While I was on paternity leave I read the book
A Case for Amillennialism by Kim Riddlebarger. (Yes, you get strange questions from nurses reading that book in the hospital. Oddly, our midwife had heard of the subject.) Having previously rejected the dispensationalist schema, I had not concerned myself with eschatology for a while. Last year, I read Hendrickson's
More than Conquerors, an overview of Revelation, and was intrigued.
Heather bought me a copy of the book for my birthday. I enjoyed the book for its clarity of presentation and thoroughness in comparing other eschatological ideas.
A Case for Amillennialism is 246 pages, not counting end notes and is divided into four sections. The first section defines terms used in eschatological discussions, surveys eschatological view, and explains the hermeneutics of interpreting Biblical prophecy; the second explains amillennialism in context of Biblical and theological concerns; the third section contains expositions of Biblical passages; the last part is an overview of the major millennial positions.
The first section defines terms such eschatology, millennium, rapture, preterism, and futurism. There is also a survey of the four major views on the millennium: dispensational premillennialism, historic premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism. The first section is rounded out with a chapter that gives guidance on reading all of Scripture, including prophecy, as Christocentric. Dr Riddlebarger contrasts the Reformed hermeneutic ‘the analogy of faith’ with the dispensational hermeneutic (which seeks to interpret prophecy as ‘literally’ as possible and maintains a sharp distinction in the people of God, between Israel and the Church).
The second section lays the foundation of the case for amillennialism being the Biblical eschatology. The section starts with an explanation of covenant theology in the Old Testament and how it relates to eschatology. In the Old Testament, the prophets looked forward to the coming of the Messiah who would reverse the curse of Adam. The kings, prophets, and priests of Israel pointed to the one future man who would hold all three offices. Furthermore, the prophets prophesied to a better covenant than that of Moses. In the fullness of time, we see in the New Testament, Christ is the one who was foretold. He is true Israel, David’s greater son, the true temple, a better sacrifice, the mediator of better covenant, and a surer Word. When Jesus preached he spoke of two ages, this current age and the age to come, ‘the kingdom of God is nigh’. The current age is corrupt and temporal; the age to come is pure and eternal. Yet, Jesus says something amazing, that is that the age to come has broken into this age; the kingdom of God is here although not consummated. We live in an eschatological tension, ‘now and not yet’. The course of history is now bringing us to the final coming of Jesus when this age shall pass away and the fullness of the kingdom of God shall be revealed.
In the third section contains expositions of passages of Scripture which are often used to cite support for one’s eschatological opinion. The passages discussed are Daniel’s ‘seventy sevens’ (a proof-text of dispensationalists), the Olivet Discourse (used by dispensationalists and preterists alike), Romans 11 (used in discussions of if there is a [and if so, what the] future is for Israel), and Revelation 20.1-10 (concerning the nature of a thousand).
The final section of the book gives some detail concerning the strengths and weakness of each major eschatological position: premillennialism, amillennialism, postmillennialism, and preterism.
Throughout the book Dr Riddlebarger persuasively presents amillennialism as the most Biblical eschatological system. It alone is adequately congruent with the eschatological tension of the New Testament.
Now and not yet very well explains Jesus’ word that his kingdom is near, but we have not reached his second coming.
A Case for Amillennialism explains that Christ is reigning over his kingdom now; this is hope that our God is sovereign working all things for our good. We look forward now to the full realization of Christ’s coming with his second coming.
Having been previously dispensationalist, Dr Riddlebarger’s exposition of Daniel 9 was very illuminating. Though the dispensationalists claim they are being faithful to the text by interpreting the Bible literally, often they don’t consider the genre of the text and interpret literalistically ignoring the subtler meanings of the text. In some cases, such as Daniel 9, dispensationalists change the meaning of the passage. Nowhere does Daniel speak of a gap between the 69th and 70th ‘seven’, yet it is crucial to dispensationalism and pretribulational rapture. Likewise, the Apostle Paul teaches that on the last day, when Christ returns and the believers are caught up to him, “[T]he Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” It seems that the plain meaning of this text is that it will be very obvious the Lord has returned; he has not just come for a secret rapture of which only believer’s will be aware.
The only thing I wish for in the book is that the final section would be longer. Dr Riddlebarger could have gone into more depth in contrasting the positions. Fortunately, he has an extensive bibliography, so that the reader can find more information on the subjects of the book.
In conclusion, Dr Riddlebarger aptly makes the case that amillennialism is most consistent with a covenantal Christocentric reading of Scripture.
Let us always find Christ on every page of Scripture.
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My mother-in-law found
A Book Lover's Journal, which is a great idea for keeping track of the books I read. I'm pleased to have this book as the first entry in the journal.
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