How
Jacob Arminius lost a debate before the debate even began.
How
the Synod of Dort summarized Calvinism in five points.
How
the Puritans, Separatists, and Baptists are related.
How
slavery of Africans and exploitation of Native Americans changed the world.
What was going on at this time?
Religious
differences between Catholics and Protestants repeatedly turned into violent
conflicts.
In
the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, French soldiers slaughtered thousands of
Protestants.
The
Thirty Years’ War, which began as a religious conflict, claimed at least 10
million lives between 1618 and 1648.
Who was Jacob (James) Arminius?
Not every conflict ended in
bloodshed, however.
Jacob Arminius developed the
foundations of Arminian theology, but before Arminius was an Arminian, he was a
Calvinist.
While
preparing to defend Calvin’s view of predestination, Arminius became convinced
that Calvin was wrong.
The
followers of Arminius summarized his views in the Remonstrance.
What were the 5 points of Arminianism?
•The
five points of the Remonstrance:
§1.
Every good human action occurs because of God’s grace; humans do nothing
righteous on their own.
§2.
God saves every person who chooses to trust Jesus.
§3.
Jesus died for everyone.
§4.
People can freely choose to accept or to reject Jesus.
§5.
Scripture does not clearly state whether Christians can forfeit their salvation.
How did the Synod of Dort respond?
•The
five points of Calvinism:
§1.
No human being naturally desires God; by nature, every person is spiritually
dead.
§2.
If someone trusts Jesus, it is because God chose to regenerate that person.
§3.
Jesus died for everyone who would trust in him.
§4.
When God regenerates someone, the person will not reject God’s grace.
§5.
Every authentic believer will persevere in faith and good works until the end.
Five Doctrines which became the basis for the Arminianism/Calvinism debate.
Arminianism Calvinism
A five point flower?
•The
five points of Calvinism can be remembered using the word TULIP:
§Total Depravity (Rom.
3:10–12; Eph. 2:1–3)
§Unconditional Election (John
6:44; Rom. 9:10–16)
§Limited Atonement (John
10:14–15, 28)
§Irresistible Grace (John
6:37, 44)
§Perseverance of the Saints (John
10:27–28; Rom. 8:29–39)
Who were the Puritans?
•In
1604, King James I
met with a group of reformers at Hampton Court
•These
reformers wanted to purify the Church of England of all practices not
found in Scripture.
•As
a result, they became known as Puritans.
How was the King James Version of the bible created?
•King
James I disliked the Puritans’ Geneva Bible because of its Calvinistic study
notes.
•When
one Puritan suggested a new Bible translation, James quickly agreed.
•King
James I gathered 54 scholars who worked 33 months on a new Bible translation.
•The
first edition of the King James Version was published in 1611.
Why did the Separatists separate?
•After
the Hampton Court Conference,
some Separatist Puritans separated completely from the Church of England.
•One
congregation fled to Holland and reorganized into two groups:
§One
group sailed to the American colonies.
§The
other group became the forebearers of a new expression of Christian
faith.
•The
group of Separatists who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to a new world became
known as the Pilgrims. How did the English Baptists begin?
•The
other group, influenced by Dutch Anabaptists,
rethought their beliefs, and became known as Baptists.
•John Smyth was
one of the Baptists’ early leaders.
•Smyth
the Separatist became convinced that Scripture commanded believers’ baptism,
not infant baptism.
•After
Smyth’s death, his friend Thomas Helwysled
the Separatist congregation home and founded England’s first Baptist Church.
•One
of the most famous early English Baptists was John Bunyan.
•His
wife’s dowry consisted of two Puritan books— nothing more.
•As
Bunyan read these Puritan books, he was converted.
•“Down
fell I,” he wrote, “as a bird shot from a tree.”
•He
was baptized in 1653 into a Baptist church.
•After
preaching without receiving permission from the Church of England, John was
imprisoned.
•In
prison, he penned his most famous book, The Pilgrim’s Progress.
•He
died in 1688, only a few months before a new ruler returned religious
toleration to England.
How did Christianity get to the New World?
•Even
before the Reformation, seafarers had tried to find alternate routes to India.
•Claiming
that his journey would fulfill Isaiah 11:11-12,
Columbus convinced a king and queen to finance his journey.
Isaiah
11:11-12
“In that day the Lord will reach
out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people....
He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will
assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.”
