Conference: 2003 Pre-Trib Study Group
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Professor Emeritus ofPreaching, Associate Director of the Professional Doctoral Programs, TrinityEvangelical Divinity School
The focus in this study is very narrow - some key issuesin the history of premillennialism. Of course the decisive considerations areBiblical and theological, but we cannot be oblivious to the historical data -what has the church believed across the centuries?
In her masterful new biography of A.T. Pierson entitled:Occupy Until I Come: A.T. Pierson and the Evangelization of the World, ProfessorDana Roberts shows how Pierson became a strong Biblical preacher and one of thetruly great Bible teachers of the nineteenth century. His sermons were widely read inthis country and abroad. He was a favorite preacher at Keswick. He debatedRobert Ingersoll and wrote an influential book on apologetics entitled ManyInfallible Proofs. He pastored the great Fort Street Presbyterian Church ofDetroit and often preached for Spurgeon in London. But like so many at thistime, he was a post-millennialist.
Then in 1879 under the tutelage of George Muller ofBristol, he became an ardent premillennialist.1 Contrary to the popularcaricature, he was not a pessimist nor a fatalist. Rather imbued withmillennial urgency, he became the father of "faith missions." He became pastorof the Bethany Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, the "Wanamaker Church," andwas seen as one of the founders of the modern missionary movement. He traveledwidely as an evangelist at home and abroad. He was active in the NiagaraConferences and delivered a brilliant and scholarly lecture 1 in the great Chicago Prophetic Conference of 1886 on "TheLord's Second Coming - A Motive for World-wide Evangelization." ProfessorRoberts shows how the leading evangelicals of the age were premillennial.
I want to briefly trace some of the continuities andvitalities of premillennialism, some of the hills and the valleys of themovement. The fact is that millennial expectation at certain times in historyhas exerted what Leonard Sweet has called "a formative sway over diverse socialmovements and over broad sections of society."2 Premillennialism has been apowerful and positive influence inhuman history and in the life of the Church.
MOUNTAIN PEAKS OF MILLENNIAL EXPECTANCY IN THE EARLYCENTURIES Beyond any question, premillennialism is apostolic. Theearly church was a radical eschatological community. Someone has defined theearly Christian churches as revivalistic fellowships, seeking to win theirworld for Christ and eagerly waiting for His return from heaven. Theirs was aneschatological urgency and their expectation was the imminent return of theLord Jesus. The "theme of imminence plays like a broken record" is the way onescholar describes the early emphasis.3
Some held to a 6000 year theory and there were otherdifferences, but the over-whelmingly dominant conviction was that Christ inreturning in power and glory would set up His Kingdom and rule for 1000 years.Papias (70-155 A.D.) is typical: "There will be a millennium after the resurrection fromthe dead, when the personal reign of Christwill be established on this earth."4 2
Slightly later, Justin Martyr (110-165 A.D.) wrote in hisdialogue with Trypho:
"But I and others who are right minded Christians on allpoints, are assured that there will be aresurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem which will then be built,adorned and enlarged, (as) the prophets Ezeiel and Isaiah and others declare."5
It has long been established by students and scholars ofall eschatological persuasion that the orthodox position in the early church waspremillennial. Even Edward Gibbon renown author of The Decline and Fall of the RomanEmpire says: "The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium wascarefully inculcated by a successionof fathers from Justin Martyr and Irenaeus--who conversed with the immedi- atedisciples of the apostles--down to Lactantius, who was the preceptor of the sonof Constantine.It appears to have been the reigning sentiment of all orthodox believers. It wasproductive of the most salutary effect upon the faith and practice ofChristians."6
The late Professor Ned Stonehouse of Westminster, devoutadherent of amillennial- ism in his doctoral dissertation recognizes that chiliasmwas once the orthodox doc- trine.7 J.N.D. Kelly the most astute of contemporarystudents of the history of dog- ma (and who has no axe whatever to grind) makes it plainthat premillennialism reigned in the first three hundred years of churchhistory.8 For the first two centur- ies no one fought it. Premillennialism was pervasive.There is no evidence whatever of any amillennial challenge in the first threecenturies. This awaits Augustine.
