Posted on 04/26/2007 8:07:01 AM PDT by topcat54
I just received a book notice from Moody Press for a new commentary on Revelation by John MacArthur with the title Because the Time is Near. At this time I will forego a critique of MacArthur’s use of “near” to describe an event he believes is “near” while the use of “near” by New Testament writers (e.g., James 5:8; Rev. 1:3) did not mean “near” when they used the same word.
For years, I have been dealing with issues related to the last days. I got involved in this topic because Christians were using last-days theology as a way to explain the state of the world and why Christians can’t do anything to reverse present trends. MacArthur is representative of this view when he writes, “‘Reclaiming’ the culture is a pointless, futile exercise. I am convinced,” he writes, “we are living in a post-Christian society—a civilization that exists under God’s judgment.”1 A good case could be made that the people in Europe in the fifteenth century were living under a similar “post-Christian society.” Here’s how Samuel Eliot Morison opens his 1942 biography on Christopher Columbus:
At the end of the year 1492 most men in Western Europe felt exceedingly gloomy about the future. Christian civilization appeared to be shrinking in area and dividing into hostile units as its sphere contracted. For over a century there had been no important advance in natural science, and registration in the universities dwindled as the instruction they offered became increasingly jejune [immature] and lifeless. Institution s were decaying, well-meaning people were growing cynical or desperate, and many intelligent men, for want of something better to do, were endeavoring to escape the present through the study of the pagan past.
Islam was now expanding at the expense of Christendom. . . . The Ottoman Turks, after snuffing out all that remained of the Byzantine Empire, had overrun most of Greece, Albania and Serbia; presently they would be hammering at the gates of Vienna.2
Sound familiar? Change 1492 to any modern date, and the above description of the world of Columbus would fit just as well today. All the major characters and signs are once again in place, or so it seems.
Prophecy pundits in the fifteenth century were sure that the end was near, just as those five hundred years before them knew it was near, and five hundred years before them.
The end of the world: the idea was taken quite seriously by Europe of the late fifteenth century—not as a mere conceit, not as a metaphor or theological trope, but as a somber, ter rifying prediction based solidly on the divine wisdom of biblical prophecy and the felt experience of daily life. . . .[I]n the words of Joseph Grünpeck, the official historian to the Hapsburg emperor Frederick III, “When you perceive the miserable corrupt ion of the whole of Christendom, of all praiseworthy customs, rules and laws, the wretchedness of all classes, the many pestilences, the changes in this epoch and all the strange happenings, you know that the End of the World is near. And the waters of aff liction will flow over the whole of Christendom.”3
As history attests, it was the end of the world, the end of a stagnant worldview that left people without any future hope. But a mere 25 years later, history took a dramatic change in direction. Through a single act, Martin Luther reclaimed the Bible, the gospel, and culture when he confronted a corrupt church. The rest, as they say, is history.
What makes today’s speculations about the end any more reliable? Why are today’s prophecy writers any more trustworthy? They aren’t. Prophetic texts that applied to the generation of Jesus’ day (Matt. 24:34) are being misapplied to our generation. This is a huge mistake that has significant implications theologically and culturally. Prophecy books like those of Mac Arthur are only adding to the confusion.
1. John F. MacArthur, The Vanishing Conscience: Drawing the Line in a No-Fault, Guilt-Free World (Dallas, TX: Word, 1994), 12.
2. Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1942), 3.
3. Kirkpatrick Sale, The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy (New York: Alfred F. Knopf, 1990), 29–30.
"We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for all mankind as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice, " (Articles (3)b) (It appears that an earlier version of their articles may have supported definite atonement with the phrase "We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross ...".) The current version appears to support universal atonement.
At best they are four-pointers. They only one they seem definite on (pardon the pun) is total depravity.
MacArthur is five, no?
Is there anything in their Articles of Faith that would prevent an Arminian from being a member in good conscience?
