Let me say up front this is not an issue that should divide true believers. This debate is not a mark of orthodoxy. This explains why R. C. Sproul, Ligon Duncan, and I are such close friends. The Together for the Gospel conference is a perfect example of how we should interact with those who disagree with us over secondary matters (see this video on theological triage and/or read Mohler's helpful article).
Let me make five points right off the bat: 1) Eschatology is a “secondary” biblical issue because the heart of the gospel is not at stake. Having said that, 2) This is an important issue because the Bible contains so many prophetic end times passages. You cannot proclaim the full counsel of God and ignore eschatology and/or biblical prophesy. 3) As with all things our doctrinal convictions need to be interpreted through the grid of Scripture. "What sayeth the Scriptures" must be our frequent refrain. 4) All of us must strive to do faithful biblical exegesis in effort to have a truly biblical theology. We must not impose a theological system upon any passage of Scripture. 5) Spiritualizing prophetic literature will lead to a wrong eschatology.
One thing is absolutely certain: the Bible can not teach both Premillennialism and Amillennialism. We should realize upfront that there are some mistaken notions as to what Dispensationalists and Covenant theologians believe. We should work hard so as to not build straw man arguments when trying to defend our own theological positions and our own personal convictions.
