OUR INTERMEDIATE EXISTENCE

Intermediate Estate April 18, 2025 1 Comment

Heaven and spiritsPMW 2025-030 by Michael Allen

Gentry note:
The following few paragraphs are taken from Michael Allen’s chapter in Zondervan’s Four Views on Heaven (p. 130–32). While I don’t agree with every detail of his statement, I have found it very helpful and elucidating. The editor gave a list of questions that each contributor was to answer. This is Allen’s paragraphs given to answering the question. The book is available at Amazon.com

Michael Allen, “A Heaven on Earth Perspective”

5. How does your view of our end relate to the intermediate state? How is it similar and how is it different? Continue reading →

WHY FOCUS ON MATTHEW’S DISCOURSE?

Matthew 24, Olivet Discourse April 15, 2025 1 Comment

PMW 2025-029 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.Matthew

The “Olivet Discourse” is known by scholars as the “Eschatological Discourse.” This title focuses on its content, not its context; on what it teaches, not on where it was given. Though this fundamental Discourse appears in all three of the Synoptics (Matt. 24–25; Mark 13; Luke 21), in this posting I will explain why I focus on Matthew’s version of the Olivet Discourse in my research. I will present seven important reasons.

First, Matthew’s version is in the most Jewish Gospel
“It is agreed on all hands that this is a very “‘Jewish’ Gospel” (Leon Morris). This is significant in that the Discourse is sparked by deeply Jewish concerns raised by the Lord’s disciples (Matt. 24:1–3; cp. Mark 13:4). This includes highlighting the Jewish temple (“holy place,” v. 15; cp. vv. 1–2), its geographical setting in Judea (v. 16), and a distinctly Jewish Sabbath concern (v. 20). Robinson declares that “Matthew is more concerned than any other evangelist with the relationship of Christianity to the temple, the priesthood and the sacrifices” (J. A. T. Robinson).
Continue reading →

A SUMMARY OF MILLENNIAL VIEWS

Amillennialism, Millennial Views April 11, 2025 Leave a comment

PMW 2025-028 by Greg L. BahnsenVictory in Jesus

Gentry note: The following material is taken from Greg L. Bahnsen’s valuable study, “The Prima Facie Acceptability of Postmillennialism,” which is reprinted in his posthumously published collection of articles and lectures on postmillennialism as the book: Victory in Jesus: The Bright Hope of Postmillennialism. I highly recommend this book as a brief introduction to postmillennialism. The following is by Dr. Bahnsen.

The Distinctive Essentials of the Three Positions
In the preceding section of this discussion there was occasion to note that postmillennialism had been misrepresented in its basic position. This causes us to ask, just what are the fundamental differences among premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism? That is, what is the distinctive outlook of each position, its essential and central characteristic?

Here many people are prone to be misled, becoming entangled in questions which are subsidiary and indecisive with respect to the basic dogmatical outlook of a pre-, a-, and postmillennialism. What this means is that they take important exegetical issues pertaining to the millennial question and attempt to use them to delineate the three fundamental theological positions; however, these particular exegetical issues are not decisive for the central and general claims of the school of thought. Perhaps some examples would be helpful.
Continue reading →

IMPORTANCE OF BODILY RESURRECTION

Resurrection, Second Coming April 8, 2025 Leave a comment

PMW 2025-027 by Ben WitheringtonWitherington

Gentry note: As I continue daily research for my next book, I have stumbled on a helpful one titled Jesus, Paul and the End of the World by Ben Witherington (IVP 1992). Dr. Witherington is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary and a widely recognized scholar who has written over sixty books on a variety of biblical issues and from leading evangelical publishers. Although I do not endorse everything he states in this work, he has many valuable, well-researched, deeply-exegetical insights that have been profitable for me. This is only an excerpt from pages 187–191 of this work. There is a lot of surrounding context that is necessary for grasping the full force of his argument. But this ought to whet your appetite. And steer you clear from the proto-Gnosticism of hyper-preterists who see the resurrection body as an ethereal, spiritual reality rather than a corporeal, material one.

That which follows is by Witherington and is cited from his book Jesus, Paul and the End of the World:

In 1 Thessalonians 1:10 Christ’s resurrection is connected with the believer’s future deliverance from God’s wrath. In fact, almost always when Paul speaks of Christ’s resurrection he does so in connection with the events that will transpire when Christ returns. He clearly does not see Christ’s resurrection as an isolated historical anomaly but as an eschatological event that is the harbinger and in some sense the trigger or at least the prerequisite of future eschatological events. Paul is surely dealing with Christians in Thessalonica who had speculated about such eschatological matters, and it may even be that the Thessalonian Christians were reflecting the characteristics of a millenarian movement. If so, then it would appear that Paul is trying to offer a certain amount of “eschatological reserve” while still affirming much of the substance of the Thessalonians’ beliefs about the future. Here Paul grounds the believer’s future status in the belief in the past Christ-event. Continue reading →

PRETERIST POSTMILL SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY

AD 70, hyperpreterism April 4, 2025 Leave a comment

LethamPMW 2025-026 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

INTRODUCTION

I frequently receive requests from readers seeking preterist and/or postmillennial works released by established publishers.[1] There are plenty of self-published and small-publisher releases available. I have recommended a few in the past and hope to continue doing so in the future. So, in this posting I will highly recommend an excellent systematic theology that is not only written by a prominent Reformed theologian, but is also (partial) preterist [2] and postmillennial in orientation: Robert Letham’s Systematic Theology (2019). Since this blog is fundamentally about eschatological issues, I will focus on Letham’s comments relevant to this locus of theology.

Robert Letham, Ph.D. (University of Aberdeen) is professor of systematic and historical theology at Union School of Theology. His Systematic Theology is published by Crossway, and endorsed by Joel R. Beeke, Sinclair B. Ferguson, Carl R. Trueman, Cornelis P. Venema, and Alan D. Strange — competent theologians one-and-all!
Continue reading →

CORRECTING CONFUSION

Uncategorized April 1, 2025 Comments: 2

Future Next ExitPMW 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 →

COMPREHENSIVE HOPE IN ESCHATOLOGY

New Creation, Old Testament, Optimism March 28, 2025 Comments: 8

PMW 2025-024 by Donald E. GowanGowan eschatology

Gentry note:
The following is a series of thoughts selected from a very helpful book by Gowan on Eschatology on the Old Testament (pp. 122 ff.). Though he is not writing as a postmillennialist, he has many helpful observations that this article will share. His book basically argues for a holistic concept of redemption, both man (body and soul) and the broader creation (new heavens and new earth). He is not a conservative evangelical (as far as I can tell), but he is a good scholar insightful analyses of important eschatological issues.

Gowan’s Observations
The OT’s expectations and longings are distinct from those to be found in other religions and cultures. Thereby they offer a challenge for alternative forms of hope — Christian and otherwise — and insight into the nature of the eschatologies of the Western world.

1. Old Testament eschatology is a worldly hope. The OT does not scorn, ignore, or abandon the kind of life which human beings experience in this world in favor of speculation concerning some other, better place or form of existence, to be hoped for after death or achieved before death through meditation and spiritual exercises. This sets the OT in sharp contrast to Gnosticism, to the otherworldly emphases that often have appeared in Christianity, and to the concepts of salvation taught by Hinduism and Buddhism. Whether it is better and truer than those other forms of hope, or is just irredeemably “unspiritual,” remains, of course, a matter for faith to decide. But this quality of the OT hope surely ought to commend its outlook to an age that is equally worldly in its concerns. Continue reading →