For the previous anon. The US based evengelical beleifs they were mentioning are related to a eschatology (end times thinking) called premillenial dispensationalism. Its largely a North American phenomenon and views elements of the book of revelations as a literal series of events that will happen in the near future before Christs second coming. The "Left Behind" series of books codified much of this thinking (Rapture, Tribulation, Reign of the Anti-Christ, Rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, One World Relgion, physical Mark of the Beast, battle of Armaggedon, literal 1000 year reign of Christ on Earth etc) in a narrative form from the perspective of late 20th centuary Americans. It had a massive impact on the evangelical community, particulalry in the US), with many seeing it as the orthodox interpretation of Christian eschatology.
Sorry, I'm not sure what to make of this. Obviously, people who believe this think it's orthodox belief. On my blog, premillenial dispensationalism that leads one to reject unity as part of the antichrist's new world order is nonsensical conspiracy theory. I'm not going to spend any time legitimizing it.
But yes, this is a specific brand of premillenial dispensationalism, which is the wide range of belief that I said in the previous post was being collapsed. Premillenialism is the belief that Jesus will physically return to earth and reign on earth for one thousand years. Dispensationalism is a framework that God interacts with God's people in different ways in different periods of time and that God has different purposes for Israel and the church. When you hear about Christian Zionists who want all Jews to move to Israel so the end times can start, that's dispensationalism.
It is also still a conspiracy theory; the connection between evangelical Christianity and conspiracy theories is well documented. I'm not saying you should always call evangelicals weird to their faces (they already have a persecution complex), but definitely when they think the antichrist is going to rule over the new world order you should do so.
Bible Translations
Premillennialism is predominantly found among conservative evangelicals who continue to use the King James Bible and modern translations which continue the tradition of the Authorized Version. Christians who adhere to fundamentalist theological views believe that before the millennial there will be the seven-year tribulation and that the church will be raptured before the…
The Evangelical Free Church of America and Premillennialism
According to an article published in Christianity Today, the Evangelical Free Church of America stepped back from its premillennial convictions. According to the news report written by Morgan Lee, “The Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) has changed its position on end times doctrine. The denomination recently voted to drop the word ‘premillennial’ from its statement of faith.”
I don't know where to put this but thoughts on Christian eschatology have been on my mind for a while now - especially the question of the millenium. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then I'd suggest that it's not necessary to read any further.
These are matters of theology which seem to be less clear than most, and not necessarily essential to the heart of Christianity. We are still fellow believers even if we disagree on this. But read on for some blunt thoughts on theology.
My Eschatological Background
I've grown up under amillenialist teaching, and I had thoroughly agreed with it. When Christ returns, there will be only one resurrection where the righteous and unrighteous are raised to face final judgement.
To be explicit, Christ's return and final judgement happen on the same day. I believe many parts of the New Testament make this very clear. (Matthew 13:36-43, Matthew 13:47-50, Matthew 25:31-36, John 5:28-29, 2 Thessalonians 1:9-10, 2 Peter 3:10)
Further, it seems clear that the body that believers attain at the resurrection will be like Christ's - perfect and incorruptible. (1 Corinthians 15:50-55) The idea of a kind of semi-resurrection (I'm thinking pre or post mill), where people are raised but can still die, is completely foreign to the natural literal reading of the text.
Not only that, but it's also clear that Christ is already reigning in victory right here and now. (1 Corinthians 15:20-28, 2 Corinthians 2:14, Ephesians 1:20-23, Colossians 2:15, 1 Peter 3:21-22)
These parts of my eschatology were long in place before I took a look at Revelation 20. So when I read Revelation 20, was I discard everything I knew about the resurrection or Christ's return beforehand? Of course not.
I was then introduced to reading Revelation in a cyclic manner. That is to say it is like Joseph's visions from back in Genesis 37, or the Pharoah's visions in Genesis 41. There were several visions, with different imagery, but those visions pointed to the same event at hand. There were not two different periods of famine and abundance, nor were there two different moments when Joseph was honoured by his family. The visions were not two different events occurring chronologically. So it is with a cyclic reading of the book of Revelation. And Revelation 20, as I understood it, was a cycle starting at the cross and finishing at final judgement.
An Eschatology Shaken
I've been attending a church here in France, and they are avowedly premill-tribulationalists. Reading the Bible with them had made me realise a few inadequacies with my own eschatology.
There are many promises to Israel in the Old Testament, which seemingly have yet to be realised. It would be foreign to the text to impose an amillenialist reading onto the passage. (e.g. Zechariah, parts of Isaiah, Jeremiah... a lot of the minor prophets)
The thing is, I've found amillenialists generally don't pay too much attention to the details of the OT prophets when it comes to promises made to nation Israel through the minor prophets. I've found us guilty of painting everything over with a large brush called "Jesus" or "Spiritual Blessings" or "Church" or "New Creation".
I can't ignore what Ezekiel says when he measures out the dimensions of a new temple, just as how an angel describes it to him. Nor can I ignore the talk of 70 weeks by Daniel. Nor can I ignore Zechariah's prophecies of days when Israel will be restored.
And the Church cannot bluntly replace every mention of Israel in the Old Testament. There are specific nuances between the concepts of God's People, Israel, and the Church.
To push back a little...
However, this cannot override everything I've learned from the New Testament. Christ is not merely sitting in a waiting room, waiting to reign on the earth for a temporary time until He 'really' begins to reign. Nor is our resurrection body a transient creation. Nor does there appear to be a separation between His second coming and final judgement.
Also, I found the premill 'literal' hermeneutic of reading Revelation to be somewhat arbitrary. On one level, a literal 1000 year reign is to be expected, and a literal giant dragon/serpent is not. Do we only expect a literal number of 144,000 Israelites to be saved? Will the world literally stop to come and stare at two specific dead bodies? Do we expect Babylon to literally return as a national power? Is the New Jerusalem going to be a literal giant cube made of jewels?
With God, anything is possible - but my point is, all Christians I know are aware that the imagery and symbols in Revelation are tricky. Why are premills so dogmatic on a literal 1000 years in spite of every other symbol or imagery in the book of Revelation?
Although I had become aware how I could not arbitrarily impose amillenial thinking onto the Old Testament, I could not arbitrarily read the proposed millenial reign into these prophecies either.
Yes, Zechariah says Israel will be restored - but is that necessarily during this proposed millenium? Isn't it possible for this to happen in New Creation?
And why are we going to return to temple sacrifices in this millenium if Jesus has already made the once for all sacrifice as it says in Hebrews?
And where do the nations who come to wage war against the saints come from in Revelation 20? Didn't they all get killed off in Revelation 19? (That is, if we're reading Revelation chronologically and not cyclically)
And how does a millenium reconcile itself with the rest of New Testament passages which I had learned about previously when I had yet to form my eschatology?
Final Thoughts
At this stage, I think I'm an amillenialist with a lot of unanswered questions about Old Testament prophecy. Premillenialism doesn't make enough sense of a lot of the New Testament passages I had read - at least not to me. But Amillenialism can't be used as a blunt instrument to flatten the significance of many Old Testament prophecies either.
I'm going to continue praying that God may help make this more clear for me, and be reading more of the Bible also.
"They [premillennialists] are therefore implicitly that Satan has a major advantage over God in history despite resurrection and God's sending of the Holy Spirit: when his God-hating representatives are faithful to him [Satan] in history, they win; When God's representatives are faithful to him in history, they lose. This is a very strange view of the historical power of Christ's resurrection and the power of the Holy Spirit."
