Are The Premillennialists Right ?
  by Jack Hectormann

(Reference: Christians Use Prophecy To Excuse Laziness, by Chuck Baldwin, posted in my blog on 2/3/09)

A recent web article got me  thinking about this notion of "prophecy" being used by large numbers of Christians as an excuse to "do much of nothing" because "it's God's will" that all this stuff we see happening around us is "prophecied to occur" along with "their list" of stuff they are so sure the Bible is predicting.

I note that Christian eschatology (the Biblical teaching on future events) has a DIRECT bearing on the "fighting attitude" of Christians in the present. If a man believes the Christian Church is "prophecied to lose" the war between good and evil then he does not see much reason to "fight it out" in the trenches. After all, why fight a war that he believes God has "said" he cannot win because of a long list of "prophecies" that must yet be fullfilled. The claim that "God said" is pretty strong for all Christians.

But just suspose God never said any such thing. Just suspose that the Pre-millennialists are WRONG...WRONG...WRONG, about all that they have claimed the Bible says about the Christian future.

I am posting the following in this blog just in case there are some out here that wish to study Christian eschatology for themselves, and are willing to consider possibilities and interpretations of Biblical texts other than the ones they perhaps have heard all their lives from other people....family members, their pastors, radio/TV preachers, etc

There are two HIGHLY RESPECTABLE theological camps within Christendom regarding Christian eschatology that DISAGREE TOTALLY with the Premillennialists.

Here are the two theological camps standing OPPOSED to Premillennialism:
(1) Postmillennialism
(2) Amillennialism

I have the high honor to state that the Postmillennialist and Amillennialist camps are packed with the highest Christian scholarship. We are talking earned doctrates in the Biblical sciences here, in Greek, Hebrew, theology, etc and these Bible-believing Christian scholars have published massive theological works refuting Premillennialism (in my view.)

POSTMILLENNIALISM:
**Loraine Boettner, The Millennial
*Keith A. Mathison, Postmillennialism:An Eschatology Of Hope
David Brown, The Second Advent
Roderick Campbell, Israel and the New Covenant
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology
Erroll Hulse, The Restoration of Israel
Marcellus J. Kik, An Eschatology of Victory
W.G.T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology
James Snowden, The Coming of the Lord
Augustus H. Strong, Systematic Theology
Benjamin B. Warfield, Biblical Doctrines

Note: Hodge, Shedd, and Warfield were three
of the old Princton theologians known in their day,
in all of Europe and America, as stanch defenders of
the Biblical faith. ( I have in my library Warfield's massive
The Inspiration and Authority of the Scriptures, which is
a solid defense of the Bible as the true word of God.)

AMILLENNIAL:
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology
Joseph M. Canfield, The Incrediable Scofield and His Book
Everett I. Carter, When Jesus Comes Again
Theodore Graebner, War In The Light Of Prophecy
William J. Grier, The Momentous Faith
Floyd E. Hamilton, The Basis Of Millennial Faith
William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors
Jessie Wilson Hodges, Christ's Kingdom and Coming
Archibald Hughes, A New Heaven and a New Earth
Abraham Kuyper, Chiliasm, or The Doctrine of Premillennialism
William Masselink, Why Thousand Years?
Phillip Mauro, The Seventy Weeks and the Great Tribulation
George L. Murray, Millennial Studies
Albertus Pieters, The Seed Of Abraham
William H. Rutgers, Premillennialism In America
Martin J. Wyngaarden, The Future of the Kingdom
Geerhardus Vos, The Pauline Eschatology

Every single one of these Christian scholars are strong
believers in the inspiration and authority of God's word
the Holy Bible, and every single one of them TOTALLY
DISAGREES with the Premillennialist position on Christian
eschatology.

For anyone wishing to study eschatology for himself I highly
recommend **Dr. Loraine Boettner's The Millennium.
From P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 410 pages,
about $14 softcover. (can be ordered direct from P&R online)
Dr. Boettner was a distinguished Christian gentleman who
wrote this book in 1957. He is a very careful scholar, and
a strong believer in the authority of Holy Scripture.

In my view, Dr. Boettner refutes the Premillennial position,
and establishes the Postmillennial position as the true Biblical
teaching on eschatology....and....

Postmillennialism as the only "fighting eschatology"...it alone has the
doctrines that encourage, yea even permits.... true Christian warrior
soul and fighting spirit.

* Keith A. Mathison's Postmillennialism:An Eschatology Of Hope
is also highly recommended and can be ordered direct from
P&R Publishing. (Mathison is carrying the torch for Dr. Boettner
who went to be with the Lord a few years ago.)