John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, ed. Christ’s Prophetic Plans: A Futuristic Premillennial Primer. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2012.
I would like to thank Moody Publishers for my review copy of this book. See here for Moody’s page about the book.
Christ’s Prophetic Plans is an explanation and a defense of
futuristic premillennialism, the pretribulational rapture, and classical
dispensationalism. Futuristic premillennialism is the notion that
Jesus Christ will come back to earth in the future and will rule the
world for one thousand years. Prior to Christ’s second coming,
according to futuristic premillennialism, there will be a Great
Tribulation that will befall the world. The pretribulational rapture is
the idea that God will take Christians to heaven (as well as resurrect
past saints) before this Tribulation occurs. Classical
dispensationalism states that God is still committed to the nation of
Israel, and it interprets the Old Testament promises to Israel literally
rather than spiritualizing them out of a belief that the church has
replaced Israel as God’s chosen people (replacement theology). For
classical dispensationalists, Israel continues to be God’s chosen
nation. (Note: I use the term “Old Testament” rather than Hebrew Bible
in this review because the authors of Christ’s Prophetic Plans regard the Hebrew Bible as an Old Testament.)
This book contains contributions by John MacArthur, Richard Mayhue,
Michael Vlach, Nathan Busenitz, and Matthew Waymeyer, all of whom are
associated with the Master’s Seminary. The contributions by MacArthur,
Vlach, and Waymeyer are very lucid and well-argued. Mayhue’s writing is
rather complex and elliptical in areas, and yet his defense of the
pretribulational rapture is quite thought-provoking, and it avoids
(perhaps even repudiates) some of the weak defenses of the
pretribulational rapture that I have encountered over the years (i.e.,
Matthew 24:40-41 concerns the pretribulational rapture, or Christ’s
coming as a thief in the night indicates a pretribulational rapture).
Busenitz’s chapter might be useful to scholars in the field of the
History of Biblical Interpretation or Church History, for it quotes
church fathers who believed in a literal, future millennial reign of
Christ, as well as offered reasons that much of the church departed from
futuristic premillennialism in favor of amillennialism, the idea that
the millennium in Revelation 20 refers to Christ’s present spiritual
reign (which commenced after Jesus’ resurrection) rather than a future
earthly reign.
Overall, I found the book’s defense of futuristic premillennialism
and classical dispensationalism to be effective. Against
amillennialists who argue that the millennium of Revelation 20 is
Christ’s present spiritual reign and that (in accordance with Revelation
20:2-3) Satan is currently limited in terms of his ability to deceive
the world, more than one contributor referred to New Testament passages
indicating that Satan has been active in the world even after Christ’s
resurrection. The book also appealed to New Testament passages in
arguing that God is still committed to Israel. John MacArthur even
contended that Calvinists especially should believe in God’s commitment
to Israel, since God has elected Israel, and Calvinists often regard
God’s election as unconditional and lasting. MacArthur offers reasons
that a number of Calvinists have instead embraced replacement theology
and a non-literal interpretation of parts of the Old Testament.
I did not find all of the book’s arguments to be convincing,
however. The book purported to support a literal hermeneutic of
Scripture, yet there were times when I thought that it failed to take
the text at face value due to its commitment to biblical inerrancy.
Mayhue, for instance, said that the church of Philadelphia in Revelation
3 refers to a first century church and also an end-time church, and the
reason is probably that Mayhue wants to use Revelation 3:10 as a
proof-text for the pre-tribulational rapture, and he cannot do so if
Revelation 3:10 applies only to the first century church in
Philadelphia. Consequently, he embraces a notion that Revelation 3:10
has a first century and an end-time fulfillment, when Revelation 3:10
could simply have been an expectation of what would happen in the first
century. Similarly, on page 99, Mayhue says that God often warned God’s
people in the past about a judgment that they would not experience in
order to encourage them to repent. I think that this is Mayhue’s
attempt to account for imminent eschatology: the idea that God will soon
exact judgment and set up a paradise. This idea appears in prophecies
in the Hebrew Bible and also in the New Testament, but the eschaton did
not materialize in the past, and this can pose a problem to those who
regard the Bible as the inerrant word of God. In my opinion, not only
does Mayhue deal with this problem inadequately, but he also skirts the literal meaning of the biblical text.
In addition, there were times when I wished that the book went more
deeply into certain issues. For example, there was a chart near the
beginning of the book that explained futuristic premillennialism, and it
distinguished among the Judgment Seat of Christ that Paul mentions,
God’s judgment of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:31-46, and the
White Throne Judgment in Revelation 20:11-15, asserting that these are
three separate judgments. I was hoping to read a discussion about the
judgment of the sheep and the goats later in the book, but I was
disappointed.
On page 43, Vlach quotes the dispensationalist Scofield Reference Bible,
which states regarding John 1:17 that “The point of testing is no
longer legal obedience as the condition of salvation, but acceptance or
rejection of Christ, with good works as a fruit of salvation.” Vlach is
arguing against the idea that dispensationalists teach that there have
been multiple paths to salvation—-that the Old Testament held to
salvation by obedience to the law, whereas people today are saved by
grace through faith in Christ. Vlach refers to dispensationalist
statements that even people in Old Testament times were saved by grace,
but, unfortunately, he does not explain what that passage in the Scofield Reference Bible
meant in implying that legal obedience was once a “condition of
salvation.” Instead, Vlach quotes Charles Ryrie’s statement that
earlier dispensationalists made “unguarded statements that would have
been more carefully worded if they were being made in the light of
today’s debate” (Ryrie’s words). I wish that Vlach had explained how
dispensationalists believe that salvation occurred in Old Testament
times, and what role (if any) the law played.
I also wish that the book went into more detail about the
significance of Israel’s establishment as a nation in 1948. The book
mentions that event, but I was curious as to whether the book’s
contributors believe it fulfilled the prophecies in the Old Testament
about Israel’s restoration. Many of the glorious occurrences that are
associated with Israel’s restoration within the prophecies of the Hebrew
Bible did not occur in 1948. I wonder about how the contributors to Christ’s Prophetic Plans would address that.
Overall, however, I found this book to be interesting and informative.