10 Responses

1. Great podcast. Recently I asked in comments if you are a historic premillennialist and you said yes and recommended When A Jew Rules the World for the subject of historic premillennialism. I’ve read it. And listened to the audible version. It is very good.
   I really want to understand eschatology and what is true and not just believe what tradition I was born into. I was raised in the church if Christ denomination which was amillenial and preterist. Then I was in a denomination that was into pretribulational dispensationalism. I’ve moved away from both of thos, dispensationalism and ptretrib, but still lean strongly premill. I want though to throughly study til I feel that I can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it’s true. I’m in the process of trying to understand historic premillennialism as an alternative to dispensational premillenialism. I’d like to do an argument map using rational.com to get all the arguments down for the views and their support and objections to them and prove what is true. My husband who is into theology also says trying to study and compare views without doing that is like trying to do calculus in your head. It’s hard to keep it all in memory and organized to work with.
   I have a lot of questions that arise as I’m studying historic premillennialism. One is if the church is now the temple as is described in scripture, and people must enter the new covenant to be saved, the.n how can a temple rebuilt by the Jews be called God’s temple? My understanding thus far is that in historic premill unlike dispensational premill there are not two programs, one for Israel and one for the church, but one program and one covenant the new covenant and God is going to cause Israel to be grafted back in and enter into the new covenant. So that means when they aren’t believing in Jesus and are clinging to the old covenant things like worship and sacrifice in the temple, that’s wrong and disobedient. So it’s hard to understand that kind of temple being called Gods temple where scripture talks about the man of perdition who sits in the temple of God. It’s kind of confusing. Do you have any thoughts about this?
   I wish somebody would write books on eschatology that thoroughly present views, their arguments and support in a concise, logical outline format. Because I can’t find stuff like that is why I want to do the argument mapping.
   I get a lot of discouragement from most of the people around me about wanting to understand eschatology in detail. Many of them say it’s too complex and we can’t know for sure. We can know Jesus is coming back and he’s going to fix everything, all the world problems but that’s probably about it. But when I read Jesus saying when you see these things, my coming is near, that really draws me in. I want to understand what he’s saying and if I can watch for and be able to tell his coming is near I want to be able to. But many Christian friends say it’s not possible to know for sure what he’s talking about,

2. Some other good books are the pair by Barry Horner. Anything by Michael Vlach, who although he is dispensational, is excellent. His book He Will Reign Forever is mandatory.

3. Thank you for the suggestions. I have a book on premillenialism in my kindle library by Vlach that I haven’t read yet. It was free to me through kindle unlimited. The reviews were good.

4. I just have to comment on the new intro music before going any further. I am sorry, but I don’t like it at all, and I absolutely loved the music you used prior to this. The former music was perfect, and it told a story. I will greatly miss it. The new music is not at all what I would like to hear prior to your very welcome teachings. I hope you will consider returning to your previous intro music. Thank you.

5. Music is like food. Everyone has different tastes.

6. In light of what the world is going through now…I know this may sound petty…but I want the old music for the underground back. I agree with Jeanne :)! It truly was powerful!

7. Hurrah. The old music sequence has gone. Still weird but mellifluous. .

8. Joel I can’t wait for your book next year on the Messianic prophecies. I’ve been grappling with what the generation in Jesus’s first coming expected, versus his second coming. I’m currently reading a book you recommended, He Will Reign Forever, and learning a lot but am surprised at some of the things the author says about the Kingdom, like, that if the Jews accepted Jesus then, then the kingdom would already be here, if I’m putting that right. Having trouble grasping that. But did anybody in the OT even think the Messiah would come twice? These are just questions I’m grappling with and I think your next book would be great. I can’t wait. It’s always great listening to these and also the Winepress.

9. Hi Joel. I’m almost to the end of Future Israel that you recommended and am finding it really insightful and helpful. Next I will read his follow up book Eternal Israel. I saw He will Reign Forever on amazon and bought that as well.
   I have another question: does historic premillennialism best fit within a progressive dispensational framework? Isn’t covenantalism the framework of the supersessionist camp? Or is progressive covenantalism different in that regard?

   Thanks so much for the help with book suggestions and I too look forward to your new book release.

10. Historic Premillennialism and progressive dispensationalism are similar, though historic premil is most often defined as distinct in that it is usually post-trib or pre-wrath as pertaining to the rapture. Covenantalism is synonymous with Reformed Covenantalism, so yes, supersessionism.