Is Premillennialism A Papal Type Super Denomination?
Will someone dare to circulate this question
to a thousand, representative, evangelical or semi-evangelical, religious
leaders?
We think the answer from informed and honest observers
would of necessity be, "Yes."
We could consistently raise an even more shocking question, but it would be labelled as loaded or libelous. We are inclined at times to ask, "Is Premillennialism, As a Movement, or System of Interpretation, possessed of or Controlled By the Spirit of Antichrist, Which Is Shown In Revelation 13:16-18?" However, we are not out to prove anything so wicked as this here, but to press the argument to justify the title question. It is serious enough, since, if it must be answered in the affirmative, it implies that most Christians owe or show allegiance to two bodies of denominational or regulatory controllers, often without realizing the extent to which outsiders manipulate their thoughts or actions.
What Constitutes Denominationalism?
Before we can intelligently decide what to look for
by way of an answer to this insinuating probe, we need to have a definition of
what are commonly accepted as the definitive constituents of a denominational
operation. The term, "Denomination," has to do with a name, and, in
both religious and monetary senses, it is used to designate or identify a group
or class which belongs to a specific type of value or persuasion. In the
commonly accepted religious sense, a denomination is a body or defined group of
people, who hold to identical or similar doctrinal views or standards and
purposes or objectives. Usually, each of these conglomerates has its own,
recognized spokesman or spokesmen. Perhaps we should not say,
"Spokespeople," or vocal organs. These agents, either by
self-appointment or by delegated authority, exercise scrutinizing interest,
criticizing rights and regulatory influence over or toward others, both of
their own kind and in respect to, or against dissidents who differ with them.
In general, those accepted among them and commended by them are judged as
acceptable or disqualified according to the rules and rulers of their
respective groups or classifications. You are either taboo to their standards
or tattooed with their brand of approval according to the judgement of their
vocal agents. Has Premillenialism Taken On These Powers And Functions?
Now, our question is, "Has Premillenialism, As A
System of Bible Interpretation Taken on Such a Role, as an Agency That Operates
and Dominates Over Almost All Ordinary Churches, Training Institutions,
Evangelical Mission Boards and Denominations Throughout the World?"
Most of our readers are aware, of course, that the term, "Premillennialism," encompasses a great variety of conflicting and contradictory opinions and definitive standards; but they all have several bases in common and other concurrent incidentals that make for essential sameness even among those who differ strongly about some of them.
A Thousand Years Without Depressions
All whom we commonly think of
as, "Millennialists," expect and emphasize a special, calendar year
special period of one thousand years of peace, prosperity and world-wide
priority rights for one or more classes of people, who will enjoy long and
gratifying, physical and emotional pleasures here on this present planet, under
Christ's personal protection and promised provisions.
The spirit and earthly
aspirations of Zionism have found new and greater prominence in twentieth century
millennial cultism that they ever had before, on such a scale, among Gentile
circles. Never before, have God's conditional promises to Abraham and Mosaic
Israel, about the consequences of helping or hindering the Nation, while God
extended His Old Covenant, been used to paper over so many threats of Divine
judgments or many instances in Scripture, where God stresses that only Christ's
merits and our reliance on Him have any value toward salvation. Never before,
since Paul broke the Jewish meeting in Antioch, (See Gal. 2:11-19), did
churches give themselves in such numbers and with blinding deception, to delude
and hasten to destruction so many Jews or so-called, "Jews," as we
have seen in the time since the publication of the Scofield Bible. (See Gen. 12:1-5;
15:1-21; 17:1-14; 22:15-19) (Note stress on faith and obedience as conditions
for extension of covenant here Rom. 4:9-25; Rom. 15:8-11; Gal. 3:6-17 &
26:29; Gal. 4:22-31; and Heb. 6:13-20) (Covenant annulled by disobedience. See
Deut. 27:9-26; 28:15-29; and 30:15-20)
The
So-Called Invisible Church
I must exempt some dear,
inconsistent Premillennialists from this paragraph, but I can still speak
honestly for most of the present generation of Dr. Scofield's addicts when I
include the article in their faith about the so-called, "Invisible
Church," as a convenient and disruptive element of this
super-denomination's code for manipulating Christians and Christian
institutions. I am not ignoring or trying to refute the teachings of the few
Scriptures such as we have in Ephesians and Colossians, about the whole company
of God's people in our ultimate relationship and glory;
but I do brand as heresy the present day misuse of
the term. "Church," as a synonym for the present Kingdom or growing
family of God; in counter-distinction to local, self-governing
(Christ-governed) bodies of obedient believers.
