Rev. Angus Stewart
Jesus Christ is coming again on the clouds of heaven with His mighty angels to raise the dead, judge the world and usher in the new heavens and new earth! This is the “blessed hope” (singular) of the church (Titus 2:13).
In his dispensationalist book Studies on the Second Coming, Presbyterian Church in Ireland minister, Dr. Crawford Ballentine posits two second comings of Christ, two resurrections and two judgment days. The first second coming and the first judgment day precede the second second coming and the second judgment day by 1,007 years (a literal 7 year tribulation followed by a literal 1,000 year reign of the glorified Christ over glorified saints, non-glorified saints and non-glorified sinners in a Jewish kingdom on earth in which Old Testament laws and ceremonies will be restored—what the Reformed faith calls “Jewish dreams” [Second Helvetic Confession 11]).
The Scriptures uniformly speak of the “day” (not “days”) of Christ’s bodily return (Matt. 24:36-37; I Thess. 5:2; II Thess. 1:10) and the “day” (not “days”) of judgment (Acts 17:31; Rom. 2:16) as the same day (II Thess. 1:7-10; II Tim. 4:8). Moreover, the “day” of judgment (John 12:48) is the “day” of resurrection (John 6:39, 44), what the Bible calls “the last day.” Scripture teaches, “there shall be a resurrection [singular] of the dead, both of the just and unjust” (Acts 24:15).
Dispensationalism attacks the unity of the church of all ages by its radical disjuncture between Israel and the church. However, true Jews (both in Old and New Testament days) are circumcised inwardly and spiritually in the heart (Rom. 2:28-29) and the church in the New Testament receives the same titles as the church in the Old Testament: “a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar [i.e., special] people” (I Peter 2:9; Ex. 19:5-6).
How Dr. Ballentine’s dispensational notions could possibly square with Presbyterianism’s Westminster Confession of Faith is anyone’s guess. And that monies from the sale of a book teaching Brethren views of the last things should go to a Ballymena Presbyterian church building fund is amazing!