L. Berkhof argues that amillennialism "had at least asmany advocates as Chiliasm in the second and third centuries supposed to havebeen the heyday of chiliasm," but he does not cite a single one.9 LoraineBoettner calls premillennialism "one of the principle errors in the earlychurch" (along with gnosticism and Arianism).10 The early dominance ofpremillennialism is obviously disconcerting to its opponents. 3
More recent assaults on the received doctrine of themillennium Although no critique of millennial thought had ever arguedthat "in 431 the Council of Ephesus condemned belief in the millennium as asuperstitious aberration," Norman Cohn did just that in his widely-read study,The Pursuit of the Millennium.11 Many have followed Cohn in this allegationincluding Robert Clouse, Peter Toon, Stanley Grenz, Richard Kyle and a host ofothers. Premillennialism was early seen as heretical, it is urged. A DallasSeminary PhD student, Michael J. Svigel, has done us a service as has ourTrinity Journal in publishing his work. The fact is Cohn misconstrued a Frenchfootnote with regard to the Oriental bishops' opposition to chiliasm asconciliar condemnation and he dropped the allegation in the 1970 edition of hiswork. Sadly, his original error has had a life of its own but in fact we aredealing with what Svigel calls "a phantom error."12 Whatever may or may not besaid of the Council of Ephesis in 431, it did not condemn premillennialism as aheresy.
More substantive has been the Herculean effort mounted byProfessor Charles Hill, church historian at Reformed Seminary, Orlando.Professor Hill admits that the majority in the early centuries werepremillennial but he seeks to knock some key figures from their premillennialperch like Hippolytus (d. 235) who in his great commentry on Daniel argues fora detached 70th week in Daniel 9. But Hippolytus held to a 6000 year theory after which would come the Sabbath(which clearly is the kingdom on earth).13 Hill disdains Jewish apocalypticwhich in itself raises questions about chiliasm from his standpoint becauseRabbi Eliezer spoke of the 4
days of the Messiah as being 1000 years and echoes of thisare found in the Sybylline Oracles (Book 2) and also The Twelve Patriarchs. Thefact that the heavenly Son of Man is set forth in The First Book of Enoch aswell as in Daniel 7:13 does not disincline our interest or our confidence inthe Biblical representation. Of passing interest is the fact that ProfessorHill acknowledges great debt to his mentor at Oxford, Rowan Williams, the veryliberal new Archbishop of Canterbury who danced with the druids at his recentinstallation.14
Of course, as all concede, Professor Hill is right thatnot all were chiliastic. Indeed Clement of Alexandria and Origen sronglyinfluenced by Greek philosophy and put off by the tendency of some chiliasts togrossly exaggerate how many vines there would be to the acre in the millennium,drastically allegorized the Biblical text and in this radical spiritualizingwent so far as to deny the bodily resurrection of Christ. Origen argued thatthe millennium of the Book of Revelation is in fact the intermediate state. Hisproof text was the statement of Jesus to the dying thief, "Today you will bewith me in paradise." But this is hardly the platform text which gives us themeaning of the "kingdom." The first resurrection is seen as Christian baptism.
Despite Origen, "the millennial hope remained strong."15Hill seeks to gravely weaken the premillennial case by compromising Irenaeus(130-200) of Gaul and Tertullian the Montantist (155-222) of North Africa bothof whom mounted a strong pro-materialist thrust against gnosticism and itsdenial of the bodily resurrection and the earthly millennium. Not all saw thechange of venue for the 5 believing dead after the resurrection of Christ. Hill seeksto congenitally join the Subterranians who held that believers in the intermediatestate now wait their entrance into heaven at the parousia with thepremillennialists. Some taught that only martyrs bypass the earthly waitingperiod. The amillennial argument is that if the saints are in heaven now, thereis no need for the millennium. But this is a logical non sequitur. The gloryand power of God will be manifest in the time-space order during the 1000 yearreign of Christ, irregardless of the location of the intermediate state. Webelieve the intermediate state is in the Lord's heavenly presence but this doesnot touch the millennial issue.
In point of fact Irenaeus believed vigorously in the 1000year reign and sets forth in his Adversus Haereses his "defense of themillenarian hope represented by Papias and the 'elders' of earlier AsiaticChristianity (5.33.3-4)."16 He refuses to allegorize away the "many Biblical passages that promise salvation toIsrael in typical terms of peace, prosperity and material restoration(35.1-2)."16 Interestingly, Professor Daley, one of our leading experts inearly eschatology even in his 2003 updating of his work makes no reference toProfessor Hill's argument. Hill's premise is of course that there is nothingchiliastic in Revelation 20.18 Not so. Sadly, Hill is right on one thing: premillennialism is in for a seismicshock.
