Eschatology 101 - Views and Theology - Pete Garcia - http://www.omegaletter.com/articles/articles.asp?ArticleID=7962
Covenant and Reformed theology are terms that are often used interchangeably. They represent the other half of mainstream Protestant thought pertaining to Biblical hermeneutics. Sometimes referred to as Reformed Theology, but distinct in that one could be Reformed and yet not be CT.
Covenant theology refers to one of the basic beliefs that Calvinists have held about the Bible. All Protestants who have remained faithful to their heritage affirm sola Scriptura; the belief that the Bible is our supreme and unquestionable authority. Covenant theology, however, distinguishes the Reformed view of Scripture from other Protestant outlooks by emphasizing that divine covenants unify the teachings of the entire Bible.
CT Summarized
Covenant Theology views the covenants of Scripture as manifestations of either the CW (Covenant of Works) or the CG (Covenant of Grace). The entire story of redemptive history can be seen as God unfolding the CG from its nascent stages (Genesis 3:15) through to its fruition in Christ. Covenant Theology is, therefore, a very Christocentric way of looking at Scripture because it sees the OT as the promise of Christ and the NT as the fulfillment in Christ.
Some have accused Covenant Theology as teaching what is called "Replacement Theology" (i.e., the Church replaces Israel). This couldn't be further from the truth. Unlike Dispensationalism, Covenant Theology does not see a sharp distinction between Israel and the Church. Israel constituted the people of the God in the OT, and the Church (which is made up of Jew and Gentile) constitutes the people of God in the NT; both just make up one people of God (Ephesians 2:11-20). The Church doesn't replace Israel; the Church is Israel and Israel is the Church (Galatians 6:16). All people who exercise the same faith as Abraham are part of the covenant people of God (Galatians 3:25-29).
Systemization of CT dates back to the Reformation era with Martin Luther, John Calvin, Westminster Confession, Savoy Declaration, London Baptist Confession and claims early church father (ECF) roots (albeit with more ambiguity, since CT tends to only view one to three covenants for the entire Bible). CT and Reformed Theology lean heavily on traditional creeds and confessions made by the various Reformers, affirming or denying certain views they hold as Orthodox. Exclusively Calvinistic, but can vary in whether they hold to all five points within Calvinism, or some variation thereof.
CT is similar to Dispensationalism in that CT holds to the main, orthodoxical positions on key areas such as:
- The Deity of Christ
- The Triune nature of God
- The Inerrancy of Scripture
- Salvation by Grace through Faith
Where CT and DISP part ways, is in the following:
- CT sees only one people of God, whereas DISP sees two, the Church, and Israel.
- CT sees two to three covenants implied in Scripture;
*A covenant of works (Gen. 2:16-17)
*A covenant of grace (Gen. 3:15)
*A covenant of redemption. (Eph. 1:3-14)
These differ from the stated covenants actually found in Scripture
*Abrahamic (Gen. 15) ?Land (Deut. 29-30)
?Seed or Davidic (2 Sam 7:12-16)
?Blessing or Blessing (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
- CT can accept or reject Pre-Millennialism, but primarily rejects it based on the blurring between Israel and the Church. Primary eschatology tends to be either Amillennial, Post-Millennial or Historic Premillennialism.
- CT can in varying forms, (mild to strong), be considered Replacement theology (i.e....the Church replaces or supersedes Israel) in the plan and promises of God.
Catholic Theology
The Roman Catholic Church, believes strongly in the idea of Apostolic Succession, by which they claim to trace their authority, back to the Apostle Peter, via the statement made by Christ in Matthew 16:16-19;
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?"
