john macarthur premillennialism

Some people say, How in the world can you understand it? They understood it in China without anything but a Bible; they understood it in Central Asia without anything but a Bible; you take it at face value. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. . Next would be the rapture, and then Jesus and His church would return to earth to rule for a thousand years. He is currently the chancellor emeritus of The Master's University in . There are a number of viewpoints of what the Bible means when it speaks of future events. Tell us about the future. They were in a very hopeless situation, having very little in life. His teaching is still one of the most potent elements in Western religious thought.[24] Therefore, to analyze what happened to premillennialism in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, it is necessary to observe the Augustinian foundation. Theres a rapture, and theres a bma seat judgment; we know that. Ive been teaching and preaching the Bible expositionally now for over 40 years, one verse at a time. He is best known for his voluminous tome written against the 2nd century Gnostic threat, commonly called Against Heresies. This article is also available and sold as a booklet. You cannot fight the war on every front, and at the great time of the Reformation, they were fighting the war where the battle raged the hottest. Israel disobeyed the law, youre done. But there is a growing influence of amillennialism, because amillennialism has been a part of reformed theology. Only now has it happened, and so His promises may not be trustworthy, since they were given in the past, before so many things happened that He didnt know were coming to pass. That in itself is an indication of Gods preservation for their future. 4. So, this is a classic perfect fit for Arminian theology. Why TMS? The assembly and the circumstances of the assembly must be distinguished. There are 73 references to Israel in the New Testament; each of them refers to Israel. Some people want to turn it into ages - theres nothing in there that does that; theres nothing in the text itself that does that. Log In 315K views 1 year ago Significant video editing was used to create a unique storyline that teaches about the end times, specifically premillennialism and amillennialism. Interestingly, by the time that Augustine wrote his monumental work, J. Danilou, La typologie millenariste de la samaine dans le christianisme prmitif,, Richard Landes, "Lest the Millennium be Fulfilled: Apocalyptic Expectations and the Pattern of Western Chronography 100-800 CE," in, From the time of Constantine and Augustin, Joseph Mede was a biblical scholar educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. [62] It also widely holds to the pretribulational return of Christ, which believes that Jesus will return to take up Christians into heaven by means of a rapture immediately before a seven-year worldwide tribulation. Reformed theology has made a monumental comeback in this culture, and thankfully so, because it is biblical. Marcion opposed the use of the Old Testament and most books of the New Testament that were not written by the apostle Paul. 2023 Grace to You. Postmillennialists think things are going to get better. In keeping with his view of faith, MacArthur denigrates "facts," "doctrine," "intellectual assent," and so on. He considers the Mosaic history of the creation a type of six ages of labor for the world, each lasting a thousand years, and of a millennium of rest, since with God one day is as a thousand years. Millennial Sabbath on earth will be followed by an eight and eternal day in a new world, of which the Lords Day (called by Barnabas the eighth day) is the type" (, Note this is Victorinus of Pettau not Marcus Piav(v)onius, Augustine wrote in regards to the premillennialism And this opinion would not be objectionable, if it were believed that the joys of the saints in that Sabbath shall be spiritual, and consequent on the presence of God. They taught that the kingdom of God would be visibly manifest on earth after the second coming of Jesus. This hermeneutic discerns an emerging pattern in which various chapters return to a common theme - God's incomparable gift . We know that, so our ambition is, when we get to that place, to be rewarded because we are pleasing to Him. by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue (Chicago: Moody, 2012), 24. This is simply a way to understand Scripture in its normal sense. The millennium will end when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead. For the last century, the belief has been common in Evangelicalism according to surveys on this topic. Every promise God made to Abraham about his lineage inheriting the land of Palestine has been fulfilled! . In the US, the dispensational form of premillennialism was propagated on the popular level largely through the Scofield Reference Bible and on the academic level with Lewis Sperry Chafer's eight-volume Systematic Theology. John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue's new systematic theology titled Biblical Doctrine has many positive aspects. As more and more information comes to Him, and as He has more and more experience in dealing with the issues of His universe, Hes getting better at being God. John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, where he has served since 1969. Thats for people who dont know this; that the way history ends, is with Jesus coming and taking us away. "[31], Augustine's later amillennial view laid the eschatological foundation for the Middle Ages, which practically abandoned premillennialism. Its the same God, same terminology. 