Best video I’ve found on this. Thank you for clarifying. I’ve considered myself amill for some time but, through scripture, I’ve been becoming more optimistic about Christ’s physical reign on earth so I’ve been very curious as to what point I’ll be treading into postmill territory lol. Thanks again this helps a lot.
Josh, what do you do with passages like Isaiah nine, Isaiah 42, and Isaiah 65. It talks about the increase of his government they’ll be no and it’ll be the zeal of the Lord of heavens armies that’ll do this. Also he will not grow weary or discouraged until he’s establish justice on the land and the coast lands wait for his law. And also finally where it says in that day someone will live up to be 100 and be considered accursed. As in they died so young or die before their time. What do you make of these passages? Do they have their fulfillment in Christ? Or is this a gradual thing and is a pretty good Achilles’ heel for making a case for a post millennial outlook on things. Those three passages have always stumped me.
A great book to study is Ken Gentry's HE SHALL HAVE DOMINION. Whoever might have read this book, do you think he misrepresented the A-mill position, and if so, how? And if not, why do you remain A-mill?
I reckon I could be described as a Reformed Baptist amillennial with postmillennial sympathies, as I believe the church will continue to experience worsening persecution until the Second Coming and consider Christ's non-literal thousand year reign as a spiritual reign rather than physical and lasting from Christ's ascension to His return, but, as a paleolibertarian and states' right guy who descends from Confederate soldiers, I also quite like theonomy and Christian Reconstructionism (working from the bottom up rather than from the top down) and advocate both, even if I don't believe we're likely to succeed in those endeavors, much less usher in an age of the church bringing about a physical reign of Christ on Earth. Is that a legitimate perspective or is there incompatibility between amillennialism and Christian Reconstruction I have not yet realized?
Josh, I have three questions/remarks. One, I would include Kim Riddlebarger, Sam Storms, and Sam Waldron amongst the list of amillennials. I am wondering what single book you would recommend to the average studious laymen on amillennialism...I personally think Riddlebarger's book is very good. Two, regarding amillennialism specifically but also all four views, do all of them allow for a period that I would call "Satan's Wrath" where Satan is loosed and allowed to create havoc in a much more demonstrative manner just prior to the return of Christ? Three, would you hold that the binding of Satan and deceiving the "nations" is a direct reference to the Gentiles, who were enslaved to idolatry prior to Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension. The phrase "the nations" is commonly used to indicate Gentile nations exclusively in the OT, and sometimes used to indicate all nations including Israel. Specifically I'm talking about Revelation 20:7. I think that Israel was less blinded to the true God than Gentiles until the resurrection and ascension of Christ. I appreciate your careful wording, indicating that there are differences of opinion on various issues within the amillennial and postmillennial camps. Same is true of dispensationalists. While not dealing so much with eschatology, Robert McKenzie wrote a book called "Identifying the Seed" on dispensationalism that makes some effort to delineate the various streams of dispensationists, and accentuates the reality that it is incorrect to view them as a monolith. For instance, CI Scofield indicated in his study Bible that the Jews of the Old Covenant dispensation earned their salvation through lawkeeping. Other dispensationalist groups would deny that Rob McKenzie has a lot of good audios on dispensationalism and his disagreements with it as a former dispensationalist on Reformed Forum if anyone is interested. By the way, I am amillennial.
So I would agree on your inclusions, I especially appreciate Kim Riddlebarger's work (his book on The Man of Sin is thought-provoking as well). As for a single book, my best recommendation is always "The Bible and the Future" by Anthony Hoekema. It is a great combination of solid scholarship and readability, and gives much room for further reflection. I would also readily recommend William Hendriksen and Geerhardus Vos, who have both been quite formative in my thinking. As to your question about a period of Satan's wrath, both Amil and Postmil allow for a period of Satan being loosed and a final rebellion taking place. That does not mean that both views would explain those events in the same light, but in general both Amil and Postmil recognize that Christ has bound Satan in the present age, while a future/final loosening takes place. So there is no way to answer your question about the "nations" quickly, because there is a lot there. But in general, yes I think you are on the right track with seeing "nations" being a reference to gentile nations (at least primarily). "Nations" is essentially a shorthand for referring to the peoples of this world, which (as you noted) sometimes included Israel but most often did not. I think the blinding of the nations has a rather general spiritual referent in mind. I do appreciate your kind words, and you are absolutely right about the "differences in opinion" within certain camps. I have dear friends who are dispensational who are quite far from the "old" dispensational guard of the past, and there is equal variance within the other eschatological perspectives as well. It makes sweeping "broad brush stroke" statements less helpful, which is (unfortunately) often the lingua franca of social media. Edit: I am unsatisfied with my reply about "the nations." I may have to try to do a video addressing that theme soon-great question.
I think it should ideally refer back to core Christian doctrine and then see how these amil premil postmil state their case. A shotgun rattle off overview gets lost on the audience. Example: talk about how each view accepts resurrection principles, judgement, second coming, Satan bound not bound etc those are the critical topics to see how these differ.
This video was from back when we first launched. We hope as time goes on, we can go deeper and address these important distinctions. Ty for the helpful comment.
