The Greek word translated “millennium” occurs six times in Revelation 20 and it means a thousand-year period. What was that speculation and how did it impact Wesley’s preaching? As we shall see in this article, John Wesley participated in speculation about the coming millennium. Ideas about the so-called millennium or millennial reign of Christ on earth is usually part of the discussion of “end things.” While the millennial reign of Christ on earth is not usually a major discussion point in Wesleyan theology, John Wesley’s speculation about a millennium did occur in some of his later sermons. Though eschatology was not in the forefront of Wesley’s preaching, it was always in the background of his preaching because of what he believed to be the possible, even probable, extent of God’s soteriological work in this world. Is the preacher seeking a great spiritual awakening in history or just trying to get a few souls into heaven as an escape from the downward spiral of Christian culture in this world? John Wesley looked for a period of great revival in history before God consummates the kingdom on this earth. The placement of the rapture in relation to the other events is one of the main differences between historic premillennialism and premillennial dispensationalism.What is God doing in history? How a preacher answers this question will impact the content of preaching. Afterwards, in a brief, final battle, Satan is permanently conquered. Generally, all of the premillennialist beliefs teach that the tribulation is followed by 1,000 years of peace when all live under the authority of Christ. Historic premillennialism is one system of eschatology that has support in the Protestant community. Barton Payne Henry Alford, a noted Greek scholar and Theodor Zahn, a German New Testament scholar. Other well-known historic premillennialists include Walter Martin John Warwick Montgomery J. It was through Ladd’s work that historic premillennialism gained scholarly respect and popularity among evangelical and Reformed theologians of the twentieth century. One of the most influential historic premillennialists was George Eldon Ladd, an evangelical New Testament scholar and professor of New Testament exegesis and theology at Fuller Theological Seminary. Amillennialism soon became the prevailing doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. When Christianity became the official religion of Rome in the fourth century, many things began to change, including acceptance of historic premillennialism. The faithful spend eternity in the New Jerusalem. Next would be the rapture, and then Jesus and His church would return to earth to rule for a thousand years. Historic premillennialism taught that the Antichrist would appear on earth and the seven-year tribulation would begin. Many of the church fathers such as Ireneaus, Papias, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and others taught that there would be a visible kingdom of God upon the earth after the return of Christ. Historic premillennialism was held by a large majority of Christians during the first three centuries of the Christian era. Matthew 24, much of the book of Revelation, and 1 Thessalonians 4:16–18 are the more salient references to the second coming. The Bible contains many prophecies about the future, with the New Testament speaking extensively about the return of Jesus to earth. The premillennial view of the end times is thus advanced in two different ways: historic premillennialism and dispensational premillennialism. Historic premillennialism is posttribulational dispensational premillennialism usually embraces the pretribulational view.The present age is the sixth such dispensation the last one will be the millennial age after the second coming. Usually, dispensationalism teaches seven divisions of time. Historic premillennialism teaches a millennium after the second advent of Christ but is not much concerned with classifying other epochs of history.Dispensationalism holds that the present age was unforeseen in the Old Testament and thus is a “great parenthesis” in history introduced because the Jews rejected the kingdom. Historic premillennialism teaches that the present age of grace was predicted in the Old Testament.Historic premillennialism teaches that the church was in the fore-vision of Old Testament prophecy, while dispensationalism teaches that the church is hardly, if at all, mentioned by the Old Testament prophets.Here are a few examples of the differences between the two: Historic premillennialism and dispensational premillennialism are two different systems of eschatology.
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