Should We Cancel Karl Barth, Martin Luther, and Jonathan Edwards? But that is essentially what theyre asking us to do. 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. Its the same God, same terminology. Theres no sense in going in to all of that, except to say in both cases, they say there is no actual earthly reign of Christ fulfilling all Old Testament covenant promises. (Ridgeley, Commentary on the Larger Catechism, 1:563564.). Highly acclaimed theologian Dr. Charles C. Ryrie addresses this crucial issue from the perspective of classic dispensationalism. I know where history is going. Murray notes that A number of years before [the Larger Catechism and Westminster Directory for Public Worship] were drawn up, the call for prayer for the conversion of the Jews and for the success of the gospel throughout the world was already a feature of Puritan congregations. (Murray, The Puritan Hope, 99.) Dispensationalism is a kind of framework for history that is organized around seven dispensationsseven orders or administrations. In short, there shall be, as it were, a universal spread of religion and holiness to the Lord, throughout the world. Let me give you a theology lesson here a little bit. 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. The church will become more influential, more impactful, more spiritually powerful. This is why its message is hated. 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. 2023 Grace to You. MacArthur pulled no punches in his messages saying things like Jesus, Peter, the writer of Hebrews, and James were all premillenial. He will return to an increasingly wicked earth, He will come in fiery judgment, He will judge all the ungodly of all the earth, and then establish His rule and His kingdom forever. Who will establish it? Now, the only thing that I ask is that you read it, and the only reason I ask you to read it is so that you may be what? The other says there will be a kingdom. In other words, Piper believes Jesus Christ will come on earth and reign for 1,000 years. Reformed theologian John Piper affirmed his belief that the second coming of Christ is coming soon and indicated that he is a premillennialist. 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.. This primer takes you on a Biblical study of questions surrounding prophecy, Israel, the rapture, and the different millennial . and defends what can only be described as postmillennialism over against premillennialism. His mode of expositing those verses that supposedly counter Preterism really helped me to focus on those areas in the Bible. 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. And I went there and I spoke for a week, and they finally said to me, When are you going to tell us the good part? and I said, Well, whats the good part? They said, We want to know about the future; we want to know about the future. 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. Why would God wait nearly 2000 years to redeem a single generation of Jews only to have the antichrist wipe out two-thirds of them? John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, president of The Master's College and Seminary, and featured teacher with the Grace to You media ministry. It is narrative history, and we fight - sometimes tooth and nail - to maintain the literal veracity of Genesis 1 through 3. Why bother? The first view well call the postmillennial view; that is to say, that Christ will come after the millennium; that the return of Christ is post, it is after the millennial kingdom. Along that line, I went to Moody Press and I said, Look, Ive written two volumes on Revelation - I dont know, its 800 or 900 pages - and I realized not everybody is going to go through all of that. In the world, things will get better and better and better as the church becomes more powerful and more influential. Turn to Revelation chapter 1. All rights reserved. The alpha privative in the Greek language means a negative, so there is the view that there is no millennium; that what John is writing about in Revelation 20 is very vague, may refer to nothing other than a long time in which the church flourishes on earth, simply referring to that kingdom which is spiritual - that is, the rule of Christ over those who belong to Him while on earth. 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. The Savoy Declaration, drawn up in October 1658 by English Congregationalists meeting at the Savoy Palace, London, included the conversion of the Jews in its summary of the Churchs future hope: We expect that in the latter days, Antichrist being destroyed, the Jews called, and the adversaries of the kingdom of his dear Son broken, the churches of Christ being enlarged and edified through a free and plentiful communication of light and grace, shall enjoy in this world a more quiet, peaceful, and glorious condition than they have enjoyed. Its a strange approach. 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. Ridgeleys original work was titled A Body of Divinity: Wherein the Doctrines of the Christian Religion are Explained and Defended, Being the Substance of Several Lectures on the Assemblys Larger Catechism and was published in 1731.)) We've been working our way through doctrinal emphases in Scripture, doctrinal themes, and we have covered a lot of ground. 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. Dispensational premillennialism (DP) offers the most complex chronology of the end times.It argues that the current church age will end with the rapture of the church (cf. 