Reflections & Reactions to the views

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Last December 1999 I remember that everybody was alarm when the year 2000 is fast approaching. Some people were packed up their belongings then went to the cave and some went to the certain place where people say God will appeared, some were in the church to be ready to “meet with their Lord”, and some were enjoying as if nothing will happened. It was a Millennium! The “coming of the Lord!” a “great tribulation…” they thought.  

For me, Millennium or one thousand years will be happened soon. I have seen the different views about Millennium mention by M. Erickson. Each view has their own claim but I hope as we wait upon the Lord our faith to Him will be strengthened. Also, I wish that this controversy will not cause to division on our churches because each views acknowledges the most critical issues to Christianity which is the coming and reigning of Jesus Christ forever. What or when the Millennium is, remember that Christ united all the believers.

I think the good thing that I have seen in Postmillennial view was the growth of the church and the power of the gospel will cause the world to get better and better (good citizen). I have seen our world nowadays as very evil, but on the other hand, God uses these circumstances to let the people realized that evil-doing are for Satan. So, they will now come to Him in repentance. When Christ seen that people are changed, then He will now return.  Accordingly, M. Erickson rejected on this view but for me I will consider also this view.

The Premillinnial interpretation is a closer view of the Millennium as the Bible is concern. They interpret 1000 years as literal time period. I don’t know where and when Millennium will be, but I am looking forward on that day because I want to see Jesus will rule over the earth as David did before. Besides, there will be “great abundance and fertility, of a renewing of the earth and building of a glorified Jerusalem.” Like the Jehovah’s Witnesses they will also looking forward on that day which will happen only on this earth.    

In Amillennial view, accordingly, this millennium is the reign of Christ in the heart of the believer and in his church. Probably, this view will happen in the future but the only thing which I cannot accept is that their interpretation of Revelation 20 is not clear because they interpret it as a whole book.

My understanding about great tribulation is the specific period of suffering at the end of the earthly history. Perhaps, and this is my view, that Christ will take the church prior to the tribulation because Christ here will impose his judgment to Satan which will end to being cast into the lake of fire to suffer eternally. If I will be here, I will ask favor from God that I will get out from the earth because this tribulation is not an ordinarily painful which we are experiencing right now, but this is a great tribulation which the book of Revelation described.  Besides, the conflicts which will occur on this day are the rulers, powers and principalities.

I Thessalonians 4:17 says “we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” My appeal is that the millennium and the great tribulation will come soon. But my hope is in my Lord Jesus. Maybe later He will come before the tribulation and meet us on the air. Praise God.

Tribulation

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Tribulation Summary

Pretribulationism view the tribulation is that Christ will take the church to himself prior to the tribulation while Posttribulationism is that Christ will take the church after the tribulation.

Several ideas held by pretribulationists are: a.) The nature of tribulation, there will be indeed a great tribulation b.) The Rapture of the church, Christ will come at the beginning of the great tribulation to remove the church from the world (c.f 1 Thess. 4:17). There will be three resurrections: the resurrection of the righteous dead at the rapture, there will be a resurrection of those saints who have died during tribulation, and at the end of the millennium, there will be a resurrection of unbeliever. c.)The Lord’s Return is imminent, d.) they maintain that there will be at least two judgment. The Church will be judged at the time of the rapture.

Prosttribulationists maintain that the coming of Christ for the church will not take place until the conclusion of the great tribulation. They are less literal interpretation of the events of the last times. Their understanding of the millennium is much more generalized in nature. Accordingly, the church will be present during and experience the great tribulation.

The postmillennialist draw a distinction between the wrath of God and the tribulation, the wrath of God is as coming upon the wicked. On the other hand believers will not undergo the wrath of God instead, that believers will experience tribulation.  

Posttribulationist acknowledge that speaks of believers who will escape or be kept from the impending trouble. They argue, then, that the church will be kept from the midst of the tribulation. Also, the posttribulationist have a less understanding of the last things. They viewed resurrection in two ways these are: the resurrection of believers at the end of the tribulation and the beginning of the millennium, and the resurrection of the ungodly at the end of the millennium.

Another view which called the mediating positions has been created. First, the midtribulational, holds that the church will go through the less severe part of the tribulation, but then remove from the world. Second, the Partial-Rapture view. this hold s that there will be a series of raptures and lastly, Imminent Posttribulationism, while the return of Christ will not take place until after the tribulation.

