Introduction
One of the distinct memories I have as a 12-year-old child was standing in our living room at a large front window at 7707 Cecilia Dr. in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Seeing no cars drive by. Waiting for Mom and Dad to come home. And wondering if the rapture had occurred. Thinking that I had been left behind.
I was terrified.
My dad was our pastor. He had been trained in a seminary that taught only one view about the end times. It was a view that taught believers to hold the Bible – especially Revelation, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Matthew 24 – in one hand and to hold today’s newspaper in the other hand in order to discern the signs of the times.
My dad, like other pastors in the Cold War ’60s, taught us that the end was near. Russia and China were going to converge on Israel for the battle of Armageddon. But before that would take place, Jesus would return and rapture the church, taking believers out of the mess, prior to a seven-year Great Tribulation. Those who weren’t following Christ would be left behind.
So, as a young boy who sometimes doubted his salvation, I could find myself in situations, when alone, where I thought I was left behind. I thought the rapture had happened and I had not been caught up to meet the Lord. I would be alone to live through the Great Tribulation while Mom and Dad were in heaven.
Pre-trib, pre-mill, dispensational eschatology
This view of the end times that terrified me as a child is known in some circles as pre-tribulation, premillennial dispensationalism.
The view goes like this: We are living in one of the last dispensations of biblical history. The world gets worse. Wars, earthquakes, and floods increase. Christ returns in the clouds and raptures the church (takes believers out of the mess) prior to a seven-year Great Tribulation. At the end of those seven years, Christ returns fully to earth and sets up a 1,000-year reign where Satan is bound and believers rule and reign with Jesus on this earth. At the end of that 1,000 years, Satan is released temporarily and wreaks havoc. But at the final judgment, Satan is finally bound forever, and all the unbelievers are judged at the Great White Throne. Then believers enjoy the benefits of heaven forever.
That is pre-trib, pre-mill, dispensational eschatology.
That’s what my dad preached, that’s what I grew up with, and that’s what I believed. And I was taught that was what all serious Bible students believed.
A Little History
No one told me that the pre-trib, pre-mill view is relatively new in church history. It was systematized in the 19th century through the teaching of John Nelson Darby and popularized in America through C. I. Scofield, who published the Scofield Reference Bible. Many pastors, like my dad, received a copy of the Scofield Reference Bible, and for some it became their de facto and primary commentary.
The view was solidified even further through the influence of Moody Bible Institute, Moody Radio, Dallas Theological Seminary, and other conservative Bible colleges and seminaries.
Nobody really asked the question about why, in the history of the church, no one had believed such a complicated view of eschatology for the first 1,800 years of church history.
My Eschatological Journey
I went off to college with my Scofield Reference Bible. And through the Vanderbilt Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) ministry I was introduced to a new Bible translation, the New American Standard Bible. I purchased a copy of that Bible… without study notes! I started reading God’s Word without someone else’s commentary. I was learning to let the Bible interpret itself.
As I traveled around the country during my minor league baseball experiences, I would sometimes hear pastors teach from the Bible about the end times without the sensationalism, the fanciful connections to the headlines, and the manipulative use of fear to get the unsaved to believe and the believers to behave.
And I began to question the end times view that I was taught as a child. “Isn’t the coming of Christ something that should produce faith, hope, and love in the lives of believers instead of producing a fearful 12-year-old looking out a window wondering if he’s been left behind?”
When I began working on staff with FCA in Jacksonville, Florida, someone pointed me to a book entitled The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views. It was in reading that book that I began to further unpack some of the eschatological baggage that I had brought with me from childhood and my teenage years. And when I went to seminary, that journey away from those childhood beliefs continued. I learned that faithful conservative Bible scholars often viewed eschatology differently.
CVC and the Book of Revelation
Then I came to Cleveland to plant Cuyahoga Valley Church as the Founding Pastor. We were focused on evangelism, discipleship, planting churches, buying property, building a building, and starting ministries like BLAST and 707. So, my study of eschatology was shelved.
