I've been thinking a lot about this quote from John MacArthur lately: "We lose down here."
I haven't "filed" it yet. What do you think?
Discussion
Pastor MacArthur has a history of preaching the Gospel and being unwavering in that the Bible, the Word of God, is Truth and we must be conformed and transformed by it.
The world first rejected Christ. It is filled with sin. This is not our home
If Bitcoin wins most people probably will worship it and mankind. Creating an idol out of money and pride of human accomplishments.
Worship God the Father. Worship Jesus Christ, the Son, God in flesh, our Redeemer, Worship the Holy Spirit of God. 3 in 1 perfect Trinity.
Through Christ alone, can we do this, for the works of man will never be enough.
I'd love for JMac to be wrong but he's likely right.
I find myself drawn to postmill a lot, not from a convinced theological standup but from a desire for optimism.
What are your thoughts on Doug Wilson and his strand of postmill?
I agree about JMac...I don't want him to be right, but I think Scripture does bear that out. This is an age of victory through witness in the face of persecution, not some political kind of geopolitical conquest.
Theologically I'm pretty decidedly amil; I think the theonomists / theocrats suffer from an overrealized eschatology (Wilson included). I think the growth (multiplication and purification) of the church in this age doesn't look the way most Chritians (especially American) wish it would.
We have a case *as humans* for natural law and liberty, grounds for resisiting tyranny, but I don't think the ground of that battle is particularly Christian.
Not sure if that answers your question, but there it is. 🤙🏼
You might be interested in reading Paradise Restored by David Chilton
There's a lot of overlap bt postmil and amil, I think a lot hangs on what we mean by victory and dominion. To me, an amil 2k guy, victory means faithfulness in the face of persecution and martyrdom. What I don't see (before the bodily return of Christ) is dominion in the geopolitical or even ethical sense. I see things getting worse and worse, the "rise of the remnant," the separation of the faithful from the deluded, until the Great Day.
Yeah, admittedly I am still working through where I stand on this point as well. But I do not currently subscribe to a view of "worse and worse" until the end. I am more of the mind that, at least in the West, it may well get worse and worse for a period while the Lord humbles His Church, and then will bring low the haughty (including whole nations) followed by a new Christendom.
I am currently reading a book "Great Controversy" or something like that, which goes through church history, especially during the protestant reformation. Although there are times God clearly protected men from those trying to stop them, God seems to frequently use men's unwavering faith in the face of unbelievable persecution to lead people to Him. In that respect, "we lose", but ultimately we definitely win.
Since everyone here is mentioning, I am definitely a pre-trib believer. I think it best fits what the Bible explicitly says as well as matching his character.
I don't understand people today being amill. I used to not understand how the things predicted in Revelation about the Tribulation could come to be. Today, all of the technology necessary to make it a reality exists. A rapture of His followers, followed by the wrath explicitly described in Revelation, followed by a return of the church and the millenial reign makes perfect sense. I can understand the amill beliefs for people in much of the past because Israel was no more, and it was impossible to see how people could see what was happening across the globe, buying and selling could be controlled, and people could be tracked.