So that whatever God chose to do He will do, that whatever He began to do He will complete, those who will defend that to their last breath - Gods irrevocable, unconditional, unilateral, sovereign election will bring those He has chosen to the fulfillment of all that He has promised them. Now, why am I making a case for this? The catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in paragraph 676 that the millennium is to be understood as "beyond history". If you read the paper and have your eyes open, and youre breathing, and your body has any temperature at all, you know things arent getting better. Now it is time to reestablish the high ground of sovereign grace for a future generation of ethnic Israel in salvation and the messianic earthly kingdom. The first era was the Old Testament history and was accordingly the age of the Father; the current age of the church was the age of the Son; and still in Joachim's future was the age of the Spirit. And Im confident that God didnt reveal prophetic truth in so much detail to hide anything, to obscure the truth, but to reveal it for our blessing, our motivation and His glory. But, in any case - and by the way, postmillennialists and amillennialists differ as to the details of these kinds of things. . 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. There were 1600 pastors from central Asia - the first Central Asian pastors conference in history after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Whether youre an amillennialist or a postmillennialist, you basically say Israel forfeited all its promises. Look, I reject all of those really abusive and bizarre kinds of interpretation; but frankly, theyre no more wacky then the interpretations of the amillennialists, who want to take the entire book of Revelation and stuff it into the events of 70 A.D. and a few years afterwards and come up with things that are just as ridiculous. There are over two thousand references to Israel in Scripture; not one of them means anything but Israel. Pretribulational Rapture in 17th and 18th Century England. Hes improving; Hes definitely on the upward curve. The preacher's admission came amid news that Grace Community Church in Sun Valley received an $800,000 settlement from Los Angeles County after defying pandemic-induced health orders. You get the interpretation of Scripture right when youre faithful to valid rules of interpretation. 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. Short Response to Dr. MacArthur's statement. Those are the views. He confronts the views of covenant theology, historical premillennialism, ultradispensationalism, and, in this revised edition, the increasingly popular progressive dispensationalism. Some people want to turn it into ages - theres nothing in there that does that; theres nothing in the text itself that does that. For other uses, see, Survey -Premillennialism Reigns in EvangelicalTheology, See: Philippe Bobichon, "Millnarisme et orthodoxie dans les crits de Justin Martyr" in, "For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be concluded. He comes pre, not post; He comes before. But in both cases it will be the flow of history under the influence of the church, so theyre really looking at the same thing. That is a large part of evangelical Christianity, the Wesleyan movement, Charismatic movement, Methodists, etc., etc., many Baptists. Regarding Marcion and premillennialism, Harvard scholar H. Brown noted. Allis - well-known - says, The Old Testament prophecies if literally interpreted cannot be regarded as having been yet fulfilled or being capable of fulfillment in the present age. Thats true. 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. So, this is a classic perfect fit for Arminian theology. And God brought to a conclusion upon the sixth day the works that He had made; and God rested upon the seventh day from all His works.' One calls it a kingdom and says it will expand and expand and expand - thats the positive spin. It is the single most inexplicable story in human history, that this small group of beleaguered people, attacked and assaulted by everybody around them for centuries, still exist as a pure ethnic race. . . The millennium will end when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead. Macarthur writes "Futuristic Premillennialism is the result of an understanding and application of the prophetic texts in a way that is consistent with the normal, literal approach to interpreting Scripture." This is how the authors come to their Futuristic Premillennial view. This view understands that an aspect of the eschatological kingdom presently exists, but must wait for the millennium to be realized fully.