In reply to:[color:"blue"]Are Calvinism and Premillennialism incompatible?
One of the most thorough refutations of premillennialism was written by the 19th century presbyterian, Dr. David Brown. His 1882 book, [i]Christ's Second Coming: Will It Be Premillennial?[/i] has never been sufficiently answered by premillennialists.
As for premillennialism being "incompatable with Calvinism", John Calvin himself dismissed the Chiliasm of his day saying "But a little later there followed the Chiliasts, who limited the reign of Christ to a 1000 years. Now their fiction is too childish either to need or to be worth a refutation. And the Apocalypse, from which they undoubtedly drew a pretext for their error, does not support them. For the number 1000 (Rev 20:4) does not apply to the eternal blessedness of the church, but only to the various disturbances that awaited the church, while still toiling on the earth." [i]Institutes[/i], Book 3, Chapter 25, para 5.
In Calvin's commentary on Acts 1:8, he said, "For when we apply to it the measure of our own understanding, what can we conceive that is not gross and earthly? So it happens that like beasts our senses attract us to what appeals to our flesh, and we grasp at what is at hand. So we see that the Chialists (i.e. those who believed that Christ would reign on earth for a thousand years) fell into a like error. Jesus intended to banish from the disciples' minds a false impression regarding the earthly kingdom: for that, as He points out in a few words, consists of the preaching of the Gospel. They have no cause therefore to dream of wealth, luxury, power in the world or any other earthly thing when they hear that Christ is reigning when He subdues the world to Himself by the preaching of the Gospel. It follows from this that His reign is spiritual and not after the pattern of this world."
Also, the premillennial Bible Presbyterian Church in 1938, had to [i]revise[/i] the puritan 1647 Westminster Confession of Faith to make it reflect their own distinctive premillennial viewpoint. The BPC is unique among presbyterian and reformed denominations in having a premillenial confession of faith. (most reformed denominations are either Postmillennial or Amillennial). The 1647 (and 1788) WCF itself is worded in such a way as to allow for both Postmill and Amillennial views, but not for premillennialism.
The 19th century southern presbyterian Theologian, R. L. Dabney had called premillennialism "heterodox" in his [i]Lectures on Systematic Theology[/i].
The great 20th century defender of the faith, J. Gresham Machen said in 1923, "The recrudescence of "Chiliasm" or "premillennialism" in the modern Church causes us serious concern. It is coupled, we think, with a false method of interpreting Scripture which in the long run will be productive of harm." ([i]Christianity and Liberalism[/i] p.44).
Yet the [i]postmillennial[/i] Machen did go on to say with great charity:
"Yet how great is our agreement with those who hold the premillennial view! They share to the full our reverence for the authority of the Bible, and differ from us only in the interpretation of the Bible. They share our ascription of deity to the Lord Jesus, and our supernaturalistic conception both of the entrance of Jesus into the world and of the consummation when He shall come again. Certainly, then, from our point of view, their error, serious though it may be, is not deadly error, and Christian fellowship, with loyalty not only to the Bible but to the great creeds of the Church, can still unite us with them." ([i]ibid[/i]).
Yet despite these charitable words of J. Gresham Machen from 1923, only 15 years later, his student, the premillennialist Carl McIntire and several of his premillennial colleagues such as Francis Schaeffer, had separated themselves from Machen's recently formed Orthodox Presbyterian Church. They went on to form the Bible Presbyterian Church mentioned at the beginning of this post. Eschatology wasn't the only issue in dispute, but it was one of the major issues at that time.
For a well documented survey of the many false date settings and false predictions of premillennialists, see the book, [i]Armaggedon Now!: The Premillennial Response to Russia Since 1917[/i]. See also the book, [i]Last Days Madness[/i] by Gary DeMar.
As for dispensationalism, Oswald T. Allis's 1945 book, [i]Prophecy and the Church[/i] remains unrefuted to this day.
Lastly, see [url=http://www.reformed.com/pub/milenium.htm][u]The Premillennial Deception: Chiliasm Examined in the Light of Scripture[/u][/url] by Rev. Brian Schwertley.
