On Earth as it is in Heaven

Documentary

2020 / 112 minutes
Rating: 8/10

This is a great, free, introduction to Postmillennialism, a particular view about how God will bring about the end of the world.

In talking about "Postmil," the documentary also compares and contrasts it with other popular "eschatological" or "end times" views, including Amillennialism and Premillennialism. There are big differences between these three, but they all get their names from the Millennium, a thousand-year period mentioned repeatedly in Revelation 20, starting with the chapter's opening verses:

"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while."

In brief what the three camps believe is:

Premillennialists: Christ will return before (or "pre") this thousand year period. There are two main divisions in this group, between Historic premillennialists (which would include John Piper) and Dispensationalists which include Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind series.

Amillennialists: The Millennium is symbolic, not literal (the "a" in Amillennial means "not") so it isn't a specifically one thousand year period. It is understood to be happening right now, with Satan bound after Christ's First Coming, and it will end with Christ's Second Coming.

Postmillennialists: Christ will return after the thousand years have passed, when the whole world has been Christianized.

Of these three, the most popular is Premillennialism, though not in our Reformed circles which is split between the other two, with the larger group being the Amills.

I don't have a poll to back this, but I think it'd be safe to say the largest group of Christians don't really hold to any end times view, with most of us skipping over the Book of Revelation altogether. That's what makes this documentary essential viewing. God has a lot to say about his plans for this Earth and how He will bring about His triumphant return, so even if some confusion exists, we should be eager to listen.

On Earth as it is in Heaven has at least three major themes.

1. It's a historic understanding

In making the argument for Postmil, the documentary spends most of its against time addressing Dispensationalism, a subset of Premillennialism. 

In one clip from Larry King's CNN show, we see Dispensationalist Tim LaHaye argue that his view is the literal view. Many readers are likely young earth creationists who would also describe themselves as holding to a literal view of the Bible. Does that mean we should be Dispensationalists too? Well, what LaHaye means by literal isn't what we mean by literal. Kenneth Gentry explains that reading the Bible literally shouldn't mean interpreting the Bible's 66 books all the same way – it would be a mistake to read poetry, parables, allegory, hyperbole, and other genres the Bible uses, all in a literalistic fashion. We'll treat the opening chapters of Genesis as literal history, but when Wisdom is referred to as a woman in Proverbs 8, we understand her to be a symbol. One problem with Dispensationalism is that it frequently treats what is meant to be symbolic as being literal.

Another problem is that while there is a historic type of Premillennialism, the more popular Dispensationalism has a very recent origin, going back just a couple hundred years. In contrast, we're told of Postmil's historic roots, and how it was popular among the Puritans. Other notable Reformed theologians like Jonathan Edwards, and more recently, James White, were also postmillennial.

2. It's an optimistic outlook

The film delves into a lot of texts, including the one its title comes from in the Lord's Prayer. Matt. 6:10 reads:

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

On Earth as it is in Heaven.

One way to summarize the film is as an exploration of how this petition is to be understood. Jesus instructed us to pray this, but why then are we often pessimistic about God's kingdom, and His will, being accomplished here on Earth? Yes, we know His kingdom will reign eventually – at Christ's final coming Heaven and Earth will both follow God's will perfectly. But is that all that this petition is about? Or is it a request that we're making to God about now too, and the future, and at Christ's return?

To put it another way, do we believe we are living in a post-Christian age or a pre-Christian age? Most believers seem to think things are getting worse and worse. However, as texts are explored, the film provides a biblical basis for an optimistic understanding of how God's Gospel will triumph here on Earth. Rather than living among the last vestiges of a formerly Christian culture, God's good news will be preached and will spread, disciples will be made, and the world will turn to God in repentance.

3. It's God as King, not the Church

On Earth also offers an important clarification about the Postmil expectations for this coming Kingdom of God. It is not going to be the Church ruling the State. It will instead be the Church teaching and discipling Christians, and those Christians then seeking to serve God and obey His will in every aspect of their lives... including the civic realm. So after a country turns to God they would forbid abortion because God says "You shall not murder" (Ex. 20:13). But this wouldn't be the Church ruling the State, but rather God's rule over the State finally being recognized.

