Friday, October 09, 2009

An Evening on Eschatology

While I have just started listening to the audio I thought it prudent to get the link up now for the great discussion on eschatology, An Evening on Eschatology, that was hosted by Desiring God and Bethlehem College & Seminary. As one who as a new believer thought that the only issue to be settled was whether to be Pre-Trib, Mid-Trib, or Post-Trib resources such as this from Desiring God Ministries are very important. The audio and video has been made available for free on their web site and I would highly encourage you to download it and listen, or view it.

This is a two hour discussion among Jim Hamilton (professor of New Testament at Southern Seminary in Louisville), Sam Storms (pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City), and Doug Wilson (pastor of Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho) moderated by John Piper. The three historic positions of the Christian church are defended by each of the participants: Pre-millennialism, Amillennialism and Post-Millennialism.

Download the discussion and enjoy but above all seek to see what God’s word says about His coming. While I stared out, after I realized there were more views than dispensationalism, Pan-Millennial (it will all pan out in the end) I soon realized that as I studied scripture I was going to be forced to not avoid the issue of eschatology. There are too many texts that when being interpreted correctly will lead in an eschatological direction and we cannot simply “pan” over them. As with all things we should, with humility and diligence, seek to see what the word of God says on this subject and realize that simply because it may not be easy that is no reason to avoid this area of study.

After listening to this audio, probably a number of times, I may review it at a later time.

5 comments:

Tommy S. Barnes said...

thanks, I was just telling my Pastor about this ... I just wasn't sure how to find in on dg.

Blessings,

Tommy

Bluegrass Endurance said...

Thomas, I am glad it helped. The only issue I had with the discussion, and you would not know of this unless you had heard of it and that is that Doug Wilson is part of what is known as the Federal Vision and it is troublesome to say the least with many in the Presbyterian ranks actually seeing it as heresy.

That aside I think it was a helpful discussion and being Postmillennial myself it was good to see the lively discussion that transpired. Especially since the firse eschatological view I ever heard was Dispensationalism, a form of the Premillennial view but not really historic, when I first became a Christian. Because I could not align that with view scripture I became what Kevin Swanson called “Pan-Millennial (it will all pan out in the end). Then after much study I moved towards Amillennialism but at the time could not get myself to go all the way towards Postmilliennialism because of what I saw in the world. However, the more I studied the more texts I saw as relating to a Postmillennial view of eschatology and as Kevin Swanson said it is only when we look at our little slice of the world and history that things just seem to be getting worse. At the end of the day we are not to judge scripture by the circumstances but by the words in the text.

Thus I am now firmly Postmillennial but I will be the first to tell you I do not have it all figured out. It is just that there are more clear texts that speak to this view than any other view and that is what has convinced me.

Grace and Peace,

Tony

Tommy S. Barnes said...

I did watch this. It has been a little while. How do you think Doug did presenting postmill.? Again it has been sometime since I watched it but I thought his presentation was lacking. Of course there is the issue of FV as well. Do you follow James White much? There has been allot of talk lately on Rome and some of these presbytarian's going back to Rome. From what I have seen it looks like FV has been a catapult in getting them there. Interesting for sure.

Bluegrass Endurance said...

I have never been enamored as some people seem to be with Doug Wilson, at least when he talks. He had some good points but often in an effort to be "funny" it does nto come out as best it could. So, yea I do nto think he was the best guy to choose.

I have the video "Are Roman Catholics Our Brothers and Sisters in Christ" ( http://www.aomin.org/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=293 ) and he stands up for Rome. It does show in what direction they head when one accepts a baptism that I think has a different meaning than ours let alone that they have a different Gospel. Sad but then us baptist if we are not careful will head that way as well. The natural course of man, without God's intervention, is to want to earn salvation.

Tommy S. Barnes said...

I have that debate and I just purchased http://www.aomin.org/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=275. I am interested in RC because my mother-in-law has recently converted.