They will die for that truth regarding the church, but unashamedly abandon that same truth for the elect nation of Israel. Log In John Knox (1) John MacArthur (4) John MacDuff (1) John Mark (1) John Piper (25) John T. Carroll (1) John the Baptist (1) . (Quoted in Murray, The Puritan Hope, 101102. 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. Now, against those two is the view called premillennialism; that means there will be a millennium and prior to that millennium, Jesus will come. There is no doubt that he does hold to the fundamental distinction between the Church and Israel, though he does not always apply this distinction consistently. And the longer I think about it and the more I study the Scripture, the clearer it becomes to me. That's a complete misreading. John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, editors Moody Publishers 2012-02-21 Five faculty members of The Master's Seminary have written an excellent primer on what they call "futuristic premillennialism." This is a strong defense of pretribulational dispensational premillennialism. Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4; 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Prior to that I thought about it a lot. I reject the wacky world of newspaper exegesis and cartoon eschatology, and crazy interpretation like the locusts of Revelation 9 being helicopters, et cetera. And who made them? Thats for people who dont know this; that the way history ends, is with Jesus coming and taking us away. The amil guy, MacArthur said, would have to say that things have changed, those promises no longer apply to you, we have them now and this is the kingdom. Ridgeley spends several pages refuting ancient and modern Chiliasts, or Millennarians ((Ridgeley, Commentary on the Larger Catechism, 1:558562.)) Not that they were the only ones to be saved, but they were the ones through whom God will eventually reach, and even set up His Son to rule over the nations. 1897 (Western Theological Seminary) (James Orr) .. ), Puritan Independent Thomas Goodwin, in his book, The Return of Prayers, encouraged people to pray for the calling of the Jews, the utter downfall of Gods enemies, the flourishing of the gospel. Goodwin assured his readers that all these prayers will have answers. (Quoted in Murray, The Puritan Hope, 102.). The beliefs of Premillennialism are far from "rightly dividing the word of truth"! Other well-known historic premillennialists include Walter Martin; John Warwick Montgomery; J. Barton Payne; Henry Alford, a noted Greek scholar; and Theodor Zahn, a German New Testament scholar. 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. It therefore teaches responsibility. What he is saying is, a literal interpretation of the Old Testament is going to lead you to a premillennial view, and since we dont want to get there, we cant use a literal approach. 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. An Anglican - an Anglican - by the name of William Cunningham in 1815 wrote a book called The Premillennial Advent; he was anything but a dispensationalist. Show more Friends Following He never has. They taught that the kingdom of God would be visibly manifest on earth after the second coming of Jesus. His contention that unless you see Scripture through dispensational eyes, you cannot be a "self-respecting Calvinist" surprised many-Reformed amillennarians and historic premillennarians alike. Now, the truth of the matter is, those are just two ways to look at the same thing; postmillennialism and amillennialism is really the same thing. . Arminius did not believe in election; those who follow him do not believe in election. And it is powerfully persuasive. Why? It has to matter to us. If only he could just send down one message, that might be it. 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. This is a positive book: positive about the future of the Church. 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. I just want to note that he neither proposed nor answered the types of objections that are oftentimes levied against premillennialists. (1) That the old offcasten Israel for unbelief would never be forgotten, especially in these meetings, that the promised day of their ingrafting again by faith may be hastened; and that the dead weight of blood removed off them, that their fathers took upon them and upon their children, that have sunk them down to hell upwards of seventeen hundred years. In other words, Piper believes Jesus Christ will come on earth and reign for 1,000 years. The Lords coming back: blessing, purity, stability, comfort. We understand that when you have a prophecy in the Bible that has not yet come to pass, not everything will be clear. Why do we want to run from that? All right. I know where history is going. Receiving Not Achieving. That in itself is an indication of Gods preservation for their future. . 