REFORMED WITNESS
Volume III, May 1995, Number 5
"Jewish Dreams"
By Prof. David J. Engelsma
Editorial from the January 15, 1995 issue of The Standard Bearer.
The hope of the Reformed church and believer at the beginning of a new year is the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the body. A hope, as was pointed out in the previous editorial, is the resurrection of the soul at the believer's death. The hope is Christ's return and the resurrection of the body.
The Word of God makes this the hope of the church. The "glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ" is our "blessed hope" (Titus 2:13). "We groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Rom 8:23). The prayer of the saints is, "Come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20). It is no part of the church's hope that a majority of humanity will soon be converted; that the church will then physically dominate the world; that all nations will be "Christianized"; and that a "golden age" of earthly peace and prosperity will precede the coming of the Lord Jesus. This is the hope of some in Reformed and Presbyterian circles. Certain teachers aggressively promote this hope, particularly those associated with a movement known as "Christian Reconstruction," or "theonomy." The church will enjoy earthly dominion. This future dominion -- the "Christianizing" of the world -- will be the Messianic kingdom. Because this doctrine of the last things thinks to base itself on Revelations 20's teaching of the "thousand years" (Latin: millennium), it is commonly referred to as postmillennialism. Jesus Christ will come only after a thousand years in which the church has had earthly victory and the kingdom of Christ has been the political world power. The hope of postmillennialism, particularly in its "Christian Reconstruction" form, is a "Jewish dream." This was the express judgement of the early Reformed creed, the Second Helvetic Confession (A.D. 1566):We further condemn Jewish dreams that there will be a golden age on earth before the Day of Judgement, and that the pious, having subdued all their godless enemies, will possess all the kingdoms of the earth. For evangelical truth in Matt., chs. 24 and 25, and Luke, ch. 18 and the apostolic teaching in II Thess., ch. 2, and II Tim., chs. 3 and 4, present something quite different (Chap. 11, in Reformed Confessions of the 16th Century, ed. Arthur C. Cochrane, Westminster Press, 1966).
The carnal kingdom of postmillennialism, particularly as painted by "Christian Reconstruction," is exactly the kind of Messianic kingdom dreamed and desired by the Jews in the days of Christ's earthly ministry. This was what the Jews of John 6 wanted: Christ as the king of an earthly kingdom and a temporal future bright with the prospect of political power and earthly glory. The damning judgement upon postmillennialism by the Second Helvetic Confession reflected the theology of the early Reformers, Luther and Calvin, as well as Bullinger, author of the creed. More importantly, it is the stand of the confessions that bind Reformed and Presbyterian churches and Christians today. I leave to those whose creeds they are to demonstrate that the Westminster Standards rule out the illusory dream of postmillennialism. But it may be noted that Anglican theologian Peter Toon has written that the postmillennialists at the Westminster Assembly failed to "affect the final wording of the (Westminster) Confession of Faith, which gives the impression of following the Augustinian teaching" (Puritan Eschatology: 1600 - 1648, in the Manifold Grace of God, Puritan and Reformed Studies Conference, 1968, p. 50). It is surely significant that, immediately after the adoption of the Westminster Confession, the independents drew up their own creed, the Savoy Declaration of 1658, in which they explicitly affirmed their postmillennial hope:...we expect that in the latter days, Antichrist being destroyed, the Jews called, and the adversaries of the kingdom of his dear Son broken, the churches of Christ being enlarged and edified through a free and plentiful communication of light and grace, shall enjoy in this world a more quiet, peaceable, and glorious condition than they have enjoyed (see the Savoy Declaration, 26.5, in P. Schaff, Creed of Christendom, vol. 3, Baker repr., 1966, p. 723).
