The Ineffective Church - Part 3

Now we move on to another absolute “given” in modern evangelicalism – premillennial eschatology.  If you don’t recognize the term, you’ll recognize the concepts:  The world will become more and more godless and evil.  All the Christians of the world will be “raptured” (taken to heaven at once), and a demonic “world leader” will emerge, probably from Europe, and unite the nations of the earth into a “one world” government.  This “leader,” known among premillennialists at the “Antichrist” will establish himself as a pseudo-diety and cause pagan sacrifices to be made in Jerusalem.  After a “tribulation” of seven years, the armies of God will return from heaven for one final, climactic battle on the plain of Meggido in Syria (from which we get the term “Armageddon”), in which the armies of the Antichrist will be defeated and God will establish his kingdom on earth for the “millennium.”  That’s premillennial eschatology in a nutshell.

 

There have been lots of books and movies made about this – starting with, “A Thief in the Night” in the 1960s – which scared me to death when I was about 10.  In the 70s there was Hal Lindsay’s film, “The Late, Great Planet Earth,” after his book of the same title, and more recently we’ve been favored with Tim LaHaye’s, Left Behind book series and movie. 

 

The effects of this eschatology are just as troubling as the marketing effects of freewill theology, but a lot more confusing.  The premillennial thought is that the world is getting worse and worse, more satanic by the day, but it’s supposed to be that way.  Eventually God will take his people out of the earth so that he can rain judgment on those who have rejected him.  After the rapture (a term which doesn’t exist in the Bible) the Holy Spirit is out of the world and there is no more free will.  If you’re “left behind,” you’re lost and can no longer “choose” Christ. 

 

One contradictory aspect of this way of belief is that we, as Christians, are, in essence, “painting a sinking ship.”  If we’re about to be taken out of this world that’s bad and getting worse, why should we put much effort into spreading God’s good rule over the planet?  Why would we bring children into a world that is supposed to start really hating and persecuting Christians all over the place?  Why would we plan for leaving a godly inheritance and establishing faithful families when all the “end-times” profits, er, prophets, tell us that we’re on the brink of the Apocalypse?  On one hand we say, “Jesus is King,” and reigns over the universe, but then we say that satan is still ruler of this earth, and his power is supposed to grow until Christians are taken out of the world.  So why do we fight it?  Which is it?  Is Christ supreme and sovereign or not?  When we add an apocalyptic view to freewill theology we come out with a real mess of what Christians are trying to do.   One truly negative result is the apparent constant search for a political personality to stem the tide of unrighteousness. 

 

Those who hold to premillennial end-times theology might be surprised to learn that prior to about 1830 orthodox Christianity had no concept of this idea.  Before that postmillennial or amillennial theology was considered truly biblical.  The rise of premillennial theology mirrored the rise of freewill theology in the US.  Charles Finney, whose flamboyant and flaming oratory was responsible for the beginning of “tent revival” meetings, did more to push these errors than anything else.  I’ve heard of a seminary where Charles Finney’s methods are studied and critiqued for his overt and premeditated use of emotional manipulation to produce “pep rally”-type responses from the audience – and the instructor only uses Finney’s own writings to condemn his methods. 

 

Premillennial eschatology has affected our modern English translations of the Bible.  A key example is in Matthew 23:36 where Jesus Says, “Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation,” (ESV).  Many translations have a note with the word “generation” saying that the word could mean “race,” indicating that the Jews will still be on the earth when these things happen.  The funny thing is that there are no other places in contemporary (1^st century) Greek literature, let alone in Scripture, where that word is translated in any other way but to mean “generation – the generation of people who are alive right now.” 

 

So here we have a major problem.  Either the translation is bad, Jesus was wrong, or everything that Jesus predicted did happen to that “generation.”  When we get to the book of Revelation, where premillennialists hang their hats, we have a similar problem in the first three verses of chapter 1.  In verse 1 we have the words, “..the things that must soon take place.”  In verse three we have, “for the time is near.”  We clearly have an issue with time proximity to the writers of the New Testament.  Premillennialists brush these issues aside with nary a hint of perplexity.  “Soon is relative in the space of eternity,” they say.  “Peter says, ‘God is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.’” (2 Peter 3:9 – ESV). 

 

Well, if Jesus really meant that generation, and John really mean “soon,” and if they were true, then what possible historical event could we have missed that might have accounted for all the prophecies that the premillennialists stand upon?  How about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and the accompanying horror of the Roman siege that preceded it?  There are tremendous, logical, historical and biblical reasons for believing that the “tribulation” of which premillennialists speak is, in fact, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. 

 

There are many well-respected Christian scholars and preachers who hold to postmillennial or amillennial theology: John MacArthur, R. C. Sproul, and Alistair Begg, just to name three.  However, even if you remain as steadfast in your premillennial view now as you were when you started reading this, please consider the contradictory and counterproductive effects of the American church’s “end-times” views and how we can fix that. 

 

“Fly high & roar loudly”

 

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