Monday, October 16, 2017

An Evening of Eschatology - Piper, Hamilton, Wilson, Storms

REVELATION, n. A famous book in which St. John the Divine concealed all that he knew. The revealing is done by the commentators, who know nothing.--Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

I have been watching some videos on youtube featuring Doug Wilson, a leading Presbyterian pastor and theologian in Moscow, Idaho, over the past few days. In a previous post, I refuted Wilson on the topic of baptismal regeneration:

Refuting Douglas Wilson on Water Baptism and Salvation

I don't discuss eschatology a lot on this blog, as I don't have a huge interest in that field. As a believing Latter-day Saint, I would hold a form of pre-millennialism, but, unlike many other topics (e.g., Christology; soteriology, and even Mariology[!]), it is hard for me to get excited about debating pre-, post-, and a-mill perspectives. Notwithstanding, I did find the following roundtable dialogue between Wilson (post-mill); Sam Storms (a-mill) and James Hamilton (pre-mill), moderated by John Piper:

An Evening of Eschatology - Piper, Hamilton, Wilson, Storms


Personally, I believe Sam Storms did the best in this, and, while I am pre-mill, Hamilton was incredibly weak, even getting very emotional when discussing various Old Testament eschatological passages with Storms. I think Latter-day Saints will benefit from this if they watch it as they will get a good understanding of not just what but why those with a different eschatology, especially the a-mill perspective (the position of Roman Catholics; Eastern Orthodox, and many Calvinists) in this discussion.

For those wanting good books on the pre-mill perspective, I would recommend the following as good starting points:

Robert Shank, Until: The Coming of Messiah and His Kingdom

Robert H. Bounce, The Book of Revelation (The New International Commentary on the New Testament)

Anthony Buzzard, Our Fathers Who Aren't in Heaven: The Forgotten Christianity of Jesus the Jew

Craig L. Blomberg and Sung Wook Chung, eds. A Case for Historic Premillennialism: An Alternative to "Left Behind" Eschatology

For LDS works on eschatology, I would recommend:

Randall S. Chase, Establishing Zion: Preparing the Earth for the Return of Jesus Christ

Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man

Grant Underwood, The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism