| What Presbyterians Believe | Eschatology Section I - CONTEXT |
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Other parts of this paper: SECTION II - Eschatology in the Reformed Tradition SECTION III - Eschatology in Biblical Perspective SECTION IV - Implications for Individual and Church |
1. Context A. Lure of the Unknown Curiosity about the Unknown is a universal proclivity. It may be constrained by fear, deluded by fantasy, or encouraged by hope. If fear prevails, then ignorance, superstition., and bondage generally follow. When fantasy predominates, then reality, responsibility, and reason are often forsaken. Where hope pervades, then discovery, understanding, and freedom usually flourish. The plucking of the forbidden fruit in the Garden dramatized human curiosity at once both wishfully tasting a possible future joy, as well as fearfully testing a potential future judgment. The promise of a seed which would bruise the serpent's head brightened the bleak future human venture had produced, with a shining hope of reconciliation, a to-be- restored Eden and a sense of the overruling sovereignty of God. Hunger for that future is like a fragment of iron in the human heart drawing us even through the blackest night toward the lodestone of a golden age. The restless quest for some assured foresight into the share of the future is common to all cultures, in all ages. Constrained by fear, it accounts for ancient oracles and omens, fortunes from palms and tea leaves, astrological charts and daily horoscopes, tarot cards and crystal balls, rabbit's feet and wood knocking, and both religious and secular futurologies. Deluded by fantasy, curiosity conjures up a dream, disdains full responsibility, tilts at windmills, and expects the rainbow to move the pot of gold to us. Inspired by hope, it has enlarged the encyclopedia of knowledge, opened the secrets of mind and matter, landed men on the moon, and by God's revelation of His purposes assured us that "all human history should be consummated in Christ, that everything in Heaven or earth should find its perfection and fulfillment in him" (Eph. :10, Phillips). It is not strange, therefore, that inspired writers of the Old Testament prophecies were curious as to the who and when of events they described: "The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours searched and enquired about this salvation: they enquired what person or time was indicated by the Spirit of Christ within them when predicting the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory (1 Peter 1:10-11 RSV). Nor is it strange that Jesus' followers were hoping the Resurrection meant the future was then impending, and so asked, "Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?" To which Jesus replied-nor should we today forget for a moment-"It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has placed by his own authority" (Acts 1:7). No date was set, nor was the validity of an "earthly kingdom" assured. The focus was on the task given, the commission to bear witness to Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, making disciples of all nations, all this under the assurance of Christ's presence with them to the end of the age. B. Historical Roots of Futurism In the early Christian centuries, the Church, suffering relentless persecution under successive imperial edicts, clung hard to the hope of Christ's immediate coming. This premillennial dogma, known as chiliasm (from the Greek word for a thousand years), combined the Jewish expectation of an earthly Messianic Kingdom with Christ's return to earth. (Cf. C. below for millennial definitions.) With the victory of Constantine (312) and the Council of Nicea (325) the pressure of persecution was exchanged for the power of privilege, quickly moving from welcome toleration to establishment as the official religion of the empire. It was not long before Augustine (354-430) was to reinterpret the millennium as spiritually fulfilled in the life of the Church, a time he judged then already in process after which Christ was to return in judgment following a last outburst of evil. The Augustinian view can be called post- millennial since it held that Christ returns following the millennium, or amillennial since it held that with Christ's return final judgment and the eternal state immediately ensue with no time-bound period involved thereafter. The year A.D. 1000 approached with visions of terror for multitudes fearing the approaching Last Judgment. After the year A.D. 1000 came and passed, a strictly amillennial view was proposed which held that the thousand years was totally symbolic, having no reference to actual time. In the course of time, others recaptured a literal thousand years by teaching that only a part of the period extending from Christ's First Advent to the Second is the actual millennium. Among the dates proposed for the