Well, my interviews on Premillennialism are now over. I hope they have been informative and thought provoking, they certainly have been for me. I have been pleasantly surprised and pleased by the positive feedback and appreciate all the extra traffic!
In case you missed it, I asked three Premillennialists to represent three broad varieties of Premillennialism.
Dispensationalism
Dr. Paul Henebury of Telos Ministries to represent the Dispensational view. Of course, his view shouldn’t be stereotyped just because Dispensationalism may be familiar; his views are his own and wants to push Dispensationalism forward, particularly on the covenants.
- Dispensationalism: Interview with Paul Henebury (pt. 1)
- Dispensationalism: Interview with Paul Henebury (pt. 2)
It is far better to go to the covenants God has revealed in the Bible and fasten the rest of biblical teaching onto them. That way one does not lose the gains of Dispensational Premillennialism, but a fully-fledged system of theology and biblical worldview can also be produced. That is one of the things I am trying to at Telos Theological Ministries.
Progressive Dispensationalism
Dr. Darrell Bock of Dallas Theological Seminary presented Progressive Dispensationalism. Bock has been quite instrumental in the development of this viewpoint that seems a sort of ‘bridge’ between Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology, retaining Dispensationalism’s distinction between Israel and the church.
I think [Progressive Dispensationalism] treats the continuity and discontinuity of God’s administrative arrangement across time for his program most comprehensively. It maintains God’s grace and faithfulness in how it sees him deal with Israel. It stresses how reconciliation is a powerful witness for God and highlights the ethical dimensions of the teaching of the prophets, Jesus and the epistles most consistently.
Historic Premillennialism
Dr. Jim Hamilton of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary represented what is known as Historic Premillennialism, a Premillennialism absent of the distinctives in Dispensationalism and touted as truer to the Premillennialism of the early church.
Because as I read G. E. Ladd’s New Testament Theology, it made sense to me when he said that Jesus chose twelve Apostles to reconstitute a new Israel around himself. That undermined the hard and fast distinction between Israel and the Church that dispensationalism maintains. Further overturning this distinction is the pervasive way in which the New Testament authors present what Jesus has done and is doing in the church as the typological fulfillment of the Old Testament, which means that the church is a typological fulfillment of Israel (this does not nullify a future for ethnic Israel).
3 Premillennialists Duke It Out
I quite enjoyed this section. I asked each interviewee to ask a question of a differing view.
Thanks for reading! If you have enjoyed this series or would like me to do this with other eschatological viewpoints, please leave a comment and let me know.