So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
The Roman Catholic Church wrongly attributes Christ charge that the rock is Peter, rather than what Peter confessed. Thus, from Peter onward, the Roman Catholic Church claims to trace its right to organize, add, delete, translate, etc. the Holy Scriptures. History shows, that the Roman Catholic Church did not in fact, begin to be systematized, until at the earliest, the fifth century. Three things had to happen first:
*Emperor Constantine's legalization of the Christian faith within the Roman Empire with the Edict of Milan (AD313). With Constantine's adoption of the Christian faith, he encouraged the Christianization of pagan beliefs, for which they bring into Christianity adding non-biblical practices. Ex: Mithraism, Cult of Isis, Patron saints, etc.
*Augustine's publication of the "City of God", which laid a lot of the theological framework, in which Roman Catholic Theology would come from. (See here for summarized biography of this influential man.)
*Emperor Damasus commissioned Jerome to translate the Bible from its original Greek and Hebrew, into Latin beginning in the fourth century. Although Latin was a popular dialect within the Roman Empire at the time, this would come to prevent the common folk (who increasingly didn't speak Latin) from being able to understand or read the Bible. A clerical class (the Priests, Bishops, Popes) arose to be the mediators between God and man, thus allowing the Roman Catholic Church to completely control the message of what was being taught.
Needless to say, Roman Catholic theology dominated Christendom from the 5th through 15th centuries in a period largely referred to as the "Dark Ages". When the masses began stirring away from the blatant corruption of the papacy between the 13th through 16th centuries, the Roman Catholic Church began various Inquisitions in Europe to stifle dissent. Heretics (those who disagreed with the RCC) were tortured, burned at the stake, drowned, hung, beheaded, etc. for daring to own their own Bibles, or for belonging to non-Catholic sect. The below the more famous martyrs in the lead against Catholic theology.
-John Wycliffe
-John Huss
-William Tyndale
-Jerome of Prague
Eschatological Views
1. Preterism: (Source: Wikipedia): term preterism comes from the Latin praeter, which is listed in Webster's 1913 dictionary as a prefix denoting that something is "past" or "beyond", signifying that either all or a majority of Bible prophecy was fulfilled by AD 70. Historically been general agreement with non-preterists that the first systematic preterist exposition of prophecy was written by the Jesuit Luis de Alcasar during the Counter Reformation
1.Full Preterism: all prophecy has been fulfilled since AD70. Christ returned spiritually and used the Romans to exact His judgment on Israel. (Heretical since it denies Christ's Second Coming)
2.Partial Preterism: Most of prophecy has been fulfilled (up until Rev. 19), except for the Second Coming of Christ, and the eternal state.
i. Pros: If one were so inclined, they are able to dismiss Bible prophecy as irrelevant, thus negating the need to study or handle prophetic passages in Scripture as anything other than, historical events.
ii. Cons: In order for this view (either partial or full), one would have to apply serious allegorical or metaphorical interpretations to large sections of Scripture. Would also require historicism to be applied liberally, to which even Preterists differ on fulfillment.
2. Amillennialism: (Source: Wikipedia) (Greek: a- "no" + millennialism), in Christian eschatology, is the rejection of the belief that Jesus will have a literal, thousand-year-long, physical reign on the earth. Church fathers of the second and third century that rejected the millennium were Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Cyprian. These men were heavily influenced through Grecian Platonism. Since Augustine was also influenced in this Grecian philosophical thought, he leaned heavily on Origen's method of allegorizing Scriptural texts in which he became the first to systematize Amillennialism in his book "City of God". He considered the idea of a physical kingdom to be very carnal, and thus rejected it. Groups who hold to this are:
1.Eastern and Oriental Orthodox
2.Roman Catholic
3.Lutheran
4.Presbyterians
5.Reformed
6.Anglican
7.Methodist
8.Certain Baptists
9.Churches of Christ
10.Disciples of Christ
Amillennialism has been the dominant form of eschatological view over the last 2,000 years, simply because this was the main eschatological view of Roman Catholicism, which dominated Christendom from the 5th through 15th century. Although the Protestant Reformers broke away and returned to a more literal interpretation of Scripture, they brought with them the same eschatological baggage that initially stemmed from Roman Catholicism, and kept Amillennialism as their default view for the study of last things.
i. Pros: One is able to dismiss Bible prophecy as irrelevant, thus negating the need to study or handle prophetic passages in Scripture as anything other than, historical events.
ii. Cons: In order for this view, one would have to apply serious allegorical or metaphorical interpretations to large sections of Scripture. Would also require historicism to be applied liberally, to which even adherents differ on fulfillment.
