eschatology

I am no authority on eschatology, on the theology of the end times. In fact, I need all the help I can get in understanding it and in separating one view from the next. It is an area where seemingly small distinctions can make profound differences and where tensions often run high. It was with some interest, then, that I turned to The Late Great Planet Church, a new documentary by NiceneCouncil. It is hosted and produced by Jerry Johnson who has been part of the team behind other such excellent documentaries as Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism.

Like most similar documentaries, this one relies on interviews with pastors and scholars. In this case the list of contributors includes Kenneth Gentry, Kenneth Talbot, Tom Ascol, Tom Nettles, Gary DeMar and several other notable teachers or scholars. Several of those who contribute to this production are former dispensationalists themselves and they are able to provide an personal, inside perspective on the issues inherent in the system that ultimately drove them away from it. Often this is little more than their growth in Christian maturity; as they searched the Scriptures they found, quite simply, that dispensational theology was nowhere to be found in God’s Word.

I will say up-front that, for this DVD, the information is better than the production. The production quality, though by no means terrible, is also not excellent. The audio is not great and the levels sometimes vary from segment-to-segment. There are also some background graphics which, at least to my untrained eye, appear to be stock videos that are low-quality and thus appear quite pixelated and stutter at times. Even the lighting is uneven so the faces of the people being interviewed are unevenly lit. None of these are major problems, but I feel they do merit a mention. Thankfully the information conveyed is very good and overshadows the somewhat-amateurish production quality.

This is but volume one of what is going to be a two-volume set, so Johnson does not set out to provide a complete rebuttal to dispensational theology. Instead, in this first volume he focuses on the rise of dispensationalism, looking to its roots and its earliest proponents. In the second volume he will compare dispensationalism to Scripture but here he simply allows the earliest teachers to speak for themselves. And if you know the history of this theology, you know that these men do great damage through their words and through their lives. There is Darby with his disregard for the history of the faith and his almost-prideful admission that this theology was unknown until he discovered it. There is his out-of-control ego which led him to separate from many other believers and eventually to conclude that his church was the only true church in all of London. Spurgeon’s reaction to Darby and his Plymouth Brethren is instructive as the perspective of a wise and godly contemporary. And then there is Scofield who, even as a professed Christian, utterly abandoned his wife and two daughters, immediately remarried and then assigned to himself the title of doctor even though he had educated himself. While granting that such men, with their unbiblical behavior, do not discount the theology, Johnson feels that he cannot tell the story of dispensational theology without providing these simple facts from the lives of its founders. And he is right, I think, to do so. Truly the roots of this theology are surprising and shocking, even. He looks also to some of the theology these men taught, showing how even their followers had to downplay or deny some of what was so utterly unbiblical (such as the view that God’s means of salvation in the Old Testament was different from the means of salvation today).

This is a valuable DVD, I think, and one that may well serve to encourage some of the people who have been reared in this system to think deeply about their beliefs. As an introduction, this first volume does its job well. I will wait eagerly for the second volume to see how Johnson and his team of scholars apply Scripture to dispensationalism and provide what I expect will be a thorough rebuttal.

Buy it at Monergism Books

(And if you have not yet done so, be sure to take a look at Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism)

Cornelius Venema’s The Promise of the Future, published in 2000 by Banner of Truth, has been hailed as the most important major Reformed study in biblical eschatology since Anthony Hoekema’s The Bible and the Future (published in 1972). It is not coincidental, I am sure, that Venema is a former student of Hoekema. The Promise of the Future was expanded from a series of articles serialized in The Outlook magazine. Now Christ and the Future is an abridgement of the original edition. The publisher says, “While [The Promise of the Future] has justly received acclaim from numerous reviewers, its size and weight may discourage the less experienced reader from taking it up and benefiting from its contents. The publishers, therefore, are grateful to Dr. Venema for kindly agreeing to produce this abridgement of his original edition, and are now delighted to offer it to a wider readership in this smaller, paperback format.” And, indeed, this volume, coming in at just over 200 pages, is far more accessible and far more likely to gain a wide readership. It is an ideal introduction to the subject of the Bible’s teaching about the last things.

Where the original volume contained sixteen chapters divided into six parts, this book has just twelve chapters. It may be easiest to trace the author’s argument by simply listing the chapter titles:

• The Future is Now
• The Future Between Death and Resurrection
• The Future of Christ
• The Future Marked by “Signs of the Times”
• The Future Marked by Signs of Antithesis and of Impending Judgment
• The Future of the Kingdom: Four Millennial Views
• The Future of the Kingdom: Revelation 20
• The Future of the Kingdom: An Evaluation of Millennial Views
• The Future of All Things: The Resurrection of the Body
• The Future of All Things: The Final Judgment
• The Future of All Things: The Doctrine of Eternal Punishment
• The Future of All Things: The New Heavens and Earth

Time would fail me, of course, to describe the nuances of the author’s argument—the particulars of his views in each of these areas. After all, the various eschatological views, which seem to be just about as numerous as the number of Christians, often depend on small distinctions of interpretation. As with his earlier volume, Venema leans towards an “optimistic amillennialism.” His evaluation of the four millennial views is fair, I believe, and he goes to great lengths to describe their beliefs accurately. When he considers the resurrection, the final judgment, eternal punishment and other such issues, he comes down squarely on the side of biblical orthodoxy, speaking out harshly against annihilationism and universalism, and affirming the reality of judgment. He looks constantly to Scripture to defend all that he teaches.

This is a very readable, enjoyable and biblical examination of what the Bible teaches about the last things. Dr. Venema has crafted a careful, nuanced book that covers the topic well but also briefly enough that it avoids becoming bogged down in detail. While he defends the amillennial view, he offers information that will help anyone, regardless of his eschatology, to better understand what is to come. It will help every reader better understand what the Scriptures teach about the end of this age and the age to come. I recommend it for any reader.

Those who are seeking more detail about the nuances of his argument may wish to read these reviews by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. and Keith Mathison . Even better, buy it and read it for yourself. This book will make a great addition to your library.

Buy it at Monergism Books