Postmillennial Worldview

PMW 2025-089 by Barry Cooper (of Ligonier)

Gentry note:
From time-to-time I like to present postmillennial articles from other writers. This one is brief but to the point. It was published on Ligonier’s website last year. I am glad postmillennialism is still alive and well at Ligonier.

If you’re a follower of Christ, how optimistic are you about the future of this world we’re living in?

Many of us seem to grow more disillusioned about the prospects as we grow older. And I have to say, this is only amplified if you’re English. For nearly half a century now, I’ve watched our national team get repeatedly knocked out of major sporting tournaments on penalties, so in general, the English psyche has been carefully conditioned to always expect the worst. Our natural, ingrained tendency leans toward the pessimistic. Continue reading →

PMW 2025-055 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

On May 15, 2025 Gary DeMar (my old RTS classmate, friend, fellow-conference speaker, and publisher of several of my books) published an article about me that does not make sense: “Why Ken Gentry Must Oppose Full Preterism.”

DeMar’s opening charge

“Ken Gentry keeps changing his views about preterism. That’s OK because we all make changes. I believe his charges are designed to avoid having to deal with challenges to the partial preterist position.”

I must note up-front that Gary is correct. As I study the issue more carefully, I discover that I have made some exegetical oversights and argumentative mistakes in the past. However, I would note that though I have changed some of my arguments within preterism, my overall theology has not changed. I still remain fully within the flow of historic, orthodox Christianity (as reprehensible as that may sound to some). Continue reading →

PMW 2025-025 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

In this article I will be briefly responding to a reader that has been confused over some lexical and interpretive issues in eschatology. Hopefully this will help not only him but my other readers who may have experienced the same types of confusion.

The reader was interacting with my article “Understanding Collapsing Universe Prophecies” (PMW 2025-016) published on February 25, 2025.

The ends of the ages

He opens with: “The idea does not hold up that 2,000 years later we are still living in the same age as Paul and the Corinthian believers. Why? Because Paul wrote that the culmination of the ages had come upon them. (1 Corinthians 10:11).” Continue reading →

PMW 2025-017 by David M. Russell

This post is excerpted from David M. Russell, The “New Heavens and New Earth,” pp. 167–173
Russell is focusing on Romans 8 and its implications for cosmic renewal in the new heavens and near earth. This world is not as it will always be: a fallen world under the curse of God. One day it will be renewed in glory and righteousness, at the coming of Jesus Christ. The following is Russell’s work.

It is apparent that Paul’s primary concern in this passage is not present suffering, although such is not to be dismissed easily as a petty distraction. His central focus is clearly the future glory. The entire section is therefore dominated by the theme expressed in the word apokaradokia, the “anxious longing” (NASB), “eager expectation” (NEB), or “eager longing” (NRSV) which is the characteristic outlook of the created order. In this term, which occurs in the NT only here and in Phil. 1.20, Paul ascribes to the creation an attribute of positive and confident anticipation. While the etymology of a word may be misleading, that Paul apparently constructed the word is instructive. The verb, from kara (“head”) and dechomai (“to take,” originally “to stretch”), gives the image of “craning the head forward,” that is, straining with outstretched head to catch the first glimpse of an object in the distance. The preposition apo may suggest “diversion from other things and concentration on a single object.” Continue reading →

PMW 2025-009 by P. Andrew Sandlin

NOTE:
The following is an article by my good friend and culture warrior, P. Andrew Sandlin. I highly recommend his works.To subscribe to regular postings by Andrew Sandling: https://christianculture.com/

ROMANS 13 IS NOT A THEOLOGY OF THE STATE
We sometimes hear that Romans 13 discloses a theology of the state to be used as a pattern today without further qualification, but this well-intended assumption is incorrect. A biblical theology of the state is possible only after carefully investigating and properly weighing all of the biblical data. Even that course isn’t sufficient. To have a proper understanding of the state in the Christian worldview, we need to consider it within the context of the Bible’s creation-fall-redemption storyline, which is also the irreducible basic of the Christian worldview.

Nonetheless Romans 13:1–7 is important, and not just because, like all other Bible passages, it’s the infallible word of God. It shows us God’s will mediated through Paul to Christians living under a particular kind of regime, the dictatorial Roman Empire. By contrast, we live within a constitutional republic. This fact doesn’t negate what Paul taught in Romans 13, but it should cause us to be careful about assuming everything Romans 13 teaches must without further consideration apply to Christians today. Just as we wouldn’t assume Christians should work to reinstitute slavery on the grounds Paul gives instructions to both masters and slaves, so we shouldn’t decontextualize Romans 13 and assume everything about it must equally apply in every political situation in history. Continue reading →

PMW 2025-003 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

This is my second article on biblical objections to postmillennialism. Biblical objections are serious. If they are based on a proper understanding of the biblical passage being brought forward. Unfortunately, attempts to undermine postmillennial using Scripture passages also fails for lack of proper evidence. I must be brief, but I will consider two passages frequently thrown against the postmillennial hope.

Luke 18:8

“I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

Regarding this verse dispensationalists Wayne House and Thomas Ice argue that: “This is ‘an inferential question to which a negative answer is expected.’ So this passage is saying that at the second coming Christ will not find, literally, ‘the faith’ upon the earth.” Were this the case, postmillennialism would certainly be mistaken. How could Christians be optimistic if the entire Christian faith is prophetically determined to disappear from the earth? Unfortunately for the pessimistic readings of this passage, this is not the case as we may see from the following observations:
Continue reading →