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).

Future Israel: Before You Become a Amillennialist (pt 4)

Photo Credit: www.alankurschner.com

Dr. Barry Horner's book Future Israel is a very helpful read when it comes to understanding eschatology and the place of national Israel. The following is a selection taken from his personal introduction (which is well worth the price of the book)...

"When all has been said and done with regard to the three major schools of eschatology, the real, overshadowing central issue concerns the person of Jesus Christ. It is the new covenant which He has established by His blood, and His present reign at the right hand of the Father, that should dominate our thinking and not some distinctive scheme of prophecy. So Reformed amillennialist George Murray commented, “It is Christ, rather than the Hebrew people, who is the subject of the Old Testament prophets.” (4) And of course, all the major schools of prophecy would heartily agree at this point, so that nothing in fact would have been trumped at all. The reason for this is simply that amillennialism, postmillennialism, and premillennialism are all based on their future perspective of history as it will be climaxed at the second coming or parousia of Jesus Christ that crowns the redemptive work of His first coming. In this sense, Jesus Christ is clearly central to all three perspectives, whatever their disagreements might involve. However, that being said, it must be borne in mind that the Lord Jesus Christ remains the quintessential Jew. We would even dare to say that He has lost none of His essential Jewishness. However, Murray continues, “To be sure, the nation was sovereignly chosen by God as the channel through which His oracles might be given to the world; but God no longer deals with them as a chosen nation.” (5) How incomplete is the allusion here to Rom 3:2 that ignores Rom 9:4 concerning those who “are [present tense] Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises.” For a professing Calvinist such as Murray to suggest that Israel has lost its election is not only astonishing, but it also flies in the face of Paul’s further explanation that “regarding the gospel, they [unbelieving national Israel, no the remnant] are enemies for your [the Gentiles’] advantage, but regarding election [the election, ten eklogen], they [unbelieving national Israel] are loved because of their forefathers [Abraham, Isaac and Jacob]” (Rom 11:28). How then can Jesus Christ be exalted when He, “the King of the Jews” (John 19:19), who declared that “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22), has His Jewish brethren permanently and nationally defrocked?