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Jerry_M: If we believe that Christ is Lord of everything, why should we argue about the extent and scope of His reign?

Grammarian: Best thing I've heard from a Calvinist in a long time

RnMa: You just haven't been listening :>)

Meeeeoooww!! That's cold! Best double-entendre I've seen in a while. But Jerry was dead serious about it. So am I and, I think, some others on this thread.

If we are in Christ, we have all we need for anything that comes our way. God's prophecy will become clear at the appropriate time. And I don't think it will be something that requires a lot of study of the verb tenses of obscure languages or some literary hoe-down over which portions of scripture to read literally and which to read figuratively. Because very few are qualified for such analysis.

But then, we could be at war with Iraq very soon and an attack on Israel might inflame them to expand to their ancient borders. Then I'd be plenty worried and asking lots of questions, trying to sort it out. So would these amillenialists, I bet.

If premills are right, the prophecy would unfold very quickly, I think.

Jerry_M: If we believe that Christ is Lord of everything, why should we argue about the extent and scope of His reign?

It all relates to knowing God's revealed will. Those portions of His past, present, and future will that He has revealed can be a schematic for us to assist us in our living and our praying.

It's like this -- if I know the direction He's walking then I can walk that same direction. If the Lord is commanding the universe in a certain direction, then I can get with His flow, or I can battle against the current trying to go upstream against Him.

In some areas, He has specifically revealed His will as opposed to generally revealing His will. If I so desire, I can work with Him and experience enhanced coordination of effort. Eschatology assists me in knowing what to pray for and what not to pray for.

I pray for His "Kingdom to Come...Thy will be done...ON EARTH as it is in Heaven." I've always interpreted that to mean "The KOG coming is His will being done on Earth in an equivalent manner as His will is done in Heaven."

We definitely are still looking FUTURE to that complete doing of His will on EARTH. (And I think, if He'd meant NEW EARTH, He would have said so.)