Pilgrim wrote:<br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]I will admit I do have a strong distaste for cultic views which are detrimental to the historic faith.</font><hr></blockquote><p><br><br>So do I but I would not classify anymillennial view held by Christians as "cultic" and I suspect, neither would Dr. Venema either. Perhaps you ought to re-read his book, for I am told that it is a very irenic work and thus, I would assume that he would not classify my postmillennialism as being "cultic".<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"][quote]But I suppose you would say that Cornelius Venema, for example, is simply totally confused and ignorant of history in this matter<br>Given your ridiculous statement about Dispensationalism predating Amillennialism and knowing how Venema documents carefully the TRUE history of the Amillennial and Postmillennial views, it is a reasonable conclusion on my part that you would also criticize him as one who is totally ignorant of history, etc... </font><hr></blockquote><p><br><br>No it is a very unreasonable conclusion for you to impute to me what I had not even said nor implied. But I did cite supporting evidence for my opinion on the history of Amillennialism. It is far from ridiculous because it is even conceded by some Amillennial theologians themselves. <br><br>DPM began in the early 19th century. Amillennialism as a distinctive system began in the late 19th century and was not even labelled as such until the early 20th century. OTOH postmillennialism has a much older history going back to Augustine, Calvin and the English Puritans. But because Amillennialism overlaps with postmillennialism, it is assumed that the former is older than the latter. In reality, Amillennialism is simply a backslidden form of postmillennialism. This is demonstrated for example by comparing the postmillennialism of 19th century Princeton Seminary up until the time of Vos, the great Dutch reformed theologian who introduced Amillennialism there in the early 20th century (in reaction to Warfield's postmill views). Kuyper and Bavinck were other contemporaries of Vos and who were Amillennial. All Dutch men. Now its interesting that Berkhof mentions that the 17th century Dutch reformed Christians were all postmillennial. (p. 716 Systematic Theology). So this eschatological backslidding can also been seen in the reformed churches in Holland too. <br><br>The article I previously cited (Amillennial History) explains this in more detail. <br><br>Now I might be able to concede that Amillennialism is older that DPM from the older writings of Roman Catholics and Lutherans who were all Amillennial, but I prefer to speak in the context of reformed Church history.<br><br>Colin <br>