Millennial

Millennial Summary

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Postmillennialism rests on the belief that the preaching of the gospel will be so successful that the world will be converted. The proponent of this view was Tyconius, an African Donatist, followed by Augustine. The millennium was no longer viewed as a period of a thousand years but as the whole of the church history.

The postmillennial thought that the kingdom of God is as a present reality, rather than a future heavenly realm. They are able to accept what appear to be setbacks, since they believe in the ultimate triumph of the gospel. The postmillennial view the millennium will be an extended period, but not a literal one thousand years. They view millennium is based less upon Revelation 20.

Premillennialism is committed to the concept of an earthy reign by Jesus Christ of approximately one thousand years. They will see Christ as physically present during this time; it believes that he will return personally and bodily to commence the millennium. The primary proponent of this views was Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and embraces with dispensational system and others churches. The primary key passages for this views was Revelation 20:4-6. They will insist on the literal and consistent interpretation of this passage. The millennium would be a time of great abundance and fertility, of a renewing of the earth and building of a glorified Jerusalem.  

They view the rule of Jesus Christ will be complete from the very beginning of the millennium. The evil will have been virtually eliminated.

The premillennialists also anticipated the Israel will have a special place in the millennium. Dispensationalists hold to a continuing unconditional covenant of God with national Israel, so that when God has completed his dealings with the church, he will return to his relations with national Israel. Jesus will literally sit on upon David’s throne and rule the world from Israel. Nondispensational is less emphasis upon national Israel. Instead holding the Israel as special place, being spiritually in nature, will be found within the church. The Israel will be converted in large numbers during the millennium.

Also, the premillennialists hold that the millennium will be tremendous change from what immediately precedes it, namely the great tribulation. The tribulation will be a time of unprecedented trouble and turmoil. While they disagree as to whether the church will be present during the tribulation.

The Amillennialism is the idea that there will be no millennium, no earthly reign of Christ. The great final judgment will immediately follow the second coming and issue directly in the final states of the righteous and the wicked. Perhaps, Augustine was classified as the primary advocates of this view.

They deal with Revelation 20 as a whole book view. They see Revelation as consisting of several sections. These several sections don not deal with successive period of time. They are recapitations of the same period, the first and second coming. Amillennialism treat prophecies as historical or symbolic rather than futuristic especially in Old Testament.

According to Erickson, there are strong biblical grounds for rejecting postmillennialism. Since this view has much less support at the present time and clear depiction of an earthly reign of Christ without his physical presence is nowhere found in the Scripture.

He noted that are no Biblical passages which premillennialism cannot cope, or which it cannot explain. In the other hand the reference to two resurrections (Rev 20) gives amillennialists difficulty. Accordingly, we judge the premillenial view to be more adequate than amillennialism and I agree with this his explanation.

What is Church?

I appreciate or understand now what’s the “church” is as Erickson presented in his book Christian Theology. I have seen the development of the “church”, from its meaning, Biblical images and some special problems. It’s a long period of time to come up with good and different meaning of the “church” as I noted: the church are “belonging to the Lord”, “view as dynamic…”, “assembly of the Citizen of Polis”, “Congregation” and so on… I realized that until now the church existing. I was reminded of the verse says “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

I have seen also the Biblical image of the church. “The church is constituted of Gods people. They belong to Him and He belongs to them”, “The Image of the body of Christ emphasized the connection of the church, as a group of the believers with Christ” and “dwelling within the church, the Holy Spirit imparts his life to it. Those qualities which are his nature and which are spoken of as the fruit of the Spirit will be found in the church. The presence of such qualities in inductive of the activity of the Holy Spirit and in a sense, of the genuineness of the church.”

Nowadays, successful pastors and writers have their own ideas and meaning about church. They said that the “church is organism and at the same time organization”. Organism since the church is living and active while organization is focuses of its structure. We have church council and guidelines.

Rick Warren by in his book Purpose Driven Church (Class 101) he simplify the meaning of the church and I like it. He says “Church is fellowship” that the “top priority in fellowship is harmony and unity”. A good structure promotes unity and downplays disunity. The “Church is a family” like a “one big happy family, full of sympathy toward each other, living one another with tender hearts and humble minds” (1 Peter 3:8). The “Church is the Body were the people are the minister and the pastors are the equippers”. And the “church is a flock it is cared for and led by shepherd.” So, I was able to grasp the meaning and the importance of the church in our present times.

