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. 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. In fact, the worst evil thats ever been done on the history of the world was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and by that - the worst evil - He gained the greatest glory. Israel and the church, and advocate for futuristic millennialism. The church will become more influential, more impactful, more spiritually powerful. And so, I think its a fair test to see whether eschatology holds up. 7 Reasons Why the Gospel of John is So Special 3 days ago Let me give you a theology lesson here a little bit. His presentation was not an attempt to harmonize Calvinism with a premillennial view but rather to show the inconsistency of the contrary. Since Scripture speaks of the Millennium as a time of great prosperity for the kingdom of God, post-mills are inherently optimistic. Show more Friends Following Now, there are people who do this to Genesis 1, 2 and 3. Whats that about? I dont know about you, but I really cant get too worked up about greenhouse gases. They dont faze me. 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. As you may be aware, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into full effect on 25th May 2018. But, in any case - and by the way, postmillennialists and amillennialists differ as to the details of these kinds of things. We can interpret it the way we interpret any other passage of Scripture, with the same use of the normal, natural means of interpreting language, and we should; and it will yield for us as clear an understanding of the future as the Lord wants us to have. Leave it to the semi-Pelagians and Pelagians, who go in and out of salvation; it makes sense for their theology. There are a number of viewpoints of what the Bible means when it speaks of future events. 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. They dont want to accept that the entire universe was created in six nearly twenty-four-hour days. They are certainly available (or they should be) in the library at MacArthurs Masters Seminary. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure., Getting your eschatology right will bless you and getting your eschatology right will purify you. Every Sunday morning for over 50 years, John MacArthur a faithful pastor with many of the same convictions as Barrow has ascended the pulpit of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, opened his Bible, and boldly preached God's Word to the thousands assembled there to worship. But let me tell you something: normal, natural, literal interpretation is the only way to stop abuse of Scripture. The church will have an increasing influence in the world. Every promise God made to Abraham about his lineage inheriting the land of Palestine has been fulfilled! Most of the Reformers and the Puritans were postmils. So, they did it, and we distributed that at the Shepherds Conference - 350-page version of Revelation, in which the full interpretation is provided there and of course, you can advance to the full two volumes if youd like. This morning John MacArthur opened the 2007 Shepherd's Conference with a loud blast that will no doubt be heard around the Reformed world in the coming weeks. 4. Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource. There are over two thousand references to Israel in Scripture; not one of them means anything but Israel. Christ's Prophetic Plans offers the reader John MacArthur's most explicit writing on eschatology and is perfect for pastors, bible professors, teachers, and students with a heart and mind for discovering Biblical truth. And Im confident that God didnt reveal prophetic truth in so much detail to hide anything, to obscure the truth, but to reveal it for our blessing, our motivation and His glory. No kingdom on earth ruled by Christ before He gets here, and no kingdom on earth ruled by Christ after He gets here. John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, editors Moody Publishers 2012-02-21 Five faculty members of The Master's Seminary have written an excellent primer on what they call "futuristic premillennialism." This is a strong defense of pretribulational dispensational premillennialism. Please be aware that these items are sent out from our office in the UK. If this is a future event, why arent premillennialists warning the Jews in Israel whats about to take place? 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. (Edmonton, AB Canada: Still Waters Revival Books, [1855] 1993), 2:621. Craig and his wife Fran have two daughters and reside in Centennial, Colorado. Thats for people who dont know this; that the way history ends, is with Jesus coming and taking us away. 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? And that was over the gospel, and over the nature of Christ, and over salvation by grace through faith and over the authority of Scripture. 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. We also applaud his insistence that the Bible must be interpreted literally, according to its normal sense. 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. But not us, who live and breathe the rarified air of sovereign grace and election; it makes no sense to me. Primer, ed. - comfort one another. This is simply a way to understand Scripture in its normal sense. It is narrative history, and we fight - sometimes tooth and nail - to maintain the literal veracity of Genesis 1 through 3. Its the same God, same terminology. You forfeit everything, and God gives it to somebody else - namely, the church - and we hope the church can do better than Israel or the church will forfeit it all as well. Not true. Therefore, Israel has been permanently set aside, so that the only kingdom will be that kingdom that we call the church, ruled by Christ, either expanding to take over the world, or existing in the world, and finally in heaven. Ive been putting an outline together in preparation for two talks I did for the December 1819 online A Purchased Victory: A Conference on the Bright Hope of Postmillennialism. My two talks deal with biblical and cultural impediments that are often raised against postmillennialism. Because when you understand Gods purpose for Israel, you now have the foundation for all eschatology; all eschatology. He is the author, co-author or co-editor of fifteen books and more than eighty articles in journals or multi-author works. I recently read this great article and would recommend every professing Calvinist to give it a read, I believe John MacArthur's arguments for Pre-Millennialism are biblically irrefutable, mainly because the traditional Reformed view (Amillennialism) does away (Replacement Theology) with future Israel (God's Elect) and that is far from the truth Preachers Should Measure Twice and Cut Once, Why Our Church Cancelled Christmas Eve Service. Do you understand the massive apologetic power of the existence of Israel as an ethnic people in their own land? John MacArthur was one of the influences that helped turn me to Preterism. We want the Word to bless, to make us pure, to stabilize us, to comfort us, to give us a passion for evangelism. Regarding this Dr. Timothy Jones writes, "Dispensationalism emphasizes the differences and discontinuity between the physical descendants of Abraham and followers of Jesus [2]. 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. O.T. You can choose Him and then not choose Him, and then choose Him again and then not choose Him, and you make the decision; and so, all of the promises of God are conditional on you. Please respond to confirm your registration. He also spoke briefly about dispensationalism, but I am not going to cover that here, I got to run. Help train Christians to boldly share the good news of Jesus Christ in a way that clearly communicates to this secular age. You can believe and be saved and then you can forfeit your salvation. Allis - well-known - says, The Old Testament prophecies if literally interpreted cannot be regarded as having been yet fulfilled or being capable of fulfillment in the present age. Thats true. 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. Historically, church fathers favored historic premillennialism, including Ireneaus, Papias, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Hippolytus. Premillennialism Historic Premillennialism Postmillennialism Amillennialism view sees the re-establishment of temple worship and animal sacrifices as a remembrance of Christ's sacrifice. And in line with that, I want to try, at least, in the next couple of Sunday nights to establish a foundation for our understanding. "MacArthur calls himself a "leaky dispensationalist"--meaning he rejects any and all "dispensational" soteriological innovations, holding to classic Reformed (i.e., Protestant, not "covenantal") soteriology. How could He hold them responsible for not believing? Some people want to turn it into ages - theres nothing in there that does that; theres nothing in the text itself that does that. Where is the divine mandate to do that? Its the whole point of everything else. (Ridgeley, Commentary on the Larger Catechism, 1:562. We know that, so our ambition is, when we get to that place, to be rewarded because we are pleasing to Him.