*My roots are in the UPC, which has it origins in the A of G, so I am quite familiar. My late father was a UPC pastor for over fifty years and many of my family are still members.
How does Conditional Futurism and EU co-exists or was that your progression? I find futurism difficult and lean toward "Fulfilled eschatology.
Again thanks for the welcome I will check out your blogs.*
Hi Stream,
I’ll focus on eschatology here, but I’ll quickly note that UPC tends to be more legalistic than AOG and I’m currently a member of a Vineyard church. And Vineyard is casual with a strong belief in the Bible. “The Vineyard USA: THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL STATEMENTS” states belief in “Eternal Conscience Torture” while my pastor (also a Vineyard regional leader) allows me to differ with that point of theology as long as I’m not militant about it. And that’s the only point in “The Vineyard USA: THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL STATEMENTS” that I reject.
vineyardusa.org/site/files/about/theological-statements.pdf
If by now you’ve read the relevant articles in my blog, you might have a better idea about what I mean by Conditional Futurism. In general, all prophetic judgments including apocalyptic judgments are inherently subject to conditions. Specifically, genuine repentance alters the outcome prophetic judgments according to Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and other Old Testament prophets. I discovered this while working on a Bible study of Revelation and this discovery put me on the fence of Evangelical Universalism (EU). For example, I concluded that the final beast could repent and avoid the doom prophesied in Revelation. Sometime after that, I read about the widespread Early Church and Imperial Church interpretations of 1 Peter 3:18-20, 4:6 and temporary punishments in hell, which brought me to the point of no return to the AOG unless it changes it rejection of teaching about EU.
For many years, I’ve followed what George Eldon Ladd calls “Inaugurated Eschatology”. And I see that Inaugurated Eschatology makes the most sense of Messianic Prophecy. And this also works with my Conditional Futurism and EU.