I don't pretend to be an expert on matters of eschatology. But there is one position that I just cannot accept. That position is the strain of post-millennialism that says Jesus will only return after the Earth has been restored to God's original design. Planetary salvation. It states that Jesus's return will occur at the culmination of the process of societal transformation.
There are a few reasons why I reject this teaching. A major reason is that it seems to contradict scripture. Consider Mathew 24 . Secondly, There is no evidence of meaningful "societal" transformation occurring in the last 2000 years. The death tolls from war and democide of each century (even adjusted for population growth) are steadily rising. Slavery in more rampant than it ever has been. And just the general level of societal decadence has made no improvement although the form of that decadence may have changed. It seems to me that if we judge Christianity using the measuring stick of societal transformation, up to this point it has been a massive failure.
Finally, the main reason I reject this teaching is because implicit in it is the assertion that we can have certitude that Jesus will not return five minutes from now or even five years from now. There is only one way to hold this view and avoid that conclusion and it is to assert that the current state of human civilization is such that it counts as the transformation Christ is waiting for therefore allowing Him to return at any moment. I cannot accept either premise and therefore I cannot accept this teaching.
Maranatha!
4 comments:
While this position was fairly common for the early reformers, it is my understanding that it was largely abandoned as man's capacity to harm one another increased exponentially. see...Napoleonic wars, Tsarist Russia, British Imperialism, WWI, etc. It was the ultimate in optimistic eschaltology. A return to Eden prior to the New Jerusalem if you will. From a post-mil perspective, it has been supplanted by a "non-reconstructionist" view. That is, Christ's rule and reign is expanding in a spiritual manner and will only be manifest physically in the New Heavens and Earth.
Thank you for the comment. What do you think about my statement that:
"implicit in this eschatology is the assertion that we can have certitude that Jesus will not return five minutes from now or even five years from now. There is only one way to hold this view and avoid that conclusion and it is to assert that the current state of human civilization is such that it counts as the transformation Christ is waiting for therefore allowing Him to return at any moment."
I can't think of any way to split the horns of this dilemma and therefore I think it is valid.
Just curious what you think.
I would have to respectfully disagree. In your position you are minimizing the potential ferociousness with which Rms. 13:1 could be impletmented. If God so willed, the entirety of governing authority could be overturned tomorrow, and replaced with "God-honorers". What doomed this position is twofold: 1. The understanding that like ethic Israel, the spiritual and physical do not necessiarily progress in tandem, whether in like or in rate. 2. The wealth of passages both from the Lord and the apostles which tell us to expect physical suffering as a condition of the 'last days'
This is one of the reasons i wanted to start blogging. So that I can have my ideas tested. Thank you.
Alright, I believe that God's sovereignty does split the horns of my dilemma. He could give humanity a collective Damascus road experience and effectively change their hearts thereby transforming society instantaneously. Allowing someone to hold to this eschatology and at the same time say that Christ could return five minutes from now.
But the group that holds to this post-mil view doesn't usually have a very high view of God's sovereignty, so I doubt they would ever try to split the horns this way.
I also think that this strain of post-mil thinking goes far beyond who the governing authority is. They are expecting a completely transformed earthly kingdom where by human effort the hearts of everyone will be changed. Their eschatology is probably shaped more by John Lennon's Imagine than by scripture.
I am going to have to devote a blog post to Romans 13 1-7. I have always struggled while trying to interpret this section and its implication.
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