Posts in Amillennialism
New Meredith Kline Volume on the Book of Revelation
New Meredith Kline Volume on the Book of Revelation

In a recent post, I mentioned that there were three important new books soon to be published. I was not aware of this book at the time, but soon after learned of it through a good friend (Dr. Andrew Compton). I followed up by listening to a Reformed Forum podcast episode (October 31, 2025) which discussed this gem in great detail.

I cannot say enough good things about this volume. Meredith Kline had written much on the Book of Revelation, but it was widely scattered among a number of publications, many of which can be found here (including mp3s). However there was much work on Revelation by Kline which had not been published until now. It is great to find it all in one place in a book with a quality binding and nice print. Reformed Forum did a great job with the project.

Kline’s books and essays are often tough going, with the common quip (which is often said of Geerhardus Vos as well), that his writings need to be translated into English. But his sermons (published in part two of the volume) are simple biblical expositions of texts from Revelation, and provide a nice primer to Kline’s academic work. The sermons are Christ and gospel centered and demonstrate his ability to explain the apocalypse with such great clarity that you’ll find yourself want to read it again, this time through the new eyes Kline provides. It has been a long time since I read gospel sermons on difficult texts from the Book of Revelation which are as clear, profound, and moving as these—his Easter, Christmas, and Lord’s Supper sermons especially.

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Amillennialism, Biblical Theology, Book Reviews, eschatology, Reformed ResourcesKim RiddlebargerM G Kline on Revelation, Revelation sermonsComment
The Staying Power of Dispensationalism -- Some Observations
The Staying Power of Dispensationalism -- Some Observations

In a recent tweet, Aaron Renn (November 5, 2025) opined that “the death of dispensationalism is greatly exaggerated. It seems to me that the vast bulk of evangelicals are still dispensationalist . . . I don't think most evangelicals have ever even heard the term dispensationalism, or have thought much about it. They just think they attend a church that preaches the Bible.”

I am of the opinion that Daniel Hummel’s recent book, The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism, makes a compelling case that dispensationalism (at least that academic form which Hummel identifies as “scholastic dispensationalism”) is clearly on the wane in those circles where it once held dominance (seminaries and evangelical publishing). The perfume is long gone, although a faint scent remains in the empty bottle. But I do think Renn is correct to point out that the majority of rank and file evangelicals are still largely dispensational in their eschatology and overall understanding of the purpose of the church in the end times—which they believe are upon us. Here are some observations as to why I think this is the case.

Effective Dispensational Catechesis:

The current generation of evangelicals and the bulk of those who now attend evangelical churches grew up on Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’s Left Behind novels, or else attended churches which offered a steady diet of dispensational teaching. Despite whatever doctrinal ills someone like me may find in dispensationalism, the Bible is open in these churches and taught simply and as true. In many cases, the gospel is present (though often watered down and not always clearly presented). Jesus is proclaimed to be the only savior and it is taught that good works do not save. The litmus test in many of these circles is a born again conversion experience. People who attend such churches are likely well satisfied with what they hear from the pulpit and assume what they are hearing is correct. These folks are not likely to investigate other views, nor are they going to rush out and buy A Case for Amillennialism.

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Amillennialism, End Times Nuttiness, eschatology, History and CultureKim RiddlebargerWhy evanglicals remain dispensational Comments
Optimism and Pessimism as Suitable Eschatological Categories Revisited
Optimism and Pessimism as Suitable Eschatological Categories Revisited

The term “optimistic” amillennialism is widely used these days, but I remain hesitant that it is of much value. I discussed the use of “optimism” and “pessimism” as proper adjectives along with the development of the “optimistic amillennial” moniker vis a vis the two main varieties of postmillennialism (Evangelical and Theonomic) on a previous episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast.

I make my case here: Eschatology by Ethos: Why Optimism and Pessimism Do Not Work As Eschatological Categories

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Amillennialism, American Religion, Biblical Theology, eschatology, Reformed ResourcesKim RiddlebargerOptimism v. PessimismComment
Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz Debate Israel
Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz Debate Israel

Needless to say, there is far more heat than light here. Both Cruz and Carlson claim to be Christians, but their debate reveals scant understanding of what the Bible actually says about the future of Israel.

I weigh in on the biblical teaching regarding the future of Israel in an episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast. What Does the Future Hold for Israel? A Look at Romans 9-11

This episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast (part of a larger series entitled “The Future,”) was posted about ten days before the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas upon Israel, so I make no reference to recent events. I address the October 7 attack here.

What I do in this episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast is address Paul’s understanding of the future role of Israel in redemptive history in Romans 9-11 where Paul specifically discusses the matter in great detail. I don’t think God is finished with national Israel, but I reject the dispensational teaching about what this entails and how it will work out.

