DOCSLIB.ORG

DX217304.Pdf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Designing the last days : Edward Irving, the Albury Circle, and the theology of The Morning Watch. Patterson, Mark Rayburn The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 10. Oct. 2021 Thesis by Rev. Mark Rayburn Patterson 85O-2.. Designing the Last Days c) Edward Irving, The Albury Circle, and the Theology of The Morning Watch By The Rev. Mark Rayburn Patterson Submitted to King's College, London in fulfillment of the degree of PhD II January2001 Thesis Abstract Ths thesis is an examination of The Morning Watc4 a theological journal pub- lished in London in the early nineteenth century. Arising in the wake of The French Revolution, The Morning Watch was at the center of bourgeoning interest in eschato- logical speculation and scholarly exposition upon the prophetic Scriptures. In 1826 Henry Drummond, MP, invited a coterie of leading prophecy scholars, including Ed- ward Irving, London's most famous preacher, to his Albury Manor to study the biblical prophecies, discern their nonpareil revelation, and correlate this message to the events of their own day. In March of 1829, the Albury Cirde began publishing The Morning Watch for the dissemination of prophetic revelation. This thesis provides an analysis of the journal's content, to determine the a priori and thus determining assumptions of the Albury Circle, their hermeneutical and theological methodology, and the combined ef- fect these bore on shaping doctrine and practice. The contents of the journal reveal that Albury's assumptions and labour were determined wholly by the premise of an imminent Second Advent. Understood as the center and message of the Bible arid the goal of crea- tion—evidenced in the precise progression of historical accidents, the Cirde endeav- oured to correlate the two through a literal-typical hermeneutic. The fusing of this her- meneutic, to a doctrine of historicist revelation, allowed Scripture and history to form a single grand narrative which alone revealed the divine intendment and its temporal mani- festation. The interpretive, dogmatic, and kerygmatic tasks combined, as the Cirde sought to demonstrate the prophetic witness, create a systematic theology around this new center, and proclaim these truths to a faithless age. But instead of reviving church and culture, Albury's assumptions and methodology led to the reinterpretation of Chris- tian doctrine, redefinition of faith, and an assessment their own day and lives entirely shaped by their teleological expectations. 2 For Lthdi Lee WT fl'1T1 r' WT Song of Songs Table oi Contents 'i'liesis A1,stract ....................................................... 2 cicr1ovvledgrnents .................................................. 9 Referencesto Th Morning Watch ....................... 13 Introduction The Vantage of The Morning Watch ..................... 15 1.Headwaters of the Premillennial Stream...............................................................15 2. The Approach of this Study...................................................................................21 Chapter One The Rising Voice of Prophecy and the Founding of the .l'Zc'.rriirzg' T"atcIi .............................................. 25 I. The Contours ofRomantic Apocalypticism...........................................................25 a) Apocalypticism and Milennialism.....................................................................25 b) The Worldview of Premillennial Apocalypticism...............................................27 c)The Epistemology of Romantic Apocalypticism .................................................30 d) Pre-Albuiy Premillennialism..............................................................................34 2. The Rising Voice ofProphecy...............................................................................44 a)Prophecy's Rosetta Stone: The French Revolution .............................................44 b) Prophecy and Professional Exegetes ..................................................................46 3. The Streams Cohere: Irving, Albury, and The Morning Watch............................. 53 a)Edward Irving: The Prophet in a Geneva Gown .................................................53 b) The Albuiy Conferences and the Founding of The Morning Watch...................57 5 Chapter T0 A Paradigm of Certitude: Albury's Hermeneutical Foundation ..................... 63 1. Inspiration. Revelation, and the Word of God......................................................63 a) Inspiration and Revelation................................................................................. 65 b) Inspiration and Scripture's Literal Sense............................................................70 c) Inspiration and the Literal-Typological Henneneutic..........................................76 d) Inspiration and a Unified Narrative Theory........................................................79 e) Inspiration, Prophecy, and the Hermeneutical Task.............................................82 2. The Quest for Certitude: Theology's Pandora 's Box............................................87 a) Shift From Dogmatics to Apologetics ................................................................90 b) Dubious Certitude.............................................................................................92 Chapter Three Prophecy., Revelation, and Revival ........................ 99 1. The Centrality ofProphecy...................................................................................99 a) Prophecy's Grand Narrative.............................................................................100 b) The efficacy of the Prophetic Word..................................................................101 2. Revelation through the Progress of Time............................................................105 a) Hermeneutics and Histoiy................................................................................105 b) Progressive Revelation....................................................................................108 c) Historicist Revelation and the Premillennial System.........................................111 3. Last Days 'Revelation to a Failing Church.........................................................114 a) The Spirit of Antichrist and the Character of the Age......................................114 b) Christendom Seeped in the Spirit of Antichrist................................................120 Chapter Four Doctrine Through the PremillennialForge..................................... 134 1. The Transforming Engine ofHermeneutics........................................................134 a) Last Days Revelation and the Forging of Doctrine............................................136 (1) Dispensations and a Philosophy of History.................................................136 (2) Ecclesiology...............................................................................................139 (3) Christology Through The Premillennial Forge............................................147 (4) The Pretribulation Rapture.........................................................................159 2. The Power ofHermeneutics over Dogma............................................................165 6 Chapter Five The Church With Her Endowment of arid Po'vver .. ......... ................... ............ 168 1. Good News and Controversies................................................................ 168 2. The Shaping Principles ofAlbury's Pneumatology................................. 169 3. The Last Day's Pentecost Begins............................................ 172 a) Expectations of a Last Day's Pentecost ................................ 172 b) The Spirit Comes in Power: Events in Port Glasgow ........... 173 c) Pentecost Comes to London................................................. 179 4. The Church With Her Endowment ofHoliness and Power...... 182 a) Interpreting the Last Days Pentecost..................................... 182 b) The Gifts of the Spirit and a Docetic Christology................. 190 5. Signs of the Times: Miracles before a Faithless Church......... 197 a' The Cirnwini Cricig ........................................................................................197 b) Campbell, Maclean,
Recommended publications
  • Download Complete Issue