3. Historic Pre-Millennialism:
See Post-Tribulation
1.Pre-Millennialism: The view that Christ will return for His bride (the Church) prior to the Millennial Kingdom.
2.Pre-Tribulation: Christ returns for His bride prior to the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel (aka...The Tribulation). This is executed by the the Rapture of the Church. In 1 Thess. 4:16, it is referred to as the 'catching up' (Harpazo, GreekàRapere, Latin, à "Catching up", English). The Rapture of the Church does not begin the Tribulation, but precedes it as a necessity due to the role of the Holy Spirit as Restrainer (2 Thess. 2:7, Eph. 1:14), the wrath of God (1 Thess. 1:10, 5:9, Rev. 3:10), and the order of the judgment of the Church at the Bema Seat (1 Cor. 3:9-15; 2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Peter 4:17)
3.Mid-Tribulation: View's Christ returning at the mid-point of the Tribulation. The mid-point is noted in Matthew 24:15, with the 'Abomination of Desolation', in which the Antichrist desolates the new Jewish Temple's Holy of Holies.
4.Pre-Wrath (newest): See Christ returning between the Sixth Seal and the Seventh Seal Judgment when the Church is raptured out. They do not see the wrath of God beginning, until the Trumpet Judgments.
5.Post-Tribulation: See the Rapture and the Second Coming as the same event, thus the Church goes all the way through the Tribulation.
The main take away from all these views, is that only the Pre-Tribulation maintains the doctrine of imminence (or that Christ could return at any moment), maintains a clear delineation from Israel, thus negating the need for the Church to have to enter any portion of the 70th week of Daniel. (See Daniel 9:24; Jeremiah 30:7-11 for more context)
A primary problem with seeing the Rapture of the Church and the Second Coming as the same event are:
Post-Millennialism: Christ returns at the end of an undefined period of time (the millennium is thus relegated from a 1,000 years, to???) This view was very popular around the turn of the 20th century, but the idealistic and optimistic tenets of Post-Millennialism, crashed into the rocky shores of reality with the onset of World War I, and World War II. It was largely marginalized over the past 50 years, but has found new legs within the Charismatic movements, and to some extent, re-popularizing within Reformed and Covenant theological circles.
Pan-Millennialism (it will all pan out in the end) Unfortunately, the usual state of the modern (or post-modern) Christian who hangs their coats in Amillennial, Post Millennial, or Preterist Churches, is that they tend to amalgamate into the vast pool of Pan-Tribbers, or Pan Millennialists. Since prophecy has either been concluded in the first century, or life will continue on into an undefined and indifferent future, why bother studying? It is the natural state for those who hold to the aforementioned views to end up at. In his article addressing the devastating effects of Amillennialism upon the Churches of Christ over the last half century, Dr. Lynn Mitchell (Church of Christ member, theologian, and Professor), notes:
"Instead, all we have left is ah-millennialism. We are neither passionately radical nor invigoratingly hopeful. We are only a-, from the Greek term meaning" zilch." The eschatological character of our popular preaching and teaching ended up becoming the most bland, impotent, paganizing, ahistorical, docetic body-soul dualism to arise out of the theological confusion of frontier-rural America. It was the kind of eschatology that Mark Twain and H. L. Menchen could earn a living making fun of. From our homemade eschatological vision, one would think that the only purpose for our being on earth is to believe the right religious doctrines, do the right religious things, and associate ourselves with the right religious folks so as to induce God to admit our immortal souls, when we shuck our bodies, to a place beyond the blue."
