Thats a hard sell, frankly. The English noun/verb "rapture" comes from the Latin noun raptura/verb rapio that is used 14 times in the NT.The basic idea of the word is "to remove suddenly or snatch away." It is used in the NT in reference to stealing/plundering (Matt. And Ive gone back after I preach, and Ive written commentaries - now I think 26 or 27 volumes on the New Testament - back through the same material again and again and again and again and again, so that this understanding of eschatology has had to stand the acid test of every text. This message clears up any questions as to where MacArthur stands on the eschatology issue. 2023 Grace to You. A recurring topic of interest in his writings is the historical reliability of the Scriptures. Christ's Prophetic Plans: A Futuristic Premillennial Primer. Romans 11:28 . 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. Staggering. All this panic about global warming, and all this panic about the end of the world and asteroids crashing into the earth? What did MacArthur fail to tell the attendees at the Shepherds Conference? Turn to 1 Corinthians 15; 1 Corinthians 15. 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. It makes no sense. 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. Where is the divine mandate to do that? So, we can set aside the idea that somehow this is rooted in wacky dispensationalism; it is not. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Pretribulational Rapture in 17th and 18th Century England. In 1679, Scottish minister Walter Smith drew up some guidelines for prayer meetings: As it is the undoubted duty of all to pray for the coming of Christs kingdom, so all that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and know what it is to bow a knee in good earnest, will long and pray for the out-making of the gospel-promises to his Church in the latter days, that King Christ would go out upon the white horse of the gospel, conquering and to conquer, and make a conquest of the travail of his soul, that it may be sounded that the kingdoms of the world are become his, and his name called upon from the rising of the sun to its going down. Particular to this framework is the eschatological position known as "premillennial dispensationalism" which holds that Christ will return prior to a literal one-thousand-year reign on earth. That is a large part of evangelical Christianity, the Wesleyan movement, Charismatic movement, Methodists, etc., etc., many Baptists. Not one reference anywhere in Scripture - and there are over two thousand, referring to Israel - means anything other than Israel. But, in any case - and by the way, postmillennialists and amillennialists differ as to the details of these kinds of things. Yet it is inconsistent with. Dispensationalism is a kind of framework for history that is organized around seven dispensationsseven orders or administrations. And there are a lot of people who get the first one right - they get election right - and they dont get Israel right, and they are lost when it comes to eschatology. This is postmillennialism at its best. What he is saying is, a literal interpretation of the Old Testament is going to lead you to a premillennial view, and since we dont want to get there, we cant use a literal approach. Jonathan Edwards, a noted postmillennialist and someone MacArthur quotes unfavorably in his Shepherds talk, outlined the future of the Christian Church in his 1774 History of Redemption. It matters to me. Btw, LA is beautiful and the conference is great, I hope to post some reflections as the week goes on. Its a strange approach. My professors were a Who's Who of dispensational premillennialism: John Walvoord (then president of DTS), Charles Ryrie (author of Dispensationalism Today and The Ryrie Study Bible ), and J. Dwight Pentecost (author of perhaps the most influential text on the subject at that time, Things to Come ), just to mention the more well-known. I reject the wacky world of newspaper exegesis and cartoon eschatology, and crazy interpretation like the locusts of Revelation 9 being helicopters, et cetera. 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. All of these are benefits of getting it right. Out of their own mouth - whats wrong with that? Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases on Amazon.com. But some are holding on to what they have taught in the past; I guess self-preservation dominates their theology at that point. 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. (Ridgeley, Commentary on the Larger Catechism, 1:563564.). Worship - John F. MacArthur 2012-01-20 Nothing is more important than worship. Would you agree? "Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist is a Pre-Millennialist." For those of you who don't know, this was a statement, among others, that John MacArthur was recorded as making at the recent Shepherd's Conference 2007 at Grace Community Church, Sun Valley California. Now, there are people who do this to Genesis 1, 2 and 3. And . 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. Now, here comes the real irony; this is the real irony. John MacArthur laid down the gauntlet on the issue of prophecy in his opening talk at the 2007 "Shepherds' Conference" that was titled "Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist Is a Premillennialist." He was emphatic that only premillennialism takes the prophecies concerning the future of Israel seriously. After clicking 'Register', you will receive an email with a link to verify your account and to complete your registration. After that he must be loosed for a little while." We know that Word about the future has that power. 2. In other words, Piper believes Jesus Christ will come on earth and reign for 1,000 years. All right. But that is essentially what theyre asking us to do. Do not look down on others from your view of the end-times. John MacArthur was one of the influences that helped turn me to Preterism. 