George Eldon Ladd

And I just got a minute or two, three minutes here to go, but I'll, I'll mention them if you want to read them on this issue, if you want to get more clarification.

One was "The Blessed Hope" by, by, uh, Ladd, L-A-D-D, George Eldon Ladd, "The Blessed Hope." And the other one was "The Church and the Tribulation" by...

I always have a hard time remembering his name.

Maybe Na- Amy can help me on this one, but [chuckles] he's the brother of my publisher at Zondervan, "The Church and the Tribulation." Uh, oh, I almost had it.

Uh, what is historic premil- premillennialism?

Well, the, the term was popularized by a George Eldon Ladd, uh, writing in the 1950s.

Um, Ladd wrote, uh, one book in particular called The Blessed Hope-

Hmm

I understanding this correctly, that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is to be associated with the kingdom of God, and that who would I listen to, or who would you recommend I hear? I know a lad or somebody was a teacher on the kingdom of God, but that's my two questions.

Yeah, George Eldon Ladd wrote on the gospel of the kingdom and so have many authors, including myself.

I don't know if you know, I wrote a two-volume work on the kingdom of God called Empire of the Risen Son, books one and two, which I consider to be the most comprehensive work on the subject because I don't write many books.

And when I do, I always try to, before I write a book, I check to see if somebody else has already written the book I'm going to write.

So am I understanding this correctly that, uh, that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is to be associated with the Kingdom of God, and that who would I listen to or who would you recommend that I hear? I know Ladd or somebody was a teacher on the Kingdom of God, but that's my two questions.

Yeah, George Eldon Ladd wrote, wrote on the Gospel of the Kingdom, and so have many authors, including myself.

I don't know if you know I've wrote, I wrote a two-volume work on the Kingdom of God called, uh, Empire of the Risen Son, Books 1 and 2, which I consider to be the most comprehensive work on the subject because I, I don't write many books, and when I do, I always try to, before I write a book, I check to see if somebody else has already written the book I'm gonna write, you know? [laughs] I wanna s- wanna see if...

I don't wanna reinvent the wheel, you know? And, uh-

I've made the argument repeatedly that day doesn't mean 24 hours, a period of judgment.

I would agree that with, say, George Eldon Ladd, who's thinks differently than me on a lot of things when it comes to Revelation, but I agree with him that the trumpets and bowls cluster toward the very end, and the seals span church history.

The seals are diff- distinct from the trumpets and the bowls in that the, the seals are not parallel to them.

The trumpets and the bowls parallel almost across the board like the first trumpet and the first bowl, and the second trumpet and the second bowl.

Well, let me give you the words of a man who's already gone to heaven.

George Eldon Ladd was the prophecy eschatological teacher at Fuller Theological Seminary here in California.

George Ladd has a huge book, Commentary on Revelation.

And on this passage, George Ladd says, and he was a post-tribulationalist, He said, if the King James and New King James translated this verse correctly, then we all must be pre-tribulationalists.

So these promises can be understood through the New Testament and fulfilled differently or as exclusive spiritual realities associated with Christ and the church.

So Vlock refers to George Ladd, and I want to put up this quote on the screen because I think it's helpful in thinking through how this might look.

Okay, so this is Vlock quoting Ladd here, and he says, "...the Old Testament must be interpreted by the New Testament.

In principle, it is quite possible that the prophecies addressed originally to literal Israel describing physical blessings have their fulfillment exclusively in the spiritual blessings enjoyed by the church." it is also possible that the old testament expectation of a kingdom on earth could be reinterpreted by the new testament altogether of blessings in the spiritual realm all right so notice that this is exactly what Vlock was describing.

Here you have George Ladd, who's basically saying, we need to acknowledge that it's possible the New Testament is reinterpreting these things and applying them completely spiritually.

So although this is kind of downplayed by people right now, at least they don't claim these words.

I mean, Ladd just goes out and says, yeah, New Testament can reinterpret the old sometimes.

In the decades that followed the Council of Trent, Jesuit theologian Francisco Ribera claimed that the papacy couldn't possibly be the Antichrist, because the Antichrist would be a single figure that would arise at the end of time.

20th century Protestant theologian George Eldon Ladd commented on Ribera's work, saying this, In 1590, Ribera published a commentary on the Revelation as a counterinterpretation to the prevailing view among Protestants, which identified the papacy with the Antichrist.

Ribera applied all of Revelation but the earliest chapters to the end time rather than to the history of the church.

Antichrist, he taught, would be a single evil person who would be received by the Jews and who would rebuild Jerusalem.

He looks you in the eyes and says, today, I'm going to bring the life of God into your life.

George Eldon Ladd, who is a great theologian, He puts it this way.

Jesus' message of the kingdom of God is the announcement by word and deed that God is acting.

God is manifesting dynamically his redemptive will in history.