8.The Grammatical-Historical Hermeneutic: Its Defense and the Demand for Premillennialism -- by Abner Chou -- p.64 9.Will Israel Build a Temple in Jerusalem? Craig Blaising and Darrell Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism The completed registration allows us to send order and donation receipts to the email address you provided. He also spoke briefly about dispensationalism, but I am not going to cover that here, I got to run. To say youre an amillennialist is only to tell me what you dont believe, and then you have to go to all of the passages of Scripture that talk about the kingdom and tell me why you dont believe they mean what they say. The church will move out of its own environs to capture nations, leaders, ideologies, philosophies, theories, religions, and bring them all into captivity to Christ. 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. So, I say, leave amillennialism to those kinds of people who do not believe in the sovereign, unilateral, irrevocable, divine electing power of God. Dispensationalism is a kind of framework for history that is organized around seven dispensationsseven orders or administrations. A Look at the Church of England, Sneak Peek Interview: Laura Wiflers New Childrens Book. 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. Its two ways to view human history. This primer takes you on a Biblical study of questions surrounding prophecy, Israel, the rapture, and the different millennial . Some people say, How in the world can you understand it? They understood it in China without anything but a Bible; they understood it in Central Asia without anything but a Bible; you take it at face value. Jonathan Edwards, a noted postmillennialist and someone MacArthur quotes unfavorably in his Shepherds talk, outlined the future of the Christian Church in his 1774 History of Redemption. This makes two distinct judgmentsone for Christians and one for non-Christians after the millennium. They would rather believe that God has predestined His Church to failure than believe that they are personally responsible for transforming society. And at that judgment, well be recompensed for the deeds done in the body, whether they are good or phaulos, meaning useless. May it be powerful in our lives we pray in Christs name. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 9; 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 9: We have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, - that is, whether in heaven or here - to be pleasing to Him - to be pleasing to Him. Now, I've been telling you for a number of months that we were going to get into the subject of eschatology, the doctrine of last things. Amillennialism is ideal for Arminians because, according to their theology, God elects nobody and preserves nobody. Btw, LA is beautiful and the conference is great, I hope to post some reflections as the week goes on. May we be faithful to take it, to interpret it as you intended for us to, so that it can yield to us the wonderful rich blessings that You have promised. 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? A recurring topic of interest in his writings is the historical reliability of the Scriptures. Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts Workbook for Women Updated: Seven Questions to Ask Before---and After---You Marry 9780310875475 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. 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. His message in General Session 1 was entitled Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist is Premillennial. Romans 11:28 . S. Lewis Johnson, Curt Daniel "The History and Theology of Calvinism" by Curt Daniel) and others affirm full soteriological Calvinism without adopting postmil or amil eschatology. I dont do this to you very often, but I hope you feel like it was helpful, and anchored you in this great and important truth. In short, there shall be, as it were, a universal spread of religion and holiness to the Lord, throughout the world. 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. 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. Also, among Scottish Presbyterian churches during this period, special days of prayer were set aside partly in order that the promised conversion of [Gods] ancient people of the Jews may be hastened. (Quoted in Murray, The Puritan Hope, 100.) . And I ask the question: are we supposed to be comfortable with the notion that the hard and fast and true principles of Bible interpretation have to be set aside in prophetic texts? Please respond to confirm your registration. Instead, MacArthur systematically unpacked the biblical theology that leads one to an unabashed Calvinistic eschatology. You get the Old Testament covenants and promises right when you get the interpretation of Scripture right. He made an interesting connection between Genesis and Revelation. In a really interesting illustration MacArthur envisioned an amillennialist evangelizing a Jew. MacArthur's "dispensationalism" is eschatological and ecclesiological only. Ridgeley knew his history well enough to know that the majority of theologians in the seventeenth century held to an advancing kingdom through the proclamation of the gospel which includes the future conversion of the Jews. Whether youre an amillennialist or a postmillennialist, you basically say Israel forfeited all its promises. Ive been teaching and preaching the Bible expositionally now for over 40 years, one verse at a time. Historically, church fathers favored historic premillennialism, including Ireneaus, Papias, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Hippolytus. He has also written or edited nearly four hundred books and study guides. And in line with that, I want to try, at least, in the next couple of Sunday nights to establish a foundation for our understanding. Chicago: Moody, 2012. A History of Christian Zionism: Philo-Semitism and the Expectation of Israel's Restoration. This is process theology. by R. Scott Clark on April 8, 2020 | Dispensationalism describes a way of reading the Bible and a system of theology the nearest roots of which are in the 19th century. 