Journal: Conservative Theological Journal
Volume: CTJ 06:17 (Mar 2002)
Article: The Scourge of Amillennialism and Liberalism
Author: Mal Couch

CTJ 6:17 (March 2002) p. 6

The Scourge of Amillennialism and Liberalism

Mal Couch

President, Tyndale Seminary

The slow but steady move of many Christian seminaries toward Progressive Dispensationalism is leading these institutions into amillennialism, and that, in turn, will someday draw them toward outright liberalism. It is the proverbial frog in the pan phenomenon: the tenacious build up of heat in the pan will shortly kill the frog.

I recently had a heated conversation with a seminary student at a Christian bookstore, (though not over Progressive Dispensationalism), that proves my point in a general way.

Noticing a nice looking young man in his early thirties studying Greek in the coffee shop of the store, I sauntered up and began asking questions. He stopped his studies and politely responded to my inquiries. He said he was a Ph.D. student at the George W. Truett Divinity School at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He was the son of a Reformed pastor. He admittedly attended a liberal Reformed school for his BA, and then went to Duke Divinity School, that he confessed is also a liberal Methodist institution, where he received his masters degree in biblical studies. He quickly added that Truett was also more liberal than most Baptists would admit.

In our discussions, that so far had remained calm and polite, I led him into issues that are presently important to the world of Christianity. Our conversation would soon change in tone!

I pressed him on the subject of interpretation and inquired how the Bible should be expounded. He noted that we should all simply join hands around love, and that the Church should unite on this principle. He further answered that his hermeneutics (though he did not use that word) are based on (1) the Bible, (2) tradition, (3) history, and finally (4) on our own experience!

I rebutted by saying that I was a dirty rotten, filthy (!) dispensationalist and premillennialist and felt that interpretation

CTJ 6:17 (March 2002) p. 7

should be based on a solid, sound, consistent hermeneutic that opened up the biblical text. I proceeded to show that in his epistles, the apostle John says that our unity should be based on both truth and love and not simply love.

As we talked I realized this doctoral student attending liberal Baylor, was completely unfamiliar with the following words: hermeneutics, rapture, dispensationalism, premillennialism, preterism. He was out of the loop in reference to theological and biblical terminology.

Since this bookstore carried my books, I led him over to the shelves and showed him some of the things I had written. At first he was impressed...