[wmfights]

The growth of what came to be called amillennialism was not a result of a careful study of the Scriptures, but rather a reaction to the social, political, and theological tensions of the age. While many of the early church fathers are to be commended for their bold witness for Christ in the midst of the threat of imprisonment and death and for their examples of perseverance and godliness, they were, nevertheless, fallible and capable of error, just as we are. They adopted a theology which they felt best fit the current events, rather than holding to the Scriptures as the only source of authority.

[MNDude]

The idea of the Rapture wasn’t introduced until the 1800’s and was later popularized by Hal Lindsey in the 1970’s.

[plain talk]

Ping for later rapture

[wmfights]

Ping

The entire article is at the link. I think the author does a good job explaining the impact that the change from a literal reading to an allegorical reading of Scripture had on eschatological views and why the shift from the dominant Premillenial view to the Amillenial view occurred.

[wmfights]

Ping

The entire article is at the link. I think the author does a good job explaining the impact that the change from a literal reading to an allegorical reading of Scripture had on eschatological views and why the shift from the dominant Premillenial view to the Amillenial view occurred.

[WestwardHo]

Try selling the pre-trib, Hal Lindsay, LEFT BEHIND book series, and the I’m outta here, too bad about you stuff in China, North Korea, Africa, Former Soviet Union, and every other place on earth where Christians are murdered, tortured, starved, roaming around homeless...

[Heartlander]

Adiaphora

[1malumprohibitum]

“Now we must frankly admit that a literal interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies gives us just such a picture of an earthly reign of the Messiah as the premillennialist pictures. That was the kind of a Messianic kingdom that the Jews of the time of Christ were looking for, on the basis of a literal interpretation of the Old Testament.”

The Jews made the mistake of looking for an earthly king and an earthly reign. They were wrong then and believing in an earthly kingdom in the future is just as wrong. Jesus will come again but it will not be to set up shop on earth.

[Mrs.Z]

Thank you for your post.

I’m afraid you won’t make any headway with the amils around here.

We can explain it to them on the way up.

;^)

[danielmryan]

I don't mean to spoil the party, but Murray N. Rothbard has shown that the root of American Progressivism and Big Government is none other than pietist Premillenialism.

World War I as Fulfillment: Power and the Intellectuals

Origins of the Welfare State in America

Interestingly, it was Northern Premillenialism that turned into Progressivism. Southern Premillenialism focused more on individual salvation.

[Boogieman]

“They adopted a theology which they felt best fit the current events, rather than holding to the Scriptures as the only source of authority.”

Well, I think the pre-trib rapture crowd isn’t much better, since they adopt a theology that fits with their desires, rather than holding to Scriptures as the only source of authority. They get the premillenial/postmillenial question right, but then, out of a desire to not face the possibility of enduring the Tribulation, they search for any phrase they can take out of context to support a pre-trib view.

As far as I’ve been able to determine, the most literal reading of Scripture is a premillenial, post-tribulation one.

[Lee N. Field]

n this article, we first examined the tap root that contributed to the rejection of a literal thousand-year kingdom on earth, the dominant view for the first two centuries of the church, in favour of a spiritualized kingdom unlimited in duration (amillennialism). The single factor: the adoption of an allegoric etc. etc.

Have you ever actually read Augustine's City of God, Book 20?

[Lee N. Field]

Oh, yeah, I just noticed. Someone's got John Gerstner's Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth, as an e-text, for $5. It might be worth your while to interact with his critique.

"Offer ends June 20, 2012." Get 'em while their hot.

CC to some other saints that might be interested.

[imardmd1]

I read the article through and found it informative, concise, and scholarly -- an excellent apologetic supporting a Biblical hermeneutic. The historical summary is a good point of departure for further study, because the fundamental error of Christendom has been of choosing the wrong methods for translation and interpretation, leading to confusion in matters which the Koine Greek made crystal clear to the thoughts of those who employed it as a matter of daily life, and only needed a discipler (didaskalos) trained to explain the articles common to The Faith of The Christ.

I ran across a fine lesson plan giving a brief summary of the shifts in hermeneutics, to which I refer you:

Bible 405: HERMENEUTICS-THE STUDY OF THE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURES

(A downloadable PDF file from the Chafer Theological Seminary)

"HIGHLIGHTS IN THE HISTORY OF HERMENEUTICS" starts on page 23 -- complements the treatment in this article.

Thanks for your thoughtfulness in providing this poat!

[imardmd1]

Ah, two matters -- the first: "Thanks for your thoughtfulness in providing this post!

I have just finally got it through my English-thinking thick head that the early patristics did not need to translate the texts composing the canon of the New Covenant -- they only had to interpret its meaning; which, taking the literal method, they could understand and communicate the thoughts of The God to the minds of men without finding a need to grasp for "deeper meaning."

Ah, so --- ! (the light bulb turns on!)

[Cronos]

you forgot Obamillenialism -- or the misled Democrat idea that this millenium is the millenium of Obama

Let's puncture that balloon -- O to get 0 electoral votes. That should be our aim, not just to defeat him but to utterly, totally repudiate his socialist policies

[ctdonath2]

Well, then there’s Panmillennialism - it’ll all pan out in the end.