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. When Christianity became the official religion of Rome in the fourth . I dont know about you, but I really cant get too worked up about greenhouse gases. In similar language, Scripture affirms the perpetuity of ethnic Israel to a future salvation and a future kingdom as a race of people, and that in that salvation and in that kingdom will be the fulfillment of all divine promises given to them in the Old Testament, repeated in the New Testament, and through them to the world. I have even called thee by thy name Isaiah 65:9: Mine elect shall inherit it - the promises of God. The reason why it's called "historic premillennialism" is that, historically, this was the allegedly commonly-held view by many of the church fathers like Iraenus, Pappias, and Justin Martyr. The Rapture, Antichrist, and Rebirth of Israel in Medieval Manuscripts. God is just trying to find His way through the melee of choices and decisions, through the endless vicissitudes and choices that everything and everyone makes, through all of the numberless issues in this massive universe that are going on; Hes sorting it all out as He goes. And the longer I think about it and the more I study the Scripture, the clearer it becomes to me. And I ask the question: are we supposed to be comfortable with the notion that the hard and fast and true principles of Bible interpretation have to be set aside in prophetic texts? So, we can set aside the idea that somehow this is rooted in wacky dispensationalism; it is not. Its just a lot of material. We shall all be changed, in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed., Thats the rapture; were going to study the rapture. "[42] It was authors such as these who concluded that the decline of the Roman Catholic Church would make way for the conversion and restoration of the nation of Israel. Death, where is your sting? [34], During the Reformation period, amillennialism continued to be the popular view of the Reformers. The first clear opponent of premillennialism associated with Christianity was Marcion. Revelation 20:4-6 and the Question of the Millennium,, Bailey, J. W. The Temporary Messianic Reign in the Literature of Early Judaism,. Hes improving; Hes definitely on the upward curve. First John 3 verse 2: Beloved - 1 John 3:2 Now are we the children of God. Hes not predicting the future because you cant predict what hasnt happened - it doesnt exist. "Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist is a Pre-Millennialist." For those of you who don't know, this was a statement, among others, that John MacArthur was recorded as making at the recent Shepherd's Conference 2007 at Grace Community Church, Sun Valley California. A History of Christian Zionism: Philo-Semitism and the Expectation of Israel's Restoration. And so, you have to change the rules of interpretation and once you say the Bible doesnt mean what it says, then we have no idea what it means. Now, next time Im going to take you through a series of about five questions that were going to ask and see how this plays out on the pages of Scripture, okay? "[36] Furthermore, John Calvin wrote in Institutes that millennialism is a "fiction" that is "too childish either to need or to be worth a refutation". 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. Yet, Abraham did not receive it during all the time of his journey there. It is the single most inexplicable story in human history, that this small group of beleaguered people, attacked and assaulted by everybody around them for centuries, still exist as a pure ethnic race. And so, we stand steadfast, immovable. Premillennialism is distinct from the other views such as postmillennialism which views the millennial rule as occurring before the second coming. John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. (born June 19, 1939) is an American Protestant pastor and author known for his internationally syndicated Christian teaching radio and television program Grace to You. When Assyrian power had ebbed by 625 B.C., the Neo-Babylonians conquered: 1) Assyria with its capital Nineveh in 612 B.C. We want the Word to bless, to make us pure, to stabilize us, to comfort us, to give us a passion for evangelism. But in the Old Testament - for example, Isaiah 45:4: Israel, Mine elect. John MacArthur News Why TMS? Ive dragged myself through all these years of the discipline of study. Prior to that I thought about it a lot. The Lutherans formally rejected chiliasm (millennialism) in The Augsburg Confession. Its the whole point of everything else. My sermon was on amillennialism, which I posted to my blog last week. Daylight and dark, daylight and dark - thats a 24-hour period - God creates everything. Amillennialism is ideal for Arminians because, according to their theology, God elects nobody and preserves nobody. Dispensational premillennialists hold that Christ will come before a seven-year period of intense tribulation to take His church (living and dead) into heaven. 