A sobering commentary indeed.
This brief does not cover many other movements pertaining to Christian Eschatology, particularly those which fall outside the main orthodoxy of the Christian faith due to their being outside of the boundaries of the true Christian faith on other core doctrines. These are:
*Hebrew Roots Movement (primarily Post-Tribulation/Historic Pre-Mill)
*Word/Faith Movement (primarily Post-Millennial)
*Emergent Church (varied if any)
*Seventh Day Adventist (post-Tribulation)
*Pseudo Christian Cults: LDS, Jehovah Witness, Universalist (varied)
In conclusion, one can see that many views have begun over the last two thousand years of Church history. We must be cautious in attributing all wrongs to one particular sect or group, because despite faulty theology, many earnestly are seeking God and the truth in Him. On the flip side, we should exercise caution in accepting all teachings and beliefs as valid or equal. We must remember that belief-systems have consequences.
If one believes that the Kingdom began at the Cross, and we are in the Kingdom now, than one could justify the need for a Pope (Vicar of Christ), or Crusades, or Inquisitions. If one group believes they have replaced the Jewish people as God's chosen, they could justify ignoring national Israel and supporting things like Divestiture or Palestinian terror causes. The NAZI's managed to remove the Jewishness from their Bibles, in order to theologically justify the Final Solution. I'm fond of saying that error begets only more error. And while eschatology is not core to one's salvation, it is key to one's understanding the complete word of God. How you understand the end, will largely drive how you live today. One recommended source for seeing how Christianity began its journey away from the first century construct, is in "Theology Adrift: The Early Church Fathers and Their Views of Eschatology".
Covenant and Reformed theology are terms that are often used interchangeably. They represent the other half of mainstream Protestant thought pertaining to Biblical hermeneutics. Sometimes referred to as Reformed Theology, but distinct in that one could be Reformed and yet not be CT.
Covenant theology refers to one of the basic beliefs that Calvinists have held about the Bible. All Protestants who have remained faithful to their heritage affirm sola Scriptura; the belief that the Bible is our supreme and unquestionable authority. Covenant theology, however, distinguishes the Reformed view of Scripture from other Protestant outlooks by emphasizing that divine covenants unify the teachings of the entire Bible.
CT Summarized
Covenant Theology views the covenants of Scripture as manifestations of either the CW (Covenant of Works) or the CG (Covenant of Grace). The entire story of redemptive history can be seen as God unfolding the CG from its nascent stages (Genesis 3:15) through to its fruition in Christ. Covenant Theology is, therefore, a very Christocentric way of looking at Scripture because it sees the OT as the promise of Christ and the NT as the fulfillment in Christ.
Some have accused Covenant Theology as teaching what is called "Replacement Theology" (i.e., the Church replaces Israel). This couldn't be further from the truth. Unlike Dispensationalism, Covenant Theology does not see a sharp distinction between Israel and the Church. Israel constituted the people of the God in the OT, and the Church (which is made up of Jew and Gentile) constitutes the people of God in the NT; both just make up one people of God (Ephesians 2:11-20). The Church doesn't replace Israel; the Church is Israel and Israel is the Church (Galatians 6:16). All people who exercise the same faith as Abraham are part of the covenant people of God (Galatians 3:25-29).
Systemization of CT dates back to the Reformation era with Martin Luther, John Calvin, Westminster Confession, Savoy Declaration, London Baptist Confession and claims early church father (ECF) roots (albeit with more ambiguity, since CT tends to only view one to three covenants for the entire Bible). CT and Reformed Theology lean heavily on traditional creeds and confessions made by the various Reformers, affirming or denying certain views they hold as Orthodox. Exclusively Calvinistic, but can vary in whether they hold to all five points within Calvinism, or some variation thereof.
CT is similar to Dispensationalism in that CT holds to the main, orthodoxical positions on key areas such as:
- The Deity of Christ
- The Triune nature of God
- The Inerrancy of Scripture
- Salvation by Grace through Faith
Where CT and DISP part ways, is in the following:
- CT sees only one people of God, whereas DISP sees two, the Church, and Israel.
