Friday, October 24, 2008

Short Hand Guide to Eschatological Refutations

Let me give a quick (and deliberately comical) guide to refuting various eschatologies. Here is how to refute:

1. Amillennialismism. Read Revelation 20.1-10 and recite the Lord's Prayer. Those who partake of the first resurrection do not partake of the second one and the kingdom of God is coming to earth after all.

2. Postmillennialism. Read todays newspaper! The world is not getting better.

3. Dispensational premillennialism. Stop reading the Left Behind series, sell your Ryrie Study Bible, and start reading 2 Thessalonians 2. Being kept from the hour of trial applied only to the church of Philadelphia (Rev. 3.10) not to the corporate church and the anti-Christ (Barack Obama?) must first be revealed (2 Thess. 2.3).

It is Friday evening now!

3 comments:

udernation said...

So...there is no eschaton? :).

J. B. Hood said...

Mike,

David Turner says in his Matthew commentary that amils "tend to think of the kingdom as the present rule of Christ"; now you are assuming we don't think the kingdom of God is coming on earth. I've never, ever heard any amil deny a greater future rule/a greater manifestation of the reign of God on earth at and after the eschaton. Have I missed something? Is this a common view? Or did some premil "scholar" start spraying such things around, i.e., straw man stuff?

Alison B said...

Actually I just thought that Mike's humour was exhausted after three comments.

It's hard for Mike to be funny so we really should appreciate his efforts!

And Michael will take my comments seriously as he knows with what high esteem my humour is held!