Friday, August 2, 2019

The Postmillennial Prosperity Gospel

I'm wondering if the way that prophetic texts in the OT are read by Postmillennials have some continuity with the way they are read by the prosperity gospel? It seems that if one is to read these texts as having their fulfillment in the physical victory of the church, then it may simply be a matter of moving prosperity from the invidual to the larger nation or globe.

But this also begs the question as to why one must read it collectively without any application to the individuals who make up the collective. I know most Postmillennials in the Reformed camp would absolutely reject the prosperity gospel; and yet, if the physical fulfillment of the prophecies in the OT are for the church today, why exactly is the prosperity gospel off its mark?

In postmillennial theology, nature becomes harmonized and prosperous, political structures are subdued and become prosperous. Why wouldn't individuals become financially and materially prosperous as well?  Isn't there a promise of good crops, healthy children, wealth and well-being all around?

Two things are important, I think, in discussing both of these theologies.

1. Victory in the New Testament is part of the already-not yet theology found therein. Hence, what is victorious is spiritual until the new earth comes with Christ's return in the resurrection of the dead. Until then, there is no promise the New Testament gives of any kind of material victory, including political victory. The definition that Revelation gives to victory is when one can give all for the sake of Christ and is no longer enslaved by the pressures of the world to compromise. Victory often ends in death in the book, not an acquiring of political power. So like the prosperity gospel, it is an over-realized eschatology, where the physical blessings of the new heavens and earth to come are thought to be offered now.

2. Prophecy in the OT does not function as absolute promises of what will be in the future. They are contingent promises. This means that they exist for their recipients, i.e., Israel, as long as Israel is obedient. Most of the texts cited are often references that argue that God is going to restore Israel to a place of prominence and prosperity (as a picture of the new heavens and earth to come) if, and only if, they turn from their sins, usually after the exile, and obey God. They don't. That's why these things did not come about. There is no sense given by the New Testament that those promises remain for the church on the microcosmic scale, i.e., in this world; but rather that the Church is spiritual Israel and will receive the physical promises in the new cosmos after the resurrection. Until then, it will be a picture in terms of its spiritual prosperity in Christ, not its physical prosperity or victory in this world.

I'm not sure how one answers these things. Is postmillennial eschatology just a matter of not understanding the way that OT prophecy works coupled with not understanding the already-not yet trajectory of the New Testament?

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