Yuku free message boards

All I see is statements, but not proofs. For example,

Quote:

---

The ungodly always dominate. The worlds rulers always condemn the cause of the true church. The wicked always oppress the saints. The only hope of the church in the world, and their full deliverance, is the second coming of Christ and the final judgment.

---

He just states this, and says in the next line, "This is Reformed doctrine."

But I can look at 1 Cor. 15:25-26 and see a very strong argument for postmillennialism. What does Paul say? "He [Christ] must reign until He has put ALL His enemies under His feet." So the reign of Christ continues until all enemies have been subdued. And what's the end point of that process of subduing ALL His enemies? "The last enemy to be destroyed is death." Both amils and postmils see the conquering of death (the resurrection) being at the second coming of Christ. So PRIOR to that second coming, ALL other enemies of Christ will have been subdued. This doesn't sound like "The ungodly always dominate."

What about his attacks on preterism? Again, bare statements with no proof. And think about this one:

Quote:

---

Whatever in the New Testament, and in the Old as well, predicts tribulation for the people of God has already been completely fulfilled. Nothing of this applies to the church any longer. Thus, huge chunks of Holy Scripture are made irrelevant to the church, including most of the book of Revelation.

---

Let me take that same line of argument and apply it to other Scriptures. I assume Dr. Engelsma would say that Isaiah's prophecy of Immanuel (Isa. 7:14) has been fulfilled with the birth of Christ. I assume he would also say that Isaiah 53 has been fulfilled with the death of Christ. Does that then mean that those "huge chunks of Holy Scripture are made irrelevant to the church"? Of course not. The fact that a passage of Scripture has been fulfilled in the past does not mean that passage is irrelevant to us today. We look back at the Isaiah prophecies and take comfort in the fact that God made these promises of a Messiah, and then that He faithfully fulfilled those promises. Likewise, I can believe that much (not all) of NT prophecy has been fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and still find much application and comfort today. Fulfilled prophecy is not thereby irrelevant prophecy.

To answer your final question,

Quote:

---

I wonder if those two, "Golden Age" and Preterism, are necessary in establishing a postmillennial model?

---

I would first want to define those terms. It seems that Engelsma likes to use the term "Golden Age" in a derisive fashion, without really considering what postmils believe about the future. But if we remove those negative connotations from the term "Golden Age," then it would be true that "Golden Age" is necessary for postmillennialism -- that's by definition what postmil thought consists of.

And preterism is not essential to postmillennialism -- the Puritans (see Iain Murray's "Puritan Hope") seemed to see a future apostasy, a future great tribulation, all following the millennial age. There are variations among postmils, just as there are among other positions.