Sunday, September 06, 2009

amillennialism justified

I know this isn't good logic but sometimes I feel more right about a conclusion if I feel believe I'm in the company of others that I respect. I found the below by Jason Robertson regarding amillennialism and felt somehow comforted ... I didn't realize there were that many ammillennialists out there. The below is from Robertson.

What Amillennialism Is Not:
  • It does not deny the existence of a "millennium."
  • It is not a product of either a particular Protestant denomination or a product of Roman Catholicism.
  • It does not require one to be a pedobaptist or immersionist.
  • It does not require one to be a Calvinist or Arminian
  • It does not require one to be a Covenant theologian or anti-covenant theologian.
  • It is not liberalism.
  • It is not as divided as Premillennialism.
  • It does not symbolize everything in the Bible.
  • It does not have a non-literal understanding of the Bible.
  • It is not the materialistic view of the millennium as held by all Premillennialists.
  • It does not hold to a literal "golden age" on earth like the many Postmillennialists.
  • It is not "replacement theology."
  • It is not anti-semetic.
What Amillennialism Is:
  • It follows a “grammatical-historical” literal interpretation of the Scriptures.
  • It looks at the Bible as a unit which contains no contradictions.
  • It believes there is no “gap” in Daniel’s prophecy of Seventy Weeks, but that it was fulfilled with the desolation of the Temple and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and the Roman army in 70 A.D. (as the Tribulation judgment against non-believing Israel).
  • It agrees with evangelical preterism that the prophecies concerning the nation Israel have been historically fulfilled, for the most part, and all remaining prophecies concerning Israel will be fulfilled in the church which has always been the “Israel of God.” (Eph. 1:23; Galatians 6:6)
  • It believes explicitly in the millennium of Revelation 20.
  • It interprets the one thousand year period mentioned only in Rev. 20 as a complete period of time, the length of which is only known by God. (Such symbolism is hermeneutically consistent with Psalm 50:10 and 1Chron. 16:15).
  • It believes the millennial kingdom of Christ began with His incarnation and will consummate at His Second Coming.
  • It could better be called a “Realized Millennium.”
  • It believes that the millennium is the literally the spiritual reign of Christ on earth in the kingdom of His church and in the saints in heaven.
  • It believes entrance to the on-going millennium is gained solely through the new birth, and that John refers to this as the first resurrection in Revelation 20:6 (supported by Eph. 2:1,5,6 and Colossians 2:13 and 3:1.)
  • It believes that every person who is born again immediately becomes a child of the King and immediately begins an eternal reign with that King, and that the present phase of that reign is a mere foretaste of what lies beyond the Second Coming.
  • It believes that Satan has only such power as God permits and must bow to the authority of the Gospel as a bound and defeated foe because of the Cross, unable to stop the spread of the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the world (Revelation 20:3).
  • It believes that although he cannot prevail against the Church, Satan still goes about as a roaring lion tempting, defying, deceiving, until Christ shall put him down finally at His Second Coming.
  • It believes that good and evil will exist side by side until the harvest, which Jesus said will be the end of the world (Matt. 13:39).
  • It believes that Satan will be allowed to mount one final climactic antichrist rebellion and apostasy just before the Second Coming (Revelation 16:14; 20:7,8).
  • It believes in only one first resurrection and only one last trump.
  • It believes the Second Coming of Christ to be a literal, visible, bodily coming.
  • It believes that at the Second Coming all the saints, living and dead, will be raptured to meet the Lord in the air, given new spiritual bodies, and then escort their King to the earth.
  • It believes that the millennium will end with the Second Coming of Christ followed by the judgments of the living and the dead, saved and lost (Matt. 13:24-30; 47-53) and the creation of a new heaven and earth.
  • It views the Second Coming as the consummation of the Redemption story prior to everlasting glory on the New Earth.
History of Amillennialism:

Dr. John Walvoord, a dispensational premillennialist, admitted, “Reformed eschatology has been predominantly amillennial. Most if not all of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation were amillennial in their eschatology, following the teachings of Augustine.” (Bibliotheca Sacra, Jan.-Mar., 1951)

Dr. Louis Berkof said, “The name is indeed new, but the view to which it is applied is as old as Christianity.” Since the second century it has “been the view most widely accepted, is the only view that is either expressed or implied in the great historical Confessions of the Church, and has always been the prevalent view in Reformed circles.” (Systematic Theology, p. 708)

Just to name a few Amillenarians and a couple of the many like-minded Postmillers:

Jay Adams
Oswald Allis
Augustine of Hippo
Richard Barcellos
Herman Bavinck
G. K. Beale
Louis Berkhof
G. C. Berkouwer
James P. Boyce
John Calvin
B. H. Carroll
Everett I Carver
Adam Clark
William Cox
John L. Dagg
Mark Dever
J. Ligon Duncan III
David Engelsma
Eusebius of Caesarea
Sinclair Ferguson
John Frame
Richard Gaffin, Jr.
William Grier
Henry Halley
Floyd Hamilton
Hank Hanegraaff
William Hendriksen
Charles Hill
Herschel Hobbs
Anthony Hoekema
Michael Horton
Lee Irons
Dennis Johnson
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Tim Keller
Simon Kistemaker
Meredith Kline
Abraham Kuyper
Martin Luther
C. J. Mahaney
William Masselink
Phillip Mauro
Edward McDowell
Melancthon
Leon Morris
Edgar Mullins
George L. Murray
Iain Murray
John Murray
J. I. Packer
Albertus Pieters
A. W. Pink
Vern S. Poythress
Richard Pratt
Robert S. Rayburn
Herman Ridderbos
Kim Riddlebarger
Jason E. Robertson
O. Palmer Robertson
William Rutgers
L. R. Shelton
Sam Storms
Robert Strimple
Augustus H. Strong
Ray Summers
Cornelius Van Til
Cornelis Venema
Geerhardus Vos
Samuel Waldron
Bruce Waltke
B. B. Warfield
James White
Knox White
Martin Wyngaarden
E. J. Young
Huldrych Zwingli

Council of Ephesus, 431
Confession of the Evangelical Free Church of Geneva, 1848
The Westminster Confession of Faith, 1647
The London Baptist Confession, 1689
The New Hampshire Baptist Confession, 1833
Confession of the Free-Will Baptist, 1834
The Augsburg Confession

And I'll add the ever popular blogger Justin Taylor.
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2 comments:

Randy (no blog) said...

Rick,
A few thoughts--I don't think most Premillennialists are materialistic in the normal meaning of the word. It would be interesting to see the list of respected church leaders who are Premillennialists also. I don't think it's fair to use the word "admitted" in the quote by Dr. Walvoord. He would probably also "admit" that most Catholics believe in the Pope. Because he acknowledges that most Reformers were Amillennialists does not mean he is "admitting" anything as if he is embarrased by it. Also, in reference to the Berkof quote, just because something has been believe by a lot of people for a long time, does not mean that it's correct.

ricki said...

Hey - you cannot sway me, I feel justified and that's that. :)

Seriously, the point was that when I started this path I thought amillennialists were a fringe group ... I had never heard any teaching on it and simply dismissed the notion as having no basis. Now I see it otherwise and whether one "converts" or not, I see more clearly the problems with each of the views ... problems I was formerly blind to.

reftagger