September, 1993
Dear Co-laborer,
Leette and I are the proud grandparents of Matthew Alexander Lance, born
to our daughter Deborah on August 14. As most of you know, Deborah and her husband Michael live in
Mexico City where he is a banking officer with Standard Chartered of
England.
Matt came into the world in San Diego, and so it will take awhile for the
parents to process the paperwork in order to take him out of the country. Meanwhile
we get to have him here at the house where we can pamper and spoil him,
making it hard for the kids when they take him home to Mexico!
Eschatology,
Part 1
With this letter I begin a new series on the importance of eschatology in
the life of the Christian.
The dictionary defines eschatology as "any system of doctrines
concerning last, or final, matters as death, the judgment, the future
state, etc." Perhaps you
wonder as to the relevance of this.
I remember when finishing my formal education, that a close friend and I
formed a new denomination entitled The Reformed Dispensational Baptists. Calvinists
use the acronym TULIP (Total
depravity, Unconditional
election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, Perseverance
of the saints) to summarize their systems' doctrine. My buddy and I decided we would use the acronym PANSY.
Pan-millennialism
- we didn't know much about the end times, but believed it would all
"pan" out okay.
Allegorical
demythologizing
- with this we could make the Bible say anything we
wanted it to say.
Neo-ecumenical
- we believed in unity - on our terms!
Supralapsarianism
- which has to do with the order of events in the mind of God before
creation, and formed the foundation for our whole theological system.
Yom Kippur
-
which formed our doctrine of the atonement and was the date of our annual
meeting.
As you can see, we didn't consider doctrine in general, and eschatology in
particular, all that relevant to the main task of the believer which is to
depopulate hell and populate Heaven. It wasn't until several years later that I began to change my
thinking, which resulted from interacting with another close friend.
It occurred to me that doctrine is the formulation of truth, and
truth is by definition relevant. If
I don't see the relevance of a particular doctrine, it means that I do not
understand it. I subsequently learned that eschatology is eminently
practical.
ESCHATOLOGICAL
DIVISIONS
As you know, the Church is divided over what the Bible teaches regarding
the end times.
There are three basic divisions, with sub-groupings under each.
They are:
Historic
pre-millennialism. This
position, held by the Patristics (from the word "fathers," i.e.
the leaders of the Christian movement following the apostles) and a
minority of the Church today, believes that the thousand year reign of
Christ recorded in Revelation 20 applies to the Church.
The Patristics lived during days of persecution, believed that
their troubled days were the tribulation of Revelation 6-19, and looked
expectantly for the imminent return of Christ.
The millennium was designed for the Church rather than for the
nation of Israel. It was a
literal thousand-year period, a golden age for the Church.
A-millennialism.
This theory, held by the vast majority of Christendom including
Roman Catholics and Protestants, holds that we cannot take the Revelation
of John literally, and therefore the thousand year reign of Christ in
Revelation 20 is a figure of speech referring to the life of the Church
during the time between the two advents of Christ.
The kingdom of God is now present in the world as the victorious
Christ rules through His Church. Good
and evil will continue to develop during this time.
"All the wealth of historical associations and social emotion
which were contained in the Old Testament had been separated from its
national and racial limitations and transferred to the new international
spiritual community. Thereby
the Church acquired many of the characteristics of a political society;
that is to say, Christians possessed a real social tradition of their own
and a kind of patriotism which was distinct from that of the secular state
in which they lived."
Dispensationalism.
This view, held by only a small minority of the Church, came into
prominence in the nineteenth century, principally through the teaching of
the layman, John Nelson Darby (1800-1882).
It teaches that Israel and the Church are separate meta-physical
entities (as distinct from both historic pre-millennialism and
a-millennialism which teach that Israel and the Church are one and the
same) and that the millennium of Revelation 20, a literal thousand year
period, applies to the nation of Israel.
God's promises to Israel in the Old Testament are inviolable, and
will find their fulfillment in the millennium, during which time Christ
will literally sit on the throne of David and judge the nations.
The tribulation of Revelation 6-19 refers to a literal seven year
period prior to Christ's return. Advocates
of this position differ regarding the role of the Church during the
tribulation, although most believe that it will be "raptured"
prior to the event in fulfillment of I Thess 4:16-17.