    Download Complete Issue

    THE JOURNAL of the UNITED REFORMED CHURCH HISTORY SOCIETY incorporating the Congregational Historical Society, founded in 1899, and the Presbyterian Historical Society of England, founded in 1913) EDITORS: Revd. Dr. R. BUICK KNOX and Dr. CLYDE BINFIELD, M.A. Volume 3, No.5 March 1985 CONTENTS Editorial 0 0 •••••••••••• 0 •••••• 0 ••••••• 0 •• 0 ••••••••• 159 Newman and Prophecy, Evangelical and Catholic by Sheridan W. Gilley B.A., Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S. 160 Reviews by Stephen Mayor . ..................... : . 188 Our Contemporaries 190 EDITORIAL For reasons which will become pleasantly apparent with the next issue, 1985 will see three issues of the Journal. The present issue is devoted to the society's annual lecture which was delivered during the study weekend held at Kirkley Hall, Ponteland, in September 1984. Dr. Sheridan Gilley, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theology at the University of Durham, has placed the society firmly in his debt both by his readiness to lecture at unavoidably short notice and by the theme of his paper. At first sight "Newman and Prophecy", whether Evangelical or Catho­ lic, is unlikely to be of immediate relevance to our concerns. The past year, however, has seen the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Edward Irving's death, and Dr. Gilley's paper, by reminding us that prophecy was a major concern of mainstream Protestantism until well into the nineteenth century, provides a context for our understanding of what otherwise is an embarrass- . ingly eccentric (and therefore ignored) aspect of our past. Other aspects of this will be explored in the Journal's October issue by Professor Roger H.
  • Critical Distinctions Between the Reformed Tradition and Fundamentalism in Eschatology

    Critical Distinctions Between the Reformed Tradition and Fundamentalism in Eschatology