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. Theological Method of Premillennialism" in A Case for Historic Premillennialism: An Alternative to "Left Behind" Eschatology, ed. John Piper Backs Professor's End Times Theory of Premillennialism. Whether you are a pessimistic amillennialist, or an optimistic amillennialist - thats a postmillennialist - you dont know what to do with prophetic truth, because if you interpret prophetic truth in the same normal, natural way you interpret all the rest of the passages of Scripture, youre going to end up a premillennialist; its inevitable. From the material available online today, many would conclude that "historic premillennialism" refers to the teaching of 20th century theologian George Elton Laddand no other view. How could they believe unless He caused them to believe? Iain Murray, the author of The Puritan Hope, a book that Im using to make my historical case against MacArthurs claims, spoke at the Shepherds Conference in 2001. John MacArthur's first message at the Shepherds' Conference set off shock waves throughout the reformed evangelical church by upholding Premillennialism as being the only consistent position for any person who holds to the doctrine of sovereign electing grace. We shall all be changed, in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed., Thats the rapture; were going to study the rapture. He also said that it is too late for Calvin but it is not too late for you [to join the Reformed Premillennial movement]! That leaves me with the impression that God wants us not to question the length of its duration. You get the Old Testament covenants and promises right when you get the interpretation of Scripture right. And there are others who believe that that refers to heaven; that refers to the experience of the saints in heaven. -- by John Walvoord -- p.98 10.The Early Witness to Premillennialism -- by Michael Vlach -- p.104 11.Premillennialism in the Old Testament Series -- by Arnold Fruchtenbaum -- p.107 . Have you ever heard of that? I have thought about these things, by the way, for a long time. iii.16. Btw, LA is beautiful and the conference is great, I hope to post some reflections as the week goes on. This is postmillennialism at its best. Israel sinned, promises cancelled. How could He hold any of us, in one sense, responsible for not believing? So, I say, leave amillennialism to those kinds of people who do not believe in the sovereign, unilateral, irrevocable, divine electing power of God. So, I said, Would you do me a favor? They believe God elects nobody to salvation. Why do we want to change the rules in interpretation to avoid that? Please respond to confirm your registration. Craig Blaising and . I saw it in Scripture when I was young; I saw it in Scripture because it was so crystal clear. But they never got around to eschatology; they never got around to applying their formidable skills. So, I told the pastors at the conference, and the title of this talk is, Why every self-respecting Calvinist has to be a premillennialist. Because, if you believe in divine sovereign election, then you have to believe that as God will be faithful to His promises to His church, He will also be faithful to His promises to His elect nation Israel. It is one thing to omit them for a time, and another to do it ordinarily. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. There are two great elect people in the Bible: Israel and the church; and Israel is elect, as the church is elect - the New Testament is full of comments about the church being the elect. And by the way, dispensationalists - people say, Well, that whole premillennial view, that came out of C.I. Post-Millennialism, in stark contrast to Pre-Millennialism, believes that the Millennium occurs before Jesus' Second Coming rather than after. Because we dont want you to incur expenditure for which you are not prepared, could you please confirm whether you are willing to pay this charge, if necessary? Hes getting better. This up to now has been more like a lecture, but turn to Revelation chapter 1, and just look at verse 3 for a moment. Now, Ive been telling you for a number of months that we were going to get into the subject of eschatology, the doctrine of last things. 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.. Scofield, that came out of J.N. Scripture affirms the perpetuity of the elect church to salvation glory; that all whom the Lord has chosen He brings to glory. This message clears up any questions as to where MacArthur stands on the eschatology issue. Ive dragged myself through all these years of the discipline of study. Theres a rapture, and theres a bma seat judgment; we know that. 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. 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. And . 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. Now, when they came here, Im very much aware that many of them are amillennialists. Pretribulational Rapture in 17th and 18th Century England. Resting Not Vexing, Our Anchor in a Sea of Chaos and Consternation, Why I (Sometimes) Listen to Supreme Court Oral Arguments. He confronts the views of covenant theology, historical premillennialism, ultradispensationalism, and, in this revised edition, the increasingly popular progressive dispensationalism. If you want to understand what the Bible says about the future, get these two things right: the sovereignty of God in election, and the promises of that sovereign, electing God to those people to whom He has elected - His redeemed church and Israel. MacArthur insisted that we should be able to preach the whole Bible without changing the original meaning of the text or abrogating promises. That's a complete misreading. It matters to me to understand what God has said about the end. 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. Im unwaveringly committed to that. He made an interesting connection between Genesis and Revelation. Christ's Prophetic Plans: A Futuristic Premillennial Primer. He is known around the world for his verse-by-verse expository preaching and his pulpit ministry via his daily radio program, Grace to You. . Out of their own mouth - whats wrong with that? 