The Plight of Israel: An Historical, Biblical, Theological Study

1930's Antisemitism in Italy

Looking forward to our Wednesday PM series on "the Plight of Israel: An Historical, Biblical, Theological Study." This not only relates to our series on Revelation 20 and the Kingdom of God but to many contemporary events.

Here's a preview from this study:  In the 1930's fascist leaders in Italy began to target Jews for their religious beliefs. Censorship was also common. Today the LGBT and secular/liberal political machine is targeting anyone who doesn't embrace the sexual revolution and/or pledge allegiance to the rainbow flag (note recent firing of CrossFit executive and the businessmen who publicly apologized for eating at Chic-fil-a during Pride month). One of the tragic lessons in history is that when this began to take place in the 1930's and 40's is that the Roman Catholic leadership did not speak out clearly or boldly (think Reichskonkordat). Will evangelical pastors and leaders in America make this same mistake today? Will we fear man more than God? Will we modify our biblical convictions when our beliefs cost us something?

"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."  Join us this Wed. at 6:30pm at Lake Country Bible Church.

Long-standing Historic Error Dies Hard: Why Reformed Christians Should Consider Premillennialism (pt 5)

Photo Credit: shwebook.com

..."Sometimes the value of a good book is found in one sentence, one paragraph, one chapter, or in the case of Dr. Barry Horner’s Future Israel, in a nine page personal introduction. The testimony of Dr. Horner will no doubt resonate with many Text-driven students of Scripture. It will also challenge some of you as you desire to understand what the sacred Scriptures teach concerning the "end times." But before I share Horner’s eschatological journey allow me to quickly highlight mine.

I was a student at The Master’s College when I came to fully embrace and to appreciate the "doctrines of grace" for myself. Through the expository preaching ministry of John MacArthur and other gifted teachers at my home church (Grace Community) I began to appreciate more deeply the ministry of the Reformers and the Puritans. During this same time I began to question if my convictions concerning eschatology needed to be refined. After all, so many of my favorite theologians were Presbyterian and Reformed. I remember reading Gerstner’s, Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth as well as Mathison’s Dispensationalism: Rightly Dividing the People of God? From a theological perspective the argumentation in these books was convincing. At the same time however many of the Text-driven (exegetical) conclusions were lacking.

I decided to go back to the Scriptures in order to determine whether my end times positions needed to be modified or overhauled. As I made my way through the Old Testament Minor Prophets I found Charles Feinberg and Jim Boice’s commentaries to be faithful to the Text and to the point. Both scholars embraced premillennialism. By the time I went verse by verse through Romans 9-11 I was thoroughly convinced that the Word of God not only supports the doctrines of grace they also promote biblical premillennialism. In view of this I was not surprised when John MacArthur titled his main plenary address Why Every Calvinist Should Be a Premillennialist. Well enough about me. Let’s give Dr. Horner the floor one final time; (this part five in a series of selections taken from his personal introduction in Future Israel).

Not So Fast (Before You Become an Amillennialist)!

Sometimes the value of a good book is found in one sentence, one paragraph, one chapter, or in the case of Dr. Barry Horner’s Future Israel, in a nine page personal introduction.  The testimony of Dr. Horner will no doubt resonate with many Text-driven Christians.  It will also challenge some of you as you desire to understand what the sacred Scriptures teach concerning the "end times."  But before I share Horner’s eschatological journey allow me to quickly highlight mine.

I was a student at The Master’s College when I came to fully embrace and to appreciate the "doctrines of grace" for myself.  Through the expository preaching ministry of John MacArthur and other gifted teachers at my home church (Grace Community) I began to appreciate more deeply the ministry of the Reformers and the Puritans.  During this same time I began to question if my convictions concerning eschatology needed to be refined.  After all, so many of my favorite theologians were Presbyterian and Reformed.  I remember reading Gerstner’s, Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth as well as Mathison’s Dispensationalism: Rightly Dividing the People of God?  From a theological perspective the argumentation in these books was convincing.  At the same time however many of the Text-driven (exegetical) conclusions were lacking. 

11 Reasons WHY I Am Not a Amillennialist (John MacArthur)

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).

Not So Fast (Before You Become an Amillennialist)!

Sometimes the value of a good book is found in one sentence, one paragraph, one chapter, or in the case of Dr. Barry Horner’s Future Israel, in a nine page personal introduction.  The testimony of Dr. Horner will no doubt resonate with many Text-driven Christians.  It will also challenge some of you as you desire to understand what the sacred Scriptures teach concerning the "end times."  But before I share Horner’s eschatological journey allow me to quickly highlight mine.

I was a student at The Master’s College when I came to fully embrace and to appreciate the "doctrines of grace" for myself.  Through the expository preaching ministry of John MacArthur and other gifted teachers at my home church (Grace Community) I began to appreciate more deeply the ministry of the Reformers and the Puritans.  During this same time I began to question if my convictions concerning eschatology needed to be refined.  After all, so many of my favorite theologians were Presbyterian and Reformed.  I remember reading Gerstner’s, Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth as well as Mathison’s Dispensationalism: Rightly Dividing the People of God?  From a theological perspective the argumentation in these books was convincing.  At the same time however many of the Text-driven (exegetical) conclusions were lacking. 

I decided to go back to the Scriptures in order to determine whether my end times positions needed to be modified or overhauled.  As I made my way through the Old Testament Minor Prophets I found Charles Feinberg and Jim Boice’s commentaries to be faithful to the Text and to the point.  Both scholars embraced premillennialism.  By the time I went verse by verse through Romans 9-11 I was thoroughly convinced that the Word of God not only supports the doctrines of grace they also promote biblical premillennialism.  In view of this I was not surprised when John MacArthur titled his  plenary address at Shepherds Conference, Why Every Calvinist Should Be a Premillennialist.  Well enough about me.  Let’s give the floor now to Dr. Horner.