Check this "dispensationalism"
That is definitely not John’s position. And the linked article points that out very clearly. In fact, that is the crux of his position: there is a future for Israel...as part of the everlasting covenant.
Sadly, MacArthur is a dispensationalist, even according to his own words here...
"Dispensationalism, by the way, is simply a title for theology that recognizes a literal nation Israel to be restored in the future. And recognizes a literal kingdom, and a literal tribulation, and a literal return, and a literal rapture, and that is dispensational. The other perspective is what's called non-dispensational or covenant theology, which has no place for Israel, no kingdom in the future, and spiritualizes everything rather than making it literal..."
When dispensationalism infiltrates Arminian churches, it's no surprise. But when it finds its decidedly political way into ostensibly reformed churches, people react. Here's Gary DeMar's take...
no, the Rapture-era culture will not (cannot?) be redeemed by anything - including a wholesale repentance and conversion of the population - other than by the physical return of Christ. If you extrapolate backwards from this position, you discover that living one’s life for Christ in any era doesn’t add up to jack squat statistically or sociologically, whereas living one’s life for Satan has a statistically measurable, progressively successful effect on society in every era.
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Hmmmmm, Bro, . . . uhhhh . . . not quite . . .
Christ said, AS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH . . . which, BTW, included rampant fallen nephiliam copulating with human women . . . evidently we have both directions today with both sexes . . . anyway . . . GOD HIMSELF determined that, except for Noah and sons and wives, it was a lost cause fit only for destruction. Evidently Christ thought/knew it would be more or less equally that bad.
And, I wholesale disagree that living for Christ doesn’t do squat sociologically etc. Statistics have shown since, I think, the founding of our country and certainly the last 100 years . . . that when church attendance goes up, alcoholism, theft, murders etc. go don in a geographic area.
Also, I think we will see much more of what happened in Sri Lanka with the big Tsunami as a native Sri Lankan was relating in my dad’s church this last Sunday. Just prior to the Tsunami—the plan was scheduled to take effect either that day or the next few days—that all the Christians would be murdered. The Tsumi wiped out the would be genocidal murderers.
I believe we will be seeing much more of that.
When congregations in an area are led of Holy Spirit and work together at least in prayer, worship and evangelism as well as caring for the poor—then I believe God will bless that area and give them extra protection from the descending evil forces of the looming global government.
Otherwise, they will be exterminated or co-opted into the globalists’ agenda and structure.
How effective do you think the Dispensationalist’s sales pitch is re winning men and women for Christ, once the prospective convert discovers this a priori pessimism towards the efficacy of Christ’s blood?
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The Pentecostal/Charismatic dispensationalists I know have the utmost respect for and belief in the maximum efficacy of THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. We sing NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD with great gusto.
Let's just be clear here. Most non-dispensationalists believe there is a "future for Israel".
“I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not!” (Rom. 11:1)
“And so all Israel will be saved,” (Rom. 11:26)
The only difference, and it is a big one, is how that future for Israel will work itself out. The dispensationalist invents a radical distinction between the people of God in the Old Testament and the people of God in the New Testament as their solution. It is the hallmark of their theology. Some even went so far with this extreme view to suggest Israel under the law could actually be saved by the keeping of the law.
The non-dispensationalist does not see the biblical need for this radical distinction, in fact, they see the Bible as teaching the basic unity among God’s people in all ages. And so Peter could assign all the titles of Israel to the Church because one was the continuation and expansion of the other.
For the non-dispensationalist the future for Israel is today. The Church is the God-honoring climax to the Abrahamic promises given to the Seed, Jesus Christ. Jesus proved His Messiahship by tearing down the middle wall of partition that separated Jews and gentiles for so long. In Christ there is true racial healing for the nations.
It is too bad that folks like MacArthur see a day when racial distinctions (resulting in a world-side holocaust, btw) are again important in order to prove “there is a future for Israel”.
