Alistair Begg on AmosAlistair Begg just wrapped up a series on Amos – good stuff. Listen to his last message on Amos, if nothing else. I think his second-last message (Dark Days and Shaved Heads) is even better. Very sobering. In his last message he made some points that you don’t hear everyday in Christian media; you’d almost think the guy was amillennial. He doesn’t use the labels in the pulpit (nor do I), but he’s barking up the right tree.
On our big family odyssey in 2004 (I should post about that some day), we went to Parkside Church in Cleveland and heard Alistair preach. He spoke on the temple described at the end of Ezekiel and made it very clear that the prophet was not writing about some future, physical temple.
I am very sympathetic to amillennial eschatology. Though I don’t think any one ‘system’ has it down completely, amillennialism is a label I’m comfortable to wear (even though the label itself is a misnomer).
Regarding other views, the more I learn about ‘Princeton postmillennialism’ (to differentiate it from the caricatures) the more I understand the appeal, particularly after reading Iain Murray’s The Puritan Hope. I also have great respect for several premillennialists as well – James Boice, Albert Mohler and C.H. Spurgeon come to mind! What I don’t have a lot of time for is popular dispensationalism (think Hal Lindsay and the Left Behind series).
There. My eschatology cards are on the table. I probably just lost half of my readers. I’ll miss both of you! Go listen to Alistair Begg, anyway!
2 comments:
If you are shockproof, type in "Pretrib Rapture Diehards" on engines like Google. It consists of recently discovered facts about the history of dispensationalism, and especially the pretribulation rapture.
I like the term "pre-consummationist" as opposed to amillenialism.
Although trained early on in historic dispensationalism, I find its presuppositions faulty and its conclusions following suit.
But I must say that I have appreciated the ethos of Dallas dispensationalism which sought to be careful about the very words of Scripture. Unfortunately, some of their exegesis is atomistic, and strangely eisegetical at points.
Which leaves me open to an historic premil position (of which progressive dispensationalism is a modern title)and a pre-consummationist view.
At times I wish I could affirm a pre-mil view clearly, but for pragmatic reasons as it would make life easier for me in minstering in Western Canada. But I feel that I cannot clearly affirm it.
So I reside squarely in a no-man's-land, unallied except for my allegiance to Scripture.
By the way, Alistair Begg had a significant impact on me while I was at Master's College through a series of chapel messages he gave. I thank God for him.
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