Journal: Conservative Theological Journal
Volume: CTJ 05:16 (Dec 2001)
Article: The Amillennialism of Edward J. Young
Author: Mal Couch

CTJ 5:16 (December 2001) p. 300

The Amillennialism of Edward J. Young

Mal Couch

President & Professor of Theology & Languages
Tyndale Theological Seminary, Ft. Worth, TX

Following my graduation from Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M., 1964) I had the blessed privilege of getting to know Dr. Edward J. Young (1907–1968). I had become an editor with Moody Monthly magazine and had asked him to write several articles for publication. Dr. Young was most gracious. He was both a gentleman and an outstanding Old Testament scholar.

Trained at Princeton Seminary, he joined the faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, and was the school’s hallmark academician in Hebrew studies. Throughout the Evangelical Christian world he was best known for his classic work on the doctrine of inerrancy, Thy Word is Truth (Eerdmans, 1957). As well, he did a significant 3 volume critical commentary on the book of Isaiah (Eerdmans, 1965 but reprinted in 1996). In both of these works, Dr. Young answered with thorough academic scholarship, the liberal stance against the validity of Scripture. We will all be forever indebted to him for his devotion to the Lord and to His Word.

As a young pup premillennial and dispensational theologian, I had guts! I had an opportunity to challenge him in person about his amillennialism, and I took it! With fear and trembling, and in awe of his scholarship, I pressed him on his Calvinistic Reformed views on issues dealing with the rapture, the tribulation, and the second coming of Christ. Though he was most gracious and kind in his answers, I saw him change his demeanor when I asked a very key question: “How can you take the first coming of Christ literally, but take His second coming in an allegorical, non-literal way?”

CTJ 5:16 (December 2001) p. 301

Dr. Young became flustered and red-faced. Though he was a quiet man in the way he spoke and expressed himself, he became stymied and could give me no logical answer. I realized the Achilles’ heel of the Reformed theologians. While they claim an overall literal interpretation of Scripture, they really do not practice this at all. They change their hermeneutics in the middle of the stream for theological reasons. But in doing so, they violate the integrity of the Word of God!

If the Lord’s first coming is literal, so would be His second coming. This is so clearly stated in Hebrews 9:28, and many hundreds of other Scriptures throughout the Bible. Hebrews reads, “So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”

Dr. Young ...