Postmillennial Thought And Marxism: Theology Of False Optimism -- By: David Q. Santos
Journal: Journal of Dispensational Theology
Volume: JODT 15:46 (Dec 2011)
Article: Postmillennial Thought And Marxism: Theology Of False Optimism
Author: David Q. Santos
JODT 15:46 (December 2011) p. 21
Postmillennial Thought And Marxism: Theology Of False Optimism
David Q. Santos, pastor, Mid Valley Baptist Church, Durham, California; and, graduate student, Tyndale Theological Seminary
Calvin wrote with regard to man’s innate awareness of God.1 Other scholars recognize this same innate awareness of God that is found in all men. One such scholar, Carl F. H. Henry, expanded on this simple truth by writing, “The awareness of God rooted in conceptual knowledge carries over into the whole of life.”2 Consequently, in Henry’s opinion, the awareness of God goes beyond simple knowledge. He explained that the awareness actually impacts life.
Henry added the importance of this knowledge of God: “The knowledge of God innately written on the nature of man is moral as well as rational.”3 The statement means that the knowledge of God has an impact on one’s moral behavior in addition to intellect. While man’s sin nature dominates his life, there is a moral conscience motivated by an awareness of his Creator and that Creator’s perfect moral nature. Obscured by the sin nature is a desire to know God and to live in His perfect original creation.
The Perfect Creation
The Bible teaches that God provided a utopian world in the creation (Gen 2). The original world reflected the perfection of God and was the world in which God desired man to exist. God’s perfect creation was without sin and without death. Unfortunately, the perfect creation was lost through one man’s sin (Rom 5:12). The Bible also teaches that God will, in the future, restore the creation (Rom 8:21-23) and bring into existence a perfect society, a kingdom on earth (Rev 11:15). In that kingdom, Jesus Christ will rule and reign from His throne (Rev 3:21) with a rod of iron (Ps 2:9; Rev 19:15). Scripture does not reveal when the restoration will occur or when
JODT 15:46 (December 2011) p. 22
the kingdom will be established; it only reveals that it will occur when the Father chooses, and that He alone knows when that will be (Matt 2:36; Mark 13:32).
Both prior to the time of Christ’s ministry and since His ascension from earth to Heaven (<...
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