I am the densest person around, for for the life of me I can’t see how the secular Israel that exists today with its policies has fulfilled anything positive. I can’t believe it is of God, but of man. The Messiah was spiritual. They thought he was literal. The land is spiritual. Same mistake.
Yes, totally agree
In significant respects, it has NOTHING to do with the Israelies.
It has to do with God’s PROMISE to HIS BUDDY, HIS FRIEND, ABRAHAM.
AND
It has to do with setting the world and all creation up for God to DISPLAY HIS GLORY REDEEMING HIS CHOSEN CHARACTERS very dramatically amidst the most dramatic of all times—the END TIMES.
Israelies were always yoyo’s in terms of following God. Thankfully, He declares that He is going to write His law on the hearts of all believers including the Children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
There is a subtle to not so subtle proof in The Sermon on The Mount that God has serious plans yet to be fulfilled for the blood Israelies.
This, in addition to many others . . . amongst them,
the 12 Patriarchs on their thrones in Heaven. That’s far more than ‘merely’ spiritual. They at least speak of tangible authority.
I don’t know specifically WHY God chose a kind of two track relationship with Him. It is clear that Israelies will have to accept Christ. It’s not clear the particular timing of their wholesale Conversion—though it has to occur in the END TIMES.
There is a lot of annecdotal puzzle pieces from here and there that when Christians join together with Jewish folks in doing Biblical good deeds—such as with the poor; or with Messianic Jews such as worship and praise . . . very powerful things can happen.
They’d all be better off in America. It’s the last Christian stronghold.
I don’t think so.
I used to think so.
Now, I know that being where God has you is the safest place.
And, I think that the puppet masters have decided to trash the USA as a way to make it easier to set up the global government.
I think that China and some other places may well end up being the last Christian strongholds in the END TIMES. What a paradox that would be!
What END TIMES prophecies yet to occur—WHEN they do occur, might convine you that your eschatology needed some adjustment? Sorry, I don’t have a firm image of a summary of yours. Just don’t store posts that way.
When Israel lives once again with God as their ruler, then they will be "back in the land", no matter in what physical place they find themselves. There are many of them today, all over the earth trying to do this. These are those who have been blinded until the gospel has been preached to the utmost ends of the earth. That is a prophecy coming true. Jesus appearing in the clouds is what I look for and hope for.
Some credible estimates put more Born Again believers in China than currently in the USA.
Perhaps then you can show us somewhere where the "religious" Israel in the Old Testament ever fulfilled anything "positive". The history of "religious" Israel is a history of a people who constantly turned their backs on God and worshiped idols and violated the commandments and covenants of God. Yet they were still God's "chosen people", weren't they?
I can’t believe it is of God, but of man.
Israel has always played the harlot. Yet, Israel was in the hand of God. Still is.
The Messiah was spiritual. They thought he was literal.
Sorry, but the promised Messiah was and is a literal Messiah.
The land is spiritual. Same mistake.
The land is literal. Christ will come down literally and plant his foot on the Mount of Olives. To say that the land is spiritual is to gnosticize the whole bible. If the land is spiritual and not literal, then Christ was spiritual and not literal and the resurrection was spiritual and not literal.
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (2 Peter 1:16 KJV)
Literal.
Excellent news. That's a trend, and that's postmillennialism! 8~)
But He is not leading us in a physical battle, but a spiritual battle. And He is spiritually discerned. The Jews got it wrong, and they continue in their error, looking for a warrior and more bloody sacrifice when the Lamb has already been accepted by God.
We, unlike Thomas and the Jews and the Greeks, do not seek a sign or earthly wisdom or high body counts or fortified national boundaries. We believe by God-given faith.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." -- 1 Corinthians 2:12-16"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
“The land is spiritual. Same mistake.”
Amos 9:11-15, “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.”
This was quoted by James in Acts 15:14-17 as something to be fulfilled in the future, “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.”
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