THE DISASTER OF THE AUGUSTINIAN DOMESTICATION OF THEKINGDOM While the decline of the Roman Empire and the prospect ofbarbarian invasions cast 6
"a pall of anxiety" over many, a new burst of millennialhope sought to counter the prevailing pessimism. Such teachers as Gaudentius ofBrescia, Maximus of Turin, Sulpicious Severus and Hilarianus in North Africawere vigorous premillennarians. Augustine himself was originally apremillennialist and held to the 6000 year theory (Sermon 259). "We ourselveswere formerly of this opinion," he admits. It does seem quite clear that "thedoctrine of the personal reign of Christ in the new earth is of the Bible."18The church was never referred to as the kingdom by anyone before Augustine.19
The constant chipping away of the allegorizers and theimpending collapse of the Roman Empire had an apocalyptic effect on Jerome buthe was anti-millennial. Under the unfluence of the Donatist teacher, Tyconius,Augustine reconfigured the eschatological landscape bringing a virtual end tomillennial urgency and opening the door to a realized eschatology in which thechurch is the Kingdom of God. This institutionalization of the Kingdom meant no millennium and no imminence. "Therefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ,and the kingdom of heaven. Even now His saints reign with Him. The devil isbound and loosed for a little while at the end of the thousand years."20
Augustine effectively de-eschatologizes the Christianfaith and domesticates the kingdom. Professor Sickinburger is right thatAugustine has done violence to the text of Revelation 20 and this why heasserts that "The amillennial approach has lost nearly all support ofRevelation specialists in this century on the valid gounds that it fails to dojustice to the unique eschatological pers- pectives of Revelation itself. If Rev. 20:7-10 is relatedto 20:4-6 then the saints martyred by the Beast are raised to rule withChrist."21
The reign following the martyrdom is the decisive problemof the Augustinian 7 model. The ecclesiological interpretation of Revelationposes many problems. Augustine's domestication of the kingdom led to thetriumphant medieval theoc- racy which lasted 1000 years. The hierarchical churchfeatured "the reign of the pope"and government people as "rulers in Christ'skingdom."22 An immediate casualty was an expectation of the imminent return.With the virtual allegorization of the entire OT the OT ban on icons wasignored and the Jews were harshly treated.
Professor Peter Beyerhaus of Tubingen looking from amodern perspective does not speak too boldly when he says: "The Kingdom became a blurred concept under the influenceof theological liberalism and the social gospel as well as human ideologies,but partly also due to different millennial theories."23 The loss of the eschatological kingdom in favor of itevolutionary development in history has always cut off missions and evangelismat the knees.
THE COMEBACK AND QUICKENING OF THE PREMILLENNIAL PULSE Of course there were those stalwart champions who wouldnot have yielded, to the Augustinian juggernaut. Such worthies as Evodius ofNorth Africa, Methodius the critic of Origen, Lactantius, Commodian the Syrian(who spoke of the procreation of children during the millennium as didIrenaeus), Victorinus, Psuedo-Efrem, but they were few. Futurism is for allpractical purposes dead.
In the desperately dark days in which he lived, PopeGregory I although generally following Augustine saw apocalyptic aspects inhistory and asserted the end was 8
near. The year 1000 stirred up some fear and foreboding.In such as Richard of St. Victor we see some deviation from the Augustinianline and in Bruno of Segni (1049-1123) we hear some "back to the Bible notes."Anselm of Havelberg (d. 1158) in making the seven seals historical began toprepare the ground for Joachim.
In Joachim of Fiore (1130-1202) of Calabria in Italy wesee the rebirth of futurism. He and his peers considered themselves as "thelaborers of the eleventh hour."24 Out of his study in connection with writing a commentaryon the much-neglected Book of Revelation came his insistence that contrary toAugustine and Aquinas God would redeem the time-space order and that the endwas at hand. He projects a Sabbath age or millennium and the conversion of theJews. Fascinatingly, Jurgen Moltmann of the theology of hope in our time says that "Joachim is more alive today than Augustine because all of the promises of bothTestaments will be fulfilled.25 Many of the Franciscan "spirituals" werechiliastic and doubtless Joachim influenced St. Bonventura and St.Francis. His influence sweptacross Europe and Savonarola the powerful preacher of Florence was called "theprophet of the millennium." The latter's thunderous sermons included series ofmessages preached from Daniel and Revelation. This impact extended to ThomasMuntzer and the anabaptist extremists who gave millenialism a bad name. TheReformers had no interest in things eschatological with the exception of thelater Luther who became truly apocalyptic in his conflicts with the papacy.Karlstedt, an early 9
follower of Luther, was a premillennialist. MarjorieReeves, the foremost Joachite scholar makes what to her is an astoundingstatement: "At the end of the seventeenth century serious thinkersand sober men still believed in prophecy."26
Spinning off from the Hussite revolt in Czechoslovakia inthe fifteenth century were millennialist movements like the Taborites andAdamites. These radical Hussites insisted on communion in both kinds. They tookthe Bible literally and believed an imminent day of wrath was at hand and theestablishment of the millennial reign of Christ.27 Peasants in South Bohemiathought they were in the anticipated period of tribulation. Some millennialstrains can be heard among the Waldensians in the valleys of northern Italy. Anearly key figure in Germany is the German Calvinistic theologian, JohannHeinrich Alsted (1588-1638). His classic The Beloved City (1627) influencedboth Pietistic and Puritan thinking.28 What Broadbent calls "the pilgrimchurch" thrives.