    CRITICAL DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THE REFORMED TRADITION AND FUNDAMENTALISM IN ESCHATOLOGY ELTON M. EENIGENBURG I. Preliminary Question: the Matter of Identifying the Opponents. Can the "Fundamentalist" be identified? Several years ago I wrote an article on the Fundamentalist movement for the Earnest Worker, 1 a guide booklet for Sunday School teachers, in which I remarked that more confusion has gathered around the term "Fundamentalism," spelled with a large F, than around any other term in common usage in religious circles today. I noted further that "It is definitely a movement, a spirit, a mood, an attitude, and a set of con­ victions, but it has no specific organization or office to which you might address a letter requesting information, no reliable body of statistics in­ dicating weight or size, nor does it have a universally acknowledged literature or theology which one might study. In American Protestantism, where it is principally located, it is the form of religion of some whole denominations, but it crosses the lines of almost every denomination and thus is found everywhere." It has never been otherwise. The term "fundamentalists" was coined in an editorial in the July 1, 1920 issue of the New York weekly, the Watchman-Examiner. It was applied to those "who mean to do battle royal for the fundamentals." As early as 1909 the phrase, "the funda­ mentals," came into use when a group of evangelical leaders began to organize a scholarly protest against the encroachments of an advancing liberalism in the Protestant churches. Between 1910 and 1915 a series of twelve small volumes came from the press and were given world-wide distribution.
  • How John Nelson Darby Went Visiting: Dispensational Premillennialism In

    How John Nelson Darby Went Visiting: Dispensational Premillennialism In

    University of Dayton eCommons History Faculty Publications Department of History 2000 How John Nelson Darby Went Visiting: Dispensational Premillennialism in the Believers Church Tradition and the Historiography of Fundamentalism William Vance Trollinger University of Dayton, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://ecommons.udayton.edu/hst_fac_pub Part of the Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, History of Christianity Commons, History of Religion Commons, Other History Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons eCommons Citation Trollinger, William Vance, "How John Nelson Darby Went Visiting: Dispensational Premillennialism in the Believers Church Tradition and the Historiography of Fundamentalism" (2000). History Faculty Publications. Paper 8. http://ecommons.udayton.edu/hst_fac_pub/8 This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Contents Introduction ............................................... ............ .. .... ....... .... .............. .. .. .. .. ......... 7 PART ONE: BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVES 1 Making Prophecy Come True: Human Responsibility for the End of the World, JAMES E. BRENNEMAN .... .............................................................. 21 2 Lions and Ovens and Visions, 0 My! A Satirical
  • The Haden-Darwin-Wright Connection

    The Haden-Darwin-Wright Connection

    1 The Haden-Darwin-Wright Connection (© Phil Tunaley). Introduction There was already a close relationship between the Haden and Wright families even when the original Haden family was based in Wednesbury, West Midlands, Staffordshire. Joseph Wright had painted a portrait of Thomas Haden with Thomas, born Wednesbury 1760, aged between 12 and 16 years and hence placing the year of the painting between 1772.and 1776. ("Portrait of Master Thomas Haden": http://www.artnet.com/artists/joseph-wright-of-derby/portrait-of- master-thomas-haden-YUYoRlyDiZsLjBzl0lWOvA2 ). So Thomas Haden's portrait would have been created 15- 20 years before Joseph Wright painted portraits of Mary Tunaley and the twins Ann and Sarah Haden (born 1788). Indeed the timing (1772-1776) of the painting of Thomas Haden as a boy by Joseph Wright indicate Wright being acquainted not only with the senior members of the Haden family (Thomas's father Joseph (1722-1799) and mother Ann (nee Bunn)) but also, as it transpires, with Thomas’s elder brother Alexander Bunn Haden (1752-1829). The aim of this article is to show how circumstances, some good, some bad, brought the Hadens into contact and later friendship with Erasmus Darwin and the Wright family. Thomas Haden, his father Joseph and elder brother Alexander Bunn Haden Thomas was the third son of Joseph Haden (b. 1722) originally of Old Swinford, Worcestershire and Anne (nee Bunn b. 1733) of Wednesbury, Staffordshire. Joseph’s 1751 marriage to Ann seems to have signalled a permanent move by Joseph to Wednesbury. And, according to records, the Haden-Bunn marriage took place at the then rebuilt (1741) Anglican Church of St.
  • Edward Irving