[63]. Revelation 1:3: Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it: for the time is near.. That's OK and no one is surprised or upset about that. You get the Old Testament covenants and promises right when you get the interpretation of Scripture right. With appearances by. Not true. It is often post-tribulational, meaning that the rapture of the church will occur after a period of tribulation. Not one reference anywhere in Scripture - and there are over two thousand, referring to Israel - means anything other than Israel. That position was that Israel was to be identified with the church and this position is the seed of amillennialism, as well as postmillennialism and historic premillennialism. Blessed. Grace to You radio, video, audio, print, and website resources reach millions worldwide each day. My sermon was on amillennialism, which I posted to my blog last week. Loraine Boettner wrote a book called The Meaning of the Millennium; this is what he said: It is generally agreed that if the prophecies are taken literally, they do foretell a restoration of the nation of Israel in the land of Palestine, with the Jews having a prominent place in that kingdom and ruling over the other nations.. After clicking 'Register', you will receive an email with a link to verify your account and to complete your registration. As soon as you abandon that, then its fair game for anybodys craziness. Registered User Premillennialism is often used to refer specifically to those who adhere to the beliefs in an earthly millennial reign of Christ as well as a rapture of the faithful coming before (dispensational) or after (historic) the Great Tribulation preceding the Millennium. Barry Horner's emphasis in Future Israel also fits in here. I reject the wacky world of newspaper exegesis and cartoon eschatology, and crazy interpretation like the locusts of Revelation 9 being helicopters, et cetera. It is also the time when the creation will bear fruit with an abundance of all kinds of food, having been renovated and set free And all of the animals will feed on the vegetation of the earth and they will be in perfect submission to man. Weve been working our way through doctrinal emphases in Scripture, doctrinal themes, and we have covered a lot of ground. What you have here is a benediction from God: blessed is he who reads and understands the book of Revelation. He assigned each age to a particular person of the Trinity as the guiding principle of that era. John MacArthur News Why TMS? The Rise of Philo-Semitism and Premillennialism During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. [25] In accordance with this view, Augustine divided history into two separate dispensations, first the church age (the current age of 6,000 years), and then the millennial kingdom (Sermon 259.2). Premillennialism is based upon a literal interpretation of Revelation 20:16 in the New Testament, which describes Jesus's reign in a period of a thousand years. Mhling, Markus, "Grundwissen Eschatologie. "John MacArthur on Calvinism, Dispensationalism, Israel, and Hermeneutics: A Few Comments" . John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. (born June 19, 1939) is an American Protestant pastor and author known for his internationally syndicated Christian teaching radio and television program Grace to You. So, if you say the promises of the Old Testament that refer to Israel really meant the church, you have no precedent for such an interpretation. Oxford theologian Alister McGrath has noted that "all medieval theology is Augustinian to a greater or lesser extent. 3. We know that when He appears, - second coming we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. The other looks at it as a spiritual kingdom also but says it will decline and decline and decline until Jesus finally comes. Death, where is your victory? John MacArthur's Defense of Dispensationalism Monday, December 8, 2008 by Gary DeMar In 1988, John MacArthur wrote The Gospel According to Jesus, a controversial book in certain circles because he relied heavily on the views of Calvinistic writers to deal with the lordship salvation controversy. Dionysius of Alexandria stood against premillennialism when the chiliastic work, The Refutation of the Allegorizers written by Nepos, a bishop in Egypt became popular in Alexandria. Why, then, if we are so committed to protecting the text of the beginning in its literal nature, are we so fast to give up the texts of the end and their literal nature? 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. Premillennialism Historic Premillennialism Postmillennialism Amillennialism view sees the re-establishment of temple worship and animal sacrifices as a remembrance of Christ's sacrifice. If only he could just send down one message, that might be it. 3. One says its not the kingdom. [48] Premillennialism continues to be popular among Evangelical, Fundamentalist Christian, and Living Church of God communities in the 20th and 21st centuries,[49] expanding further into the churches of Asia, Africa and South America. Now, talking about eschatology is not without controversy. More recently dispensationalism has been popularized through Hal Lindsey's 1970s bestseller, The Late, Great Planet Earth and through the Left Behind Series by Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins. We can take prophetic Scripture at face value. Anderson locates three reasons that may account for Augustine's theological shift: After moving away from premillennialism to amillennialism, Augustine viewed Sabbath rest in the sexta-/septamillennial scheme as symbolically representative of Eternity. Moreover, the millennium of Revelation 20 became for him symbolically representative of Christs present reign with the saints.