Conditional Futurism in Sum

[Michael]

My eschatology turned upside down after I studied the Bible verses referenced in the F. Furman Kearley article “The Conditional Nature of Prophecy: A Vital Exegetical and Hermeneutical Principle”. For example, Hebrew prophets such as Jeremiah (18:5-10) and Ezekiel (33:12-16) clearly teach that the outcome of prophetic judgments are conditional. The word and purposes of the Lord never alter while the outcome of the word of the Lord can vary. When the Lord speaks a prophetic judgment against a nation or individual human, then genuine repentance of the nation or human will alter the outcome of the judgment. And this conditional nature of prophecy applied to all the divinely inspired prophetic judgments written in the canonical books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

And (even though unstated), the book of Jonah cannot be understood without “this conditional nature of prophecy.”

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:1-4.)

I’m pre-mil, and I take a futurist approach to end-time prophecy–but the possibilities you raise are very interesting (and I’ve often thought of them myself.)

Kearley also applies the conditional nature of prophecy to end-time prophecies. He says, “If the conditional element were accepted, this would constitute a giant step toward the unity of classical premillennialists, dispensationalists, amillennialists, and postmillennialists.”

I can see that, but let’s not forget that it must have looked very much like “the Kingdom of God” had come to earth when the Church turned from futurism to allegory (in the days of Constantine, “the first Christian Emperor.”)

I believe the Church Fathers who lived at that time (even though we look back on them as “amillennialists”) were postmillennialists, and I don’t believe history turned out the way they would have expected.

Nevertheless, reading along here has been fascinating.

Thank you.

[james.goetz]

Thanks, Michael. And in you read the Kearley article, you’ll see that he talks about the Jonah.