    Edward Irving

    Edward Irving: Romantic Theology in Crisis Peter Elliott Edward Irving: Romantic theology in crisis Peter Elliott BA, BD, MTh(Hons.) This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology of Murdoch University 2010 I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work which has not previously been submitted for a degree at any tertiary education institution. …………………… Peter Elliott Abstract In 1822 a young Church of Scotland minister named Edward Irving accepted a post in London and quickly attracted wide upper-class support. He numbered amongst his friends and admirers the political historian Thomas Carlyle and the Romantic poet-philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge. During the next decade, Irving developed views and practices that could be described as millenarian and proto- pentecostal; his interest in prophecy grew and his Christology became unorthodox. He was ejected from his church and hundreds followed him to begin a new group. Within a short period of time, he was relegated to a subordinate position within this group, which later became the Catholic Apostolic Church. He died in 1834 at the age of 42. This paper examines Irving’s underlying Romanticism and the influences on him, including his complex relationships with Carlyle and Coleridge, and then demonstrates how his Romanticism informed all of his key theological positions, often in tension with the more established Rationalism of the time. In ejecting Irving from his pastorate, the Church of Scotland officials were rejecting his idealistic and Romantic view of Christianity. It was this same idealism, with reference to the charismata, that alienated Irving from a senior role in the nascent Catholic Apostolic Church.
  • The Family of Hurd

    The Family of Hurd

    A History and Genealogy of The Family of Hurd in the United States And a Partial History of the New England Families of Heard and Hord, including a Treatise on Nomenclature, Heraldry and Coat Ar- mour, and Ancestry By o Dena D. Hurd NEW YORK PRIVATELY PRINTED 1910 Copyrighl, 1910, by DENA D. HURD TO ALL WHO BEAR THE .ANCESTRY OF HURD LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Dena D. Hurd ....................................... Frontispiece FACING PAGE Ancestral Arms: Figs. 1 and 2.................................. 14 Figs. 3 and 4. 15 Hurd Arms. 21 Tomb of John Hurd, of Stratford................................ 29 Addison L. Hurd (1740), David Elisha Hurd (1738), Hannah E. Hurd (1741), Elisha Hills Hurd (827) and 1744, Horace N. Hurd (1743), John Henry Hurd (1744)................... 97 Rukard Hurd (907), Captain Ethan Osborn Hurd (1812). • . 101 Joy Hurd Family ......................................•.•..... 10\I Davis Hurd and Amanda (Turner) Hurd (1514). 124 Asahel Hurd (1515) . 126 Richard Hurd III (1716) . 134 John M. Hurd (2923), L. D. Hurd (2924), Thomas D and Anna Menge Hurd (1737), Jennie Hurd Merten (2927), Thomas J. Hurd (2930) ................................................ 136 Norabelle Hurd (2936), David E. (1738) and Anna D. F. Hurd, Myrtle Florence Hurd (2935), Elgin H. Hurd (2932) . 137 Alpheus E. (1742) and Ellen Palmer Hurd and Children ............. 141 Raymond V. Hurd (2955), John Henry Hurd Jr. (5194), John Henry Hurd (1744) ...· ....................................... 142 Justina Mattie Hurd (3067) .................................... 147 George Leon Hurd (5275), Lyman Dana Hurd (1946), Kenneth Badger Hurd (6075) ................................... 149 William Joy Hurd (4067), Albert Hunt Hurd {4066), Orrin Joy Hurd (4060), Edwin Brent Hurd (4069) ....................... 157 Isaac Bradley Hurd (1247), Emeline Dow Hurd, Carlton Hurd (2216).
  • Catalogue of Adoption Items Within Worcester Cathedral Adopt a Window

    Catalogue of Adoption Items Within Worcester Cathedral Adopt a Window

    Catalogue of Adoption Items within Worcester Cathedral Adopt a Window The cloister Windows were created between 1916 and 1999 with various artists producing these wonderful pictures. The decision was made to commission a contemplated series of historical Windows, acting both as a history of the English Church and as personal memorials. By adopting your favourite character, event or landscape as shown in the stained glass, you are helping support Worcester Cathedral in keeping its fabric conserved and open for all to see. A £25 example Examples of the types of small decorative panel, there are 13 within each Window. A £50 example Lindisfarne The Armada A £100 example A £200 example St Wulfstan William Caxton Chaucer William Shakespeare Full Catalogue of Cloister Windows Name Location Price Code 13 small decorative pieces East Walk Window 1 £25 CW1 Angel violinist East Walk Window 1 £50 CW2 Angel organist East Walk Window 1 £50 CW3 Angel harpist East Walk Window 1 £50 CW4 Angel singing East Walk Window 1 £50 CW5 Benedictine monk writing East Walk Window 1 £50 CW6 Benedictine monk preaching East Walk Window 1 £50 CW7 Benedictine monk singing East Walk Window 1 £50 CW8 Benedictine monk East Walk Window 1 £50 CW9 stonemason Angel carrying dates 680-743- East Walk Window 1 £50 CW10 983 Angel carrying dates 1089- East Walk Window 1 £50 CW11 1218 Christ and the Blessed Virgin, East Walk Window 1 £100 CW12 to whom this Cathedral is dedicated St Peter, to whom the first East Walk Window 1 £100 CW13 Cathedral was dedicated St Oswald, bishop 961-992,
  • Victims of Downing Street: Popular Pressure and the Press in the Stoddart and Conolly Affair, 1838-1845 Sarah E

    Victims of Downing Street: Popular Pressure and the Press in the Stoddart and Conolly Affair, 1838-1845 Sarah E

    The College of Wooster Libraries Open Works Senior Independent Study Theses 2016 Victims of Downing Street: Popular Pressure and the Press in the Stoddart and Conolly Affair, 1838-1845 Sarah E. Kendrick The College of Wooster, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy Recommended Citation Kendrick, Sarah E., "Victims of Downing Street: Popular Pressure and the Press in the Stoddart and Conolly Affair, 1838-1845" (2016). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 6989. https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/6989 This Senior Independent Study Thesis Exemplar is brought to you by Open Works, a service of The oC llege of Wooster Libraries. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Independent Study Theses by an authorized administrator of Open Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. © Copyright 2016 Sarah E. Kendrick The College of Wooster Victims of Downing Street: Popular Pressure and the Press in the Stoddart and Conolly Affair, 1838-1845 by Sarah Emily Kendrick Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of Senior Independent Study Supervised by Professor Johnathan Pettinato Department of History Spring 2016 Abstract During the summer of 1842, Emir Nasrullah of Bukhara, in what is now Uzbekistan, beheaded Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Stoddart and Captain Arthur Conolly, two British officers sent to his kingdom on a diplomatic mission. Reports of the officers’ deaths caused an uproar across Britain, and raised questions about the extent to which Britons abroad were entitled to government protection. Historians have generally examined the officers’ deaths exclusively in the context of the Great Game (the nineteenth century Anglo-Russian rivalry over Central Asia) without addressing the furor the crisis caused in England.
  • The Continuation, Breadth, and Impact of Evangelicalism in the Church of Scotland, 1843-1900

    The Continuation, Breadth, and Impact of Evangelicalism in the Church of Scotland, 1843-1900

    This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. The Continuation, Breadth, and Impact of Evangelicalism in the Church of Scotland, 1843-1900 Andrew Michael Jones A Thesis Submitted to The University of Edinburgh, New College In Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Edinburgh, United Kingdom 2018 ii Declaration This thesis has been composed by the candidate and is the candidate’s own work. Andrew M. Jones PhD Candidate iii Acknowledgements The research, composition, and completion of this thesis would have been impossible without the guidance and support of innumerable individuals, institutions, and communities. My primary supervisor, Professor Stewart J. Brown, provided expert historical knowledge, timely and lucid editorial insights, and warm encouragement from start to finish. My secondary supervisor, Dr. James Eglinton, enhanced my understanding of key cultural and theological ideas, offered wise counsel over endless cups of coffee, and reminded me to find joy and meaning in the Ph.D.

