This is going to be a “real life” case study. You are to find a person who would be willing to sit down and talk to you for thirty minutes to an hour. This person may or may not be a professing believer. This might be a family member, a co-worker, someone at the gym, or even someone from church.
With notes in hand, you are to teach what you have learned in class concerning the views of the millennium.
These are the issues that need to be covered:
• First, start by asking these questions?
1. Do you believe that Christ is coming again?
2. If so, what events to you believe will follow His coming?
3. Do you believe in a millennium?
• Using the notes at the beginning of session 9, explain the various approaches to eschatology.
• Using the notes at the end of session 9, explain the various views of the millennium.
The object of this assignment is to help people to understand the different eschatological schemes. Make sure that you help people to understand that while there has been and will continue to be great dispute concerning the details of the second coming, orthodox Christianity has always believed that Christ is coming back to judge and transform the world.
After you are done, write a half page to a page summary of the encounter and hand it in. Online students are to post their summary in their class forum. Grades will be based upon the completion of the assignment, not the effectiveness of the presentation. Everyone who completes this will receive credit for the case study.
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November 14th, 2008 at 11:07 am
For case study #2, I interviewed my friend Bill. Bill and I go to the same church. He is a former pastor and a seminary graduate. So, I knew I could count on Bill to have an understanding of this topic and share many insights which would be new to me. The topic of eschatology is fun and interesting. The speculation and conclusions we draw from Scripture are varied and interesting to compare. I told Bill I lean toward being an eschatomanic and he liked that term.
I started out with question #1 on whether Christ was coming again. Of course, Bill answered that he was. There is plenty of Scriptural support to justify the position that Christ is coming again. It is a universal truth of the Christian faith. (This point will become important later). For the second question, what events do you believe follow His coming, Bill felt like the Kingdom was going to come after we are done with the earth. I asked if he believed in the Millennium. Bill said that he did with absolute certainty. When I referred back to question one, and his certainty that Christ was coming again, Bill said that he did indeed feel as confident of that fact as he did that Christ was going to come back and reign for a literal 1,000 year period of time on earth. I shared my hesitation at going that far. He understood, but nonetheless feels as strongly about that doctrine as he can.
We next jumped in to the various approaches to eschatology. Bill and I both agree that we enjoy studying the topic and can find it useful and enlightening. It can teach us something about God. In fact, I attend the Bible study he leads and we are currently studying heaven, the Judgment, and afterlife. It’s a great study and I have learned a lot.
We next went through the various view of the millennium. We began with the Post-millennial view. Bill did not agree with this view. He felt like the way the church and kingdom were defined and the phrase “keys to the kingdom” are used were not accurate and do not correctly apply to this topic. With respect to the Amillennial view, Bill pointed out that Scripture clearly teaches that there are 2 resurrections. He points to Romans 11 and uses a bunch of what if questions to suggest that the arguments used in support of Amillenialism, although fascinating, are not justified. This brings us to the final view of pre-millennialism. This view is the one that Bill most agreed with. He indicated that it was the most natural reading of Scripture and consistent with the idea of progressive revelation. He added that none of these views is without their problems, but this view has the least problems associated with it and that the others had some objections that he can not overcome. I enjoyed our long chat and Bill always seems happy to talk theology.
November 16th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Ecclesiology and Eschatology
Case Study 2: Views of the Millennium
For this case study I began with these introductory questions and (answers I received)
1. Do you believe that Christ is coming again? (Yes)
2. If so, what events do you believe will follow His coming? (All kinds of chaos, troubles, wars, famines and so on)
3. Do you believe in a millennium, a literal thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth? (Yes)
Concerning question 2, I pointed out that it is believed by some (including me) that the actual “Day of the Lord” begins with the Christ’s coming in glory at the end of the Great Tribulation period. For example, Joel 2:31 says “the sunlight will be turned to darkness and the moon to the color of blood, before the day of the LORD comes…” All the events of the Great Tribulation occur BEFORE the day of the LORD.
The Case Study then asked me to discuss the major views of Eschatology. I explained the three of them:
1. The Historicist View sees the major eschatological events as having been fulfilled, or are currently being fulfilled in the events of history.
2. The Idealistic View sees the descriptions of end time events as symbolic of the struggle between good and evil. Those who hold this view see more symbolism and allegory than the historicist view.
3. The Futurist view mostly sees the events of Matthew 24, Daniel, Zechariah and Revelation that may have had partial fulfillments in the past but await and final fulfillment in the future of literal events as described in Apocalyptic Scripture.
Then I went over the three major views of the Millennium:
1. Premillennialism believes in a literal, thousand year reign of Christ before the eternal state of the new heaven and the new earth.
2. The amillenialists believe that the Millennium symbolizes the Church Age and that the devil has been bound and is no longer deceiving the nations as he once did now with the Gospel being preached worldwide.
3. Postmillenialism holds the view that the gospel will eventually Christianize the world until, when Christ returns, He will rule a thousand years over a largely global Christian populace.
Although the case study did not call for it, I also briefly explained the different rapture beliefs (pre-trib, mid-trib and post-trib) and explained why I believe that pretrib is the most Biblical view. Although it doesn’t have explicit Scriptural support, it is implied by a number of related passages. The next likely scenario I explained was the post-trib rapture which was the view of the early Church.
