Millennial Views: Popularity in History

By | February 23, 2014
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A historical perspective can help to understand the various millennial views.

Premillennialism was the predominant view of the early church.

Amillennialism became the majority view following the merging of the church and state at the time of Constantine. The Reformers (Luther, Calvin, and others) rejected much of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church but continued to hold to amillennialism.

Postmillennialism grew popular at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century as the world seemed to becoming more like God’s kingdom, but it was nearly wiped out with the evil atrocities of World War I.

Dispensational premillennialism has been on the rise since the late 1800s and is the majority view of evangelical churches in the US today.

Historic premillennialism may be on the rise today, in part due to some poor presentation and misconceptions about dispensationalism.

 

All of these views have been held by leading figures in the church at one point or another. Here are a few adherents of each major view.

Dispensational Premillennialism: C. I. Scofield, Dallas Seminary, Hal Lindsey, John MacArthur, J. M. Boice, Tim LaHaye

Historic Premillennialism: George Ladd, John Piper, Wayne Grudem

Postmillennialism: B. B. Warfield, Charles Hodge, R. C. Sproul

Amillennialism: Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, J. I. Packer

Since I’ve only defined three millennial views to this point, but have listed four above, I will devote the next post to explaining the difference between dispensational premillennialism and historic premillennialism.

Millennial Views: Similarities and Distinctions

By | February 21, 2014
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Perhaps another way to understand the various millennial views is by looking at how they agree on certain points and disagree on others. I ‘ll just use the prefixes to designate the views.

Post- and a- agree that the thousand years is not to be taken as signifying 1,000 years of 365 days. Like most of the numbers in Revelation, the millennium is not taken as a literal number but as a symbol.

Post- and a- agree that Revelation is not to be read as a chronological account of future events.

Post- and a- agree that Jesus’s rule is spiritual not earthly and that the promises made for Israel are fulfilled in the church.

Post- and a- generally agree that the millennium began in the first century and we are living in it today. Some post- believe that the millennium will only begin in the future when the world is Christian.

Post- and a- agree that there will be no future seven-year tribulation. Tribulation occurs whenever the church is persecuted.

Post- and a- agree that the rapture occurs at the same time as Jesus’s return to earth.

Post- and a- agree that Satan is currently bound and Christians are currently reigning over the earth with Christ.

Post- and a- agree that Jesus is now reigning, but a- believes that Jesus is reigning in heaven while post- believes that Jesus is reigning on earth through the gospel.

Pre- and post- agree that the millennium is a time of great earthly blessing.

Pre- and (some) post- agree that the millennium is a time of glory after the tribulation and not mixed with tribulations.

Pre-, post-, and a- agree that trials are occurring on the earth today, but they differ on whether these are what are predicted as the tribulation.

Millennial Views: Brief Definitions

By | February 19, 2014
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The TMC Bible department has been asked to speak in chapel this week on premillennialism. I began the series on Monday with a message on the case for premillennialism from the Old Testament. Dr. Varner spoke on the New Testament today, and a panel will answer questions on Friday. My message is now online, but I came across some notes tonight that I think might make a helpful series to those who don’t know much about the subject. I ‘ll begin the series on Millennial Views with some brief definitions.

The names for the views come from the timing of Jesus’s return in relation to the millennium, but this is much more than a chronology debate.

Premillennialism: Jesus will return before (pre) the millennium. He will rule over the present earth for 1,000 years in order to fulfill all of God’s unfulfilled promises.

Postmillennialism: Jesus will return after (post) the millennium. The present age is the “millennium” (though it is not 1,000 years long) during which “God’s kingdom” is expanding in the world through the mission of the church. When Jesus comes, history (time) will come to an end and the eternal state will begin in a new heavens and new earth.

Amillennialism: There is no (a) millennium. Adherents reject this designation because they believe that there is a millennium and we are living in it now (though it is not 1,000 years long). Jesus is building his kingdom today through the church (the present spiritual kingdom) and at the end of the age, he will return, destroy the earth, and establish the new heavens and new earth.

Next time I ‘ll explain some similarities and differences between these three views.

February 10

By | February 10, 2014
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This tour of the space station is long (25 min) but fascinating.

The NIV84 is still online at one website.

Krauthammer argues that the GOP can win on abortion if it focuses on banning late-term abortions.