•In
1492 Columbus landed in the Bahamas, and later in Honduras.
•He
died, still believing he had found an eastern
route to India.
•But
from the perspective of other Europeans he
had discovered a new world.
•Spanish
and Portuguese settlers and soldiers in the Americas subdued native
populations, under pretenses of evangelizing them.
•Through
the encomienda
system, natives were “entrusted”
to Spanish settlers who forced them to work as slaves on sugar plantations.
•European
diseases and brutality destroyed so many natives that there were no longer
sufficient laborers for the sugar plantations.
•The
solution? Enslavement and importation of Africans.
•Some
settlers even claimed that, according to Genesis 9:25,
God
intended Africans to be slaves.
Genesis
9:25 “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of
slaves will he be to his brothers.”
Who were the “Priests Who Pursued Peace”?
•Two
priests, Bartolome de Las Casas and Pedro Claver,
worked to help slaves and natives.
•On
Pentecost Sunday, 1514, Bartolome repented of his ownership of an encomienda.
•From
that point, Bartolome worked unsuccessfully to convince the Spanish to stop
exploiting natives.
•“Christ
has given his life for them. … I do not know of any other people more ready to
receive the Gospel.”
•When
Pedro Claver
took his ordination vows, he declared himself “always a slave of Africans.”
•Pedro
Claver
dedicated his life to sharing the gospel with African slaves.
He died in 1654, despised and alone.
JunÃperoSerra
(1713-1784)
Founder of California
In 1767, when he was fifty-four years of
age, he was appointed to the
charge of the Missions to be established in Upper
California. He arrived at San Diego in 1769, and, with the exception of one
journey to Mexico, he spent all the remainder of his life here. He died at the
Mission [San Carlos Borromeo] of Carmel, near Monterey, on the 28th of August,
1784, aged seventy- one years.
The above post may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social justice, for the purpose of historical debate, and to advance the understanding of Christian conservative issues. It is believed that this constitutes a ”fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the Copyright Law. In accordance with the title 17 U.S. C. section 107, the material in this post is shown without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
Federal law allows citizens to reproduce, distribute and exhibit portions of copyrighted motion pictures, video taped or video discs, without authorization of the copyright holder. This infringement of copyright is called “Fair Use”, and is allowed for purposes of criticism, news, reporting, teaching, and parody. This articles is written, and any image and video (includes music used in the video) in this article are used, in compliance with this law: Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. 107.
Eschatology: The study of future prophesied events associated with the Second Coming of Jesus, the kingdom, and eternity. Literally it is the study of the “end times,” but much of the study focuses on the rapture and the tribulation, two events that happen at least 1,000 years before the “end times.”
No evangelical denies the scriptural fact that Christ will return bodily at some point in history. But the precise manner in which this will occur and the immediate results of his return have been variously debated. The questions surrounding the manner of his return have arisen in light of two groups of texts, one which talks about an imminent return (i.e., Christ could return at any moment) and one which appears to teach that certain events must be fulfilled before Christ could return.
Passages such as Matthew 24:42-40 and Luke 12:40 seems to teach that the Lord could come at any moment whereas other passages seem to affirm that before Christ returns the gospel must be preached in all the world (Matt 24:14), the great tribulation must occur (Matt 24:21), the man of lawlessness must appear (2 Thess 2:3) and “all Israel” must be saved (Rom 11:25-32). Others also talk about “signs” that must appear (Matt 24:4-14).
The Doctrine of Imminence: The word imminent means “likely to happen at any moment; impending.” When we speak of the imminence of Christ’s return, we mean that He could come back at any moment. There is nothing more in biblical prophecy that needs to happen before Jesus comes again. The imminence of Christ’s return is generally taught among evangelicals, with some disagreement according to one’s view of dispensationalism and whether one holds a pre-, mid-, or post-tribulational view of the rapture.
Jesus spoke of His return repeatedly during His ministry, which naturally prompted questions from His disciples. One of their questions was, “When will these things happen?” (Mark 13:4). Jesus responded, “Of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come” (verses 32-33). It is important to remember in any discussion of eschatology that God does not intend for us to fully understand the timing of His plans.
Jesus taught His disciples to watch for His return. “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Luke 12:40). The command to “be ready” implies imminence. Throughout the New Testament, the church is told to be ready (Philippians 3:20; Titus 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:6). If the disciples and the early church were to expect the coming of the Lord at any time, how much more should we be waiting in keen expectation?