Church Discipline

In my observation, Church discipline has not been observed by the churches nowadays. Maybe some church observed but most of the churches did not take part because of some reasons: they said “God is gracious and we should act too.”  As human beings we couldn’t judge them because we are the same in God’s sight, sinner. Some pastors are afraid if a member will leave or go to the other denomination because financial supports will stop. And so on… Also, I observed that church disciplines are observed in the organization  as well as institution (Bible School). As I read the book I can’t grasp what kind of sin is W. Grudem talking about but I understood it as sin in general for example adultery, stealing, plunder, lying, etc.
   

 I like the way W. Grudem presented about the purpose of the church discipline. I agree that restoration and reconciliation be the first purpose why a member is to be disciplined. It also helps the offender keep the sin from spreading to others, and to protect the purity of the church and the honor of Christ as well.  I have seen one instance… after the church was being divided; some members left in the church, criticized the leader who violated and the cause of the division of the church. Until now they could not reconcile because the leader would not accept his mistake. Sometimes we people are hard-headed because of the pride that motivate inside of us, instead of showing humbleness to others we tend to cover up our sin before men.  Instead of restoration, conflict will arise… instead of keeping the sin from spreading, everybody knows… and the worse is that the integrity of the church will be lost.

In Matthew 18: 15 – 17, Jesus teaches His disciples about the process of restoring an erring believer. There should be a loving personal confrontation. The offended brother is acting in good faith and the right spirit in attempting to work out reconciliation. They would be witnesses to any agreement. If this does not bring peace, the offended brother is to report it to the assembly. The church then is to do everything possible to convince the believer who has sinned to be reconciled or to right the wrong. If the erring one will not respond, that person is to be disciplined by being cut off from the fellowship. Personally, I have a difficulty in this matter. Will I remove him from the fellowship or to bring judgment upon him? Who am I?  Even though he committed sin, he is still my brothers or sisters in the Lord. On the other hand, if the offender will transfer to another evangelical church then he becomes effective in that church, what would be my response? Is it he or I has the problem? As I said I have difficulties to deal with it. But I understand that the only reason why we need to restore the offender is because he/she is still our brother or sister in the Lord.

“As Christ’s children we must always forgive in our hearts and not bear grudges. Yet we can forgive someone in our hearts and still seek church discipline for the good of the person who is committing a sin or committed a sin, for the good of the church, for the honor of Christ, and because God’s Word commanded it.”

Speaking of Tongues

Holman Bible Dictionary defined Glossolalia or speaking in tongues as “Spiritual gift involving ability to speak in foreign language(s) not previously studied or to respond to experience of the Holy Spirit by uttering sounds which those without the gift of interpretation could not understand.” Millard Erickson stretched to us the different observation, guidelines, argument of the speaking in tongues. Although I’m not interested so much on this topic because of my past experienced but as I read the book there are things that I’ve learned. First, the gifts are bestowed to the church for edification of the whole body.  Perhaps it edifies the church physically and spiritually but in the other hand not all Christian functions like that, since glossolalia is just one of the gifts. As Paul said again and again  “there are different kinds…, but the same…” and concluded that “all these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” So glossolalia is not for everybody but only for selected one that help the church’s edification.

I would rather understand Paul as he wrote the Corinth church. As if he was motivating the Christians to exercise the gifts that were given to them. In 1 Corinthians 14 I noted the phrase “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues…” so, it suggest of Paul’s encouragement to them. Acts 2 says “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak different languages…” everybody in that room were experienced glossolalai. Likewise Paul experienced glossolalia and he wanted to inspire the Corinthian church to do the same. I don’t know if the Corinthian church did what Paul said just like what we, CAMACOP are doing today. I believed that the Holy Spirit dwells in me and he gives me some gifts. Some CAMACOP churches exercise glossolalia and I observed in Davao that they started right but ends with division, some reputation and integrity were injured because of this teaching. Somewhere in Luzon, I visited one of the churches, and the leader said “I will not trust pastors because they only want our cash” he was referring to the deliverance ministries where the pastor challenged and got all their possessions during that night. After two weeks he found out that the Rolex watch that he offered was using by that pastor. Not only was the church damaged but the reputation of the pastors as well.