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). We know that when He appears, - second coming we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. You can believe and be saved and then you can forfeit your salvation. God filled the Bible with prophecy and much of it looking to the end. I have - they can try to terrify me with all this stuff; I am unmoved. We cant have those prophecies come to pass with regard to Israel in an earthly, literal kingdom the way the Old Testament seems to be saying it, so set aside normal, natural, literal interpretation. Cause what that means is God does know the future; God has set the future, and the future involves not only the glory of His church but the fulfillment of His elect people Israel with regard to everything that He promised that nation. Show more Friends Following Now, there are people who do this to Genesis 1, 2 and 3. (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. Show it to me. MacArthur and the seminary faculty know of Murrays work. You get the interpretation of Scripture right when youre faithful to valid rules of interpretation. What passage is it in? Death, where is your sting? Through the work of Ladd, historic premillennialism gained scholarly respect and popularity among Evangelical and Reformed theologians since he had the right appreciation of the redemptive- historical significance of the first coming of Christ and of the NT age. All of these are benefits of getting it right. (Quoted in DeJong, As the Waters Cover the Sea, 38.).
How do you explain that? Another Rapture passage - great one - verse 16: the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ shall rise first. Amen. The books and articles that make this case are not obscure or difficult to find. They also think that there is not to be a literal thousand-year kingdom as such, but thats just metaphoric for a long time; and it simply indicates whatever the duration of that period where the influence of the church dominates the world, after which Christ returns. And the longer I think about it and the more I study the Scripture, the clearer it becomes to me. 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. 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. Why Every Calvinist Should Be a Premillennialist, Part 1. A History of Christian Zionism: Philo-Semitism and the Expectation of Israel's Restoration. [1] He has been the pastor of Grace Community Church, a non-denominational church in Sun Valley, California since February 9, 1969. and divine grace shall melt and renew their hard hearts … And then shall the house of Israel be saved: the Jews in all their dispersions shall cast away their old infidelity, and shall have their hearts wonderfully changed, and abhor themselves for their past unbelief and obstinacy. I think it matters. Well see more about how that works. John MacArthur claims to be a Dispensationalist in both The Gospel According to Jesus (GAJ) and The Gospel According to the Apostles (GAA). And Im not into all kinds of complex charts, and Im not into all that is traditionally known as dispensationalism - seven dispensations, two kingdoms, two New Covenants, two ways of salvation, discontinuity between the Old Testament and the New - Im not talking about that. Ive been here at Grace Church well, what - thirty-some years. . 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. Since Scripture speaks of the Millennium as a time of great prosperity for the kingdom of God, post-mills are inherently optimistic. Now, next time Im going to take you through a series of about five questions that were going to ask and see how this plays out on the pages of Scripture, okay? I'm two thirds in to the series; however, one of my complaints so far is that MacArthur doesn't characterize the amillennial camp with accuracy. Death, where is your victory? Process theology: they are the theologians, liberal theologians, who believe that God is in process of becoming what He will be. And it is powerfully persuasive. Now, I know at this point somebody out there is going to say, Oh boy, hes into the Left Behind series. No, Im not in to Rapture fiction, and Im not in to wacky charts - you dont see me up here with a big chart and a stick. So, this is a classic perfect fit for Arminian theology. CLASSIC DISPENSATIONALISM. It is the theme of Scripture, the theme of eternity, and the . (Quoted in Murray, The Puritan Hope, 101102. Amillennialism, dispensational premillennialism, historic premillennialism, postmillennialism, preterism. If were going to change the rules, then, may I suggest this - and this is what I told the pastors - if were going to change the rules, then we better have a word from God. He comes pre, not post; He comes before. In the mid-seventeenth century, the Westminster Larger Catechism, in the answer to Question 191, displayed the hope for the future conversion of the Jews. (Edmonton, AB Canada: Still Waters Revival Books, [1855] 1993), 2:621. Relax; set all that aside. We know that Word about the future has that power. Whether youre talking about the church as Gods elect, or Israel as Gods elect, both are Gods elect. , . 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. [2] Premillennialists believe that two-thirds of the Jews living in Israel during the time of the great tribulation will be slaughtered (Zech. After this period of fulfillment of divine wrath, He shall then return to rule from a holy city ( i.e., the New Jerusalem) over the earthly nations for one thousand years. They will die for that truth regarding the church, but unashamedly abandon that same truth for the elect nation of Israel. That in itself is an indication of Gods preservation for their future. Every promise God made to Abraham about his lineage inheriting the land of Palestine has been fulfilled! John MacArthur's ministries, including Grace to You and Masters University, also employ a grammatical historical method of interpretation, and they come to a dispensational view of eschatology.