Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Victory

In the past 6 months, I have made an eschatological shift toward Postmillenialism. Ironically, not even a year ago, I thought Postmillenialism was the most absurd of all the views of the End Times.

Below is a short video of R.J. Rushdoony speaking on Postmillennialism:

4 comments:

Bryan said...

Interesting video, the verse that I was most interested in was the Isaiah verse about Egypt. I definitely want to look into that one more. Thanks!

-Bryan

Machine Gun Kelley said...

If you get Keith Mathison's book, "Postmillenialism: An Eschatology of Hope"; he'll show you quite a few things that will make you sratch your head...

I keep coming back the fact that our Lord said the Gates of Hell would not prevail against the Church... How could that be true unless the church would eventually bring the light of the Gospel into the world in such a way as fulfill that passage in Isaiah???

From what I see in popular eschatology, people more believe that Hell is going to prevail against the Church until Jesus finally rescues the Church from the battle field!!

Bryan said...

I think I would call myself an optimistic Amiller before I say Post-Mill for several reasons. One is that I'm optimistic about the Gospel going forth and calling all the elect (how can we not be optimistic in that regard?) and in the strengthening of the church throughout time. However, the reason I am not a post-miller is because I am pessimistic about mankind in their depravity. In other words, I see the church improving and the reprobate world degrading.

As for the verse you brought up, what if it means that Hell won't prevail against the whole of the elect? It doesn't seem to point to a grand eschatological expansion and dominion (not that it's impossible), but simply that their will always be a faithful remnant as we see with Elijah and Isaiah. I'm not debating you on the subject, but trying to critically think through it all.

I'll try and pick up that book at some point (I have a huge stack of unread books at the moment haha), but I am a fan of Mathison, especially "A Reformed Response to Hyper-Preterism"

Machine Gun Kelley said...

Bryan said:

"As for the verse you brought up, what if it means that Hell won't prevail against the whole of the elect?"

It might... I won't deny that I may be Eisegeting a bit there.

Gordan might be of some help on this topic seeing as he's been a Postmiller longer.

Thanks!

RK