- CT sees two to three covenants implied in Scripture;
*A covenant of works (Gen. 2:16-17)
*A covenant of grace (Gen. 3:15)
*A covenant of redemption. (Eph. 1:3-14)
These differ from the stated covenants actually found in Scripture
*Abrahamic (Gen. 15) ?Land (Deut. 29-30)
?Seed or Davidic (2 Sam 7:12-16)
?Blessing or Blessing (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
- CT can accept or reject Pre-Millennialism, but primarily rejects it based on the blurring between Israel and the Church. Primary eschatology tends to be either Amillennial, Post-Millennial or Historic Premillennialism.
- CT can in varying forms, (mild to strong), be considered Replacement theology (i.e....the Church replaces or supersedes Israel) in the plan and promises of God.
Catholic Theology
The Roman Catholic Church, believes strongly in the idea of Apostolic Succession, by which they claim to trace their authority, back to the Apostle Peter, via the statement made by Christ in Matthew 16:16-19;
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?"
So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
The Roman Catholic Church wrongly attributes Christ charge that the rock is Peter, rather than what Peter confessed. Thus, from Peter onward, the Roman Catholic Church claims to trace its right to organize, add, delete, translate, etc. the Holy Scriptures. History shows, that the Roman Catholic Church did not in fact, begin to be systematized, until at the earliest, the fifth century. Three things had to happen first:
*Emperor Constantine's legalization of the Christian faith within the Roman Empire with the Edict of Milan (AD313). With Constantine's adoption of the Christian faith, he encouraged the Christianization of pagan beliefs, for which they bring into Christianity adding non-biblical practices. Ex: Mithraism, Cult of Isis, Patron saints, etc.
*Augustine's publication of the "City of God", which laid a lot of the theological framework, in which Roman Catholic Theology would come from. (See here for summarized biography of this influential man.)
*Emperor Damasus commissioned Jerome to translate the Bible from its original Greek and Hebrew, into Latin beginning in the fourth century. Although Latin was a popular dialect within the Roman Empire at the time, this would come to prevent the common folk (who increasingly didn't speak Latin) from being able to understand or read the Bible. A clerical class (the Priests, Bishops, Popes) arose to be the mediators between God and man, thus allowing the Roman Catholic Church to completely control the message of what was being taught.
Needless to say, Roman Catholic theology dominated Christendom from the 5th through 15th centuries in a period largely referred to as the "Dark Ages". When the masses began stirring away from the blatant corruption of the papacy between the 13th through 16th centuries, the Roman Catholic Church began various Inquisitions in Europe to stifle dissent. Heretics (those who disagreed with the RCC) were tortured, burned at the stake, drowned, hung, beheaded, etc. for daring to own their own Bibles, or for belonging to non-Catholic sect. The below the more famous martyrs in the lead against Catholic theology.
-John Wycliffe
-John Huss
-William Tyndale
-Jerome of Prague
Eschatological Views
1. Preterism: (Source: Wikipedia): term preterism comes from the Latin praeter, which is listed in Webster's 1913 dictionary as a prefix denoting that something is "past" or "beyond", signifying that either all or a majority of Bible prophecy was fulfilled by AD 70. Historically been general agreement with non-preterists that the first systematic preterist exposition of prophecy was written by the Jesuit Luis de Alcasar during the Counter Reformation
1.Full Preterism: all prophecy has been fulfilled since AD70. Christ returned spiritually and used the Romans to exact His judgment on Israel. (Heretical since it denies Christ's Second Coming)
2.Partial Preterism: Most of prophecy has been fulfilled (up until Rev. 19), except for the Second Coming of Christ, and the eternal state.
i. Pros: If one were so inclined, they are able to dismiss Bible prophecy as irrelevant, thus negating the need to study or handle prophetic passages in Scripture as anything other than, historical events.
ii. Cons: In order for this view (either partial or full), one would have to apply serious allegorical or metaphorical interpretations to large sections of Scripture. Would also require historicism to be applied liberally, to which even Preterists differ on fulfillment.
