Book Review: Models of Premillennialism

My review of Sung Wook Chung's and David Mathewson's Models of Premillennialism (2018, Cascade Books) has been published in Conspectus 28 (September 2019). The review includes a summary and critique of the book. Here is an excerpt:

Chung and Mathewson have produced a digestible review of premillennial eschatologies put forward since the second century, showing how each one developed and what its unique characteristics are. By restricting their scope to premillennialism, the authors avoided inundating the reader with too much information which is readily available elsewhere. I was particularly glad to discover that the majority view of evangelical theologians is premillennialism, where the impression I had was that it was a minority view among them (even if is evidently popular in the camp of dispensational laymen.) Even so, Chung and Mathewson are not polemical in their presentation, nor do they seek to persuade the reader to adopt any eschatological position.

The review is freely available here: https://www.sats.edu.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Conspectus-28-11-Woods.pdf.

Macina on the Messianic Reign

Over the past few year I have started to revisit various theories regarding the end times, especially from the perspective of some leading Messianic Jews. Last week I discovered a profound paper on belief in the Messianic era (the reign of Messiah on this earth) in both Jewish and Christian (especially Catholic) teaching: is it a "common legacy" or a "millenial heresy"? The author, Menahem Macina, has published scores of papers, mostly in French, and mostly relating in some way to the Jewish people.

The paper that caught my attention was "The Belief in a Messianic Reign on earth: common legacy for Jews and Christians alike, or millenarian heresy?" I won't summarise it here, except to say that it presents a tactful challenge to Christians who reject the notion of a literal future reign of Christ from the throne of David in Jerusalem for a very long period ("a thousand years" in biblical language). In particular, Macina calls for the Roman Catholic Church, in this post-Vatican II period, to reconsider millennial doctrine, arguing that both Jewish tradition and very early (second century) Church Fathers supported it. The oldest case in which this is clearly portrayed in Christian literature is found in the writings of Irenaeus, Against Heresies, who insisted that the teaching of a millennial reign was faithfully passed down by the presbyters from the apostles and even Christ himself.

I no longer see the study of the age to come as an optional component of Christian or Messianic faith; the heart of the gospel is the coming of God's Kingdom, and the fullness of that kingdom is something that lies in the future, something that I long to see - God's righteousness established and maintained throughout the earth. For me, Macina's paper makes that vision clearer and more certain. It's definitely worth a read.