The tie between the Moravians, Pietism and Count Zinzendorfproduced Johann Albrecht Bengel of Germany (1687-1751) who according to RobertCulver, "gave Premillennialism respectability in scholarly and ecclesiasticalcircles in the modern era by adopting an energetic Premillennialism himself andadvocating it in his writings."29 We see also at this time a strong move topremillennialism in the French Huguenots. Bengel steadied the somewhat erraticZinzendorf and stood with Vitringa, Cocceius, Alsted and Philip Spener inaffirming that "Jerusalem would be the center of the millennial kingdom andthat Israel will again rise to the summit of 10 mankind."30 Bengel's follower, C.A. Auberlen epitomizesthe revival of chiliasm when he says that "Jesus, the prophets and the apostleswere express chiliasts."31 These centuries were much awash with interest in Biblicalprophecy and the millennium. John Amos Comenius the great Moravian educator andardent pre- millenarian had a very good friend at CambridgeUniversity, Joseph Mede (1586-1638) whom many call the father of modernpremillennialism because he so clearly placed the entire 1000 years in thefuture. In the eschatological frenzy of this period, many of the Fifth Monarchy Men (the period when the greatstone of Daniel 2 fills the whole earth) identified Oliver Cromwell as thelittle horn of Daniel 7. Learned and erudite, Mede mastered Greek and Hebrewand wrote an epochal commentary on Revelation, Clavis Apocalypticae in Latin(1627). His views on the millennium and the conversion of the Jews wereendorsed by John Robinson (of the Pilgrim Fathers), Archbishop Ussher, IsaacNewton who was a dedicated student of Daniel and Revelation and John Milton"the mighty organ-voice of England. Mede saw the development of a massiveapostasy embracing 1)Roman Catholicism; 2)Islam; and 3)Protestantism'scapitulation to rationalistic unbelief and infidelity.32
Mede noted early the writings of Johann Heinrich Alsted(d.1638) who was a Rhineland Calvinist. He taught philosophy at Herbon but inthe ravages of the Thirty Years War, the school was closed and he moved toTransylvania to teach in 1629. He sets forth his millennialism in his bookBeloved City, which was translated into English by William Burton in 1634. Hebases his argument for a literal 1000 year reign on the literal fulfillment ofOT passages like Isaiah 2:1-4, Isaiah 34, Joel 11
3:1-2, 9-13, Psalm 22, 86:9, 117:1, Daniel 12:11-12, etc.He claimed that Osiander, Conradus and Piscator followed him in his views. Evenbefore the translation of this book, Joseph Mede had noted it in the originalGerman. Alsted's other followers included Isaac Newton, Henry More andNathaniel Homes.33
Augustinian "realized eschatology" was still representedin Puritanism but was giving way dramatically to postmillennialism whichposited the victory of the chuch and the conversion of the world beforeChrist's return, a rather peculiar Enlightenment type optimism. But some Puritans like Thomas Shepard(1604-1649), noted pastor of Cambridge in the new world and first president ofHarvard believed that the return of the Lord would be required to establish themillennial rule of the Savior. He seems to speak of two future comings of theLord Jesus Christ.34 Theredoubtable Increase Mather (1639-17232) was an articulate premillennialistafter 1660 and viewed the stirrings of a false Messiah among the Jews in theMiddle East as a possible sign of the Lord's soon return. His noted son, CottonMather (1663-1728) followed in his father's thinking and he was successful inwinning two Massachusetts governors to premillennial views.35 Roger Williamsthe separatist who founded Rhode Island (1604-1683) trumpeted the message that"only the millennial advent of Christ would change or significantly alter thesituation (the apostasy all around him).36
THE STARTLING REBOUND OF PREMILLENNIAL CONFIDENCE Whoever would have imagined that the premillennialismwhich simmered in the 12
eschatological broth after the Reformation and the Puritanand Pietistic revivals would burst into such brilliant flame as indeed it did evenin the face of the Enlightenment's vicious despisal of supernatural prophecy. Amarked upsurge of premillennial fervor is in evdence in the 1820s. In the forefront of this mighty movewas the young Irish Anglican, John Nelson Darby (1800-1882). The AlburyConferences which began in England in 1826 and the Powerscourt Conferences inIreland in the 1830s stimulated interest in Biblical prophecy especially in arecrusdescence of confidence in the imminent return of our Lord. But Darby etal heralded a return to the ante-Nicene premillennial position as well. Hestood with Augustus Toplady (who wrote "Rock of Ages") on the millennium: "I am one of the old-fashioned people who believe thedoctrine of the Millennium and that there will be two distinct resurrections ofthe dead--first, of the just; second, of the unjust; which last resurrectioinwill not commence till one thousand years after the resurrection of the elect. In this glorious interval of one thousandyears Christ will reign in person over the kingdom of the just."37
