Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: tom@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM (Tom Albrecht) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Catholics and Protestants on justification Message-ID: Date: 27 Oct 89 07:28:37 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Unisys Corporation, Devon, PA Lines: 47 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu OFM has written: > [Like many other Christians, I have a problem with the idea that from > the foundation of the universe God intended most people to be damned. ... Let me just make the observation that this idea presupposes that the end of the world is very near, and that the church will continue to be less than effective in evangelizing the nations. While I don't know what the total number of persons that have ever lived is, I think its fair to say that a considerable percentage of them are alive today. I might suggest that more effective work by the church could, in fact, turn the numbers around. And, God willing, we could see the kingdom of God spread out as a tree covering the whole earth (Matt. 13:32). But that's just my postmillenial optimism talking. [PS added later --clh] I just wanted to point out that many (most) of the Reformed/Calvinistic theologians of the 18 & 19th cent. in America were postmillenialists. Folks like Hodge and Warfield at Princeton, as well as Dabney and Thornwell in the Southern Presbyerian Church, and the Baptist, A.H. Strong. I'm not sure how things were in England or on the continent, but wasn't Spurgeon postmillenial? -- Tom Albrecht [This may come as a shock to some of you, but many Christians don't know what the terms premillennial, postmillennial, etc., mean. From my handy-dandy theological dictionary: "Millennialism refers generally to the belief in the thousand-year period (millennium) in which the Kingdom of God is to flourish and proper. Millennialists tend to fall into camps: (1) those who believe that the millennium will follow the parousia or "second coming" of Christ (premillennialism); (2) those who believe that the millennium will precede the parousia of Christ (postmillennialism). .. Generally premillennialists believe that shortly before the second coming the world will be marked by extraordinary tribulation and evil ... [Then Christ comes, and reigns over the 1000 year period of peace and order. Then Satan is loosed for a brief period. Then the final judgement. --clh] ... Postmillennialists generally have taught that the millennium will precede the parousia of Christ. There will be a golden age of the reign of the Church on earth that will be followed by a conflict between good and evil and the coming of Christ." --clh]