To date, the title of this post is about the only part of my eschatology that hasn't come into question. I have been discussing Isaiah 65 with several friends the last few days and I thought I would extend the conversation to any still reading this blog.
Isaiah 65 is a passage often associated with the blessings of the millenial kingdom - the lion laying down with the lamb sort of stuff. I never gave it much thought until I noticed that the words that open this section (v. 17) are:
"Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered..."
And I thought to myself...now where have I heard that before? Placing the "millenial blessings" after Revelation 21:1 certainly has some complications for the premill position that I have so long embraced. Nevertheless someone did once advise me that once you let go of a pretrib position, it's a downhill slippery slope (which I did not believe at the time, though I find myself slipping and sliding frequently these days). To be sure, this text isn't the end all of the discussion, nor my own wrestlings, as it is difficult to account for how death could exist after Revelation 21:1 (see Isa 65:20). Any thoughts? Even so come Lord Jesus...
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6 comments:
Go Amil, baby! What's a few thousand years between friends!!! Seriously, check out Moyter on this passage. He sets up a chiasm of the last three chapters of Isaiah which places this passage as central to the coming age. So what about children dying??? This is adapted language utilized to explain a utopia in the Jewish mind. Kinda the same way we analogize concepts for kids by explaining something through something they already grasp.
Now you're cooking with gas . . .
Regarding your eschatology, if you get into the Univ. of Chicago, you might not even keep that!
I can't believe all of the allegorizing going on here!
Scary indeed!
I'm with Russell -- Amil. is the only place to be. A little Hebrew utopian imagery is a lot easier to adapt to an amil persuasion than, for instance, II Thes. 1 would be to adapt to premil.
I have to admit that the only position not fraught with difficulties is the title of your article though. Maybe instead of being "amil," "premil," etc., we should call ourselves "parousia-expectant".
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