Stop Calling Postmillennials "Judaizers” - Part 5

Part 5: Pessimistic Amillennials have an OT remnant theology that continues post pentecost

It also seems that the amount of people Christ saves on the earth is some kind of humanistic glory-age to Dr. Clark. It also seems that the power of regeneration tangibly affecting spheres of life is also some kind of utopic over-realized eschatology. I suspect that when Luke wrote about the economy being radically changed by Paul’s preaching in Ephesus it was because Luke had bought into the Jewish glory-age and was given to romanticized views of the Kingdom (Acts 19:18-20). I suppose when the vision of the Son of man in Daniel 7:13-14 says, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him...” And the re-statement of the vision of Daniel (post-ascension) in Revelation 5 which speaks about the innumerable amounts of Saints is also nothing more than the inflated presumptuous fancies of the “glory-theologian” with fantasies about large numbers.

Dr. Clark then writes, “It is properly optimistic to hold, as the amillennialists do, that the sovereign Lord Jesus is saving every single one for whom he became incarnate, for whom he obeyed, for whom he died, for whom he was raised, and for whom he is interceding now at the right hand of the Father.” What Dr. Clark is implies by this is that the increase and spread of the gospel and its consequences have no bearing on the glory of His work. However, the issue with this is that Jesus describes the efficacy of His work in the New Covenant with the extent and progress of it in time. In Daniel 2:35 the King’s gracious work is spoken of in this way, “But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” In Matthew 13:31 the work of the King is said to be like a small seed that becomes the largest tree on the earth where all the birds find their shelter (increasing size is in the passage). Which determines the finished work of Christ two-thousand years ago, both its progress in the believer's life and also its Ecclesiological progress, are inextricably linked elements in the conversation of the work of the King. It seems that Dr. Clark is the one who actually has an Old Testament Jewish view of the New Covenant kingdom of God. Why do I say that? Because in the OT the covenant community was an obscure exception, a mere tiny remnant. Dr. Clark would like the post-Pentecost, New Covenant Kingdom to remain nothing more than an ongoing exception, nothing more than a tiny remnant with the only difference being a scattered gentile remnant rather than a Palestinian, confined Jewish remnant. However, the post-Pentecost Kingdom is greater in every way than how the Kingdom was in Israel. The 144,000 in Revelation 7 does not imply a limited numerical remnant but rather an innumerable amount of believers. The gospel in the New Testament sense is not presented to us through Scott’s version of optimism due to its mere efficacy in the minimal elect. As if the glory of the gospel is in 15 people getting effectually saved in the mass abyss of lostness. The New Testament presents the gospel as glorious in its efficacy for the elect and also in its global extensiveness (Daniel 7; Isaiah 2). The Great Commission speaks of discipleship with regard to the extent and scope of nations, not random privatized anomalies (Matthew 28:16-20). That is the way the work of Christ is presented via Revelation 5 and 7; with both efficacy and extensiveness, with both effectual language and numerical language. A helpful analogy is that of the gospel as it pertains to sanctification. The Christian’s salvation has nothing to do with his progress and yet in the Kingdom of God the Lord has bound our progress with our forensically objective rescue. The King fully established His Kingdom two-thousand years ago in the ascension event and yet He has by decree declared that Kingdom to be bound to incremental progress (Matthew 13:33). Postmillennials are not bringing about a Kingdom but simply applying and appropriating that which is already so. Jesus is the ruler of the Kings of the earth and God has already set all things under His feet (Revelation 1:5; Ephesians 1:22). The Postmillennial simply applies and appropriates that which already is and believes that progressive appropriation is not a negation of what already is but simply is. Back to the analogy, a believer who believes that He is grounded in what already is so, and will be progressively appropriating what is so, and will one day in fullness be consummate in what is so, is not “earthly.” The way Dr. Clark talks about the appropriating progression of the Kingdom in the world being likened to over-realized Ecclesiology reminds me of the “Side B Christian” claiming that progressive sanctification is over-realized Wesleyan piety. You may say, “Dr. Clark believes in progressive sanctification.” Yes, he does. However, Dr. Clark has privatized progress to individuals yet denied it to the corporate Kingdom.