Linking Up To Fide-O's

The guys over at "Fide-O" have got some good posts going up and I figured I'd make it a little easier for all of y'all to track 'em down:
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On The Ground
By Scott Hill

"Tony, Roger, and I have made it to Maryland. We are planning spending the day in Washington D.C. today, and see some monuments. It has already been an interesting day. Last night we had a long conversation with our waitress, Melissa, who had a question once she found out I was a pastor.

Her friends are getting married and they are not particularly religious. Since she is the only Christian they have asked her to get ordained online and officiate the wedding. She had some reservations and wanted our opinion. I am not going to go into detail about what we told her, but I have seen a trend in this. Maybe it could be attributed to "Friends". Who knows?

Have any of you ran into problems with this in your own churches?"

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A Quick Look at Amillennialism

By Jason E. Robertson

"What Amillennialism Is Not:

-It does not deny the existence of a millennium.
-It is not a product of either a particular Protestant denomination or a product of Roman Catholicism.
-It does not require one to be a pedobaptist or immersionist.
-It does not require one to be a Calvinist or Arminian.
-It does not require one to be a Covenant theologian or anti-covenant theologian.
-It is not liberalism.
-It is not as divided as Premillennialism.
-It does not symbolize everything in the Bible.
-It does not have a non-literal understanding of the Bible.
-It is not the materialistic view of the millennium as held by all Premillennialists.
-It does not hold to a literal "golden age" on earth like the many Postmillennialists.
-It is not "replacement theology."
-It is not anti-semetic.

What Amillennialism Is:

-It follows a “grammatical-historical” literal interpretation of the Scriptures.
-It looks at the Bible as a unit which contains no contradictions.
-It believes there is no “gap” in Daniel’s prophecy of Seventy Weeks, but that it was fulfilled with the desolation of the Temple and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and the Roman army in 70 A.D. (as the Tribulation judgment against non-believing Israel).
-It agrees with evangelical preterism that the prophecies concerning the nation Israel have been historically fulfilled, for the most part, and all remaining prophecies concerning Israel will be fulfilled in the church which has always been the “Israel of God.” (Eph. 1:23; Galatians 6:6)
-It believes explicitly in the millennium of Revelation 20.
-It interprets the one thousand year period mentioned only in Rev. 20 as a complete period of time, the length of which is only known by God. (Such symbolism is hermeneutically consistent with Psalm 50:10 and 1Chron. 16:15).
-It believes the millennial kingdom of Christ began with His incarnation and will consummate at His Second Coming.
-It could better be called a “Realized Millennium.”
-It believes that the millennium is the literally the spiritual reign of Christ on earth in the kingdom of His church and in the saints in heaven.
-It believes entrance to the on-going millennium is gained solely through the new birth, and that John refers to this as the first resurrection in Revelation 20:6 (supported by Eph. 2:1,5,6 and Colossians 2:13 and 3:1.)"....continued here.

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When I Was A Dispy No More
By Jason E. Robertson

"THEN

I have always been a Southern Baptist. I was saved in a SBC church and surrendered to God's call to preach in that same church five years later. Later, I attended Liberty Univ. and graduated from an SBC college and from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. I was a defender of Progressive Dispensationalism and a confused 4 point Calvinist.

I actually preached a stronger Calvinistic message than most SBC churches were accustomed to hearing. And unlike most SBC preachers, I never really preached on the end times much. In fact, when I preached through the Book of Revelation I always preached just one sermon that would cover chapters 6 through 19. Hey, I believed in a pre-trib rapture so why bother with the details of the Tribulation!

Through the years, the more I studied and the more I expounded the Word of God, the more Calvinistic I became. It has never caused me a problem in my SBC circles, and those of you who know me know that I am not ashamed to be a known as a Calvinist. I am a church-planting, evangelistic, pastor-theologian 5-point-plus Calvinist who wishes everybody was one.

NOW

But let me tell you about something that happened to me in the recent past. As I studied church history and historical orthodox Christianity, I found the rumors about Dispensationalism being a recent phenomenon to be true. Not only that, I realized how that Dispensationalism had entirely skewed my theology too many ways to count. I discovered Covenant theology and began to marvel at its comprehensiveness. I virtually devoured it, spending untold hours reading everything I could from men that I respected and trusted. I had always read books about CT and various Millennial views,but those books were usually written by men who were Dispensational. I had never really taken the time to let Covenant theologians speak for themselves. Although I wasn't convinced at first glance, every new understanding led to new questions. I became a practical Pan-Millennialist for a while -- the only thing I knew for sure was that it would all pan out!"...continued here.

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All in all, if you find yourself with some time to spare - check out the rest of Fide-O's bloggings. They are sure to entertain, inspire, and get your spiritual blood moving,or boiling - depending on which side of the issue you fall on ;).

Carry On'
Bro. Hank