  • 127179758.23.Pdf

    —>4/ PUBLICATIONS OF THE SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY THIRD SERIES VOLUME II DIARY OF GEORGE RIDPATH 1755-1761 im DIARY OF GEORGE RIDPATH MINISTER OF STITCHEL 1755-1761 Edited with Notes and Introduction by SIR JAMES BALFOUR PAUL, C.V.O., LL.D. EDINBURGH Printed at the University Press by T. A. Constable Ltd. for the Scottish History Society 1922 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION DIARY—Vol. I. DIARY—You II. INDEX INTRODUCTION Of the two MS. volumes containing the Diary, of which the following pages are an abstract, it was the second which first came into my hands. It had found its way by some unknown means into the archives in the Offices of the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh ; it had been lent about 1899 to Colonel Milne Home of Wedderburn, who was interested in the district where Ridpath lived, but he died shortly after receiving it. The volume remained in possession of his widow, who transcribed a large portion with the ultimate view of publication, but this was never carried out, and Mrs. Milne Home kindly handed over the volume to me. It was suggested that the Scottish History Society might publish the work as throwing light on the manners and customs of the period, supplementing and where necessary correcting the Autobiography of Alexander Carlyle, the Life and Times of Thomas Somerville, and the brilliant, if prejudiced, sketch of the ecclesiastical and religious life in Scotland in the eighteenth century by Henry Gray Graham in his well-known work. When this proposal was considered it was found that the Treasurer of the Society, Mr.
  • The Rapture in Twenty Centuries of Biblical Interpretation

    The Rapture in Twenty Centuries of Biblical Interpretation

    TMSJ 13/2 (Fall 2002) 149-171 THE RAPTURE IN TWENTY CENTURIES OF BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION James F. Stitzinger Associate Professor of Historical Theology The coming of God’s Messiah deserves closer attention than it has often received. The future coming of the Messiah, called the “rapture,” is imminent, literal and visible, for all church saints, before the hour of testing, premillennial, and, based on a literal hermeneutic, distinguishes between Israel and the church. The early church fathers’ views advocated a sort of imminent intra- or post- tribulationism in connection with their premillennial teaching. With a few exceptions, the Medieval church writers said little about a future millennium and a future rapture. Reformation leaders had little to say about prophetic portions of Scripture, but did comment on the imminency of Christ’s return. The modern period of church history saw a return to the early church’s premillennial teaching and a pretribulational rapture in the writings of Gill and Edwards, and more particularly in the works of J. N. Darby. After Darby, pretribulationism spread rapidly in both Great Britain and the United States. A resurgence of posttribulationism came after 1952, accompanied by strong opposition to pretribulationism, but a renewed support of pretribulationism has arisen in the recent past. Five premillennial views of the rapture include two major views—pretribulationism and posttribulation-ism—and three minor views—partial, midtribulational, and pre-wrath rapturism. * * * * * Introduction The central theme of the Bible is the coming of God’s Messiah. Genesis 3:15 reveals the first promise of Christ’s coming when it records, “He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”1 Revelation 22:20 unveils the last promise when it records “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly,’ Amen.
  • Quarterly Review

    Quarterly Review

    The Theological and Ideological Roots of the Balfour Declaration International Conference on Britain’s Legacy in Palestine Palestine Return Centre: 19th January 2013 Introduction In this presentation we are going to trace some of the significant events and individuals that led to the Balfour Declaration. 1. Puritanism and the Conversion of the Jews The road to Balfour began in the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation brought about a renewed interest in the Old Testament and God’s dealings with the Jewish people. From Protestant pulpits right across Europe, the Bible was for the first time in centuries being taught within its historical context and given its plain literal sense. At the same time, a new assessment of the place of the Jews within the purposes of God emerged. Puritan eschatology was essentially postmillennial and believed the conversion of the Jews would lead to future blessing for the entire world. In 1621, for example, Sir Henry Finch, an eminent lawyer and member of the English Parliament, published a book, The World’s Great Restauration (sic) or Calling of the Jews, (and with them) all the Nations and Kingdoms of the Earth, to the Faith of Christ. By the late 17th Century and right through the 18th Century, especially during the period of the Great Awakening, postmillennial eschatology dominated European and American Protestantism.1 The writings and preaching of Jonathan Edwards 1 (1703-1758),2 as well as George Whitefield, were influential in the spread of the belief that the millennium had arrived, that the gospel would soon triumph against evil throughout the world.