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(c) 2008 Dr. Phil Corr

Dr. David Larsen (Professor Emeritus at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) has provided an invaluable service to the church universal and to Christian scholarship by publishing his magisterial overview of the history of the doctrine of the millenium. Entitled The Company of Hope: A History of Bible Prophecy in the Church, the book provides a survey of eschatological (end times’) teachings over the centuries (including the Bible) with the thousand year reign of Christ being the central theme.

I have had the privilege of being in e-mail correspondence with Dr. Larsen about this book which fills a large gap in Christian scholarship. I have let him know how much I appreciate the book and how I have discovered many things–including the premillenialism taught by many early church fathers.

While Dr. Larsen is writing from a premillenial perspective, he respectfully and objectively presents the various views as they have come to us through the ages. While I wish he would provide more footnotes and at times make stronger connections to move his argument forward, I am delighted and grateful for this book. I do see he indicates that George Marsden’s “monumental biography” provides “little on eschatology.”

On pages 217 and 218, Larsen provides many helpful and informative insights about Jonathan Edwards. I do wish Dr. Larsen had at least cited The Apocalyptic Writings, volume 5 of the Yale Press Works of Jonathan Edwards in which Stephen J. Stein provides a very valuable critical editor’s introduction. Nevertheless, the following quotation is from Dr. Larsen’s Company of Hope.

“Edwards was an assiduous student of the prophetic word in Scripture. One of his absorbing interests very early on was ‘unfulfilled prophecy.’ He developed a separate notebook on the Antichrist, the Apocalypse and the Millenium.

“He believed in the conversion of ethnic Israel when they are restored to their land after the defeat of the Antichrist, the Primate of the Church of Rome. Gradually evil will be put down and in ‘the latter day glory’ Christ will return.

“He always saw prophecy as a strong argument for the inspiration of Scripture. The powerful moving of the Spirit reawakened the nascent old postmillennial vibes which had once flourished in John Owen and in John Cotton.

“The earlier rise of the Commonwealth in England had stimulated considerable utopian optimism which had generally foundered in the darker days. But now revival rejuvenated the hope of Gospel triumph.

“At any rate Hill is quite right that in either case ‘millennialism was a natural and rational product of the assumptions of that society..’ Edwards believed the millennium was coming–and this greatly stimulated his missionary passion as we sense in his great The History of Redemption in which he foresees a great outpouring of th eSpirit right at the end which he dates as [A.D.] 2000.… George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards were both the spiritual fathers of David Brainerd the extraordinary missionary to the Indians. Edwards’ origination of ‘concerts of prayer’ rose out of his eschatological thrust.

“When the Great Awakening began to falter Edwards turned anew to the Book of Revelation for insight and guidance. He argues that the two witnesses were slain in the Reformation period and that the struggle would continue with ultimate victory for the church.

“Revelation is the one book on which he wrote a commentary. It should be pointed out that the premillennialists while holding a more gloomy view of history coupled that with both activism and optimism. Edwards thought it would be ‘black as midnight before the day dawned.’

“As did all of the Puritans, Edwards believed there would be the conversion of the Jews in large numbers. For him, ‘eschatology is theodicy,’ i.e. the exoneration of God’s works. With all of his soaring heights in preaching and theology, however, it cold be argued that Edwards’ introduction of a highly rational theology into his pietism marked the beginning of the end for Puritanism and the beginning of new England theology with all of its vagaries.”

Related Links: Jonathan Edwards: A Life