The best thing I read on the Grammys and the society they represent was by Jerry Shepherd.

Wow: I really enjoyed this CT cover story: The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries. It’s not short, but it’s good. And since I read it, they ‘ve changed it to subscription-access only. Ergh. Well, if you have a subscription or you ‘re near a library, check it out. Or email me; I have a copy and am allowed to email it but not to post it online.

January 22

By | January 23, 2014
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A new semester began this week. I have some hungry students and I am thankful.

David Brooks has some good advice on comforting those who are suffering. One good line: “Don’t compare, ever. Don’t say, “I understand what it’s like to….”

Israel recently jailed and deported a British tourist for telling others about Jesus.

This map of American counties shows them according to the largest religious grouping. I was surprised by how much is Catholic.

I never knew that Moscow had so much traffic. (Or so few police cars.)

Here’s one of the better Coca-Cola commercials I’ve seen.

December 29

By | December 29, 2013
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There are beautiful buildings, and then there are beautiful libraries.

Here are the most spectacular abandoned places in the world.

Which is worse? To be afraid to die or to be afraid to live? Two seminary professors at Baptist Bible Seminary are trusting God with their painful diseases.

That’s not ironic.

I agree with this author’s assessment of the NIV 2011 and the deceptive marketing tactics being used.

My Preferred Way To Read the Bible: There is much of value in this article, whether you accept his main suggestion or not.

November 23

By | November 23, 2013
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I am alive. Still intending to keep this blog alive as well. Thanks for stopping by. Here are some links of interest.

My family enjoyed hearing how Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart might have played “Happy Birthday.”

I’ve been pronouncing Iran wrong for a long time. Iraq too.

The Maccabeats sing good Hebrew harmony.

I’ve been waiting a long time for this book. (I provided the photos and wrote the chapter on 1-2 Chronicles.) I hope to write more about it another time.

This graphic tells some of the Perils of Doing a Ph.D.

A Little Update

By | September 11, 2013
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I haven’t been able to do much blogging since the move, but I thought a brief update might be of interest to some. The semester started three weeks ago and since then I’ve been teaching 6 hours a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. While that might seem like an ideal schedule to some, I’m finding that that amount of animated teaching leaves me feeling like I just ran a marathon and rather low the following day. On Wednesdays and Fridays I am grading papers, preparing quizzes, going to meetings, and talking with students. Monday is my day to figure out what to say for 6 hours. I’m thankful that I have two sections each of OT Survey I and NT Survey I so that I don’t have to prepare for 12 hours of new teaching each week. The downside is that these are all large General Education courses, and when your smallest class is 62 students, there’s extra work with student interaction and grading.

I am enjoying teaching, though I think I had expected to do better after being sidelined for 6 years. The physical component is much harder than I expected. It may help for me to explain that I feel that I have to work extra hard to keep the interest of a large number of non-Bible majors who have not necessarily adjusted to college life and who are spread out in a large classroom that is any teacher’s nightmare.

I am surprised that the NT Survey class is much easier for me than the OT. That won’t last, but since I never took students on a tour of the Garden of Eden or the Tower of Babel, I am not nearly as comfortable teaching those sections as teaching on the life of Christ.

From the questions in class and the assignments turned in, I am generally impressed with my students. Many are in their late teens, but quite a number are a bit older following army service or years in the work place. I probably have a dozen students who are children of TMC profs or administrators, and I’m starting to learn of other interesting connections.

I am using PowerPoint, but I am providing handouts which have all of the text from the slides. That scares me a bit, as I wonder if they ‘ll tune me out instead of taking notes. That too forces me to work harder to keep their attention. I decided to go this route because these are lower-division classes and my chief goal is not to teach them how to copy text off of slides.

I do not allow phones to be used in class for any purpose, but I do allow computers as long as the wifi is turned off. I’ve only confiscated one phone so far.

I required all of my students, for both OT and NT, to memorize Psalm 1 for the first quiz. Then I required them to write it out again on the second quiz.

I spoke in the Bible Department chapel last week. I began with a long and unique pitch for IBEX. Applications for this spring are at about 15, and there are less than 5 for each of the following two semesters. I am stunned, shocked, horrified, and mortified.

The family is doing well, though with five days in the office and two night classes, they are seeing a lot less of me than they are used to.