Heidelcast 176: As It Was In The Days Of Noah (20)—Be Not Surprised

Or Why Peter Was An Amillennialist

by Heidelcast on March 29, 2021

This series is a study of what Scripture says about eschatology, i.e., the relation of heaven to earth and last things. We began with a survey of what Scripture says generally and now we are working through 1 Peter. We have come 1 Peter 4:12–19. The Apostle Peter has been making the case that, “as it was in the days of Noah” (Luke 17:26), so it is in our day. He has been making the case throughout that Christians, by virtue of their dual citizenship, are, in certain important ways, refugees and aliens (2:11) because we are “elect exiles” (1:1). In 1:7 he has already hinted what he begins to explain now in more detail. Life between the ascension and return of Christ is often a life of suffering. This is a hard teaching for prosperous, upwardly mobile American (evangelical) Christians to accept but accept it we must because it is the teaching of Scripture. That Christians would and should suffer for the sake of Christ is a given in much of the world where the faith is openly opposed and oppressed. It was the experience of the apostolic church. Early church tradition has it that the apostle Peter was martyred upside on a cross and that the apostle Paul, as a Roman citizen, was beheaded outside of Rome. Christians were martyred in Rome under Nero as part of a cover-up of political corruption. They were martyred periodically, sometimes in large numbers in the second century and especially in the third century. In the Reformation, the Reformed churches especially suffered in England, France, and the Lowlands (e.g., Belgium and the Netherlands). From 1567–72 something like 30,000 to 40,000 Reformed Christians were put to death in France and the the Lowlands. Prosperity and positions of influence within the dominant culture has sometimes given Christians the mistaken idea that they are not at odds with the unbelief or that things will always be that way or perhaps even better until Jesus returns. The Apostle Peter begs to differ.

 

 

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