During the years when I was Lead Pastor at CVC, we did a series on Revelation 1, 2, and 3. And we certainly taught truths found in Revelation 21 and 22. But because I never really did a deep dive on what I believed about Revelation 6 through 20, we never did tackle the entire book.
I think my hesitancy to teach through Revelation when I was Lead Pastor was because, while I had become uncomfortable with the pre-trib, pre-millennial dispensational point of view I had grown up with, I had never fully embraced an alternative point of view with confidence.
More of My Eschatological Journey
Over the years, I explored the preterist viewpoint, which emphasizes the fulfillment of many biblical prophecies in the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. I considered the post-millennial view, which looks for a future period of gospel advance and kingdom flourishing before Christ returns.
More recently, I became more familiar, through the writings of leaders like Sam Storms, with what is commonly called the amillennial point of view, which understands the 1000-year reign of Christ in Revelation 20 as describing the present reign of Christ and the church age, rather than a future earthly kingdom following Christ’s return.
That view became increasingly intriguing to me. I recently took an online course with our oldest son, Alan, on the early church fathers. And I began to wonder: How did the early church fathers view eschatology? So far, I’ve not discovered any of them who were pre-trib, pre-mill dispensationalists.
I discovered the writings of G.K. Beale, currently a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Dallas. Although Beale’s view is often categorized as amillennial, he prefers to describe it as “already, but not yet” or “inaugurated” millennialism.
His approach resonated with me because it takes seriously both the apocalyptic genre of Revelation and the way the New Testament describes the kingdom of God as something that has already broken into this present age through Jesus Christ, while still awaiting its final consummation.
Respect for the Pre-trib, Pre-Mill View
I want to be very clear. I have great respect for people who hold to the pre-mill, pre-trib rapture view of the end times. After all, that’s what my dad believed and taught.
And my dad was a really good pastor. He really believed God’s Word. But I honestly think he was taught wrongly and was told that if he questioned that point of view, he would be guilty of not taking the Bible literally.
I doubt if anyone ever told him that the particular view he believed in was less than 200 years old. I doubt if anyone ever told him that most of the early church fathers and most of the Reformers did not believe the Bible in that particular way.
But I Beg to Differ
So, with kindness, I beg to differ with Hal Lindsey and The Late Great Planet Earth, with Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins and the Left Behind series, with the great and beloved Chuck Swindoll, with Charles Ryrie and the Ryrie Study Bible, with the respected Bible teacher David Jeremiah, with what has historically been taught at Dallas Theological Seminary and Moody Bible Institute, and with what has been broadcast for decades through Moody Radio.
Could these people be correct? Perhaps.
But it’s interesting to me that within conservative evangelicalism, including some Bible colleges and seminaries that have historically been strongly premillennial and dispensational, there has been a growing willingness to reconsider that framework.
A number of younger biblical scholars are emphasizing what theologians call inaugurated eschatology – the biblical reality that the future age has already broken into the present through Jesus Christ, while its final fulfillment is still to come.
Some, like G.K. Beale, understand the millennium in terms of the present reign of Christ. Others, like Southern Seminary professor Thomas Schreiner, have arrived at different conclusions about the millennium while still emphasizing the already-and-not-yet character of biblical eschatology.
The point is not that every conservative scholar has reached the same conclusion. The point is that the older assumption that faithful, literal interpretation of Scripture necessarily leads to dispensational premillennialism is increasingly difficult to sustain. Biblical scholars like G. K. Beale, Sam Storms, and Nancy Guthrie are helping many Christians see Revelation through a different lens.
Confidence in Where We Are Headed
I am confident that the approach that Pastor Joe and Pastor Josh are taking as we journey through the book of Revelation is sound and faithful to the Bible, consistent with historic Christian doctrine, and pastorally helpful to people who are facing suffering of all kinds in this fallen world.
Pastor Joe has written a blog that masterfully explains our approach. Read his blog entitled How We’re Approaching Revelation Together. And, with the help of our entire Teaching Team, Becca Ferguson has carefully collected resources that we feel you can trust. Find our suggested resources here.
