Unraveling the End A Biblical Synthesis of Competing Views

1. Unraveling the EndA Biblical Synthesis of Competing Views

2. “Few doctrines unite and separate Christians as much as eschatology... ...One of the most divisive elements in recent Christian history.” Christianity Today February 6, 1987; p-1-I

3. 2 Guidelines • Sola Scriptura • In Love

4. SUMMARY:7 Reasons Why Vital • How much of the Bible is involved? • How much salvation do we currently have? • How much of the kingdom do we currently have? • What do you do with the modern-day nation of Israel? • It’s the focal point of the liberal-skeptic attack on the Bible and Deity of Christ. • It makes a difference in your worldview • It makes a difference in your life and family

5. Four Abuses • Tendency to import or add things not there in the text. • Inconsistently applying literal or symbolic meanings. • Accepting a belief because it was simply “told us.” • Stubborn resistance to change when confronted with scriptural evidence.

6. Four Views(in order of prominence) #1 – Premillennial (Dispensational) #2 – Amillennial #3 – Postmillennial #4 – Preterist

7. Unraveling the EndA Biblical Synthesis of Competing Views

8. #3 – Postmillennial View Motivated our forefathers in the faith to come to America . . . • Not just to escape religious persecution. • But to expand the kingdom of God. • And help Christianize the world. • Better and better as society was transformed. • Each Christian’s individual responsibility.

9. #3 – Postmillennial View “discredited” • World War I and World War II • Atom Bomb • Threat of a nuclear Armageddon • Moral decline of society, • Rebirth of the nation of Israel (1948)

10. #3 – Postmillennial View “. . . there used to be a group called ‘postmillennialists.’ . . . World War I greatly disheartened this group and World War II virtually wiped out this viewpoint. No self-respecting scholar who looks at the world conditions and the accelerating decline of Christian influence today is a ‘postmillennialist.’” Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth, 164-165.

11. #3 – Postmillennial View • Are SURE – Christ’s Second Coming is future (happens after the 1,000 years) • Be personal, visible, bodily, and in great glory ending history at the “end of time.” • But will not occur any time soon. • All three other Four Chief Moments are also future.

12. #3 – Postmillennial View • Optimistic kingdom orientation. • Rarely, if ever, charged with heresy. • A lot of Scripture to back their view . . . for . . . • Earthly and historical success of the gospel. • Growth of the present and earthly kingdom of God in this present age. • Victory within history . . . in terms of converting a sizeable portion of humankind to Christianity. • All of which must take place BEFORE Christ can return.

13. #3 – Postmillennial ViewScriptures • Genesis 1:28 • Isaiah 9:6-7 • Ezekiel 47:1-12 • Daniel 2:35; 2:44; 7:27-28 • Luke 1:33 • Mark 1:15

14. #3 – Postmillennial ViewScriptures Growth parables • SEED scattered on the ground produces the harvest (Mark 4:26-29). • MUSTARD SEED into a tree (Matt. 13: 31-32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-19). • YEAST throughout the dough (Matt. 13:33; Luke 13:20-21).

15. #3 – Postmillennial ViewScriptures Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.”

17. #3 – Postmillennial ViewScriptures Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

18. “During the past sixteen years I can recollect only two occasions on which I have heard sermons specifically devoted to the theme of the Kingdom of God. . . . I find this silence rather surprising because it is universally agreed by New Testament scholars that the central theme of the teaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of God.” [quoting Dr. I. Howard Marshall of the University of Aberdeen] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 59.

19. Supportive Quotes • "the great omission . . . why . . . today's church [is] so weak" Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 40f. • "reductionism of the gospel" Darrell Guder, The Continuing Conversion of the Church, xiiif.   • “the gospel we proclaim has been shrunk” Robert Lynn, “Far as the curse is found” in Breakpoint Worldview magazine, Oct. ’06, 14. • “we have settled for a little gospel, a miniaturized version that cannot address the robust problems of our world” Scot McKnight, “The 8 Marks of a Robust Gospel” in Christianity Today magazine, March 2008, 36.

20. Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe 1) “Fulfilling the assignment of preaching the Kingdom is the key to the timing of the return of Christ. Jesus said that the end will come after the gospel of the Kingdom is preached to all nations. . . . The fact that Jesus has not come back yet is proof that His assignment, which He delegated to His followers in every generation, has not yet been fulfilled.”

21. Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe 2) “How many churches today are actively and conscientiously preaching the gospel of . . . . the Kingdom of God? Not just any message will do. . . . Jesus will return only when the message of the Kingdom has been proclaimed in all the earth, and that proclamation is the Church’s responsibility.”

22. Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe 3) “[In] Africa, many African believers have never heard the gospel of the Kingdom of God. They know Jesus, but they have never been taught about their status and rights as sons and daughters of God and citizens and heirs of His Kingdom. . . . Even in Europe and the West . . . few people have heard the gospel of the Kingdom. [Yet] Many have heard about Jesus. . . .”

23. Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe 4) [Some] “have heard the wrong message of the Kingdom. . . . that is perhaps the most serious [deficiency] of all. . . . The gospel of the Kingdom of God . . . must be carefully defined so that there are no ambiguities. . . .”

24. Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe 5) “One of the reasons the Church is not more effective at reaching the nations is because we are not preaching the message they need to hear. . . . Unfortunately many in the Church have discovered the King but they have no clue about the Kingdom that He came to bring to mankind.”

25. Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe 6) “So much time today we get the message wrong by preaching the good news of heaven. The two are not the same. We tell people to put their faith in Jesus for salvation and then we focus on heaven as our goal and destination. Jesus never preached heaven. The disciples never preached heaven, and neither should we. There may be a lot of appeal to the idea of going to heaven . . . but people struggling with daily life on earth . . . . need to hear the good news of the Kingdom of heaven—the rule of God has come to earth and all can experience the reality of that world.”

26. Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe 7) “People everywhere are looking for the Kingdom, even if they don’t recognize it by that name. . . . “People are not looking for religion; they are looking for power, and the Kingdom offers power. . . . If we preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God, people will respond.”

27. Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe 8) “When we preach Christ without preaching also about the Kingdom of God, we do people a great disservice. . . . Jesus preached the Kingdom, but the Church preaches so many other things rather than the Kingdom. . . . It’s the lost message of Jesus that needs to be resurrected in our times.”

28. Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe 9) “The gospel of the Kingdom is the only true gospel. Anything else we preach is not the true gospel, or at least, not the complete gospel. Preaching about Jesus Christ is a vital and essential part of preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, because He is our way into the Kingdom. Just because we place our faith in Christ, however, does not mean that we automatically understand either what it means to be a citizen of the Kingdom or how to live like one.”

29. Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe 10) “Every one of the 7 billion people on planet earth is seeking the Kingdom of God, which is their ultimate fulfillment. Every religion and activity of mankind is man’s attempt to find the Kingdom. It is the pearl that out-values all pearls, and the only treasure that is worth all the other treasures of life. The Kingdom is life itself. . . . [and] The king is the central component of a kingdom and embodies the essence of the kingdom.”

30. #3 – Postmillennial View Demise 1) Negative world events. 2) Absorbed into the social gospel movement. 3)Charges of being “triumphalistic.” 4) A small band of modern-day postmillennial scholars fight back.

31. Onward, Christian Soldiers (1865) Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,With the cross of Jesus going on before.Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;Forward into battle see His banners go! At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee;On then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise;Brothers lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.

32. Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus (1858) Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Ye soldiers of the cross, Lift high His royal banner, It must not suffer loss; From victory unto victory His army shall He lead, Till every foe is vanquished And Christ is Lord indeed.

33. Joy to the World! (1719) (1)Joy to the world, the Lord is come!Let earth receive her King;Let every heart prepare Him room,And heaven and nature sing,And heaven and nature sing,And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

34. Joy to the World! (1719) (2)Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!Let men their songs employ;While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plainsRepeat the sounding joy,Repeat the sounding joy,Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

35. Joy to the World! (1719) (3) No more let sins and sorrows grow,Nor thorns infest the ground;He comes to make His blessings flowFar as the curse is found,Far as the curse is found,Far as, far as, the curse is found.

36. Joy to the World! (1719) (4) He rules the world with truth and grace,And makes the nations proveThe glories of His righteousness,And wonders of His love,And wonders of His love,And wonders, wonders, of His love.

37. ??? For the darkness shall turn to dawning, And the dawning to noonday bright, And Christ’s great kingdom shall come to earth, The kingdom of peace and light. We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations (1896)

39. “the most serious error in much of the current ‘prophetic’ teaching is the claim that the future of Christendom is to be read not in terms of revival and victory, but of growing impotence and apostasy.” Oswald T. Allis, in Foreword to Roderick Campbell, Israel and the New Covenant, ix.

40. #3 – Postmillennial View The bottom line for why postmillennialists think their view is hated so much nowadays is this: Their view of exercising “dominion in history . . . . teaches responsibility.” Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., He Shall Have Dominion, back cover.

41. #3 – Postmillennial View Duration of the Millennium • Some say figuratively. • Lasts longer than a literal thousand years. • We are living in it now. • Not something to come cataclysmically at some future time.

42. #3 – Postmillennial View Duration of the Millennium • Others believe we are not now living in the millennium. • See it as a special and future “golden age” of peace and prosperity, of gospel success, and the triumph of good over evil. • May or may not be a literal thousand years in length.

43. #3 – Postmillennial View End of the Millennium • The end of time and the end of history coming after the millennium at Christ’s Second Coming. • Proceeded by a brief period of apostasy and conflict between Christian and evil forces . . . • Headed up by the end-time antichrist.

44. #3 – Postmillennial View End of the Millennium • Christ taking his Church to be with Him. • The resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. • An end to all earthly existence and to the earth itself. • The final judgment. • The beginning of “the eternal state.” • A totally new or renewed earth—“the new heavens and new earth.”

45. “This does not mean that there ever will be a time on this earth when every person will be a Christian, or that all sin will be abolished. But it does mean that evil in all its many forms eventually will be reduced to negligible proportions, that Christian principles will be the rule, not the exception, and that Christ will return to a truly Christianized world.” Loraine Boettner, The Millennium, 14.

46. C.S. Lewis condemn it as: • “the idea which here shuts out the Second Coming from our minds.” • “Idea for the world slowly ripening to perfection” as “a myth . . . which distracts us from our real duties and our real interest.” C.S. Lewis, “The World’s Last Night” (1960), in The Essential C.S. Lewis, Lyle W. Dorsett, ed., 388.

48. #3 – Postmillennial View Many Comings of Christ • Includes his “return in judgment” coming in A.D. 70. • His future final coming in glory and consummation at the end of time. • In the meantime and in between there have been, are, and will be many comings of Christ in various ways.

49. #3 – Postmillennial View One More Big Problem Re: Matt. 24:14 • According to the Bible itself, the gospel of the kingdom was preached to all nations and to the world in that 1st century. Col 1:6, 23 Rom. 1:8; 10:18; 16:26; Acts 1:8 2:5; 24:5 Luke 2:1 • The Greek word “world” is oikoumene, meaning “land . . . specifically the Roman Empire. • Jesus’ prerequisite is past in fulfillment and was satisfied over 1900 years ago.

50. #4 – Preterist View • The least known. • But now the chief recipient of heresy charges. • The easiest view to present. • But perhaps the hardest to believe.