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. I was talking to one of our missionaries just this same week I gave this talk to the pastors, and he was coming back from China and he said, Theres only one view in the church in China and its the premillennial view. Of course, because they just take what Scripture says. MacArthur, John, and Richard Mayhue, eds. . In fact, I understand sovereign electing grace much more clearly than I ever have in the past, and I also understand Gods sovereign electing purpose for Israel more clearly than Ive ever understood it. So here, we are living in the view of our eschatological triumph in Christ: the glory of the Rapture, the last trump, rising from the grave, made imperishable and immortal. Since the UK is now no longer a member of the EU, you may be charged an import tax on this item by the customs authorities in your country of residence, which is beyond our control. How could they believe unless He caused them to believe? Where is the divine mandate to do that? But not us, who live and breathe the rarified air of sovereign grace and election; it makes no sense to me. MacArthur pulled no punches in his messages saying things like Jesus, Peter, the writer of Hebrews, and James were all premillenial. Popular proponents of dispensational premillennialism have been John F. MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Ray Comfort, Jerry Falwell, Todd Friel, Dwight Pentecost, John Walvoord (d. 2002), Tim Lahaye, Charles Caldwell Ryrie (in the notes for the Ryrie Study Bible), the theological-folk poetry of Jack Royerton, and Charles L. Feinberg. In the world, things will get better and better and better as the church becomes more powerful and more influential. DP also believes that God has a place for both national Israel (cf. He wants us to get it right; thats why He put it in the Scripture and the Scripture is replete with it. by Craig L. Blomberg and Sung Wook Chung [Grand Rapids: . We've been working our way through doctrinal emphases in Scripture, doctrinal themes, and we have covered a lot of ground. Edwards believed that the overthrow of Satans kingdom involved several elements: the abolition of heresies and infidelity, the overthrow of the kingdom of the Antichrist (the Pope), the overthrow of the Muslim nations, and the overthrow of Jewish infidelity: However obstinate [the Jews] have been now for above seventeen hundred years in their rejection of Christ, and however rare have been the instances of individual conversions, ever since the destruction of Jerusalem … yet, when this day comes, the thick vail that blinds their eyes shall be removed, 2 Cor. We know that, so our ambition is, when we get to that place, to be rewarded because we are pleasing to Him. If this is a future event, why arent premillennialists warning the Jews in Israel whats about to take place? He doesnt know the future because it hasnt happened. Those who most celebrate the sovereign grace of election regarding the church and its inviolable place in Gods purpose, from predestination before the foundation of the world to glorification in the future, those who most celebrate the sovereign grace of election, those who most aggressively, most militantly, and most capably defend the truth of Scripture regarding this election being divine, unilateral, unconditional, irrevocable by nature, for the church - thats for us . This is why its message is hated. Those who most celebrate the sovereign grace of election - thats the Reformed - they are typically amillennial. Fundamental I have never moved away from my conviction about these two things. Do you know - are you watching this media? MacArthur--who is an ardent dispensationalist--stated and defended his position. Historic premillennialism is the view that Christ will return before the millennium. This is simply a way to understand Scripture in its normal sense. In fact, some say nearly one-fourth of Scripture is prophetic. First of all, we commend Dr. MacArthur for his solid Biblical position on Israel, and that Israel has a glorious future in the plan and purpose of God. And Ive gone back after I preach, and Ive written commentaries - now I think 26 or 27 volumes on the New Testament - back through the same material again and again and again and again and again, so that this understanding of eschatology has had to stand the acid test of every text. Blessed. It has not appeared as yet what we shall be. That is to say, while they understood that someone would come, they understood whatever it was that had been revealed to them, the timing was not clear, and the precise personages were not clear. Dispensationalism is perhaps a key reason why evangelicals have such a concern with what happens to the nation of Israel. You can follow him on Twitter. Ligon Duncan and CJ Maheney (preaching tonight in the place