At this point, it is good to distinguish between the second coming of Christ, proper, and the rapture of the church. The second coming of Christ, when He defeats His enemies and sets up His kingdom, will not occur until after certain other end-times events take place, including the tribulation (Matthew 24:15-30; Revelation chapters 6–18). Therefore, the second coming is not imminent. However, according to the pre-tribulational view, the rapture will take place before the tribulation. The rapture could occur at any moment (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:50-54) and can rightly be called “imminent.”
Our salvation is “ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5). Jesus could return for His own at any moment, and that event will set in motion the series of events detailed in Revelation 6-18. Like the five wise virgins in Jesus’ parable (Matthew 25:1-13), we must be ready. “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13).
Second Coming: The Parousia(Greek: coming presence, arrival) A term that refers to the events that take place around the return of Jesus to earth. These events include the rapture, the tribulation, the anti-Christ, the abomination described in Daniel 9 and 2 Thessalonians 2, the Battle of Armageddon and the physical return of Jesus to earth before the Millennium.
Millennium: A 1,000 year period where Jesus reigns over the earth. This period sees the restoration of Israel, and the fulfillment of the promises and prophecies given to Israel in the OT. Satan is bound, and the earth is inhabited by both resurrected believers as well as people who were born during the kingdom. It is described all over the book of Isaiah, but especially in Isa 24, 51, 54, 60, 65-66. It is also detailed in Ezekiel 37-48, Daniel 7, Zechariah 8, and Revelation 19-20.
The Rapture: The physical removal of the church from the earth. When Jesus comes in the clouds with the souls of believers who have already died, and they are reunited with their bodies in the air, while Christians who are still alive are physically “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”
1 Thess. 4:17 (NIV) After that, 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.
There are three main views about the timing of the rapture. Pre-tribulation, Mid-tribulation, Post-tribulation.
But remember that all three of these views only make sense inside of premillennialism. In other words, the timing of the rapture is a debate that doesn’t really make sense to post-millennialists or amillennialists.
This event closes out the church age, and is described also in:
John 14:3 (NIV) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
1 Corinthians 15:51-53 (NIV) Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
Post-millennialism:The belief that the Second Coming occurs after the millennium.
Pre-millennialism: The belief that the Second Coming occurs before the millennium.
The Anti-Christ: The religious world leader who is opposed to the gospel, while claiming to be here in Christ’s name. Through history,the Pope has been seen to hold this title, while leaving room for a final anti-Christ to come during the tribulation, and lead the final assault on Israel ,1 John 2:18). 1 John 2:18 (NKJV)
18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
And
2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 (NKJV)
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless oneis according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The abomination of desolation: The time described in Daniel 9 where the anti-Christ reveals himself in the middle of the seven-year tribulation. Daniel refers to this event as coming on “the wing of abominations” with the point of making the temple “desolate” .
Daniel 9:27 (NIV) He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”
Jesus takes that phrase and shortens it to “the abomination of desolation” Matthew 24:15 (NIV) “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—
The Tribulation:The final period of this age, before the kingdom. It is a period marked by the wrath of the anti-Christ poured out in the world, as well as by the wrath of God seen through the breaking of the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls described in Revelation. Daniel 9 describes it as a period lasting seven years. Jesus describes it as a time of “great sufferingunlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world” .
Matthew 24:21 (NIV)
For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
Postmillennialism: The doctrine which affirms that through the work of the Spirit in Christian preaching and teaching in the present time of the church (before the second advent) the world at large will eventually be evangelized and won to Christ.
This will turn out in a world characterized by universal peace instead of strife, universal prosperity instead of inequality, godliness instead of evil, and so on, though the time period may be more or less than a thousand years (since, according to some postmillennial interpreters, the 1000 years of Revelation 20:4-7 can be taken symbolically for an indefinite period of time) and evil will still be present to some limited degree.
Thus there is a focus in postmillennarian thought on the present aspects of the kingdom of God with the result that through Christian influence many economic, educational and social ills will be resolved.
Postmillennialism expects the proclaiming of the Spirit-blessed gospel of Jesus Christ to win the vast majority of human beings to salvation in the present age.
Increasing gospel success will gradually produce a time in history prior to Christ’s return in which faith, righteousness, peace, and prosperity will prevail in the affairs of people and nations. After an extensive era of such conditions the Lord will return visibly, bodily, and in great glory, ending history with a general resurrection and the great judgment of all humankind.