Darby and the Brethren spearheaded an impact which reachedevangelicalism around the world, especially upon the Congregationalist C.I.Scofield and the Pres- byterian James H. Brookes. Even those in the movement whodid not go along with the pretribulational emphasis on the rapture such asGeorge Muller, S.P.Tregelles, B.N. Newton and others such as Edward Irving and the Bonarbrothers of Scotland stood squarely and firmly for the premillennial return ofChrist to set up the kingdom. What Sibley called the "ineluctable call ofapocalyptic" had deeply gripped and moved these people.38 Though not of thisstream of thought, Gerald Thomas Noll, a close friend of William Wilberforce,in his Brief Inquiry into the Prospects of the Church (1828) depicts therestoration of the Jews and the millennium as the actual monarchy of Christ,believers "living among their mortal 13
kindred as benefactors, princes and kings" (77). W.H.Oliver does not overstate the matter when he concludes that "prophecy was anormal intellectual activity in early 19th century England."39
Even in the face of the devilish attack of Darwinianevolution on every aspect of Biblical supernaturalism and despite the debacleof date-setting by William Miller and his followers in the 1840s,premillennialism flourished in the most unexpected places. Beginning in 1863,the Prophetic Times edited by the Lutheran Joseph Seiss beat on thepremillennial drum with vigor. Nathaniel West (1826-1906), an energetic scholarand Presbyterian pastor, wrote his magisterial exposition The Thousand Years inBoth Testaments which was published in 1880. He argues that the millen- nium is the first stage of the everlasting Kingdom. Hestands with the European scholars Godet, Delitzsch and Van Osterzee and withDorner who insisted "A point undoubtedly common to both Jewish and Christianapocalypticists, is the period of blessedness on earth, called the 1000years."40 Americans who followed were Robert Speer, S.H. Kellogg thePresbyterian missionary and theologian and Charles Blanchard the firstpresident of Wheaton College.
No less impressive is the monumental 2100 page TheTheocratic Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Covenanted in the Old Testamentand Presented in the New Testament, written by the prominent and able Lutheranpastor, George N.H. Peters. He grapples with the meaning of the kingdom of God andcomes down hard in favor of the theocratic kingdom of our Lord, "an earnest,introductory or initiatory 14
form of the kingdom."41 Peters' case is for "the literalrestoration and conversion of the Jewish people" in the wrap-up of space-timehistory. Peters suffered much ecclesiastically for his stand but exerted abroad and effective witness for truth. While dispensational premillennialism was really the mainengine force that estab- lished a maturing premillennial conviction through thechurches and institutions of America, it should not be forgotten that manyBritons held tenaciously to the essential premillennial persuasion such asCharles Haddon Spurgeon, Bishops J.C. Ryle, Edward Bickersteth and H.C.G.Moule. The Advent Preparation Movement stood right here and featured suchleaders as J. Stuart Holden, F.B. Meyer, Dinsdale Young, G. Campbell Morgan,E.L. Langston and A.C. Dixon. The transatlantic ministries of Americanevangelists like D.L. Moody, R.A. Torrey, J. Wilbur Chapman, Billy Sunday andBilly Graham were much used of God and all of these were zealouspremillenarians and indeed pretribulationists also.
The wearisome refrain of the critics is thatpremillennialism is unduly pessimistic and that it encourages disengagementfrom the problems of time/space history. None less than the guru of Protestantmainliners, Martin E. Marty, uses William E. Blackstone as an example of howearly fundamentalism fused premillennialism and Princeton-style inerrancy andassumed even a political posture. Quite a different line is taken by BarnardCollege Randall Balmer (ostensibly one of evangelicalism's own) who blastspremillennialism as "a theology of despair" and curiously argues that it"breeds a grim indifference both to individual non-believers and to theAmerican project as a whole."42 15
Marty, on the other hand, sees Protestant fundamentalistsas Zionists "before Jewish Zionism took hold." He attributes this societalactivism to the influence of the Sco- field Reference Bible, The Bible Conferences such as theNiagara Conferences, and the virtual takeover of proto-fundamentalism bydispensational premillennialists." As the cause celebre he cites "the tirelessagitator, William E. Blackstone, who as early as 1891 gathered the names ofover 400 prominent Americans and presented to President Harrison a petitionasserting the political right of the Jews to rebuild the nation of Israel."43 Further evidence to Marty isfundamentalist participation in the Scopes'Trial, their dedication torebuilding after their denominational defeats and institutional losses in thetwenties. He further cites the anti-communist posture ofevangelicals/fundamentalists in the Cold War. "Even if the Second Coming isimminent, Christians are to 'occupy until Christ comes.'" Indeed, trumpetingthe stance of the so-called "religious right" in America down to the presentmoment, he shows (contrary to Balmer) fundamentalism's efforts to "rescueindividuals before the rapture."