2. Amillennialism: (Source: Wikipedia) (Greek: a- "no" + millennialism), in Christian eschatology, is the rejection of the belief that Jesus will have a literal, thousand-year-long, physical reign on the earth. Church fathers of the second and third century that rejected the millennium were Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Cyprian. These men were heavily influenced through Grecian Platonism. Since Augustine was also influenced in this Grecian philosophical thought, he leaned heavily on Origen's method of allegorizing Scriptural texts in which he became the first to systematize Amillennialism in his book "City of God". He considered the idea of a physical kingdom to be very carnal, and thus rejected it. Groups who hold to this are:
1.Eastern and Oriental Orthodox
2.Roman Catholic
3.Lutheran
4.Presbyterians
5.Reformed
6.Anglican
7.Methodist
8.Certain Baptists
9.Churches of Christ
10.Disciples of Christ
Amillennialism has been the dominant form of eschatological view over the last 2,000 years, simply because this was the main eschatological view of Roman Catholicism, which dominated Christendom from the 5th through 15th century. Although the Protestant Reformers broke away and returned to a more literal interpretation of Scripture, they brought with them the same eschatological baggage that initially stemmed from Roman Catholicism, and kept Amillennialism as their default view for the study of last things.
i. Pros: One is able to dismiss Bible prophecy as irrelevant, thus negating the need to study or handle prophetic passages in Scripture as anything other than, historical events.
ii. Cons: In order for this view, one would have to apply serious allegorical or metaphorical interpretations to large sections of Scripture. Would also require historicism to be applied liberally, to which even adherents differ on fulfillment.
3. Historic Pre-Millennialism:
See Post-Tribulation
1.Pre-Millennialism: The view that Christ will return for His bride (the Church) prior to the Millennial Kingdom.
2.Pre-Tribulation: Christ returns for His bride prior to the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel (aka...The Tribulation). This is executed by the the Rapture of the Church. In 1 Thess. 4:16, it is referred to as the 'catching up' (Harpazo, GreekàRapere, Latin, à "Catching up", English). The Rapture of the Church does not begin the Tribulation, but precedes it as a necessity due to the role of the Holy Spirit as Restrainer (2 Thess. 2:7, Eph. 1:14), the wrath of God (1 Thess. 1:10, 5:9, Rev. 3:10), and the order of the judgment of the Church at the Bema Seat (1 Cor. 3:9-15; 2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Peter 4:17)
3.Mid-Tribulation: View's Christ returning at the mid-point of the Tribulation. The mid-point is noted in Matthew 24:15, with the 'Abomination of Desolation', in which the Antichrist desolates the new Jewish Temple's Holy of Holies.
4.Pre-Wrath (newest): See Christ returning between the Sixth Seal and the Seventh Seal Judgment when the Church is raptured out. They do not see the wrath of God beginning, until the Trumpet Judgments.
5.Post-Tribulation: See the Rapture and the Second Coming as the same event, thus the Church goes all the way through the Tribulation.