The Three Forms of Unity condemn the hope of postmillennialism. The church in the end time will be a persecuted church, not a triumphalist church (Heid. Cat., Q. 52; Bel. Conf., Art. 37). The Messianic kingdom in history is the church, not a "Christianized" world (Heid. Cat., Q. 123; Bel. Conf., Art. 27). For this reason, it is unfaithfulness on the part of officebearers bound by the Three Forms of Unity to permit the advocacy of the postmillennial dream in the churches for which they are responsible. There is this openness to postmillennialism, evidently, in the churches that have recently split from the Christian Reformed Church and that are loosely associated in the Alliance of Reformed Churches (ARC). There is openness to these "Jewish dreams" in the extraordinary virulent form of "Christian Reconstruction." To a chief theorist and proponent of "Christian Reconstruction" was given the privilege of drawing up the hermeneutical basis of the set of new creeds once envisioned by leaders in the Alliance and sanctioned by the Alliance itself. At least one of the most prominent, and vocal, ministers in the Alliance has publicly associated himself closely with "Christian Reconstruction." Already virtually committed to the dead-end of independency, the churches of the ARC are opened up as well to millennial fantasies. Reformed saints in this movement do well to brace themselves for a wild ecclesiastical adventure. The consequences will be injurious, if not disastrous. The "Jewish dreams" of postmillennialism produce practical nightmares. They take the hope of the church off the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the body. For they direct hope toward the golden age and the carnal kingdom. Just as the "blessed hope" of premillennial dispensationalism is the earthly rapture, so the "blessed hope" of postmillennialism is the kingdom of Christ as earthly world-power. We groan for the redemption of the body (Rom 8:23); the committed postmillennialist groans, if he groans at all, for the millennial kingdom. Postmillennialist and "Christian Reconstructionist" David Chilton cheerfully informs us that history has "tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years of increasing godliness ahead of it, before the Second Coming of Christ" (Paradise Restored, Reconstruction Press, 1985, pp.221,222). That Christ will not come for hundreds of thousands of years saddens this postmillennialist not at all. Indeed, this gladdens his heart. For Christ's coming is not his hope; the carnal kingdom is. In some quarters, postmillennialism leads to passivity where there should be arduous activity. Certain postmillennialists in the British Isles are content to allow the secular state to educate their covenant children, rather than to fulfill the demand of the covenant by establishing good Christian schools. Their reason is that in the millennial kingdom that is coming the state will be Christian, indeed Presbyterian. It will then give Christian instruction in the schools. Other postmillennialists, particularly the "Christian Reconstructionists," urge an unbiblical activity. They call the church to "Christianize" the world, a task that Holy Scripture nowhere assigns either to the church or to the believer. Christ calls His church to guard against becoming worldly; He does not call her to make the world Christian. This self-willed servicer of Christ -- a law of man imposed upon Christ's church (which we might call "anthroponomy," 'human law' -- leads, inevitable, to another gross evil. Reformed men and churches make strange, forbidden, wicked alliances in order, by hook or by crook, to build the earthly kingdom of Christ. "Christian Reconstructionists," e.g., are cooperating with charismatics to get dominion. Thus, of course, these Reformed men and churches are exposed to the theology and practices of neo-Penteconstalism. It is as if Luther had begged the help of the "heavenly prophets" in order to advance the Reformation. The "Christian Reconstruction" brand of postmillennialism introduces the fundamental heresy of judaizing into the circles where it is accepted. This is the imposition upon New Testament Christians of a vast array of Old Testament laws that, according to Article 25 of the Belgic Confession, have been accomplished in Christ, so that the "use of them must be abolished among Christians." In the coming millennial kingdom, the earthly Christian state will decree all the civil, or judicial, laws by which Jehovah governed Old Testament Israel. Presumably, obedience to these laws will again be a matter of conscience for the Reformed believer. The interested reader is invited to read through the Old Testament to discover the number of laws, precepts, statues, and regulations with which the conscience of the Reformed believer will be burdened in the glorious Messianic kingdom of "Christian Reconstruction." The enormous, and obvious, blunder of "Christian Reconstruction" that results in such bondage, as well as in the innumerable hefty tomes of instruction in and controversy over this Reformed "utopia " -- this "no-place," this "never-never-land" -- is the failure to understand that the fulfillment of Old Testament. Israel is not a future, earthly Christian world power, but the church. The fulfillment of Old Testament Israel as a nation is the church -- the present, spiritual church. The apostle of Christ teaches in I Peter 2:9: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people." The New Testament reality of the nation of Israel, the real kingdom of God in the world, does not legislate and execute the civil laws of the Old Testament. It has no use for the civil laws of the shadow-nation. For the church is a spiritual realm. She does not, e.g., put adulterers and homosexuals to death. Where there is a public, impenitent practice of these sins, the church exercises disciplines, which is a spiritual key of the kingdom of heaven. Her purpose is the repentance of the sinner, so that she may again receive him into her fellowship. Not the least of the practical evils of postmillennialism is that it ill-prepares the people of God for the struggle that lies ahead, shortly before the return of the Lord. Postmillennialism denies a future Antichrist and a future great tribulation for the true church. All of this lies in the past. The future is rosy. But, as the Second Helvetic Confession observed, "evangelical truth in Matt., chs. 24 and 25, and Luke, ch. 18, and apostolic teaching in II Thess., ch. 2, and II Tim., chs. 3 and 4, present something quite different." As a confessional, biblical Reformed denomination, the Protestant Reformed Churches are not open to postmillennialism. It is their solemn duty from the soon-coming Christ to expose the hopes of postmillennialism as "Jewish dreams." We do urgently warn our own people and all who will hear us that the kingdom of the beast will come. Indeed, it is coming now. Its features are distinct in a lawless society, an apostate church, and a uniting world of nations. Rather then be deluded by "Jewish dreams" Reformed Christians and their children must heed sober Christian reality. Be prepared for the Antichrist! Hope for the second coming of Christ! Hope only for the second coming of Christ!