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Amillennialism, Blessed Hope Podcast, End Times Nuttiness, eschatologyKim RiddlebargerCruz and Carlson on IsraelComment
1 Thessalonians 1:10, Dispensationalism, and the “Wrath of God”
1 Thessalonians 1:10, Dispensationalism, and the “Wrath of God”

The following is from my forthcoming exposition of Paul’s Thessalonian Letters, “When the Lord Jesus Is Revealed from Heaven” which will be made available as a free download for those who complete season two of the Blessed Hope Podcast.

Paul’s contention in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 that the day of God’s wrath (and the final judgment) occurs when Jesus returns on the last day, raises insurmountable difficulties for all forms of premillennialism. Premillennarians contend that Jesus returns to establish a millennial kingdom on the earth, usually thought to be structured upon the theocratic nation of Israel, with Jesus physically ruling over the earth from David’s throne in Jerusalem. At the end of the millennial age, supposedly, Satan is released from the Abyss and organizes the nations who collectively revolt against Christ and his church (Revelation 20:7-10). In response to this last outbreak of evil, when God casts Satan and his minions into the lake of fire, only then does the final judgment take place, fully one thousand years after Jesus Christ returns to deliver his people from the coming wrath of God.

In light of the premillennial misinterpretation of the scene in Revelation 20:1-10–supposedly occurring after our Lord’s return, instead of seeing John as referring to the interadvental period and its consummation when Jesus returns–premillenarians (including dispensationalists) must assert that God’s eschatological wrath is not manifest until the thousand year millennial age comes to an end. Both camps affirm they hold this view based upon what they claim to be a literal reading of an apocalyptic text. But the impossibility of the premillennial view becomes all-too clear when Paul, in an epistle written to answer specific questions about the Lord’s return, informs the Thessalonians that God’s eschatological wrath occurs when Christ returns to deliver them (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10), not one thousand years later. This leaves no room for a millennial age after our Lord’s return. None at all.

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Amillennialism, eschatologyKim Riddlebargerwrath of God, premillennialism, dispensationalism Comments
My Take on the Hamas Attack on Israel -- 10/7 2023
My Take on the Hamas Attack on Israel -- 10/7 2023

A number of friends, church folk, and Riddleblog readers have asked about my take on Israel’s 911 (10/7). So, here you go.

It won’t surprise you that my take on the Hamas’s vicious attack on Southern Israel is much different than Greg Laurie’s ("Fasten Your Seat Belts"). A legion of prophecy pundits and “end-times” YouTubers have popped up, many offering wild and bizarre speculation about the tragedy and its role in the end-times. This is what they do. Admittedly, I have not watched or read much of this recent prophecy speculation, but what I have seen (most of which folks have sent to me) is largely a re-hash of prophetic scenarios long-since discredited (by the embarrassing fact that they got it wrong when previously proposed) now re-packed and presented as new material, with the hope that people will forget how wrong the pundits were the last time they made such predictions.

My points for consideration:

1). As for any biblical significance to the horrors inflicted upon Israeli citizens by Hamas terrorists, this clearly falls under the category of signs given us by Jesus regarding wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6-8). Jesus did not predict specific conflicts (such as this one), only what he describes as “birth pains” of the end. What happened in Southern Israel falls into the category of “wars and rumor of wars,” with no specific fulfillment of any biblical prophecy regarding Israel. What Hamas did was very much like what Vladimir Putin did in his barbaric invasion of Ukraine. He ignored all conventional rules of war and inflicted savagery upon innocents—the elderly, women and children, and unarmed civilians. Hamas has done the same in Israel. In this we see the depths of human depravity as divine image-bearers are slaughtered merely to satisfy someone’s rage and anger. Jesus told us to expect as much until he returns.

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eschatology, Amillennialism, End Times NuttinessKim RiddlebargerIsrael and Hamas, Israel back in the land Comments
The Next Episode of "The Future" Is Up! "This Age and the the Age to Come: the Implausibility of Premillennialism"
The Next Episode of "The Future" Is Up! "This Age and the the Age to Come: the Implausibility of Premillennialism"

Episode Synopsis:

I begin this episode with a personal testimony.

I was born and raised a dispensationalist. Our family owned a Christian bookstore. The first Christian book I picked out and read on my own was Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth. Years later, I was challenged by one of our delivery men about the books we were selling–all the dispensationalist best sellers. He said he was “Reformed.” I thought he meant that he had gone to “reform school” or was on work release from prison. The questions he put to me bounced off like BB’s against a Battleship. Dispensationalism was biblical. How could anyone doubt that?

But those BB’s actually penetrated my embarrassingly thin armor. Eventually, I became a very reluctant Calvinist and then I started re-thinking my eschatology. After university and a year at the Simon Greenleaf School of Law (which was founded by John Warwick Montgomery, the faculty included Walter Martin, and Rod Rosenbladt, and is now the Trinity Law School in Santa Ana), I was steadily moving away from my doctrinal roots (Arminian and dispensational). I found that the Reformation views on law and gospel, the five solas, and the end times, were absolutely compelling because they were thoroughly biblical. To my surprise Drs. Montgomery and Rosenbladt suggested a career change–seminary, specifically the new seminary in Escondido (90 miles to the South), Westminster Seminary California.

