Criteria for Picking a Viewpoint

Could I possibly pick a viewpoint? At the beginning of 2009 I was leaning towards Parital Preterism/Postmillennialism after attending a conference in the fall of 2008. Now I am not so sure I want to be dogmatic about any viewpoint. I just want the blessings of studying Revelation.

The Reformers cried, "Sola Scriptura!" Strangely they did not get into this debate. Calvin and Luther were mild, not wild about their Amillennialism. On the Pilgrim Board I read where someone had asked R. C. Sproul about his viewpoints and he said that he was not a Dispensational Premillennialist, but saw positives and negatives about the three other views.

While listening to the Daily Audio Bible on my iPod yesterday, Brian Hardin read from Deuteronomy 4:2:, You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

I thought about Proverbs 30:5,6 which reads Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

Then of course there is the warning that ends Revelation about not taking away from Revelation nor adding to it. While it is so important to find prophecy in all of Scripture, I want to think about which eschatology viewpoint adds to Scripture.

Denver Seminary Gives a Case for Historic Premil

Not since George Ladd wrote on Historical Premillennialism, has a significant book been published on this view of eschatology. Two Denver Seminary Professors each wrote a chapter and edited others in A Case for Historic Premillennialism: An Alternative to "Left Behind" Eschatology, just out this month from Baker Academic of Baker Publishing Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Four other Denver professors join these men along with two professors from other seminaries.

The book gives new ideas to our discussion in my opinion.

• Who is to say we escape the tribulation? The book argues "I actually think the doctrine of the tribulation is more important than the doctrine of the millennium." (p. 69)
• Believers "will be the ones left behind--on earth to enjoy the glory and grandeur of reigning with Christ during the millennium." (p. 78)
• Why do certain segments in the church dismiss the study of eschatology? Blomberg suggests on page 65 "With the rise of modern (and now postmodern) liberalism, many authors have simply dismissed biblical apocalyptic as the outmoded husk or shell into which the ancients placed their eschatological beliefs. One need not even debate the timing of the rapture, so the argument goes, because we cannot expect a literal rapture ever to occur, or a literal second coming of Christ for that matter. At best, biblical apocalyptic represents, according to this view, theological encouragement, in primitive garb, for beleaguered Christians that God can and will work through the events of this world and through his people to create a better world and that God's people need not fear that the world will become as bad as it could possibly be."
• Book's summary. "The logical corollary of classic dispensationalism is that the world is going to hell in a handbasket and the most we can hope to do is save souls before the end is upon us and we have no further opportunity to do so. Postmillennialism, followed consistently, engenders an unbridled optimism in what God wants to do in Christianizing the earth through his Spirit-filled followers, an optimism that is hard to mesh with humanity's experience in any prolonged period of world history. Amillennialism and historic premillennialism both acknowledge the 'already but not yet' inaugurated kingdom of God, and both allow for God to still want to do great good on this earth through his people and for the devil to still wreak great havoc." p. 172

An Historical Premillennialist Takes Issue With Pretribulational Dispensationalism

Dr. George Eldon Ladd (1911-1982)

Why does George Ladd, foremost Historical Premillennialist of the last century, dismiss Dispensationalism? In "The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views" he says that Dispensationalists expect the millennium to be all about the Davidic kingdom with all its sacrifices; then he notes that this is impossible because of Hebrews 8 which notes that the old covenant is obsolete—we have a new covenant.

Ladd maintains that Dispensational Premillennialism was an idea that was hatched N. J. Darby and others in the 19th century. Meetings and Bible conferences were held in the early 1800s and at one of these C. I. Scofield hatched the idea for his reference Bible. The Rapture was added before the tribulation—hence pretribulationalism.

Historical Premillennialist Ladd then states in "The Blessed Hope": “We can find no trace of pretribulationism in the early church; and no modern pretribulationist has successfully proved that this particular doctrine was held by any of the church fathers or students of the Word before the nineteenth century.” (p. 31) Christ is to come after the tribulation according to Ladd who uses Scripture to prove his case. A pretribulation rapture is “not supported by any affirmations in the Word of God” (p. 88) Ladd notes that by defining the blessed hope “in terms of escape from suffering rather than union with Christ [one] may be guilty of the positive danger of leaving the Church unprepared for tribulation when Antichrist appears. . . . Questions of theology are not decided by our desires or dislikes; they are decided by appeal to the Word of God. ” (p. 164)