The system’s inability to deal with certain important texts (and themes) which characterize the age of the church as one of suffering and which also demonstrate that the church’s hope is not in an age of righteousness coming apart from the literal presence of Christ, raises serious doubts about the correctness of the view.
Since the church has come 2000 years and still sees no evidence of a postmillennial movement in history, one has cause to wonder about this interpretation of Scripture.
Revelation 20:4-6(NIV) ……And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.)……… but they will be priests of God
and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
Amillennialism: The belief that that millennium is not an actual time period, but rather that scripture’s descriptions of that time period should be interpreted as being fulfilled in this age, and often spiritually. In other words, there is no millennium, and the kingdom of God on earth is now.
The amillennialist believes that the Kingdom of God was inaugurated at Christ's resurrection at which point he gained victory over both Satan and the Curse. Christ is even now reigning at the right hand of the Father over His church. After this present age has ended, Christ will return and immediately usher the church into their eternal state after judging the wicked.
The amillennialist's hermeneutic interpret much of apocalyptic literature as non-literally. While other views focus on the final days of humankind on earth, amillennialism sees "the last things" as having been initiated at Christ's resurrection and so, being applicable from the earliest days of the Christian church.
The amillennialist perspective sees the whole of God's redemptive revelation as twofold - promise and fulfillment; it also emphasizes that a strict-literal interpretation of Old Testament is not necessarily the most accurate way of determining what the text means.
The amillennial perspective emphasizes that the coming of the Kingdom of God is a two-part event. The first portion dawned at Christ's first advent (John the Baptist proclaimed at this time, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand“). At the cross, Christ won final victory over death and Satan. And then He ascended to reign upon the throne of David forever.
Now because we "look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18) — because of this, the amillennialist sees the final things already accomplished, though not yet seen by sight, but by faith.
An important note is the amilleniallist's view of the church in this world: a role of suffering. The Christian will be hated by all, just as was Christ (Matthew 10:22), for a servant is not greater than his master. Seeing this as the church's role on earth — to suffer as did Christ — the amillenialist can hold no hope for an earthly exaltation and longs for the fulfillment of the second stage of the coming of the Kingdom.
This second stage of the amillennial perspective is the final consummation of all the heavenly promises. The Christian will no longer see by faith alone, but by sight. All the shadowy things will pass away and our eternal reign with Christ will begin. The amillennialist, expecting no earthly glory for the church, places all his hope on this heavenly glory.
Preterism: According to preterism, all prophecy in the Bible is really history. The preterist interpretation of Scripture regards the book of Revelation as a symbolic picture of first-century conflicts, not a description of what will occur in the end times. The term preterism comes from the Latin praeter, meaning “past.” Thus, preterism is the view that the biblical prophecies concerning the “end times” have already been fulfilled—in the past. Preterism is directly opposed to futurism, which sees the end-times prophecies as having a still-future fulfillment.
Preterism denies the future prophetic quality of the book of Revelation. The preterist movement essentially teaches that all the end-times prophecies of the New Testament were fulfilled in AD 70 when the Romans attacked and destroyed Jerusalem. Preterism teaches that every event normally associated with the end times—Christ’s second coming, the tribulation, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment—has already happened. (In the case of the final judgment, it still in the process of being fulfilled.) Jesus’ return to earth was a “spiritual” return, not a physical one.
Preterism teaches that the Law was fulfilled in AD 70 and God’s covenant with Israel was ended. The “new heavens and new earth” spoken of in Revelation 21:1 is, to the preterist, a description of the world under the New Covenant. Just as a Christian is made a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17), so the world under the New Covenant is a “new earth.” This aspect of preterism can easily lead to a belief in replacement theology.
Preterists usually point to a passage in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse to bolster their argument. After Jesus describes some of the end-times happenings, He says, “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened” (Matthew 24:34). The preterist takes this to mean that everything Jesus speaks of in Matthew 24 had to have occurred within one generation of His speaking—the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 was therefore “Judgment Day.”
The problems with preterism are many. For one thing, God’s covenant with Israel is everlasting (Jeremiah 31:33–36), and there will be a future restoration of Israel (Isaiah 11:12). The apostle Paul warned against those who, like Hymenaeus and Philetus, teach falsely “that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some” (2 Timothy 2:17–18). And Jesus’ mention of “this generation” should be taken to mean the generation that is alive to see the beginning of the events described in Matthew 24.