of John Piper) both are Amil; Al Mohler and Mark Dever are both Historic Premil (I believe, correct me if I am wrong). . John MacArthur was one of the influences that helped turn me to Preterism. Doctrinal Statement Student Testimonies TMS for your Family Academics Academics Overview Master of Divinity Master of Theology Doctor of Ministry Doctor of Philosophy Bachelor of Theology Diploma of Theology Center for Israeli Studies Distance Education Academic Calendar Tyndale Center for Bible Translation There are a number of viewpoints of what the Bible means when it speaks of future events. Registered User As one prominent amillennialist said when asked, What is the biblical significance of the existence of Jews in their land? and he said, It has no significance at all. Really? An article by John MacArthur: "The common question of which Bible translation to use is very important--it concerns the most important words ever spoken, the words of God the Creator. Have you ever heard of that? 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. And then the effect of it is in verse 58: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, and you can stop right there. As soon as you abandon that, then its fair game for anybodys craziness. 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. If it doesnt mean what it says and everybodys got a different view, then nobody has the authority to say, This is true. Lets just stick with things that we know are true and things that all the good theologians agree on. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ - thats part of the coming eschatology. So, we can set aside the idea that somehow this is rooted in wacky dispensationalism; it is not. Forfeited all its privileges, forfeited all those things that God declared in covenant that He would give to them in the future; and they forfeit it by their disobedience to the Mosaic Covenant, by their apostasy from true religion and by their rejection of their Messiah. "Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist is a Pre-Millennialist." For those of you who don't know, this was a statement, among others, that John MacArthur was recorded as making at the recent Shepherd's Conference 2007 at Grace Community Church, Sun Valley California. Thats called process theology. We had met a short time ago, and she had questions about . Arminians - not Armenians, thats different; those who follow Arminius - did not believe in election. But I want to approach this whole thing with you, as my congregation, the way I did with three thousand five hundred pastors a couple of weeks ago. MacArthur insisted that we should be able to preach the whole Bible without changing the original meaning of the text or abrogating promises. When I was in seminary I thought about it, and I guess for about 50 years Ive been thinking about eschatology, the time of the end. 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. John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, where he has served since 1969. 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. Here at Grace to You Europe we take our data protection responsibilities very seriously and, as you would expect, have undertaken a significant programme of work to ensure that we are ready for this important legislative change. We sent you an email. In similar language, Scripture affirms the perpetuity of ethnic Israel to a future salvation and a future kingdom as a race of people, and that in that salvation and in that kingdom will be the fulfillment of all divine promises given to them in the Old Testament, repeated in the New Testament, and through them to the world. There isnt such a thing. One says its not the kingdom. After that he must be loosed for a little while." If students at The Masters Seminary are not being taught these things in their classes dealing with prophecy, then they are being shortchanged, misinformed, and, dare I say, led astray. Now, to affix our thinking to one great future event which seems to be the most controversial, I want you to think with me about the coming kingdom of Christ, known as the millennial kingdom, because in the twentieth chapter of Revelation, the opening of that chapter, there is reference to the reign and rule of Jesus Christ on the earth which lasts one thousand years; in fact, one thousand is repeated six times in that brief text. 11:12; 12:29; 13:19; John 10:12, 28, 29) and removing (John 6:15; Acts 8:39; 23:10; Jude 23).There is a third use, which focuses on being caught up . . See more on the author's page Sung Wook Chung How do you explain that? Well see more about how that works. When it was first published three and a half decades ago, Paradise Restored helped to precipitate a massive paradigm shift in the Evangelical and Reformed world from abject pessimism to unabashed optimism. 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. 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. We are responsible for our sin, but in the end, we believe because He moves on us. That leaves me with the impression that God wants us not to question the length of its duration. Turn to Revelation chapter 1. For example, the book is well-organized. Its the whole point of the beginning and the middle.
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