The final issue raised by this history is this: even withamillennialism losing some of its steam in our time and the newpostmillennialism and preterism seeking to stand on yet very unsteady feet, canclassical premillennialism shorn of dispensationalism's hermeneutic, itsattention to the periodization of redemptive history and its dogged insistenceon the difference between Israel and the Church, can it really withstand theonslaughts of a diluting covenant theology which is really not all that interestedin eschatology anyway? Dispensational premillennialism with the Left Behindseries, the prophecy conferences, fidelity to God's covenant promises to Israelwithout com 16
promise is the greatest bulwark to the continuing erosionof evangelical conviction on this critical and crucial aspect of Biblicaltruth. Premillennialism and imminence have stood together from the earliest ages of churchhistory. ALWAYS EXPECT THE ADVENThas been the recurring clarion call from the beginning. As Arch- bishop Trench put it: the Lord's return is "possible anyday; impossible no day." John Nelson Darby preached "It is no mistake to be alwaysexpecting the Lord to return" and he was right.44 In his classic study on TheParousia in the New Testament, A.L.Moore leaves no doubt that the hope of theimminent return belongs to "the very fabric and substance of the NewTestament."45 The Apostles are of one mind - Christ is at the door. Believersare to watch.
Not all who held to premillennialism and imminence saw theScriptural and logical necessity of a two-stage coming, but more and morefollowed out the difference between the signless rapture in coming for theChurch and the many-signed return in glory with the Church. The erosion of thisurgent looking and waiting has always been disastrous for the Church. Failureto affirm imminence along with the difference between Israel and the Churchhave often led to the weakening and the wasting of premillennialism (as in thecase of George Ladd). Abandonment of either of these twin pillars of NewTestament eschatology opens the slippery slope.
Further evidence of this peril can be seen in twomagisterial commentaries on Revelation of recent date. Coming out of Wheatonwhich sometime ago abandoned its premillennial stand, is Greg Beale's massiveThe Book of Revelation in Eerdman's New International Greek Commentry Series(1999). This book is 17 amillennial to the core. How long can you maintainpremillennialism without the dispensational pre-tribulational framework?
Another notable work follows in the Ladd-Mounce traditionand that is by my colleague at Trinity, Grant R. Osborne's nearly 900 pageRevelation in the Baker Exegetical Commentary Series. This study pulsates witha warm devotional tone and is avowedly premillennial in its commitment. Osbornemakes no effort at correlating Daniel, Zechariah, the Olivet Discourse andRevelation. A helpful commentary must, it seems to me, deal with a text andthen do some work on the analogia scripturae, how this fits into what Scriptureas a whole says about this. For instance, Osborne depicts the Lord Jesus comingin power and glory in Revelation 19 with "the armies of heaven following." Heasks: might this imply that the saints would have to have been caught up ifthey were to accompany the Lord in His triumphant descent.46 But he says thatthe answer to this question must be sought in "the rest of the New Testament,"although he has obviously opted for the post-tribulational position.
So Osborne sees Revelation 3:10 as promising protection inrather than exemption from; the 24 elders are heavenly beings; the 144,000 andthe great unnumbered multitude are the church; the saints in Revelation are theChurch; Israel does not even have mention in the subject index. He does hold toa 1000 reign of Christ because that position does "more justice to the literaryflow" and to 20:3 and 20:4-5.47 But I think he is hanging on by the skin of histeeth. The covenantal, classical premillenarian is very close to giving awaythe store. With the surrender of 18 imminence in any significant sense and with the abolitionof any significant difference between Israel and the Church, these folk arehanging by a thread.
Dispensationalism with its embrace of an unequivocallyclear "imminent return" and its striking continuity with historic and orthodoxpremillennialism with its strong insistence on the distinction between Israeland the Church would seem to be in the strongest and most defensibleposition. Thus it would seem to methat this is not the hour in which to weaken our resolve but indeed to raise upthe flag - JESUS IS COMING! HE COULD COME TODAY!