***A Letter and Response on "Jewish Dreams"*** To this editorial has come a letter of objection. Partly because of the length of the letter and response and partly because the letter opens up significant aspects of an issue that is of vital importance for Reformed and Presbyterian churches today, I run the letter and my response as an editorial. What follows, then, is the letter objecting to "Jewish Dreams" and my response to the letter. Letter: Your editorial of January 15, 1995, "Jewish Dreams" was a very strong attack against those who have held to a victorious Church of Christ in the world -- including the signers of the Savoy Declaration which was chiefly authored by that stupid Jewish dreamer, Dr. John Owen. At any rate, I think you owe it to your readers to quote another part of the Second Helvetic Confession, from chapter 30 ("Of the Magistracy"), which reads as follows:...(the magistrate) shall root out lies and all superstition, with all impiety and idolatry, and shall defend the Church of God. For indeed we teach that the care of religion does chiefly appertain to the holy magistrate. Let him, therefore, hold the Word of God in his hands, and look that nothing be taught contrary thereunto. In like manner, let him govern the people, committed to him of God with good laws, made according to the Word of God in his hands, and look that nothing be taught contrary thereunto... Therefore let him draw forth this sword of God against all malefactors, seditious persons, thieves, murderers, oppressors, blasphemers, perjured persons, and all those whom God has commanded him to punish or even to execute. Let him suppress heretics (who are heretics indeed), who cease not to blaspheme the majesty of God, and to trouble the Church, yea, and finally to destroy it.
If, indeed, the Second Helvitica condemns a so-called postmillennial eschatology, as you maintain (you did not cite the reference of your quote from the confession), it certainly teaches a so-called theonomic ethic for civil government. Could it be that the author, Heinrich Bullinger, actually believed that civil government could be Christian in its theology and ethics -- which is what a "postmill" prays and works for (Ps. 2:6-9; Is. 2:1-4; Micah 4:1-8; Matt. 28:18-20)? Response: "Stupid" is your word, and suggestion, absolutely not mine. The past and present postmillennialists whom I have in mind were and are many things. "Stupid" is not one of them. I did not demean the postmillennialists. I condemned postmillennialism. There is a difference. Nor was John Owen a "Jewish Dreamer." John Owen was a godly, orthodox Presbyterian theologian who, nevertheless, went seriously astray in eschatology (postmillennialism) and in ecclesiology (independency). He was not a "Jewish dreamer," but his eschatological error was a "Jewish dream." The apostle Peter was no Jewish legalist, but his sin at Antioch (Gal. 2:11-14) was grievous Jewish legalism, in practice. The Second Helvetic Confession does indeed condemn postmillennial eschatology. It condemns it in the quotation that I gave fully and exactly. It condemn it in language that seems to have been deliberately drawn up precisely to describe the present-day variation of post-millennialism known as "Christian Reconstruction":...that there will be a golden age on earth before the Day of judgement, and that the pious, having subdued all their godless enemies, will possess all the kingdoms of the earth.
There is no "if" or "so-called" about the Second Helvetic's Condemnation of postmillennial eschatology. The Second Helvetic condemns postmillennial eschatology. Plainly! Flatly! Sharply! The appeal to Matthew 24, 25; Luke 18, II Thessalonians 2; and II Timothy 3,4, puts beyond question that the Reformed creed condemned the postmillennial view of the future because the creed was convinced that Scripture teaches that the future holds apostasy, Antichrist, and great tribulation for the church in the future. That is, the Second Helvetic confessed amillennialism. If any additional proof were needed that the Second Helvetic Confession confessed amillennialism and condemned postmillennialism, the paragraph immediately preceding the quotation given in the editorial "Jewish Dreams," gives this proof:And from heaven the same Christ will return in judgement, when wickedness will then be at its greatest in the world and when the Antichrist, having corrupted true religion, will fill up all things with superstition and impiety and will cruelly lay waste the Church with bloodshed and flames (Dan. ch. 11). But Christ will come again to claim his own, and by his coming to destroy the Antichrist, and to judge the living and the dead (Acts 17:31). (The Second Helvetic Confession, in the Reformed Confessions of the 16th Century, ed. Arthur C. Cochrane, Westminster press, 1966, Chap. 11).
