In the first part, I tried to lay the background of my journey on the table. In this section, I going to reveal the framework that I needed to start putting the pieces together. The last post ended with the word dispensationalism. This post will begin with the word eschatology.
Eschatology is the study of the redemptive history of God from Genesis to Revelations. Most people think that eschatology is all about end times, if they know the word at all. But like any story, you can't have an end without having a beginning and a middle. Dispensationalism was the Eschatological system espoused by John MacArthur. It has a lot of momentum in the church, particularly from Tim LaHaye and his Left Behind series. But it asks a lot of a scientist, too much. I knew I didn't like it, but I didn't know why. I heard Tim LaHaye speak about three years ago and I was struck about how defensive he was toward his positions on eschatology. He was talking to a roomful of his fans, and yet he was busy defending his view from an unseen detractor. I needed to know who this unseen antagonist was, and what was he saying that so upset LaHaye.
It was OK that I was upset by the Gospel. I had already learned that the Gospel was offensive to man, external to him. But I was really surprised to see Tim LaHaye so spooked by some unmentioned theologians. My answers came from out in left field. I don't believe in karma or fortune. But I do believe that the Holy Spirit works to reveal the gospel to the elect. My son graduated from high school two years ago. His godfather, who he had not seen maybe ever, sent him a graduation gift. The gift was a study bible and the recommendation of a radio program in Austin, where my son was to matriculate in the fall. As any good parent, I decided I needed to know what was recommended to my child. I found the website that was affiliated with the show and looked into it. There were a series of podcasts for first time visitors. I listened.
It is an amazing thing when the pieces start to fall into place. I learned how the Calvinism framework worked. I learned about a new (to me) eschatology system called Amillennialism and how it dovetailed with a systematic theology called Covenant Theology. I now had to reread everything. Everything had to be redigested in this new context. I had found new teachers.
The moment of revelation where you know that you have found guys who have the information that you want is tremendous. The URL for that website is the top link on the right when I'm not under the bridge. I have been learning at a rapid pace since. But there was still the question of Genesis. I was OK with Genesis 3 and 15, but the rest of the book was still problematic. I decided to go listen to a couple of the guys on the White Horse Inn speak. I was listening to Mike Horton talk about his 2009 book. I decided to ask him about Genesis 1 and 2. I don't even remember how I made the question relevant to the discussion. He taught me another term: Framework theory.
Now my personal theological framework was complete. I had Covenant Theology, Calvinism, Amillennialism, the Five Solas of the Reformation and now framework theory. In the final post of this series, I'll lay out these terms and talk about their interconnection.
--Ogre--
No comments:
Post a Comment