Eschatology is a complex subject, and the Bible’s use of apocalyptic imagery to relate many prophecies has led to a variety of interpretations of end-time events. There is room for some disagreement within Christianity regarding these things. However, full preterism has some serious flaws in that it denies the physical reality of Christ’s second coming and downplays the dreadful nature of the tribulation by restricting that event to the fall of Jerusalem.
Dispensational premillennialists: Holds that Christ will come before a seven-year period of intense tribulation to take His church (living and dead) into heaven.
After this period of fulfillment of divine wrath, He shall then return to rule from a holy city (i.e., the New Jerusalem) over the earthly nations for one thousand years.
After these thousand years, Satan, who was bound up during Christ's earthly reign, will be loosed to deceive the nations, gather an army of the deceived, and take up to battle against the Lord.
This battle will end in both the judgment of the wicked and Satan and the entrance into the eternal state of glory by the righteous.
This view is called premillenialism because it places the return of Christ before the millennium and it is called dispensational because it is founded in the doctrines of dispensationalism.
Favored method of interpretation: grammatical historic
Israel and the church: views church and Israel as two distinct identities with two individual redemptive plans.
The rapture of the Church: The church is raptured before a seven-year tribulation (the seventieth week of Daniel - Daniel 9:24-27). This tribulational period contains the reign of the AntiChrist.
Millennium: Christ will return at the end of the great tribulation to institute a thousand-year rule from a holy city (the New Jerusalem). Those who come to believe in Christ during the seventieth week of Daniel (including the 144,000 Jews) and survive will go on to populate the earth during this time. Those who were raptured or raised previous to the tribulational period will reign with Christ over the millennial population.
–Higher degrees of interpreting present-day events in the light of end-times prophecy.
–From the millennium-ending "white throne" judgment (by which Satan and all unbelievers will be thrown into the lake of fire) Christ and all saints will proceed into eternal glory.
A strictly literal hermaneutic is foundational to the dispensational premillenialist viewpoint. Interpreting Scripture in this manner will in fact demand such perspectives unique to dispensationalism as: an earthly kingdom of God from which Christ will reign a future redemptive plan for national Israel a seven year period of great tribulation the rejection of prophetic idiom .
Dispensational premillennialism holds that a seven-year tribulation (forseen in Daniel 9:27) will precede a thousand-year period (Revelation 20:1-6) during which time, Christ will reign on the throne of David (Luke 1:32).
Immediately previous to the time of great tribulation, all the dead saints will rise from their graves and all the living members of the church shall be caught up with them to meet Christ in the clouds (1 Corinthians 15:51-52;1 Thessalonians 4:15-17); this is known as “the rapture.”
During this time of tribulation, there will be three-and-a-half years of world peace under an AntiChrist figure (Daniel 7:8; Revelation 13:1-8) who will establish a world-church (Revelation 17:1-15), followed by three-and-a-half years of greater suffering (Revelation 6-18).
At this time, the millennial reign will begin and Christ will reign politically over the earth at this time from His capital in Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3). Throughout His reign, there will be no war (Isaiah 2:4) and even the natures of animals will dwell in harmony (Isaiah 11:6-9). At the end of this era of peace, Satan will be released and instigate a colossal (but futile) rebellion against God (Revelation 20:7-9).
After this fated battle, Satan and the wicked are cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10), while the righteous proceed into their eternal state in the realm of the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1ff).
The above post may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social justice, for the purpose of historical debate, and to advance the understanding of Christian conservative issues. It is believed that this constitutes a ”fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the Copyright Law. In accordance with the title 17 U.S. C. section 107, the material in this post is shown without profit to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
Federal law allows citizens to reproduce, distribute and exhibit portions of copyrighted motion pictures, video taped or video discs, without authorization of the copyright holder. This infringement of copyright is called “Fair Use”, and is allowed for purposes of criticism, news, reporting, teaching, and parody. This articles is written, and any image and video (includes music used in the video) in this article are used, in compliance with this law: Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. 107.
•These
reformers wanted to purify the Church of England of all practices not
found in Scripture.
charge of the Missions to be established in Upper
California. He arrived at San Diego in 1769, and, with the exception of one
journey to Mexico, he spent all the remainder of his life here. He died at the
Mission [San Carlos Borromeo] of Carmel, near Monterey, on the 28th of August,
1784, aged seventy- one years. 