start of the millennium are the coronation of Charlemagne in A.D. 800 (Hengstenherg), and the Council of Trent in A.D. 1560 (Durham). By the early 16th century, it was largely held that the millennium was passed and the Church was in "the little season" following (Revelation 6:11). The Reformers identified the Pope as the Antichrist, and central to the Roman Counter-Reformation was the Jesuit effort to propound an eschatological dogma which would relieve the papacy of that stigma. Two important interpretations were offered: (1) Luis de Alcazar (1554-1613) proposed that the entire book of Revelation had already been fulfilled at the time of the paean Roman empire under Nero, the "real" Antichrist, and the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) or by the fall of pagan Rome (A.D. 410). This explanation was not then accepted but it was the forerunner of the "preterist" (time that is past) view of the book of Revelation. (2) Francisco Riberia (1537-1591) in 1590 published a five hundred page exposition of the book of Revelation, the main points of which became the official Roman Catholic eschatological position of that time and marked the real beginning of the "futurist" school: (1) from and including chapter 4, the book of Revelation describes events yet future; (b) the Antichrist would be a man who would destroy the Christian Faith as such, rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, and be initially accepted as the Messiah by a regathered Jewish nation; (3) the leadership worldwide of the Antichrist would continue for three and a half years; (3) the final conflict of nations with the Antichrist would center in the Middle East, specifically in Palestine. Three centuries later, in 1826, this forceful futuristic influence entered mainstream Protestantism. Samuel Maitland, curate of Christ's Church, Gloucester, published a widely-read book supporting the Riberian position and critical of the whole Reformation. James Todd, professor of Hebrew at the University of Dublin, converted to Maitland's futurism and published supportive pamphlets and books. John Newman, leading figure of the Oxford (tractarian) Movement, published a pamphlet endorsing Todd's futurism, and in less than five years converted fully to Rome. Contemporary with the Oxford Movement, a Scottish Presbyterian, Edward Irving, gave support to Riberian futurism with his dynamic preaching. His deep sense of the general apathy of Protestant Christians in his day convinced him the Churches would never complete the task of worldwide witness to the Gospel. Irving felt, as so many do today, that God must spark the Church with a reappearance of miraculous powers and gifts. By 183 1, the "gift of tongues" was in evidence among Irving's followers, but the center of hope was not on power to the Church to perform its task but as a sign of the approaching Second Advent of Christ. It was at this time that a new dimension was given to the emerging futurism: the concept of the rapture of the Church before Christ's coming. This idea of the two-stage coming of Christ (first, for His Church, then with His Church) is attributed to Maggie MacDonald of Port Glasgow, Scotland, who, it is claimed, came to this understanding in a trance (I 860). Very soon afterwards, John Nelson Darby, a founder of the Plymouth Brethren Movement, fully expounded the rapture concept in his books, developing the scheme of dispensationalism. It remained for W. E. Blackstone with his 1878 book, Jesus Is Coming, and Dr. C. I. Scofield's Reference Bible in 1909 to popularize thoroughly the premillennial interpretation within the dispensational format. A certain intellectual and theological respectability was further afforded in the publication of Lewis Chafer's seven- volume Systematic Theology (1948). The dispensational system in the 1970s is popularized and propagated notably by Hal Lindsey, Salem Kirban, John Walvoord, Dwight Pentecost, and James M. Boice; by Zondervan Press; by many radio and television religious programs; by some religious educational curriculums, notably Scripture Press; by many Bible colleges and institutes; and by Dallas Theological Seminary and its theological quarterly, Bibliotheca Sacra. Our twentieth century has witnessed the accelerating fragmentation of Christendom, both within the mainline denominations, and by the emergence of splinter and independent churches, cults, and new denominations, often with an eschatological plank a central issue. Cults hardly Christian in any real sense, such as Sun Moon's Unification Church, boasting a potential living Second Messiah heralded by "signs of the times," continue to appear as well. C. Summary of Millennial Definitions Before proceeding to the next section, it is important to identify briefly the main millennial positions. All millennial theories relate the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 to the interval of human history prior to the Last Day or introduction of the Eternal State. Each view also clearly reveals distinguishable attitudes regarding human history and the role and prospects for the Church in history. 