Jerrysch said:Yet if you are a true Christian, and I have no reason to believe you are not, you will be raptured out of here, like it or not
Postmillennialists and amillennialists would agree. They just say that today is 1007 years further into the future than you think! There will be an eternity to discuss who was right!
By the way, John Winthrop and the Puritans who sailed across the Atlantic were also both Calvinists and postmillennial.
What would the optimistic Puritans of yesterday think about America today?
From http://www.puritans.net/questionsandanswers.htm
It is safe to say that [they] would regard us as a modern day version of Sodom and Babylon. Modern America is in flagrant rebellion against every one of the Ten Commandments, and hence has rejected Puritanism. It consists of rampant false religion, idolatry, blasphemies, Sabbath desecration, disregard of authority, murderous abortion, adultery, divorce, sodomy, theft, lying (such as government sponsored indoctrination in Darwinian evolution), and materialism. Most of these ills occur with impunity.
This is quite a contrast with Puritan New England (led by such men as John Winthrop), Calvin's Geneva , Knox's Scotland, etc. In all of these places Reformed Protestantism was the established religion. And the political philosophy was reflected in this statement from the Westminster Confession:
Just as ancient Israel fell into spiritual declension and even Babylonian captivity following the glorious days of King David, so the world has fallen since the days of the Protestant Reformation. Yet, just as ancient Israel enjoyed a restoration following its hard days, so the world will experience a restoration. But we should not be surprised if there is first more spiritual declension.
It is safe to say that [they] would regard us as a modern day version of Sodom and Babylon. Modern America is in flagrant rebellion against every one of the Ten Commandments, and hence has rejected Puritanism. It consists of rampant false religion, idolatry, blasphemies, Sabbath desecration, disregard of authority, murderous abortion, adultery, divorce, sodomy, theft, lying (such as government sponsored indoctrination in Darwinian evolution), and materialism. Most of these ills occur with impunity.
This is quite a contrast with Puritan New England (led by such men as John Winthrop), Calvin's Geneva , Knox's Scotland, etc. In all of these places Reformed Protestantism was the established religion. And the political philosophy was reflected in this statement from the Westminster Confession:
"God, the Supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be under him over the people, for his own glory and the public good; and to this end, hath armed them with the power of the sword, for the defense and encouragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evil-doers
The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of the Word and sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven: yet he hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order, that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire; that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed; all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed; and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed."
On the other hand, Cotton Mather may not have been so surprised by the spiritual declension in America, and the Puritan Jonathan Edwards certainly would not have been. Indeed, Jonathan Edwards predicted there would be a general spiritual declension before the millennial restoration, writing: "We have all reason to conclude from the Scriptures, that just before this work of God begins, it will be a very dark time with respect to the interests of religion in his world. It has been so before preceding glorious revivals of religion: when Christ came, it was an exceeding degenerate time among the Jews; and so it was a very dark time before the Reformation." ( The History of Redemption by Edwards).
Just as ancient Israel fell into spiritual declension and even Babylonian captivity following the glorious days of King David, so the world has fallen since the days of the Protestant Reformation. Yet, just as ancient Israel enjoyed a restoration following its hard days, so the world will experience a restoration. But we should not be surprised if there is first more spiritual declension.
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