Post
by _Steve » Tue Sep 13, 2005 9:16 pm
Hi Patrick,
Thanks for writing. I have a few bits of advice for you:
First, don't be in too great a hurry to change your views. Even if your views are currently incorrect, and need to be changed, it will do no great harm to continue believing them until you can study the matter out thoroughly. Your views of eschatology need not have any negative impact on your Christian behavior, and even if you die with the wrong eschatological position, I don't think you lose any points with God on that score.
Second, realize that eschatology is not simply about the book of Revelation and a few other passages. It is about God's plan of the ages, the significance of Israel, the role of the church, and the manner in which God is fulfilling His purposes. As such, your understanding of vast portions of scripture in the Psalms, the prophets, the parables of Jesus, His warnings of judgment and like passages in the epistles are affected. PLan on this taking a while.
Third, don't simply change your views as a result of reading a convincing author or hearing some compelling lectures. Hear what others have to say that differs from what you have heard previously. Consider their arguments critically. Read the relevant Bible passages with one view in mind, and then again with another in mind. Try to discern which view seems to fit most naturally the data in the passages.
Fourth, pray for insight and read the Bible cover-to-cover repeatedly. If this takes years, that's all right. You don't have to understand everything now. The longer you take to make up your mind, the more likely it is that you will be making the most responsible decision between the available viewpoints.
I began as a dispensationalist. I first heard arguments against a pre-trib rapture a couple of years before I decided that they were correct. Then I was post-trib, pre-millennial. Next, my views of the millennium began to be challenged by things I was seeing in the Bible. Probably two years more and I was now post-trib, amillennial. Then my views of the tribulation and antichrist were shaken, when I was asked by a friend where the scriptures taught these things. I knew the relevant passages, but as I looked at them again, I realized that they did not actually say what I had been told about them. It wasn't till I read some books about AD 70 that it became evident to me how many prophecies were fulfilled in those events. That made me an amillennial preterist.
From dispensationalist to amillennial preterist took me, perhaps, nearly ten years—and came in increments. This seems like a long time to wait for understanding, but I am actually happy to have taken so long. Had I just read another man's compelling arguments, and accepted them in one leap, I would be little better off than I was before. I would have left a system taught to me by a man and embraced another system taught to me by another man!
I would have reached new conclusions without having wrestled with every relevant text and argument, and I would, therefore, not know whether I had reached a better position or just a different one, since there might be passages or arguments that I had not yet considered that could lead another direction.
Though it is more arduous, and more slow, it is better to study things out for yourself so that you OWN your views, and are not just BORROWING another man's. In the meantime, there is no shame in admitting that you are in an undecided state. It may cause others, who want you to agree with them, to become impatient with you, but you will be more satisfied with your opinions than would otherwise be the case.
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Reason: In Jesus,
Steve
