{"id":247,"date":"2017-04-17T23:33:45","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T03:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/?p=247"},"modified":"2017-04-30T14:27:21","modified_gmt":"2017-04-30T18:27:21","slug":"5-points-of-intersection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/2017\/04\/17\/5-points-of-intersection\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Points of Intersection Between Postmillennialism and Apologetics – Point 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks (1825)<\/p><\/div>\n

I propose five points where postmillennial eschatology shapes and supports Christian apologetics:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Postmillennialism means that we eventually persuade the world with our arguments.<\/li>\n
  2. Postmillennialism validates the resurrection and the truth of Jesus\u2019 message.<\/li>\n
  3. Postmillennialism refutes the skeptics\u2019 claim that Jesus broke His promise to return.<\/li>\n
  4. Postmillennialism is the biblical anecdote to failed predictions of Christ\u2019s Second Coming.<\/li>\n
  5. Postmillennialism was an important influence in the Scientific Revolution.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Point 1:\u00a0 Postmillennialism means that we eventually persuade the world with our arguments.<\/strong>\u00a0 The Old Testament predictions about the Messianic Age include the prediction that all nations will eventually worship God and obey His Law.\u00a0 This is taught over and over again:\u00a0 Gen. 17:5-6; 22:18; 49:10; Num. 14:21; 1 Sam. 2:10; 1 Chron. 16:28-31; Ps. 2:8; 22:27; 37:9-11, 22, 34; 47:2-3; 47:8-9; 65:2; 117:1; 66:4; 68:31-32; 72:8,11; 72:17,19; 82:8; 86:9; 96:1-3; 98:1-3; 102:15; 102:22; 138:4; Isa. 2:1-4; 9:6-7; 11:9; 19:22-24; 26:9; 42:10-13; 49:6; 49:22-23; 66:23; Jer. 3:16-17; 16:19; 31:31-34; Dan. 2:31-35; 7:13-14; Amos 9:11-15; Mic. 4:1-3; 5:2-4; 7:16-17; Hab. 2:14-20; Hag. 2:7-9; Zech. 9:9-10; Zech. 14:9; Mal. 1:11.\u00a0 The Old Testament promise of world-wide dominion of the Messianic Kingdom is, in fact, the New Testament gospel:\u00a0 \u201cAnd the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, \u2018In you shall all the nations be blessed\u2019\u201d (Gal. 3:8; cf. Rom. 4:13).\u00a0 The Old Testament promise is carried out by the Spirit-empowered church obeying the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20).[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Following the example of the Apostle Paul, this involves Christians presenting arguments to those who question our message (Acts 17:1-3; 18:26-28; cf. 2 Tim. 2:24-26; 1 Peter 3:15; Titus 1:9).<\/p>\n

    It should be encouraging to apologists that, not only are they right, but that eventually their arguments (the good ones at least) will prevail in history to convert the world.\u00a0 Of course, the conversion of the world doesn\u2019t result merely from arguing with people; it also involves prayer, worship, helping the poor, pursuing justice, and all other things commanded by God\u2019s word.<\/p>\n

    Postmillennialism was the dominant belief of the Christians who settled America.\u00a0 It is what gave them confidence to leave their homeland and establish settlements in a wilderness on the other side of the ocean.\u00a0 Puritans initiated the Protestant international missions movement that continues to this day; and, in particular, Puritans brought the postmillennial vision of comprehensive transformation of all of life to the Glory of God with them when they settled America.[2]<\/a> \u00a0These Christians laid a foundation that served to erect one of the freest, most prosperous countries on earth (with flaws too, of course).\u00a0 One writer on the history of missions says of the New England Puritans\u2019 victorious postmillennial faith:<\/p>\n

    Men living in a relatively small community on the edge of an unexplored continent, remote from the great population centers, having some contacts with remote lands by sea trade but closely related only to the British homeland, having converted only a few hundred of the Indians, with one voice proclaim their certainty that the whole wide world belongs to Christ and is being brought to him!\u00a0 It is the universalism of the prophets which sustains this view, and due to their conviction about the inerrancy of the Scriptures and the faithfulness of God\u2019s promises, the New England Puritans were convinced of the soundness of their expectation.[3]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    The postmillennial vision gradually became co-opted by the enemies of God, so that a secularized perversion of postmillennialism gave Marxists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the confidence of worldwide dominion that was once possessed by Christians.\u00a0\u00a0 Karl Marx said, \u201cThe worker must one day seize power, in order to erect the new organization of labor; . . . if he does not want to suffer the loss of heaven on earth, as did the old Christians who neglected and despised it.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 God may allow our unfaithful generation to die in the wilderness, but eventually He will raise up generations who once again are captivated by the postmillennial vision, which includes passion for apologetics training to refute the skeptics of Christianity, and that will gradually turn every nation on earth into a shining city on a hill giving glory to God.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a>\u00a0 See Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.,\u00a0The Greatness of the Great Commission<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0(Tyler, TX: ICE, 1990).<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a>\u00a0 Iain H. Murray, The Puritan Hope: A Study in Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy<\/em> (Banner of Truth, 1975).<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a>\u00a0 R. Pierce Beaver, Pioneers in Mission:\u00a0 The Early Missionary Ordination Sermons, Charges and Instructions<\/em> (1966), p. 26, quoted in Murray, The Puritan Hope<\/em>, p. 95.<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a>\u00a0 Karl Marx,\u00a0“Address at the Hague Congress,”\u00a0(1872) see a version\u00a0here<\/a>; Quoted in\u00a0\u00a0Dennis Peacocke,\u00a0Winning the Battle for the Minds of Men<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0(Santa Rosa, CA:\u00a0\u00a0Alive and Free, 1987), p.\u00a0xi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I propose five points where postmillennial eschatology shapes and supports Christian apologetics: Postmillennialism means that we eventually persuade the world with our arguments. Postmillennialism validates the resurrection and the truth of Jesus\u2019 message. Postmillennialism refutes the skeptics\u2019 claim that Jesus … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions\/296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianciv.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}