11 Reasons Why I Am Not a Amillennialist
By John MacArthur
1. Amillennialist employ a historical grammatical hermeneutic but when they get to prophetic sections they substitute some other hermeneutic. In essence, they have a double hermeneutic.
2. They often eliminate a future for ethnic Israel.
3. They often confuse national Israel with the Church.
4. They often deny God’s promise to restore God’s people to the land even though the Abrahamic Covenant was unconditional and unilateral.
5. They deny Christ’s Davidic kingdom as promised in the Old Testament (see 2 Sam. 7; Psalm 89).
6. They believe wrongly that Satan is presently bound (in the Church age; See Rev 20:2; 1 Peter 5:8).
7. They artificially impose “continuity” on Scripture and do not allow ample room for “discontinuity.”
Our Covenantal friends build their system on three covenants that are not found in the Bible: The covenant of redemption; The covenant of grace; and the covenant of works. As an aside John MacArthur does see a covenant of redemption in Scripture (note his sermon on Titus 1).
For a more detailed defense see the Master's Seminary Journal, 10/2 for a biblical theology of the covenants as they appear in Holy Scripture. There is a Noahic covenant, an Abrahamic covenant, a Mosaic Covenant, Davidic covenant, and a New Covenant but not the covenants of Covenant Theology.
8. They erroneously defend there system by spiritualizing the Old Testament and some prophetic passages.
9. They claim that the curses of Deut. 28-32 (and elsewhere) were for Israel and the blessings are for the Church.
10. They deny that the present existence of the Israelites in their land has any significance for the future. (see John Stott’s quote)
Even some secular scholars claim that, “The preservation of the Jews is the greatest ethnic miracle in the world!”
11. They deny the literal rendering of “1000 years” found in Revelation 20 (which John uses 6x). Are their overwhelming exegetical reasons to interpret 1000 years as something other than one thousand years? Or is one's theological system driving one’s hermeneutics here?
8. They erroneously defend there system by spiritualizing the Old Testament and some prophetic passages.
9. They claim that the curses of Deut. 28-32 (and elsewhere) were for Israel and the blessings are for the Church.
10. They deny that the present existence of the Israelites in their land has any significance for the future. (see John Stott’s quote)
Even some secular scholars claim that, “The preservation of the Jews is the greatest ethnic miracle in the world!”
11. They deny the literal rendering of “1000 years” found in Revelation 20 (which John uses 6x). Are their overwhelming exegetical reasons to interpret 1000 years as something other than one thousand years? Or is one's theological system driving one’s hermeneutics here?
See also Matthew Waymeyer's book on Revelation 20 or simply read the inspired text for yourself (Rev. 19-22).
For a stand alone sermon on entire book of Revelation note MacArthur's 1982 sermon, A Jet Tour Through Revelation.