This is amillennialism -- the Reformed doctrine of the end. Holding this, and because it held this, the Second Helvetic Confession condemned postmillennialism. I did indeed "cite the reference of (my) quote from the Confession." My citation was "Chap. 11, in Reformed Confessions of the 16th Century, ed. Authur C. Cochrane, Westminster press, 1966." The Latin original, but not the English translation, is found in Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, vol. 3 (Baker, repr. 1983), p. 256: "Damnamus praetera Judaica Somnia," etc.) You quote the Second Helvitic's assertion that it is the duty of the magistrate to "suppress heretics" with the cold, steel sword of physical force, as though this contradicts the condemnation of postmillennialism. Fact is, one may hold this to be the calling of the state while recognizing that the Bible teaches that the kingdom of God in the world is spiritual, not carnal, and that the condition of the church in the last days will be tribulation, not that of a "golden age". This is the very position of the Second Helvetic Confession, as it was the position of John Calvin, and, for that matter, the position of the Belgic Confession. In chapter 30, the Second Helvetic calls on the state to "suppress heretics" and to have "the care of religion (although it begins by saying that "the chief duty of the magistrate is to secure and preserve peace and public tranquillity"). In chapter 11, it condemns postmillennialism. There is no contradiction. The opinion that the state has the calling to promote the true religion does not imply a postmillennial eschatology. I did not quote chapter 30 of the Second Helvetic on the duty of the state because my sole concern was to expose and reject postmillennialism as false doctrine in the Reformed churches, regardless of one's view of the duty of the state. Your description of my editorial as an attack against "those who have held to a victorious Church of Christ in the world" takes us to the heart of the issue. "...a victorious Church of Christ in the world"! The assumption basic to the entire enterprise of postmillennial "Christian Reconstruction" is that the church of Christ is victorious in the world only if she prevails in history with political power, superior numbers, and cultural influence. I deny this assumption. I repudiate this assumption. I abhor this assumption. I challenge this assumption as nothing less than a falsehood that puts the true church to shame, perverts the gospel (which is always the gospel of the cross, not the gospel of earthly triumph), and renders the living and reigning Lord Jesus Christ as miserable failure in history. It is a modern form of the "Jewish dream." Was the small, despised, persecuted church of the apostles, themselves "reviled, persecuted, defamed, filth of the world, and offscouring of all things" (I Cor. 4:9-13), defeated or victorious? Was the early church of Colliseum and catacombs defeated or victorious? Was the Reformation church in the Netherlands during the persecution under Alva, in France during the persecution under Louis XIV, and in Scotland during the persecution under Charles II defeated or victorious? Is the true church in the world at this time -- small, politically powerless, and culturally ineffective -- defeated or victorious? Has the church hitherto, the church from the apostles to the end of the 20th century, been a defeated church inasmuch as she has never yet dominated the world with earthly power? Whoever says that the church -- the true church -- in any age and land, or the church throughout the present age to this moment, has been a defeated church, because it has not had earthly dominion, is calling Jesus Christ a defeated King, a failure. We amillennialists proclaim a gospel that declares the little flock of Christ, that will always have tribulation in the world and whose members are killed all the day long, to be not merely conquerors but "more than conquerors" (Luke 12:32; John 16:33, Rom. 8:36,37). See, this is not pessimism, this is optimism. This is the hugest optimism. This is optimism without any hint of pessimism. But the victory, indeed "more than victory," of the church, here and now, is spiritual, not carnal. It is achieved by the gospel of the forgiveness of sins, not by the gospel of world-domination. It is enjoyed by faith, not by settling down comfortable in a society or a world governed by the saints. It consists of the pardon of sins, peace with God, holiness of life, and perseverance in Christ to the end; it does not consist of political power, big numbers, and cultural influence. Esteemed friend Jones, permit me a question or two that reflects not only on your letter published above but also on the note that accompanied the letter. You more than most Reformed Christians are well aware that R. J. Rushdooney, Gary North, and others of the "Christian Reconstruction" movement have for many years now been assaulting Reformed amillennialism as "impotent religion" and jeering at us amillennialists as "pessimillennialists." you also know that this tirade and ridicule are ongoing. This has been, and continues to be, their "strong attack" against the doctrine of the end confessed by the Reformed churches in the Second Helvetic Confession and against all those Reformed theologians and other believers who have embraced Reformed amillennialism according to the Reformed confessions. Would you say that they have "arrived at an ideological stance for passionate postmillennialism that is not healthy? Would you warn them that "ideology and biblical theology are two different things"? And have you ever actually said this to them and warned them of this publicly, perhaps by a letter in Chalcedon Report?
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