ESCHATOLOGY-CHARITY
All portions of Scripture…ought to be approached with deep
humility and earnest prayer for the teaching of the Spirit. On no point have
good people so entirely disagreed as on the interpretation of prophecy; on no
point have the prejudices of one group, the dogmatism of a second and the
extravagance of a third done so much to rob the church of truths which God
intended to be a blessing.
Matthew, p. 225.
You will bear
me witness, my friends, that it is exceedingly seldom I ever intrude into the
mysteries of the future with regard either to the second
advent, the millennial reign, or the first and second resurrection. As
often as we come about it in our expositions, we do not turn aside from the
point, but if guilty at all on this point, it is rather in being too silent
than saying too much
C.H. Spurgeon
The First Resurrection, The Metropolitan
Tabernacle Pulpit, 7:345.
It is honest
to admit that there is much room for difference of opinion here.
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermon, Justification and Glory.
Those who
wish to see the arguments upon the unpopular side of the great question at
issue, will find them here; this is probably one of the ablest of the
accessible treatises from that point of view. We cannot agree with Mr. Young,
neither can we refute him. It might tax the ingenuity of the ablest prophetical
writers to solve all the difficulties here started, and perhaps it would be
unprofitable to attempt the task… Only fools and madmen are positive in their
interpretations of the Apocalypse.
C.H. Spurgeon
Review of Short Arguments about the Millennium, Sword and Trowel
1:470, October 1867.
[C.H.
Spurgeon] refused to spend an inordinate amount of time discussing, for example
the relationship of the rapture to the tribulation period, or like points of
eschatological nuance. An elaborate dispensational chart would have little or
no appeal to Spurgeon. Any dispensational framework that has a tendency to
divide the Scriptures into segments, some applicable to contemporary life and
some not, did not get his attention at all. He probably would have rejected any
such scheme. He kept to the basics of future things.
Lewis Drummond
Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers, Kregel,
1993, p. 650.
We must not
divide on the question of prophetic interpretation: pre-, post-, a-millennialist, and so on. Not one of them can be proved, so
we must not put them into the category of essentials. You have your views; hold
them. Let us discuss them together; let us reason together out of the
Scriptures; but if we divide on these matters, I maintain that we are guilty of
schism. We are putting into the category of essentials what is non-essential.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
What is an Evangelical? The Banner of Truth Trust, 1992, p. 89.
Before coming
to a dogmatic millennial perspective, the lone fact that so many
well-intentioned and intelligent Christians believe so variously when it comes
to Revelation 20 must give us pause. The Book of Revelation itself is probably
the most curious and oft-debated piece of the canon. This ought to place us in
a position of caution when either accepting or dismissing another's
interpretation.
Blue Letter Bible
Third-order
issues are doctrines over which Christians may disagree and remain in close
fellowship, even within local congregations. I would put most debates over
eschatology, for example, in this category. Christians who affirm the bodily,
historical, and victorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ may differ over
timetable and sequence without rupturing the fellowship of the church…
Christians should never separate from a church over third-order issues.
Albert Mohler
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
September 2009, Tabletalk, p. 21. Used by Permission.
Evangelicals
who hold to these various positions [on Christ’s return] all agree that
Scripture is inerrant, and they have a commitment to believe whatever is taught
by Scripture. Their differences concern the interpretation of various passages
relating to these events, but their differences on these matters should be seen
as matters of secondary importance, not as differences over primary doctrinal
matters.
Wayne
Grudem
Systematic Theology, Zondervan, www.zondervan.org,
1994, p. 1095.