The main take away from all these views, is that only the Pre-Tribulation maintains the doctrine of imminence (or that Christ could return at any moment), maintains a clear delineation from Israel, thus negating the need for the Church to have to enter any portion of the 70th week of Daniel. (See Daniel 9:24; Jeremiah 30:7-11 for more context)
A primary problem with seeing the Rapture of the Church and the Second Coming as the same event are:
Rapture/Translation
| 2nd Coming/Estab. Kingdom |
| Translation of all believers | No translation at all |
| Translated saints go to heaven | Translated saints return to earth |
| Earth not judged | Earth judged & righteousness established |
| Imminent, any-moment, signless | Follows definite predicted signs including |
| Not in the Old Testament | Predicted often in Old Testament |
| Believers only | Affects all men |
| Before the day of wrath | Concluding the day of wrath |
| No reference to Satan | Satan bound |
| Christ comes for His own | Christ comes with His own |
| He comes in the air | He comes to the earth |
| He claims His bride | He comes with His bride |
| Only His own see Him | Every eye shall see Him |
| Tribulation begins | Millennial Kingdom begins |
Post-Millennialism: Christ returns at the end of an undefined period of time (the millennium is thus relegated from a 1,000 years, to???) This view was very popular around the turn of the 20th century, but the idealistic and optimistic tenets of Post-Millennialism, crashed into the rocky shores of reality with the onset of World War I, and World War II. It was largely marginalized over the past 50 years, but has found new legs within the Charismatic movements, and to some extent, re-popularizing within Reformed and Covenant theological circles.
Pan-Millennialism (it will all pan out in the end) Unfortunately, the usual state of the modern (or post-modern) Christian who hangs their coats in Amillennial, Post Millennial, or Preterist Churches, is that they tend to amalgamate into the vast pool of Pan-Tribbers, or Pan Millennialists. Since prophecy has either been concluded in the first century, or life will continue on into an undefined and indifferent future, why bother studying? It is the natural state for those who hold to the aforementioned views to end up at. In his article addressing the devastating effects of Amillennialism upon the Churches of Christ over the last half century, Dr. Lynn Mitchell (Church of Christ member, theologian, and Professor), notes:
"Instead, all we have left is ah-millennialism. We are neither passionately radical nor invigoratingly hopeful. We are only a-, from the Greek term meaning" zilch." The eschatological character of our popular preaching and teaching ended up becoming the most bland, impotent, paganizing, ahistorical, docetic body-soul dualism to arise out of the theological confusion of frontier-rural America. It was the kind of eschatology that Mark Twain and H. L. Menchen could earn a living making fun of. From our homemade eschatological vision, one would think that the only purpose for our being on earth is to believe the right religious doctrines, do the right religious things, and associate ourselves with the right religious folks so as to induce God to admit our immortal souls, when we shuck our bodies, to a place beyond the blue."
A sobering commentary indeed.
This brief does not cover many other movements pertaining to Christian Eschatology, particularly those which fall outside the main orthodoxy of the Christian faith due to their being outside of the boundaries of the true Christian faith on other core doctrines. These are:
*Hebrew Roots Movement (primarily Post-Tribulation/Historic Pre-Mill)
*Word/Faith Movement (primarily Post-Millennial)
*Emergent Church (varied if any)
*Seventh Day Adventist (post-Tribulation)
*Pseudo Christian Cults: LDS, Jehovah Witness, Universalist (varied)
In conclusion, one can see that many views have begun over the last two thousand years of Church history. We must be cautious in attributing all wrongs to one particular sect or group, because despite faulty theology, many earnestly are seeking God and the truth in Him. On the flip side, we should exercise caution in accepting all teachings and beliefs as valid or equal. We must remember that belief-systems have consequences.
If one believes that the Kingdom began at the Cross, and we are in the Kingdom now, than one could justify the need for a Pope (Vicar of Christ), or Crusades, or Inquisitions. If one group believes they have replaced the Jewish people as God's chosen, they could justify ignoring national Israel and supporting things like Divestiture or Palestinian terror causes. The NAZI's managed to remove the Jewishness from their Bibles, in order to theologically justify the Final Solution. I'm fond of saying that error begets only more error. And while eschatology is not core to one's salvation, it is key to one's understanding the complete word of God. How you understand the end, will largely drive how you live today. One recommended source for seeing how Christianity began its journey away from the first century construct, is in "Theology Adrift: The Early Church Fathers and Their Views of Eschatology".
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY ALL NEW PROPHECY AND CREATION DESIGN WEBSITES. THERE IS A LOT TO SEE AND DO..........
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