Original Covenanter Eschatology: Historicist and Postmillennial

Changing Eschatology in the RPCNA (Part 1)

By Robert Kelbe - Posted at Gentle Reformation

This is the first in a two-part series on the change in eschatology within the RPCNA. The first part will explore the postmillenialism prevalent until the middle of the 20th century. The second part will explore the change to amillenialism under the influence of J. G. Vos and the Blue Banner.

Introduction: The 1807 Testimony

In 1807, the Reformed Presbyterian Church, now the RPCNA, published its first Testimony called Reformation Principles Exhibited which had been approved by the Presbytery the year before. Roughly following the chapter divisions of the Westminster Confession of Faith, this original testimony of the RPCNA adds a final chapter on “Testimony-Bearing”. The last paragraph of that last chapter states that
The church may not recede from a more clear and particular testimony to a more general and evasive one but the witnesses must proceed in finishing their testimony rendering it more pointed and complete until God shall according to his promise overthrow the empire of darkness and introduce the millennial state in which the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.[1]

The reference to “the millennial state” is a reference to the standard postmillennial Covenanter eschatology which was dominant in the RPCNA until after the Second World War. According to postmillennialism, Christ comes after the “thousand years” of Revelation 20 during which Satan would be bound. This paper will trace the change from a postmillennial to an amillennial consensus in the RPCNA under the influence of J. G. Vos as the editor of The Blue Banner from 1946 to 1979, culminating in a new 1980 Testimony which, in its statement on eschatology, receded from a more clear and particular testimony to a more general and evasive one.

Continue here...

Comments

The Testimony of Thomas Stoddart Executed in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket on 12 August, 1685

Posted at Jardine's Book of Martyrs : Thomas Stoddart was executed in the Grassmarket on 12 August, 1685. Matthew Bryce , David Law and Gavin Russell were hanged alongside him. ‘Men, Brethren, And Fathers, Hearken,—I being to take my farewell of the world, I leave this my dying testimony, according to the form of the Christians of old; I having like the same ground for it that he had who used that word; that was Stephen; who was condemned, because he spoke blasphemous words against the law and the temple. So, because I will not adhere to, nor approve of their laws, which now have power in their hands, they condemned me to die, though they could not witness so much against me for speaking against them, and they never essayed to prove the sentence upon me, which now I shall study in a word to give you an account of. And first, I received my sentence of banishment, and then notwithstanding of that I was committed to the justices to abide the assize, and they passed upon me th

Scottish Covenanters Index

Editor's Note: I am pleasantly surprised to discover this index page for "Scottish Covenanters" at ancestry.com . I hope you will find it helpful. For Christ's Crown & Covenant, Angela Somers-Wittman Posted at ancestry: About Scottish Covenanters Index In the 17th century conflict arose between Church and State in Scotland. Those who remained steadfast in their Presbyterian beliefs and refused to take an oath to the king saying that he was the head of the church became known as Covenanters. They believed that Christ was the head of the church and were punished for this belief. Many were forced to pay the ultimate price for this by laying down their lives. The Royalists and Dragoons, who were seeking their lives, chased the Covenanters from glen to glen, especially in the Lowlands. If anyone was found hiding them, they suffered imprisonment and/or death as well. This punishment was not just reserved for the strong and healthy -- children and the eld

Scottish Covenanters: 'THE PRINCIPLES FOR WHICH THEY CONTENDED'

Posted at Log College Press: Reformed Presbyterian minister David McAllister’s Poets and Poetry of the Covenant is a worthy homage to the heroic faith of the Scottish Covenanters in verse, which we have highlighted on this blog previously, but its prose introduction should not be overlooked. It is a helpful overview of what the Covenanters stood for, and what inspired so many powerful poetic tributes. Let us briefly sketch the leading principles for which the heroes and martyrs of these songs of the Covenant contended: I. The supreme authority of God's Word in all the relations of human life. In the church, as one of their own number said, "they took their pattern, not from Rome, not even from Geneva, but from the blessed Word of God." They held that the state was bound to regulate all its affairs by the same law of ultimate authority. The Bible was to them a national as well as an ecclesiastical law-book. Kings and noblemen and lowlier citizens were all under its

Covenanters and Slavery - Part One: RPCNA - Abolitionists

By Angela Wittman While researching the history of the (RPCNA) Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and abolition of slavery, I found these excerpts from on-line resources which report the RPCNA's history of the abolition of slavery officially began in the year 1800: Perhaps the most enduring change during the 19th century involved participation in social reform movements. One cause favored by the denomination was the abolition of slavery , beginning officially in 1800, when members were prohibited from slave owning and from the slave trade. Enthusiastically supported by most members, the denomination took a strong stance against the Confederacy and faithfully supported the North in the Civil War , as Reformed Presbyterians enlisted to fight against the "slaveholders' rebellion." Abolition was a major factor in the decline of the denomination's South Carolina and Tennessee congregations: most members there, finding it hard to be abolitionists in

For Christ's Crown & Covenant!

Search This Blog