1. Historic Premillennialism (Chiliasm) Historic Premillennialism holds that Christ will return to the earth prior to the Last Day in order to exercise rule over the nations for a thousand years in the last stage of human history. It is pessimistic concerning the role and prospects of the Church in human history; therefore it posits another age, the millennium, between Christ's return and the Last Day, during which Christ rules in person over a theocratic kingdom to which all the nations of the world are subject. Periods of great world upheaval and crisis have tended to spawn and multiply despair in society and premillennial visions within Christianity. 2. Postmillennialism. Postmillennialism expects a future millennium or latter-day prosperity of the church prior to Christ's coming. It holds that the return of Christ introduces, not a temporal kingdom but the eternal state. It does, however, expect a period before the return of Christ and the end of the age in which the Church will have fulfilled its task in the world. The Reformed tradition, for the greater part of its history, has shown more affinity and support of the postmillennial perspective than for other interpretations. This is due largely to the Reformed emphasis upon the sovereignty of God, the belief that Christ is now Lord over all spheres of human life, and the conviction that the Christian community has been empowered by the Holy Spirit to call and work for the full promulgation of the Gospel and the transformation of culture and society to accord with the mind and will of Christ. 3. Amillennialism Amillennialism holds that there will be no future golden age upon the earth for the Church. Whatever rule Christ exercises within history is in the spiritual sphere, in the souls of individuals, or in the life of the Church. It contains no vision of hope for its future prior to the Last Day when Christ returns to institute the eternal state and manifests His glorious Kingdom. Optimistic amillennialism agrees with the above except that it holds the Church will nearly have finished its task. Days of spiritual awakening and missionary advance have generally reinforced postmillennial and optimistic amillennial expectations. 4. Dispensational Premillennialism Dispensationalism gives premillennialism a complete system. Human history is regarded as a series of ages (dispensations) in which man is tested with respect to some aspect revealed of God's will. In each case man fails, is judged by God, and then set on the trail under new covenant conditions. The seven ages are labeled: Innocence (in the Garden); Conscience (to the Flood); Human Government (from Babel); Promise (from Abraham); Law (from Moses); Grace (from Christ); Kingdom (the coming millennium). The age of Grace ends with the unseen coming of Christ for His Church (the Rapture), both the living, and by partial resurrection, the dead in Christ. A period of seven years ensues on earth marked by an international treaty of peace, including a protectorate of Israel. This seven years is "the time of Jacob's troubles" a leftover of the 70 times 7 years, or 490 years, promised as judgment captivity to Israel, but which lasted only 483 years. Midway, the Antichrist reveals himself, claiming to be the Messiah, and institutes a controlled world economy and hounds the Jews for their refusal to worship him. Christ appears with His Church and le-ions of angels to quell the Antichrist forces, bind Satan for a thousand years and establish the millennia kingdom under the reestablished throne of David on earth and by the Church out of the New Jerusalem hovering visibly in space above the earth. Following the millennium, man rejects the era of enforced peace and plenty by following the then-released Devil in an effort to conquer the Holy City. The uprising is crushed. The general resurrection then occurs, the Final Judgment, the renovation of Heaven and Earth, and the dawn of eternity. This elaborate futurology has a number of strong appeals. First, it seems to accommodate affairs and events of the modern world to prophetic Scriptures, as other millennial theories have done in the past. Second, it places a benediction on the "world's mess" which only Christ can correct in visible power, eliminates social responsibility other than the Christian's duty in citizenship and provides joy in every sign of approaching calamity, for calamity demands Parousia. Third, it makes Divine Election absolute, and freedom of the human will is actually lost in the detailed chart of established future events. Nonetheless, it is based upon many assumptions which violate Reformed theology (cf. Section V and Appendix following). |