In the Acts and Paul class taught by Dennis Johnson, I first encountered what I came to know as the two-age model–terms I was familiar with from reading the New Testament but never thought much about–“this age” and “the age to come.” After reading Herman Ridderbos and Geerhardus Vos on Paul, I realized how serious a challenge the two-model was to my premillennial eschatology (I had pretty much given up on most of my dispensationalism by then, although I still thought like one). Driving home after Dr. Johnson’s class, I had an “ah-ha moment.” “I can’t be premillennial any more.” The two-age model makes premillennialism (in all its forms) a biblical impossibility. I dug in my heels and fought the inevitable. But here I am far down the road, presenting and defending the two-age model. If you’ve not heard this before, you are in for a real surprise. This is a game changer in terms of your view of the end times.

To read the show notes and listen to the episode, follow the link below

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Blessed Hope Podcast, Amillennialism, eschatology, Reformed ResourcesKim RiddlebargerThe Two Age Model Comments
A "Review" of Daniel G. Hummel's, "The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism"
A "Review" of Daniel G. Hummel's, "The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism"

Daniel G. Hummel, The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle Over the End times Shaped a Nation (Eerdmans, 2023), 400 pages, $29.99

What Sort of Book Is This?

Daniel Hummel’s book is not written to defend or refute the dispensational approach to biblical prophecy and the end times. I noticed a fair bit of pre-publication chatter to that effect, so it is important to tamp down that expectation now that the volume is available. What Hummel has done is to write a thorough, quick-paced, and well-sourced history of the origin, development, and current status of what we speak of today as “dispensationalism.” Hummel’s “nothing but the facts” approach makes the book hard to review since the author moves quickly through the history of the movement with but minimal amounts of evaluation along the way. This is the proper method for a volume such as this one, but leaves little about which a reviewer might quibble.

The most significant thing to note about The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism is that Hummel situates the rise of a distinct dispensational theology within the broader context of what we often identify as “American evangelicalism.” This is Hummel’s purpose, one which he accomplishes quite well, and which is very valuable in its own right. But this broader perspective can also be a bit frustrating for those who participate in a more nuanced and related space which Hummel only addresses tangentially—the internecine debate about whether or not dispensationalism provides a helpful, and dare I say “biblical” manner of interpreting the Bible. Those readers of the Riddleblog who are interested in Hummel’s volume should keep his purpose in mind so as not be disappointed in what they will find. This is not a refutation of dispensationalism. Hummel’s book is exactly what it claims to be—an account of the rise of a distinctive dispensational theology in the 1830’s until its most recent period of development, which Hummel identifies as the “pop dispensationalism” of the Trump era. This is an historical account of dispensationalism and the role it has played in the development of American evangelicalism, and a well-written and important one at that. Hummel’s book is therefore must reading for anyone interested in eschatology, the rise of American evangelicalism, or who might have deep dispensational roots as does the author and this reviewer.

To read the review, click here: A "Review" of Hummel's Rise and Fall of Dipsensationalism

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Amillennialism, eschatology, History and Culture, Riddleblog PublicationKim RiddlebargerReview of Hummel, Hummel on Dispensationalism Comments
Louis Berkhof on the Historical Development of the Church's Doctrine of Antichrist
Louis Berkhof on the Historical Development of the Church's Doctrine of Antichrist

Berkhof’s summation of church’s development of the doctrine of “Antichrist” across time is very helpful. As you can see, there has been little consensus about this. Berkhof is also writing before more recent speculation generation by the prophecy pundits, especially in light of Israel being re-installed in her ancient homeland.

Historically, there have been different opinions respecting Antichrist. In the ancient Church many maintained that Antichrist would be a Jew, pretending to be the Messiah and ruling at Jerusalem. Many recent commentators are of the opinion that Paul and others mistakenly thought that some Roman emperor would be Antichrist, and that John clearly had Nero in mind in Rev. 13:18, since the letters in the Hebrew words for “emperor Nero” are exactly equivalent to 666, Rev. 13:18. Since the time of the Reformation many, among whom also Reformed scholars, looked upon papal Rome, and in some cases even on some particular Pope, as Antichrist. And the papacy indeed reveals several traits of Antichrist as he is pictured in Scripture. Yet it will hardly do to identify it with Antichrist. It is better to say that there are elements of Antichrist in the papacy. Positively, we can only say: (a) that the anti-Christian principle was already at work in the days of Paul and John according to their own testimony; (b) that it will reach its highest power towards the end of the world; (c) that Daniel pictures the political, Paul the ecclesiastical, and John in the book of Revelation both sides of it: the two may be successive revelations of the anti-Christian power; and (d) that probably this power will finally be concentrated in a single individual, the embodiment of all wickedness.

L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938). 702.

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Amillennialism, eschatologyKim RiddlebargerAntichrst Comments