End Times and Doctrinal Statements

I posted this at my friends blog here www.upwardaffections.blogspot.com

Most people i know (who are Reformed) have an experience that is very similiar to mine (so i will share)...In the words of R.C. Sproul, no one is born a Calvinist. We are born Palagians or at best, Semi-Pelagians. When God opens our hearts to recieve the gospel obv. our theology is normally very incomplete. We understand the essentials of the gospel but normally not a whole lot more. Hopefully, we find ourselves in a good Bible church and through this and our own personal studies we grow in understanding. In reading through the Old and New Testaments people will encounter lots of 'Calvinistic words' like predestined, foreknowledge, etc. At some point we ask ourselves the difficult questions: I know i was saved by grace through faith alone but how does election fit into this picture. Did I choose God or did He choose me or is it a combo of both? Who should get the credit for my salvation? Are we capable of cooperating with God's grace?

Many of us realize that salvation is really all of God (esp. once we understand biblical depravity). In time, someone introduces us to the works of "Reformed" writers like Hodge, Calvin, the Puritans, etc. We are convinced that the doctrines of grace are Scripturally sound and we have a new badge. We are no longer just Christians we are now Reformed Evangelicals.

In college i realized that when people say they are "Reformed" that it doesn't mean the same thing to every person. Some say if you are not "Covenantal" then you are not truly Reformed. Inevitably this opens up a whole new field of study. What is the relationship between the New and Old Testaments? What method of hermeneutics is most accurate? What about the OT Law? And of course end times (Eschatology) theology is always a big question.

I started to question my premillennial convictions when i read books like "Wrongly dividing the people of God" and other works by faithful Covenant theologians. I realized that all of us (pre and amill theologians alike) affirm the authority of the Scriptures. What i needed to do was to have my Eschatological convictions forged in the text (through study and exegesis). When i went through the minor prophets and then Romans 9-11 in this fashion i realized that their has to be some sort of future for National Israel. Replacement theology (in my humble opinion) just was not able to answer the tough questions that arise from the Old and New Testament texts.

I try not and say that I am a Biblicist that's why i am Premill because i dont think that is really fair to my Covenantal brethren (who claim the same to be biblicists as well). Eschatology is a secondary matter but that does not mean a church should nec. omit it from their doctrinal statement. If we carried out that logic (consistently) then we would not talk about the mode of baptism, or the whole issue of how to view the Lord's table, church polity, or even matters pertaining to the doctrines of grace(after all historic Arminians like John Wesley are Evangelicals).

Some churches (like the one i currently pastor at) choose not to include end times theology in their doctrinal statement. That is a fair choice as well. Each church (leadership team) must make there own decision.