1.Dana L. Robert, Occupy Until I Come: A.T. Pierson andthe Evangelization of the World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003) 10 2.Leonard I. Sweet, "The Revelation of St. John andHistory," Christianity Today, May 11, 1973, 9 3.John T. Carroll, The Return of Jesus in EarlyChristianity (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2000) 111 4.Ante-Nicene Fathers, "Fragments of Papias," VI, fromEusebius Ecclesiastical History III, 39, Vol. 1, 154. For further study, Edward H. Hall, Papias and HisContemporaries: A Study of Religious Thought in the Second Century (Boston:Houghton, Mifflin, 1899) 131ff. "Millennialism was the prevailing belief..." 5.Ante-Nicene Fathers, Justin Martyr, "Dialogue withTrypho,"ixxx, Volume 1,239 6.Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,I, 15, II 7.Ned B. Stonehouse, The Apocalypse in the Ancient Church(Goes,Holland: Oos- terbaan and LaCointre, 3ff) John Calvin called chiliasm "apuerile fiction." 8.J.N.D.Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (New York:HarperCollins, 1960) 465ff Professor Jaroslav Pelikan admits that "Every tenet ofprimitive Christian belief must be understood in this apocalyptic context" inThe Christian Tradition, I (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971) 123. 9..L.Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1953) 708.Heinrich Schmid in his scholastic Luthern Doctrinal Theology of theEvangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis: Augsburg,1875), dismisses chiliasm asheld only by "The Jews, Cerinthus, Papias, Joachim, the Fanatics andAnabaptists, Schwenkfield and others," 650. Obviously a totally inadequatestatement of the history of chiliasm. 10.Loraine Boettner, The Millennium (Philadelphia:Presbyterian and Reformed, 1957) 365. Boettner himself was postmillennial. 11.Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium (New York:Harper, 1957) 14 19
12.Michael J. Svigel, "The Phantom Heresy: Did the Councilof Ephesus (431) Con- demn Chiliasm?" in The Trinity Journal, 24NS (2003) 105-112 13.Hippolytus, Commentary on Daniel, 4.23. David Dunbar ofBiblical Seminary wrote his doctoral dissertation on "The Eschatology ofHippolytus of Rome" at Drew University, 1979. He makes the case for themillenarianism of Hippolytus. 14.Charles E. Hill, Regnum Caelorum: Patterns ofMillennial Thought in Early Christianity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001). Hepits John vs "Jewish chiliasts." George Ladd well argues that "the occurrence of a doctrineof a temporal kingdom in Jewish eschatology does not invalidate a similardoctrine in Christian theology," cf Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952) 165. The NT doctrine of the two ages is alsofound in Jewish apocalyptic. 15.Brian E. Daley, The Hope of the Early Church (Peabody:Hendrickson, 2003) 60-61. Augustine's exegesis sees the garment which Shem andJaptheth put over Noah's nakedness as "the sacrament that backs the memories ofthings past and that celebrates the passion of Christ as already accomplished,"City of God, 16.2 16.ibid. 15 17.ibid. 15. Even Geerhardus Vos in Pauline Eschatology(Grand Rapids: Eerd- mans, 1954) concedes that "there is an interval betweenthe return of Christ (the parousia) and the end" from his exegesis of I Corinthians15, 237 18.Daniel T. Taylor, The Voice of the Church and theComing Kingdom (New York: H.L. Hastings, 1855) 10 19.Archibald Robertson, Regnum Dei (New York: Macmillan,1901) 176 20.Augustine, The City of God, XX, 6-13. Dr. Walvoordpoints out that so imbued with the 6000 year theory and the necessity of takingthe six uses of 1000 in Revelation 20 literally, that he posited the beginningof the 1000 as occuring before the time of Christ and the Second Advent takingplace in 650, The Millennial Kingdom (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1959, 1971) 55f. 21.J. Webb Measley, After the 1000 Years: Resurrection andJudgment in Revelation 20 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992) 19 22.Ronald E. Diprose, Israel in the Development ofChristian Thought (Rome: Instituto Biblico Evangelico Italiano, 1998) 170 23.Peter P. J. Beyerhaus, God's Kingdom and the UtopianError (Wheaton: Crossway, 1992) ix 24.M.-D Chenu, Nature, Man and Society in the TwelfthCentury (Chicago: Univer- sity of Chicago Press, 1957) 244f 25.Jurgen Moltmann, History and the Triune God (New York:Crossroad, 1992) 92 26.Marjorie Reeves, Joachim of Fiore and the PropheticFuture (New York: Harper, 1976) 166 27.Michael J. St. Clair, Millenarian Movements inHistorical Context (New York: Garland Publishing, 1992) 130 28.Robert G. Clouse, "Johann Heinrich Alsted and EnglishMillennialism" in Harvard Theological Review, LXII (1969), 189-207. 29.Robert D. Culver, Daniel and the Latter Days: A Studyin Millennialism (Westwood, NJ: Revell, 1954) 23. Franz Delitzsch, the greatLeipzig OT commen- 20