SABBATICAL ON
ESCHATOLOGY
As most of you know, Leette and I took a six-week sabbatical in Wales in
1992 to study eschatology as viewed by the Patristics. The
practical relevance of the subject occurred to me when I reasoned that all
of us are motivated by our hope. Hope
has at least two qualities: it is future, and it reveals our value system.
As Paul teaches in Romans 8:24-25, we do not hope for something
that has already come to pass. Also,
the object of our hope reveals what we value.
We always hope in the direction of what we consider gain, profit,
or reward, never the opposite.
I have short-range hopes (e.g. I hope to finish this series on eschatology
before the end of the year), mid-range hopes (e.g. I hope to see all my
children educated and married with families of their own), and long-range
hopes (e.g. I hope to go to Heaven when I die and live eternally with
Christ). My eschatology is an
outgrowth of my long range hope.
Since we all hope, and since we hope in the direction of our values, and
since our long range hope is our eschatology, then our eschatology
appreciably influences our understanding of what is important in life. Eschatology
is critically important!
As noted, however, the Church is divided on the subject of eschatology. This
brought me to the next step in my reasoning:
Have you ever wondered about a passage of Scripture and wished you
could talk with the author regarding what he meant?
The Patristics had such an opportunity, at least those who
immediately followed the apostles. They
not only had access to the documents written by the apostles, but could
interrogate them regarding what they said.
Possibly I could go to the writings of the Patristics and find answers to
these perplexing questions regarding eschatology.
They had opportunity to discuss Matthew 24 with the disciples of
Christ. Some were able to
discuss the Revelation with John after he received it.
Maybe they will give fresh understanding on what was said and
meant. Saint Deiniol's
Library in Hawarden, Wales, was an ideal place to go, since they had an
extensive collection on the Patristics.
When an anonymous donor made it possible for us to go, we accepted
the opportunity.
THE PATRISTICS
ON ESCHATOLOGY
Before going to Wales, I knew that the Patristics (men such as Papias and
Ireneaus, and later writers such as Justin and Tertullian) were all pre-millennialists.
Others like Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp did not mention it in
their writings. All that
addressed the subject of eschatology, however, interpreted Revelation 20
literally. The Early Church
generally believed in the approaching end of the world and the return of
Christ, or the Parousia. This
would be preceded by great troubles and by the revelation of the
Antichrist.
At Christ's coming the Antichrist and the wicked would be
destroyed.
The chronology adopted by most of the writers, and indeed of later
periods, was that history was divided into seven, one-thousand-year
periods. Even Augustine, in
his famous City of God, embraced this division of history into
seven periods.
Christ came in the sixth thousand-year period, and the seventh
millennium was a time of rest, corresponding to the seven days of Creation
in Gen 1-2.
What I had not anticipated, and did not discover until my sabbatical, was
that the Patristics, who addressed the subject, were anti-Semitic. As
the historian Bietenhard rightly notes, even in the Epistle of Barnabas we
see an anti-Jewish strain.
Three ingredients produced this antipathy towards the Jews:
1 - They were perceived
as responsible for killing Jesus Christ.
2 - By the time Paul's
ministry was coming to a close, circular letters were sent from the
Sanhedrin in Jerusalem warning the synagogues of the Dispersion to bar
Christians from their fellowships.
As a result, the Jews quickly became hardened to the gospel.
3 - They participated
with Rome in the persecution of Christians.
This was probably the deciding factor in the Church becoming
anti-Semitic.
For the first twenty years of my ministry I labored with The Navigators. My
friend, who provoked my interest in eschatology, noted that the modern
para-church organizations, including The Navigators, were born out of a
dispensational, Bible-school matrix.
When he asked me why that was, I didn't know, but was intrigued by
the question. I thought I would find traces of dispensationalism among the
Patristics, since both dispensationalists and the Patristics are
pre-millennial, but I found none.
In the next issue we will explore more fully the dynamics that brought
about the estrangement of Judaism from Christianity, but at this point in
my sabbatical, one of the doors closed. You cannot be dispensational and anti-Semitic, for
dispensationalism believes that the Jewish people still hold a special
place in the heart of God and will one day be restored as a nation in
accordance with the Old Testament promises.
Most issues of the Dear
Co-laborer are self-contained units.
Each issue can stand on its own.
This series on eschatology will be different in that the subject is
so vast and intricate that my feeble mind is unable to package it as
separate units. It may be
that you will feel left "hanging" after an issue such as this
one, and I acknowledge this limitation.
Yours in hope of his early return,