Well, I agree with Erickson that we need “to evaluate each case… we cannot assume that everyone who claims to have had a special experience…” because our enemy find holes to disturb Christians as 1 Peter 5:8 says “your enemy the devil… he is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour…” so as Christian we would stand firm in the Lord.

I would rather go with discerning spirit than speaking in tongues, because God gave direct revelation to individuals who would communicate that revelation to the church. It was the basis before the scriptures completed. “Those having this gift were given the supernatural ability to determine if the revelation was from God or if it was false.” How? If there are two or three who spoke the revelation of God in the church those having the gift of discerning  spirits are to determine if it is from God (1 Cor. 14:29; cf. 1 Thess. 5:20-21). I believed that as a church, we are united in Christ by “being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose” as Philippians two narrated.

Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit is God. He is part of the Triune God. He becomes personal to us believers when we receive Him in our life and the Holy Spirit dwell in us. Dwell means “to live in”, it suggests that the Trinity or the person of God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit resides in a believer’s heart not only living for a short while but forever. The work of the Holy Spirit is to empower and encourage every believer to live holy and pleasing to Him. Oftentimes I, myself were amazed with the help of the Holy Spirit. Many pastors testify that when they preached the Word of God with the help of the Holy Spirit people changed, but not only that they also set an example. Sometimes, I was tempted to join gambling to have more money but there is something in my heart that always telling me, ‘be an example’. I believe that the Holy Spirit is present to encourage me to live a godly life and helps me to be a better person as well. The works of the Holy Spirit give evidence of His deity.

John 14:15 tells us that Jesus gives us ‘another Counselor to be with ‘us forever - the Spirit of truth.’ In my understanding, the word ‘Counselor’ is a person or somebody who is always giving an advice to his/her counselee. Likewise the Holy Spirit is our automatic adviser. He advice in all aspects of our life, the way we think, talk and act. This is the advantage of the believers to the non-believers because believers have the extra ordinary counselor and that is the Holy Spirit.

Millard Erickson in his book Christian Theology shows us the history and different views about the Holy Spirit. It seems that they were contradicting. They were trying to picture out who or what the Holy Spirit looks like. But because of their difficulties in studying the Holy Spirit they can not come up with the same view.  Perhaps, the orthodox view and the Christian view today hold on to this view that “the Holy Spirit is fully divine, consubstantial with the Father and the Son”. I do believe with this idea because the “Bible is rich with data about the Spirit from which a major theological segment can be readily constructed.”

Friedrich Schleiermacher mentioned and insisted that “religion is not a mater either of beliefs or behavior. It is not a matter or receiving and examining doctrines… rather feelings constitutes the essence of religion… ” I think he didn’t grasp what religion is. Religion is “people's beliefs and opinions concerning the existence, nature, and worship of a deity or deities”. As human beings, we need to study and examine what we believe so that we will not regret about our belief or faith whether it is true or not. The Holy Spirit is revealed in the Bible for us to know that He is true God and that He works in us and through us.

As Erickson concluded that the Holy Spirit is a person and that He is God and I strongly believe in it. Amen.

Why Does A Good God Allow Evil to Exist?

Research Paper.

I. INTRODUCTION

Why Does A Good God Allow Evil to Exist? Why is there evil in the world if there is  God? Why isn't He doing something about it? Many assume that the existence of evil disproves the existence of God. Sometimes the problem of evil is put to the Christians in the form of a complex question, "If God is good, and then He must not be powerful enough to deal with all the evil and injustice in the world since it is still going on. If He is powerful enough to stop wrong doing then He must be evil since He's not doing any thing about it. So which is it? Is He a bad God or a God that's not all power?

The word ‘Evil’ is generally used in two separate connotations. Firstly, it is used for reference to the bad deeds of people: for instance lying, injustice, oppression etc. Secondly, it is used for circumstances and conditions, which people consider as ‘not good’, for instance: poverty, earthquakes, natural calamities, drought etc. The question “If God is all-good, why does He allow evil to exist” is generally asked from both perspectives: ‘if God is All-good, then why does He allow people to do evil?’ and ‘if God is all-good, then why is there is so much suffering in this world?”

To answer these haunting and crucial issues about the goodness of God and the existence of evil, it is necessary to look on several views of different authors regarding this topic.