The
Theory of So-Called Dispensations
Again, I am glad that not all
Millennialists hold to Dr. Scofield's modern nonsense about seven specific and
distinct eras or periods of time, which are falsely and unscripturally called,
"Dispensations." This form of denying the place of grace in all God's
plan of salvation and dealings with men, in all places and times on earth;
this confusing of the Bible about the function and
uses of conscience. Nature's Witness, the Law of the Old Testament and its
revised interpretation and application in the New Testament, is both welcomed
and abused too widely and too seriously, by the majority of Premillennialists
today.
Related to this and integral to much of it are the
phoney, favourite theories of an expected secret rapture of a segment of
believers, several resurrections of those who are dead or will die, a variety
of future judgments and, for many, the idea of dividing God's people for
eternity, into two or more distinct companies or unrelated groups.
The common and
all-too-general acceptance of these distinctives by hosts of people, from many
denominations and movements, and the use of the tenets of Premillennialism as a
credible norm for defining and expressing truth makes for a definable cult,
that is just as real and regulatory as any recognized denominational creed or
set of guidelines. Young men study sincerely and hard at seminaries or Bible
Schools; but cannot graduate because they will not
perjure themselves by saying they subscribe whole-heartedly to the any-minute,
secret rapture theory of Scofieldism. Missionaries have given all they had for
the best years of their lives to get the Gospel of grace out to the lost and
the plan of God for true church life accepted by Christians;
but some Premillennialist hierarchy rules that they
must give it all up and scurry away like hirelings, because their honest study
of the Word they loved and taught led them to question the rightness of the
Zionist plan for the Jews in the Middle East or the world. A church that needs
a pastor finds a man who needs a field. They call him to come to minister and
confer with them and are well pleased with his message and manners. He looks
like God's answer to their situation, until some Scofield ghost asks him about
his views concerning "The Invisible Church" and immediately all the
Futurists, like Free Masons, rise to black ball him as evil. They all get the
signal and forget all else but the Dispensationalist norm. A new church is
trying to develop a biblical Statement of Faith. They examine the Bible on
point after point of basic doctrine. They examine and compare old and honoured
creeds and statements, which represent tens of thousands of hours of study by
God's best scholoars of other days and draft the best parallel to a resume' of
the Bible they can form for their guidance. But, then suddenly an
"expert" on prophecy notes that they have failed to mention that the
coming again of the Lord Jesus must be in two stages, at least a thousand and
some years before the end of time as we know it. So he or she insists that they
must insure that their Statement of Faith must exclude forever all who do not
follow Premillennialism's dictates on this theory. No saint of God is to be
allowed to buy the truth of God in their church, if he cannot show his card to
certify that he has a pass to the secret Marriage Supper of the Lamb, that is
scheduled only for the elite of "The Church". The sprawling octopus
of millennialism stretches its tentacles from all denominational shelters and
sucks the new church into its clutches, to smother its freedom to read and
follow the Word that makes believers free indeed.
The day when you could decide
with some confidence what a professing Christian believed and worked for by
identifying his church affiliation is past. He may be an Anglican, a Baptist, a
Presbyterian, a Lutheran or Christian Reformed churchman and, at the same time,
hold to a method of Bible interpretation that the founding fathers of these
great bodies never heard of. His priority may have no relationship whatever to
the basics for which his denominational ancestors lived and died. He is not
ruled by the broad spectrum of Bible truth or by the great doctrines that
distinguished his denomination from the world. He just brings Dr. Scofield's
little touchstone and judges all as right or wrong by their attitude toward
that set of phoney guesses.
We would not deny such an one
the right to hold his views; but if he sees and represents Scofieldism as if it
were a super-denomination, a mould into which all other doctrines and groups of
believers are to be submerged and by which all freedom to study with responsive
hearts and obedient wills is to be repressed, then he should be seen for what
he is-a man of a foreign country, a citizen of an imaginary kingdom that will
never be. Let Premillennialists come apart and merge into one, recognized body
and let the subversive charismatics do the same and let the rest of us see both
cults for what they are and insist that they run their own as they like; but do
not try to play the role of super-imposing their mark over all other, proper
signs of identity. Their touchstones do not represent the whole counsel of God
and are not to be recognized as norms for judging those whom God has cleansed
and His Spirit is leading. Stay off! Your rights end where my biblical
convictions begin.
Winter 2005 Front Page Next Article