but not to establish His kingdom, but rather after His kingdom has been established. That the conversion of the Jews will not be till this present state of the world is near unto its end. You can believe and be saved and then you can forfeit your salvation. This is observed in the 41st of the Anglican Articles, drawn up by Thomas Cranmer (1553), describing the millennium as a 'fable of Jewish dotage', but it was omitted at a later time in the revision under Elizabeth (1563).[35]. Its the whole point of everything else. Since Scripture speaks of the Millennium as a time of great prosperity for the kingdom of God, post-mills are inherently optimistic. Well, we now come to the doctrines that relate to the end times. John MacArthur laid down the gauntlet on the issue of prophecy in his opening talk at the 2007 "Shepherds' Conference" that was titled "Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist Is a Premillennialist." He was emphatic that only premillennialism takes the prophecies concerning the future of Israel seriously. Dispensational Premillennialism is a recent, complex, and increasingly controversial form of modern Historic Premillennialism (HP). An Excellent Defense of The Rapture by Dr. John MacArthur But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. He is currently the chancellor emeritus of The Master's University in . Contemporary premillennialism is divided into two schools of thought. Historically, church fathers favored historic premillennialism, including Ireneaus, Papias, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Hippolytus. Not true. We've been working our way through doctrinal emphases in Scripture, doctrinal themes, and we have covered a lot of ground. Is that what God wanted us to do, to look at it and say, Aw, I cant figure this out; lets forget it? There are whole denominations that are instructed not to teach on the end times. We want the Word to cause us to live lives pleasing to You. Dispensationalism is a kind of framework for history that is organized around seven dispensationsseven orders or administrations. Father, we thank You for a great evening together; wonderful testimonies, great fellowship and how - how good it is to think deeply and broadly about the glory of Your Word. Amen. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The English noun/verb "rapture" comes from the Latin noun raptura/verb rapio that is used 14 times in the NT.The basic idea of the word is "to remove suddenly or snatch away." It is used in the NT in reference to stealing/plundering (Matt. He confronts the views of covenant theology, historical premillennialism, ultradispensationalism, and, in this revised edition, the increasingly popular progressive dispensationalism. It matters to me to understand what God has said about the end. You never met a Hittite, an Amorite, a Hivite, a Jebusite, or any other ite. They have long since morphed into the melee and the mix of the races. The "millennium" refers to the period of 1,000 years mentioned in Revelation 20:3, "He threw Satan into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. MacArthur, John, and Richard Mayhue, eds. S. Lewis Johnson Jr. (1915-2004), a conservative evangelical pastor and theologian, was for many years a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. The first phase of that eternal rule will be His reign on this earth, which will last - as Revelation 20 says six times - a thousand years, after which His rule will continue, because it is an everlasting rule, but it will continue in a new heaven and a new earth that replace this heaven and earth, which will melt in an atomic implosion and make way for the new creation. Not one reference anywhere in Scripture - and there are over two thousand, referring to Israel - means anything other than Israel. And I went there and I spoke for a week, and they finally said to me, When are you going to tell us the good part? and I said, Well, whats the good part? They said, We want to know about the future; we want to know about the future. My sermon was on amillennialism, which I posted to my blog last week. There was a clear majority position among the earliest church fathers on the relationship of Israel to the church. Historic premillennialism taught that the Antichrist would appear on earth and the seven-year tribulation would begin. Why Every Calvinist Should Be a Premillennialist, Part 1. We can interpret it the way we interpret any other passage of Scripture, with the same use of the normal, natural means of interpreting language, and we should; and it will yield for us as clear an understanding of the future as the Lord wants us to have. In 1 Peter chapter 1, you remember, Peter says that the prophets who wrote concerning Christ, concerning the things to come, wondered what person and what time. [18] Although Origen was not always wholly "orthodox" in his theology, he had at one point completely spiritualized Christ's second coming prophesied in the New Testament. Now, here comes the real irony; this is the real irony. But we distributed that, and I arranged - and I dont know when its going to happen for you - I arranged to get a copy for every family at Grace Church as a gift. 4. And may I remind you that you have one very, very important reality to deal with in case you think theres no future in Israel: living Israelites. The other view is whats called openness theology, and its the same thing; it simply means God has no idea what the future is. I remember when I flew to Kazakhstan in about a 35 or 38-hour flight; got off the plane at 7:00 in the morning to speak at a conference. This is simply a way to understand Scripture in its normal sense. He loved the people in the church. Im unwaveringly committed to that. Among our elders, all four of the end-times views are representedhistoric premillennialism, dispensational premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism. Did He do it and somehow muddle it so hopelessly that the high ground for Bible students and the high ground for theologians