Sunday School : 1689 Confession – 5

This Lord’s Day onwards, Theoblogy is actually beginning our study through the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith in our Sunday School. Our teacher through out its course is Pastor Arden Hodgins of Trinity Reformed Baptist church, in California.  The first chapter in the confession deals with the Holy Scriptures. Pastor Hodgins has a six point outline for this chapter dealing with the Scriptures namely, 1.Revelation, 2.Inspiration, 3.Cessation, 4.Illumination, 5.Interpretation and 6.Translation. The next 11 weeks will be spend on teaching these six key doctrines regarding the Holy Scriptures found in the first chapter of the confession. Today we begin with our study of the doctrine of revelation from paragraph 1 of the confession given below : - 

The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible ^arule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience, although the light ^bof nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will which is necessary unto salvation. ^cTherefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in divers manners to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his church; and afterward for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan, and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto ^dwriting; which maketh the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of God’s revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.

(^a 2Ti 3:15-17; Isa 8:20; Luk 16:29,31; Eph 2:20; ^b Rom 1:19-21; 2:14-15; Psa 19:1-3; ^cHeb 1:1;  ^d Prov 22:19-21; Rom 15:4; 2Pe 1:19-20)

Divine Revelation  Listen |  Download

How To Understand Revelation 20?

Of all the books in the Bible, probably the one which most Christians and even scholars have found the most challenging to study is the book of Revelation. Apocalyptic imagery, visions, etc are not very common to our day and age, and hence the literary genre itself presents many challenges to the exegete. Moreover it is pretty evident that to make sense of this book, one needs to know the Old Testament well. For there is no book in the New Testament canon which makes this many references and allusions to the Old Testament like the book of Revelation. All of this could be the reason why this book is considered to be a tough one. However God has been faithful in making His Church know His Word. It is after all the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ for his bondservants. Hence we can have confidence that  by His grace we can know His word. God has raised many gifted exegetes who have done a remarkable work in this field. There are many helpful books to guide us in studying this valuable book in the Canon.

It is to be noted that there is no unity between all these scholars on their interpretation of every single passage in this book. This is perhaps best evident when it comes to how Christians have interpreted the 20^th chapter of Revelation. The vision of the thousand year reign of Christ has been interpreted by some as a literal one, while others take it as a vision. Different schools on Chialism has thus emerged in the discipline of Eschatology.

Dr. Sam Waldron, the academic dean of MidwestCenter  for Theological Studies (MCTS) and professor of Systematic Theology, who is also one of the pastors of Heritage Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY offers a very simple exposition of this chapter. Dr. Waldron admits that his prayer for this three part series was that he would be able to make the message of this chapter as simple, practical and powerful as He can. Thus theological astuteness and pastoral care meets in his preaching in a unique way. He defends that his exposition is immensely practical and simple. His straightforward exegesis of this passage is worth listening and is recommended for all Christians, irrespective of your take on Millennium.

In the first sermon, Dr. Waldron gives an excellent introduction to hermeneutical principles for the book of Revelation, which he then applies one by one in the next two sermons. Overall, Waldron comes out as one who is marked by exegetical care and meticulous theological precision, yet presented in a very simple and practical manner.

Even if you are not an Amillennialist or as Waldron prefers to call himself “a gospel age Millennialist”, these sermons are worth listening. If you are a staunch Premillennialist (Historic or Dispensational), you should consider these sermons and have a defense of your hermeneutics, for which Waldron poses considerable challenges. 

You can download the sermons here