Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Explain one of this position, what you think is their strength and what is their weakness?
Mid Tribulation Premillenial.


Premillenial is a system of beliefs concerning the second coming of Christ happening before a millennium (1000 years) in which he will supposedly reign on earth.

The issues of the relationship of Christ’s return to the complex of events are known as the great tribulation. In theory, all premillennialists hold that there will be a great disturbance of seven years’ duration prior to Christ’s coming. There are two common view point that is whether there will be a separate coming to remove the Church from the world prior to the great tribulation, which is called as the “pre-tribulation” or whether the Church will go through the tribulation and be united with the Lord afterward, which is called the post-tribulation. The mediation between this two tribulation is known as the Mid-tribulation. “Erickson, Christian Theology, p.1217

Definition: "The Mid-Tribulational Rapture view holds that the Rapture of the church will occur at the midpoint of the seven years of Tribulation. In this view, only the last half of Daniel's seventieth week is Tribulation." Ryrie, Basic Theology, p. 497.

The Mid-Tribulation position is created due to difficulties in attaching the pre and post tribulation. There is three views about Mid-tribulation.

1. Midtribulationists believe that Christ will come for His people in the midpoint of the tribulation, exactly 3 1/2 years after it begins and 3 1/2 years before it ends when the Lord returns with His saints to set up the millenial kingdom.
Support for this position argues that--


i. The last trumpet of 1 COR.15:52 is the same as the 7th trumpet of REV.11:15, which sounds at the middle of the tribulation.

ii. The great tribulation is only the last half of Daniel's 70th 7-year period, and the Church is promised deliverance only from that in REV.11:2 and 12:6.

iii. The resurrection of the two great evangelists during the tribulation in REV.11:11 pictures the rapture of the church, with their resurrection at the middle of the tribulation after 1260 days (11:3).


2. The second position is on the partial-rapture view, there will be a series of raptures. Whenever a portion of believers are ready, they will be removed from earth.

3. The third mediating position is imminent post-tribulationism. It is said that while the return of Christ will not take place until after the tribulation, it can be expected at any moment, for the tribulation may already be occurring.

Overall, I personally find the Mid-Tribulation to be weak.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

What is Universal Church? How should the Church reflect her unity to the world? Organic

First of all let’s look at the meaning of Church. There is two meaning that was derived from the Greek word “ekklessia”. The first meaning of Church is “An Assembly of Called Out Ones”. The second meaning speaks about the ownership which is “Belonging to the Lord”.
The Universal Church is the body of All Saved People Everywhere, this include all those who have been redeemed by Jesus Blood, have received forgiveness of their sins and been Born Spiritually into His Family. These are the one that was purchased by His Blood. The Universal Church has no “Earthly Headquarters”. The Head of the Church is in Heaven. This Church can’t be divided as it is not under any earthly organisation.
This is the Church that is composed of all Christian which Jesus referred to in Matthew 16:18. It is made up of all the saved, both living and death as said in Hebrew 12:22-24. The Universal Church that is called the “Body of Christ” as mentioned in Eph. 1:22-23. It is only one body therefore its only one Church Eph. 4:4. To “join” this Church one is “added” by the Lord Himself when saved as in Acts2:41,47. The membership of this Church is kept by The Lord, Heb 12:23, 2 Tim. 2:19. Only He knows those who are truly His. The Enrolment is in heaven. There is no agency in the earth that keeps a record. Death does not affect the membership of the Universal Church. As the Universal Church is made up of the saved both living and death, even when they are death they are still with Christ.
In the New Testament the prayer of Jesus teaches us that the church ought to be, actually is, or will be one. The unity between the Father and Son is a perfect model for the unity of believers with one another. We can see the evidence of this in John 17:20-23. Paul also urged in Eph. 4 for the believers to lead a life of unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
There are four different idea of Unity, which is Spiritual Unity, Mutual Recognition and fellowship, Conciliar Unity and Organic Unity. The Organic Unity means membership and ordination are joined. Denominations are joined and unite, there is merging of local congregations. There are few meaning to Organic Unity, it is the merging of different denomination, it also refer to combining of fellowship that are basically of the same confessional standard. The third one is referring to the either to remain within a denomination instead of separating from a denomination to form another group of basically similar tradition and liturgy (eg. Separating from one Baptist group to form another Baptist fellowship Churches) finally, the organic unity also relates to a local congregation. It is a question of whether an individual or group remains within a congregation or separates from it. An individual can simply leave the fellowship; but if a group withdraws, it is a matter of actualschism.