is to recognize the muddle and abandon the perspicuity or the clarity of Scripture on that subject? [37] The Anglican Church originally formalized a statement against millenarianism in the Anglican Articles. Accordingly, we have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions in order to comply with GDPR. Whats that about? Premillennialism: The millennium is the long period (perhaps a literal 1,000 years) when King Jesus will rule on earth. It has not appeared as yet what we shall be. Interestingly, by the time that Augustine wrote his monumental work, J. Danilou, La typologie millenariste de la samaine dans le christianisme prmitif,, Richard Landes, "Lest the Millennium be Fulfilled: Apocalyptic Expectations and the Pattern of Western Chronography 100-800 CE," in, From the time of Constantine and Augustin, Joseph Mede was a biblical scholar educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. . It's now taught by influential theologians such as Walter Kaiser, John Macarthur, John Walvoord, and popular authors Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey. The church historian, Eusebius, reports this in his Ecclesiastical History. But, you know, of all the people on the planet who should be premillennialists, it should be those who believe in divine sovereign election, of all people. a.Dispensationalist Premillennialism 1. Whalen has noted that modern premillennialism is "criticized roundly for nave scholarship which confuses the poetic and inspirational prose of prophecy with fortune telling", though "Premillennialists retort that they merely follow the Word of God, regardless of ridicule." Floyd Hamilton in his book, The Basis of the Millennial Faith, says - and I quote: Now we must frankly admit the literal interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies gives us just such a picture of an earthly reign of the Messiah as the premillennialist pictures., Now, thats a fate worse than death. Have you ever heard of that? (Matt .25:31-46; John . . There are three basic eschatological views which are held by those calling themselves "Reformed.". You cannot fight the war on every front, and at the great time of the Reformation, they were fighting the war where the battle raged the hottest. But there is a growing influence of amillennialism, because amillennialism has been a part of reformed theology. Staggering. I had no idea what they believed - 1600 pastors and leaders from central Asia - Id never have even been there; and the group that led the conference came to me afterwards with smiles on their faces and said, You believe exactly what we believe. This isnt something for people who have been highly educated; this is something for people who havent been corrupted by education. But in both cases, they would deny the actual thousand-year reign of Christ, and they would deny that Christ will reign and rule on earth and literally fulfill all His promises to the nation Israel given in the Old Testament covenants. 315K views 1 year ago Significant video editing was used to create a unique storyline that teaches about the end times, specifically premillennialism and amillennialism. Well see more about how that works. Whether youre an amillennialist or a postmillennialist, you basically say Israel forfeited all its promises. And then the effect of it is in verse 58: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, and you can stop right there. There should be a footnote in the chapter saying, Please note: here comes a prophetic text; change the rules. We really need a divine mandate, because I think God cares that we get it right. I like to call amillennialism negative, and postmillennialism positive. This view understands that an aspect of the eschatological kingdom presently exists, but must wait for the millennium to be realized fully.[63]. After that he must be loosed for a little while." Scofield, that came out of J.N. After the final judgment, God will create the new heaven and new earth. Help Grace to You bring important resources like this to people in your community and beyond, free of charge. Darby, that came out of that whole dispensational system no, it didnt. If you dont know what you believe about the future, you cant preach on it. The following resources pertain to eschatology the study of the end times. Pretribulational Rapture in 17th and 18th Century England. He loved to read and study. But for those who get it, for those who understand it, for those who embrace Gods sovereignty - that He is the only one who can determine who will be saved and blessed, and He is the only one who can save and bless - then saying that He cancelled promises to Israel because they didnt believe is completely inconsistent. We are responsible for our sin, but in the end, we believe because He moves on us. Next would be the rapture, and then Jesus and His church would return to earth to rule for a thousand years. He loved the ministry. Israel disobeyed the law, youre done. [33], A notable exception to normative medieval eschatology is found in Joachim of Fiore (c. 11351202), a Cistercian monk, who to an extent, stressed premillennial themes. It is one thing to omit them in formal obedience to the law; and another thing to omit them in prudence, or for necessity, because we cannot keep them. Israel crucifies the Messiah, thats it. And theres the main verb in the sentence are in varying degrees of disinterest in applying their skills to the end of the story, and rather, content to be in happy if not playful disagreement in regard to the vast biblical data on eschatology, as if the end doesnt matter much - period. Please be aware that these items are sent out from our office in the UK. If you look at Acts 3:19, Peter says, Repent therefore, and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing - thats the millennium - may come from the presence of the Lord; that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive till the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. 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