Free Republic

In recent years interest has been revived in the origin of millennial theology. This has been caused, first by the decadence of postmillennialism which seemed to demand a new search for perspective in this field; second, by the popularity of premillennialism with its claim that the early church was premillennial; and, third, by the trend toward more serious Biblical studies—a result of the decline of extreme liberalism. The reduction of millennial theories to only two principal viewpoints—amillennial and premillennial—has tended to simplify the issue and make the millennial argument largely one for or against a literal millennium. The nature of...

[Author’s note: Many have requested that Bibliotheca Sacra publish a series of articles dealing with the contemporary discussion of the millennial issue in theology. Beginning with this Number, this series will be undertaken. It is the desire of the author to be constructive, not controversial; but due note will be taken of the many recent books which have appeared bearing on this subject. The author will welcome suggestions from readers.] The events of the last quarter of a century or more have had a tremendous impact on the thinking of the scholarly world. In philosophy there has been a trend...

To summarize what Replacement Theology (such as Covenantal Post-Millennialists and Covenant Amillennialism) teaches on the issue of the Land and Israel’s restoration to the Land, they present three different positions. First, that the Land promises were fulfilled under Joshua based on Joshua 11:23. The dispensational response will be presented later in this paper. The second view is that the Land promises were fulfilled under David and Solomon. It will be shown later in the paper that the prophecies of a final restoration were made well after the time of David and Solomon. The third view is that all the restoration...

In 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 allegorical hermeneutic, which replaced the literal or face-value hermeneutic of Jesus and the apostles. Four sub-roots fed this hermeneutical shift. First: the anti-Jewish bias of the early church developed as a result of a church dominated by gentile believers. Second: an overreaction to heresy, which included the condemnation not only of...

Three years ago I mentioned to a Catholic friend that I was starting to work on a book critiquing the Left Behind novels. I explained that it would thoroughly examine premillennial dispensationalism, the unique apocalyptic belief system presented, in fictional format, within those books. Premillennial dispensationalism teaches that the “Rapture” and the Second Coming are two events separated by a time of tribulation and that there will be a future millennial reign of Christ on earth. “Why?” she asked, obviously bewildered. “No one really takes that stuff seriously.” That revealing remark merely reinforced my desire to write Will Catholics...

The Church And Israel[1] Stanley Toussaint Senior Professor Emeritus in Bible Exposition Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, TX Importance of the Subject In his classic work, Dispensationalism Today, Ryrie sets forth a threefold sine qua non of dispensationalism—a distinction between Israel and the Church, a literal hermeneutic, and the glory of God as His purpose on earth.[2] Of these three, undoubtedly the most important is the distinction between Israel and the Church. Ryrie calls this “the most basic theological test of whether or not a man is a dispensationalist.”[3] He calls it the “essence of dispensationalism.”[4] He goes so far as...