[30] Richard Landes observed the 4th century as a time of major shift for Christian eschatology by noting that it "marked a crucial moment in the history of millenarianism, since during this period Augustine repudiated even the allegorizing variety he himself had previously accepted. There are 73 references to Israel in the New Testament; each of them refers to Israel. Its the whole point of the beginning and the middle. [62] It also widely holds to the pretribulational return of Christ, which believes that Jesus will return to take up Christians into heaven by means of a rapture immediately before a seven-year worldwide tribulation. Now, I told you a few weeks ago why people believe that, because they want to get God off the hook so Hes not responsible for evil; but Hes happy to take the responsibility for allowing evil for His own glory. In the US, the dispensational form of premillennialism was propagated on the popular level largely through the Scofield Reference Bible and on the academic level with Lewis Sperry Chafer's eight-volume Systematic Theology. Scripture affirms the perpetuity of the elect church to salvation glory; that all whom the Lord has chosen He brings to glory. This hermeneutic discerns an emerging pattern in which various chapters return to a common theme - God's incomparable gift . The paragraph in full reads "676 The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource. Now, Im going to save the good stuff till next time, but I want to just end by giving you a little list of benefits of getting your eschatology right, okay? 3:10-13)." As more and more information comes to Him, and as He has more and more experience in dealing with the issues of His universe, Hes getting better at being God. You get Israel right when you get the Old Testament covenants and promises with Israel right. Joachim divided earth's history into three periods. [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. Dispensational Premillennialism is a recent, complex, and increasingly controversial form of modern Historic Premillennialism (HP). "[31], Augustine's later amillennial view laid the eschatological foundation for the Middle Ages, which practically abandoned premillennialism. Isaiah 65 - really, the whole chapter is about Israel, Gods elect - verse 22: My elect again shall enjoy long the work of their hands. Israel repeatedly called Gods elect; we know what that means. That in itself is an indication of Gods preservation for their future. Nevertheless, early in his career Augustine converted from premillennialism to amillennialism. Historic premillennialism is the view that Christ will return before the millennium. Over four decades of ministry, John has written dozens of bestselling books, including The . It's now taught by influential theologians such as Walter Kaiser, John Macarthur, John Walvoord, and popular authors Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey. Where is the divine mandate to do that? Thats a hard sell, frankly. But not us, who live and breathe the rarified air of sovereign grace and election; it makes no sense to me. The end is as divinely designed as the beginning, and God has given us massive amounts of revelation in the Scripture about the future. I like to call amillennialism negative, and postmillennialism positive. The other says there will be a kingdom. ", A helpful historical overview from a Catholic perspective, Irenaeus gives a 2nd century description of the eschaton, Safety of high-energy particle collision experiments, Existential risk from artificial intelligence, Self-Indication Assumption Doomsday argument rebuttal, Self-referencing doomsday argument rebuttal, List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events, List of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Premillennialism&oldid=1140035368, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from February 2022, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. 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. Among our elders, all four of the end-times views are representedhistoric premillennialism, dispensational premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism. Throughout the Patristic periodparticularly in the 3rd centurythere had been rising opposition to premillennialism. The church historian, Eusebius, reports this in his Ecclesiastical History. His message in General Session 1 was entitled "Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist is Premillennial". 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. He has also written or edited nearly four hundred books and study guides. If you get that right, your eschatology will come crystal clear. 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. Amillennialists do not view the millennium mentioned in Revelation as pertaining to a literal thousand years, but rather as symbolic, and see the kingdom of Christ as already present in the church beginning with the Pentecost in the book of Acts. When Christianity became the official religion of Rome in the fourth . Jenna . Who will establish it? This belief claims that human history will continue for 6,000 years and then will enjoy Sabbath for 1,000 years (the millennial kingdom), thus all of human history will have a total of 7,000 years prior to the new creation. Continue reading John MacArthur claims to be a Dispensationalist in both The Gospel According to Jesus (GAJ) and The Gospel According to the Apostles (GAA). And . Romans 11:28 . John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, where he has served since 1969. In the fifth book of Against Heresies, Irenaeus concentrates primarily on eschatology. 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