tator has observed: "To whom do we owe it that theEvangelical Church of today no longer after the fashion of the old Dogmatics,brands as a heterodoxy, the Chiliastic view of the end-time, but has taken it upinto her deepest and innermost life, so that today, a believing Christian canscarcely be found who does not enjoy it? We owe it to none other than Bengel...he vindicated themother-right of exegesis to control Dogmatixcs.." from Frontespiece, NathanielWest, The Thousand Years in Both Testaments (New York: Fleming H. Revell,1880). 30.Quoted in Jurgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power ofthe Spirit (New York: Harper, 1977) 379. A delightful essay on "A PremillennialPhilosophy of History" is found in Alva J. McClain, The Greatness of theKingdom (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,1959) 527-531. An incredibly rich study ofpremillennialism. 31.C.A. Auberlen as quoted in George N.H. Peters, TheTheocratic Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, I (rep. Grand Rapids: Kregel,1952) 267 32.Joseph Mede, Apostasy in the Latter Times (London: R.Groombridge,1836) xxvii 33.Robert G. Clouse, "Johann Heinrich Alsted," inHarvardTheological Review, LXII, 1969, 189-201. Also by Clouse, "The ApocalypticInterpretation of Thomas Brightman and Joseph Mede," in Journal of theEvangelical Theological Society, XI, 1968, 181-193 34.David L. Larsen, The Company of the Preachers: AHistory of Biblica Preach- ing from the Old Testament to the Modern Era (GrandRapids: Kregel, 1998) 299 35.John S. Erwin, The Millennialism of Cotton Mather: AnHistorical and Theological Analysis (Lewiston,NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1990) 2.Mather published 454 books. Among the 15 unpublished works is his Triparadisuswhich runs to 390 pages (found at the American Antiquarian Society). Here especially we see his millennialobsession. He wrote more of the millennium than any other colonial. Heexpected the immediate return ofChrist after which would be the promised millennium. Erwin traces his relianceon Mede, William Whiston, Pierre Jurieu and Isaac Newton. Christ's coming wouldbe "like a thief." 36.W.Clark Gilpin, The Millenarian Piety of Roger Williams(Chiicago: Universi- ty of Chicago Press, 1979) 57 37.Augustus Toplady in R.J. Reid, Remarks on the Millenniumand Kindred Teaching of Philip Mauro (New York: Loizeaux, 1943) 5 38.W. Sibley Towner in eds. William H. Willimon andRichard Lischer, Concise Encyclopedia of Preaching (Louisville:Westminster/John Knox, 1995) 15 39.W.H. Oliver, Prophets and Millennialists: The Uses ofBible Prophecy in England from the 1790s to the l840s (Aukland: AuklandUniversity Press, 1978) 11 40.Nathaniel West, The Thousand Years in Both Testaments(New York: F.H. Revell, 1880). An exceedingly rich and suggestive study. Twoother very influential premillennialists of this time were E.R. Craven thePresbyterian (1824-1908) who argued effectively for the ultimate futurity ofthe Kingdom and James R. Graves, the Southern Baptist (1820-1893) whoseministry counteracted postmillennial trends in the SBC and lent a strongdispensational premillennial flavor to Baptist thinking. For informativebiographical data, cf articles by Thomas Ice and Mal Couch in ed. Mal 21
Couch, Dictionary of Premillennial Thought (Grand Rapids:Kregel, 1996) 74,128 41.George N.H. Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom of our LordJesus Christ, as Covenanted in the Old Testament and Presented in the NewTestament (rep. Grand Rapids, Kregel, 1952). Of this massive work in threevolumes Wilbur M. Smith well said: "The most important single work on Biblicalpredictive prophecy to appear in this country at any time during the nineteencentury." Worth digging through. He demonstrates so clearly that the Theocratic Kingdom wasnot established while Christ was on earth (Mark 15:43, Acts 1:6). The Kingdomwas held in abeyance because of the foreseen rebellion, cf I, 367. He showsthat the Apostles preached "a near and expectant Advent" II, 17. David's Throne is notthe Father's Throne. 42.In "The Bible and the Apocalypse--Why more Americansare reading and talking about the end of the world," cover-story in TimeMagazine, July 1, 2001, 47 43.Martin E. Marty, Religion and Republic: The AmericanCircumstance (Boston: Beacon Press, 1987) 298 44.Max S. Waremchuk, John Nelson Darby (Neptune: Loizeaux,1992) 129 45.A.L.Moore, The Parousia in the New Testament (Leiden:E.J. Brill, 1966) 4 46.Grant R. Osborne, Revelation (Grand Rapids: Baker,2002) 669 47.ibid. 716
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