PMW 2025-002 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

In this brief series I am considering objections thrown up against the postmillennial hope. The most serious class of problems for any eschatological system is the biblical objection. If one’s eschatology does not arise from Scripture itself, it is not a biblical doctrine. We must have a “thus saith the Lord” justifying our prophetic system. Let us consider some of the leading biblical texts brought against the postmillennial hope.

MATTHEW 7:13–14

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

This famous passage seems to undermine the postmillennial hope of a world converted to Christ. How does postmillennialism account for this comment by our Lord himself?

We must discern the Lord’s purpose behind this statement. Postmillennialist B. B. Warfield noted of this passage that “our Lord’s purpose is rather ethical impression than prophetic disclosure.” That is, Jesus is urging his disciples to consider their present situation in which they live. They must look around and see that many are dying without salvation and too few are being saved.

The Beast of Revelation
by Ken Gentry

A popularly written antidote to dispensational sensationalism and newspaper exegesis. Convincing biblical and historical evidence showing that the Beast was the Roman Emperor Nero Caesar, the first civil persecutor of the Church. The second half of the book shows Revelation’s date of writing, proving its composition as prior to the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. A thought-provoking treatment of a fascinating and confusing topic.

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Jesus is not prophesying the future. He is pressing his disciples to engage the present. He is asking: What will they do about the current, sad situation? Do they love him enough to seek to reverse it? Christ’s challenge to them is ethical. This is much like his statement in John 4:35, where he is prompting his disciples to evangelistic endeavor: “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”

We must recognize the relative nature of his comments. Interestingly, just a few verses later and very soon after stating these words, the Lord declares: “I say to you that many [polus, the same word in Matt 7:13 for the lost] will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 8:11).

In other places the Bible speaks of the vast number of the redeemed. For instance, Revelation 7:9: “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands.” And of course we should recall those prophecies which speak of “all nations” flowing into the kingdom (e.g., Isa 2:2–4; Mic 4:1–4).

Covenantal Theonomy
(by Ken Gentry)
A defense of theonomic ethics against a leading Reformed critic. Engages many of the leading objections to theonomy.
See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

MATTHEW 13:36–39

“Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, ‘explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.’ He answered and said to them: ‘He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.’”

In his treatment of these words of Christ, dispensationalist Walvoord states that “the parable does not support the postmillennial idea that the Gospel will be triumphant and bring in a golden age.” He sees this as evidence that the church’s growth will be matched by the growth of Satan’s kingdom, thus discounting the postmillennial hope of Christian dominance.

The basic definitional problem. Frequently, non-postmillennialists seem to imply that postmillennialism expects an “each-and-every” salvific universalism. With that false perception critics press this passage as evidence that Christianity will never gain the upper hand in the world. But postmillennialism teaches that despite the enormous worldwide success of the gospel, we will always have a mixture of the unrighteous and the righteous. Gospel success will never totally root out either sin or sinners from history. This remains true even during the kingdom’s highest development in the future. We never expect global universalism to prevail before Christ’s return.

Creation according to the Scriptures
Ed. by P. Andrew Sandlin
This book is sub-titled: A Presuppositional Defense of Literal , Six-day Creation. It has chapters by R. J. Rushdoony, Andrew Sandlin, Kenneth Gentry, Cornelius Van Til, and others. It touches on historical, exegetical, theological, and philosophical implications of Six-day Creation.
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The basic interpretive problem. This parable portrays the entire world as God’s field, where he desires to plant wheat: he “sowed good seed in his field” (Matt 13:24) and “the field is the world” (Matt 13:38). God expends the effort in order to create a field of wheat (the righteous, Matt 13:38a) in all the world. An enemy (the devil, Matt 13:39) intervenes and sows tares (the wicked, Matt 13:38b). Surely Satan does not sow the tares with equal success! We should doubt this prospect altogether due to the nearby Parables of the Mustard Seed and Leaven (Matt 13:31–33).

Actually, the point of the Parable of the Tares is that tares will be found among the predominant wheat: the tares are the intruders, not the wheat. The Son of Man returns to a wheat field, not a tare field. The tares must be left alone for the sake of the wheat.

The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation
This long-awaited commentary has now been published. It is an 1800 page, two-volume deeply exegetical, academic commentary on the Bible’s most mysterious book.

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See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com