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. Contemporary premillennialism is divided into two schools of thought. And whats at stake here? We understand that when you have a prophecy in the Bible that has not yet come to pass, not everything will be clear. All right, thats the introduction. 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. Well, we now come to the doctrines that relate to the end times. Now, were going to dig a little more deeply into the whole idea of the millennial kingdom and what the Bible says about it, and as to its nature and the aspects of the kingdom that are revealed in Scripture - and by the way, they are many and they are wondrous to behold, and we will do that. The first phase of that eternal rule will be His reign on this earth, which will last - as Revelation 20 says six times - a thousand years, after which His rule will continue, because it is an everlasting rule, but it will continue in a new heaven and a new earth that replace this heaven and earth, which will melt in an atomic implosion and make way for the new creation. Its a strange approach. MacArthur--who is an ardent dispensationalist--stated and defended his position. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 9; 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 9: We have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, - that is, whether in heaven or here - to be pleasing to Him - to be pleasing to Him. Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine", "Bible Basics Study 5.5 - The Millennium", "Definitions and Observations Concerning the Second Coming of Christ", "Episode 132: D.A. Amillennialists do not view the millennium mentioned in Revelation as pertaining to a literal thousand years, but rather as symbolic, and see the kingdom of Christ as already present in the church beginning with the Pentecost in the book of Acts. Is that what God wanted us to do, to look at it and say, Aw, I cant figure this out; lets forget it? There are whole denominations that are instructed not to teach on the end times. Particular to this framework is the eschatological position known as "premillennial dispensationalism" which holds that Christ will return prior to a literal one-thousand-year reign on earth. No kingdom on earth ruled by Christ before He gets here, and no kingdom on earth ruled by Christ after He gets here. For details about this sermon and for related resources, click here: https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-339 To receive John MacArthur's monthly l. He wants us to get it right; thats why He put it in the Scripture and the Scripture is replete with it. All rights reserved. S. Lewis Johnson Jr. (1915-2004), a conservative evangelical pastor and theologian, was for many years a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus shall we always be with the Lord. Heres the application: Therefore - do what? (Both MacArthur and Barry Horner, though, do teach the biblical covenants, point 1 above.) The preconception is that we cant allow this to happen. Show it to me. I dont do this to you very often, but I hope you feel like it was helpful, and anchored you in this great and important truth. Theres no sense in going in to all of that, except to say in both cases, they say there is no actual earthly reign of Christ fulfilling all Old Testament covenant promises. For other uses, see, Survey -Premillennialism Reigns in EvangelicalTheology, See: Philippe Bobichon, "Millnarisme et orthodoxie dans les crits de Justin Martyr" in, "For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be concluded. And theres the main verb in the sentence are in varying degrees of disinterest in applying their skills to the end of the story, and rather, content to be in happy if not playful disagreement in regard to the vast biblical data on eschatology, as if the end doesnt matter much - period. . May it be powerful in our lives we pray in Christs name. [21] Eusebius also had low regard for the chiliast, Papias, and he let it be known that in his opinion Papias was "a man of small mental capacity" because he had taken the Apocalypse literally.[22]. He will return to an increasingly wicked earth, He will come in fiery judgment, He will judge all the ungodly of all the earth, and then establish His rule and His kingdom forever. The Rise of Philo-Semitism and Premillennialism During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. We know that Word about the future has that power. "[45] I think it matters to God. . He then notes that, nevertheless, "the virtual theology which surrounds premillennialism is today stronger and more widely spread than at any time in history."[50]. Or another way to say it would be this: how many of you have attended an amillennial prophecy conference? They dont want to accept that the entire universe was created in six nearly twenty-four-hour days. All of these are benefits of getting it right. Since Scripture speaks of the Millennium as a time of great prosperity for the kingdom of God, post-mills are inherently optimistic. 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