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. The other view is whats called openness theology, and its the same thing; it simply means God has no idea what the future is. If you look at Acts 3:19, Peter says, Repent therefore, and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing - thats the millennium - may come from the presence of the Lord; that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive till the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. So, having your eschatology in place may lead you to repentance. Grace to You radio, video, audio, print, and website resources reach millions worldwide each day. Here at Grace to You Europe we take our data protection responsibilities very seriously and, as you would expect, have undertaken a significant programme of work to ensure that we are ready for this important legislative change. 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.. It is one thing to omit them for a time, and another to do it ordinarily. They taught that the kingdom of God would be visibly manifest on earth after the second coming of Jesus. His mode of expositing those verses that supposedly counter Preterism really helped me to focus on those areas in the Bible. Because, you see, if it doesnt mean what it says it means, then any suggestion is as bad as any other suggestion. Accordingly, we have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions in order to comply with GDPR. First John 3 verse 2: Beloved - 1 John 3:2 Now are we the children of God. In similar language, Scripture affirms the perpetuity of ethnic Israel to a future salvation and a future kingdom as a race of people, and that in that salvation and in that kingdom will be the fulfillment of all divine promises given to them in the Old Testament, repeated in the New Testament, and through them to the world. 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. 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. I have even called thee by thy name Isaiah 65:9: Mine elect shall inherit it - the promises of God. You have nothing to fear, nothing to worry about. Some of the most formidable amillennialists - and Im talking about well-respected, very erudite influential theologians - say things like this, and Ill quote. Process theology: they are the theologians, liberal theologians, who believe that God is in process of becoming what He will be. Israel and the church, and advocate for futuristic millennialism. His message in General Session 1 was entitled Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist is Premillennial. Because when you understand Gods purpose for Israel, you now have the foundation for all eschatology; all eschatology. Why do we want to run from that? 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. That is to say, while they understood that someone would come, they understood whatever it was that had been revealed to them, the timing was not clear, and the precise personages were not clear. The completed registration allows us to send order and donation receipts to the email address you provided. Most of the Reformers and the Puritans were postmils. . For this perishable must put on the imperishable, this mortal must put on immortality. And then he goes on to talk about the fact that in that moment, in that event, Death is swallowed up in victory. 315K views 1 year ago Significant video editing was used to create a unique storyline that teaches about the end times, specifically premillennialism and amillennialism. DP also believes that God has a place for both national Israel (cf. We know that, so our ambition is, when we get to that place, to be rewarded because we are pleasing to Him. 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. In keeping with his view of faith, MacArthur denigrates "facts," "doctrine," "intellectual assent," and so on. They dont faze me. Ive preached through many of the books of the Old Testament, the first eleven chapters of Genesis through Daniel, Zechariah, the minor prophets, and pieces and bits of Isaiah and others in the Old Testament. Its there. Reformed theologian John Piper affirmed his belief that the second coming of Christ is coming soon and indicated that he is a premillennialist. He and his wife, Christie, have six children. How could they believe unless He caused them to believe? Help train Christians to boldly share the good news of Jesus Christ in a way that clearly communicates to this secular age. The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics helps Christians show unbelievers the truth, goodness, and beauty of the gospel as the only hope that fulfills our deepest longings. The second, after the conversion of the Jews. (Quoted in Iain Murray, The Puritan Hope: Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1971), 72. 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. This makes two distinct judgmentsone for Christians and one for non-Christians after the millennium. Show more Friends Following Now, understanding the future is you know, thats a general statement that you would be blessed - but look at just a couple of other things quickly. You get your eschatology right when you get Israel right. Please make sure all fields are filled out. Not that they were the only ones to be saved, but they were the ones through whom God will eventually reach, and even set up His Son to rule over the nations. It was developed in mid-19 th century England by John Darby, a leader of the small but influential Plymouth Brethren Movement. The Gospel Coalition supports the church by providing resources that are trusted and timely, winsome and wise, and centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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