November 17th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Ecclesiology and Eschatology
Case Study #2 Nov. 16, 2008
Eschatology And The Millennium
I did my case study with my wife, Laurie.
I started with a review of some of the key scripture passages we looked at in session #9 regarding the end times, such as Rev. 20:1-8 and 1Thess. 4:15-18.
Then, knowing that she believes Christ is coming again, we moved on to what she thinks the main events will be associated with His return. She expressed the belief that all who have placed their faith in his life, death and resurrection will live with Him forever in a New Heaven and New Earth. Those who have rejected His work on the cross will be sent to eternal suffering in Hell.
We reviewed the terms: eschatomania and eschatophobia and she indicated that she leaned toward eschatophobia but she has not spent enough time studying or worrying about these issues to really be either.
We went over the historicist, preterist, futurist and idealist views of eschatology. She said she falls into the historicist camp.
She indicated that at one point in her life she was a futurist, premillennialist and dispensationalist, but that over the years her views have changed. She now considers herself an amillennialist, in line with her historicist views.
In the end, she did not consider this very useful in living her faith on a day to day basis and she indicated that she did not think a thorough understanding of this was necessary.
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I interviewed my friend Mike for this final E & E Case Study #2, as he was both available and knowledgeable regarding the Scriptures and “End Time” possibilities.
Is Christ coming again? Answer: YES!! One of the main themes and biggest hopes the Christian Faith has is that we know He is coming again. We just don’t know “exactly” (cross the T, dot the EYE exacly) how?
What events do you believe follow His coming? Answer: Mike believes in a literal interpretation of Scripture meaning where Christ returns to the physical temple (rebuilt) in Israel and reigns for a literal 1000 years. We reviewed the various positons of the millennium and why or why no they may be true.
Mike believes that Scripture teaches that there are two resurrections just like me so neitehr of us are holding to an Amillennial view.
With respect to Pre-Millennialism, he believes this has the strongest argument while my take is Post-Millenialism as I believe that the events which occur during the seven year Great Tribulation before the day of the LORD comes.
Mike and I dialogued about the Historicist, Idealistic and Futuristic views of Scripture and went through the Notebook together.
We discussed many end times things and held the classic discussion regarding the “Rapture” (Pre, Mid or Post) and he is more of the Pre-Trib and I am more of the Post Trib persuasion. In the end and most importantly, we agreed that we need to walk in the Spirit each day because no one knows the day or the hour. There are folks out there preaching things like “May 21, 2011″ He is coming again and we both agree that folks like Harold Camping appear to be false prophets.
God Bless & Good Luck All TTP Students!
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
E&E Case Study 2: Jay Foreman 11/23/08
Views of the Millennium
This case study made me nervous because this semester is the first time for me in dealing with the subject of end things. I have always avoided the subject, mostly because I knew nothing on the subject much less did I have a personal opinion of which “side of the fence” I stood on regarding the millennium. I sat with my good friend Joseph because he is a believer, but he too had no opinion or viewpoint on the subject, so whatever I said or read to him caused no disagreement among us. (am I brave or what? NOT.)
First, I started by asking these questions?
1. Do you believe that Christ is coming again? He said “Sure I do, that’s what we sing about during worship.”
2. If so, what events to you believe will follow His coming? He said “He will take all believers who are saved up to heaven forever. Then those who are ‘Left behind’ will go to Hell.”
3. Do you believe in a millennium? He didn’t have a clue what I was asking him about.
Then I began going over the notes at the beginning of session 9, explaining what Eschatology is and what the various approaches to Eschatology were. Trying to help him understand what the different eschatological schemes or models were, Historic, Preterist, Futurist and Idealistic views. So far, so good.
Next, using the notes at the end of session 9, I explained the various views of the millennium. This is where I started to sweat… but we got thru it all alive and well. I showed Joseph the 3 different views of the millennium, Premillennialism, Postmillennialism, and Amillennialism. Like myself, this was all new to him. We discussed the major arguments for and against each millennial view and both came to the similar conclusion that the Premillennial view is the most accurate understanding of the Bible.
Like I said at the beginning, this was scary, but helpful for both of us. We prayed that God would help us both have a better understanding of His return in the future and that we would both become better students of His Word.
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Case Study # 2
I interviewed a young man who is pursuing a degree in Church Music from a conservative denomination’s seminary. His Bachelors work, and most of his Masters work, has centered on music and worship with only basic requirements in Theology. He confidently affirmed Christ return, a coming tribulation, and a millennium. He believed the tribulation would last a literal 7 years and that the millennium would last a literal 1000 years. Beyond those basic beliefs, he affirmed few end-time doctrines with any degree of confidence.
We discussed the different approaches to Eschatology and spent a long time discussing various views of the millennium. He had not been exposed to post-millennialism or a-millennialism and was quite interested in those concepts. We spent time discussing pre, mid, and post tribulation rapture ideas. At the end of the discussion, we affirmed a belief in Christ coming again to take His children home to Heaven and that we needed to be ready for His coming.
The following day, he made contact with me again. The discussion had caused him to search for clarity in his beliefs. He and his wife stayed up late discussing end-time doctrines. They even went online to do further research and ev3en sought help from Wikipedia. After studying that night, he said he was now leaning toward a particular understanding. I like that we are not in agreement on where we lean. He and I will continue to meet, but I doubt either one of us will ever be 100% certain of our end-time understandings.