All Articles For Introduction

Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament History in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The Reformed Confessions (concluded) The last article—Article 37—of the Belgic Confession (1561) is devoted to the doctrine of the last things (the French original and an English translation are found in Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, vol. 3, Harper & Row, 1877; because of the length of the article and because copies of the creed are readily available, I do not quote the article in its entirety here). In this article, Reformed believers confess a future corporal and visible coming of Jesus Christ as Lord. His...

Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The Reformed Confessions   Any Reformed treatment of the doctrine of the last things must take the Reformed confessions into consideration. It must take these confessions into consideration from the outset. The reason is not only that these confessions, containing the wisdom of the church in the past, will be helpful, but also that the confessions are binding upon Reformed theologians. Although the confessions do not develop the truth of eschatology, they do draw the main biblical lines within which development must take place. The Reformed...

Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The abounding errors concerning the last things are by no means the only reason why eschatology must have a prominent place in the teaching of the church today. The truths of eschatology are a vitally important aspect of the content of Holy Scripture. It is a complete misunderstanding to suppose that the doctrine of the last things is merely a body of truth added at the end of a treatment of all the other doctrines of Scripture. Still worse was the omission of any separate treatment...

Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. If eschatology has been somewhat neglected by the church in the past, this is not, and may not be, the case today. Eschatology is forced upon the church’s attention by erroneous teachings about the last things. Some of these teachings are enormously popular among Protestants. Certain of them make inroads into Reformed and Presbyterian churches.   The Optimism of Liberalism   In the late 1800s and early 1900s, theological liberalism optimistically proclaimed the gradual perfection of the human race and its world by means of natural...