Caution

While the film tries to be fair, it is making a case for one particular view. So if this is your first exposure to end-times discussions, you should note the advice Prov. 18:17 presents, and seek out further information.

One great resource, as mentioned in the film, is Steve Gregg's Revelation: Four Views, A Parallel Commentary, in which commentary for four different end-times views are listed for each verse of Revelation. Another helpful introductory book is Darrell L. Bock's Three Views of the Millennium and Beyond, where he's enlisted defenders of Pre, Post, and Amillennialism to debate and discuss their differing views.

If you'd prefer audio/video to a book, then you'll like "An Evening of Eschatology" that John Piper hosted about a decade back. His two-hour round-table talk featured three different end-times views: Jim Hamilton for Historic Premillennialism (the view that Piper also shares), Sam Storms for Amillennialism, and Douglas Wilson for Postmillennialism.

Conclusion

Will you be convinced? Well, in my own case this is the start of an exploration and not the end, so I certainly appreciate the many texts cited. This is a documentary to watch with your Bible in hand, and your remote's pause button at the ready.

My own interest in eschatology is related to the fruit I've seen that follows the different views. As the film shows, the pessimistic Dispensational view lends itself to only short-term thinking. If the world could end at any moment, then why spend time building Christian institutions and infrastructure for the future? Or as was said, who polishes the brass on a sinking ship? I remember a story about a Bible college president explaining why they had built their campus with wood, rather than stone – they didn't want to give the pagans stone buildings. His presumption was that his institution would eventually be lost to the world.

The Amill view most prevalent in my own Reformed churches is generally pessimistic but hasn't abandoned Kingdom-building projects. That might be most evident in the Christian schools we've built everywhere we have a congregation. They might not be stone, but there's a lot of sturdy cinder block being used! However, if we think the world is going to get worse, then why are we "polishing the brass"? Maybe the answer is our assurance of Christ's ultimate victory. It might also be in keeping with a thought, attributed to Martin Luther (probably incorrectly), that if the Lord was returning tomorrow, it would still be worth planting an apple tree today because it could still be done to God's glory.

If we're keeping God's glory first in our minds then there is a sense in which our end-time views don't matter nearly as much. Whether pessimistic Amill or optimistic Postmill, if either are focussed on glorifying God they may well engage with culture, build businesses, and start up schools in ways that are nearly indistinguishable from each other.

And yet, the fruit of Postmil's optimistic outlook can be seen in the lives of a David Livingstone, who explored Africa with the thought of preparing the way for the missionaries that would follow him years later. His work was for a future he expected to happen – God's Word spread and gratefully received throughout Africa – but which he knew he wouldn't live to see. His goal was to be a small part of a long-term strategy for successful Kingdom building.

Where our end-time views might also be relevant is in our weakness. Humanly speaking, if a fight comes to us, and we're convinced we're bound to lose, doesn't it make sense to delay the fight for as long as we can, to put off defeat for as long as possible? That's where pessimism can take us, to a shameful "peace in our time" approach that hands off our battles to our children. That's the temptation we'll need to watch out for any time government or other cultural forces come after our churches, our schools, or our families. Instead of defeatism, we'll need to fix our eyes on God and realize that we can glorify Him by fighting for what is right, whether we win or lose. Of course, the Postmil believer has his own sinful tendency to watch out for. Believing that Christians can actually win some or most of these battles, he might be liable to start unnecessary fights.

The most important point then is to never lose sight of God's glory: that is the reason we were created, and it is our privilege to proclaim His Gospel. Whatever we think of the end times, all Christians should be ultimately optimistic, knowing that Christ has already paid for our sins, already conquered death, and presently sits triumphant at the right hand of God the Father.

Calvinist

Documentary

89 minutes / 2017
RATING: 8/10

Calvinist is the story of a generation of young men and women who went searching for answers and found them in Reformed theology.

I found this a fascinating film because what they discovered is what I've always had as my birthright. I grew up in a Reformed home, attended a Reformed church, and went to a Reformed school, and it was the same for most of my friends and family. What was so very fun about Calvinist was the opportunity to see through new eyes, the knowledge of God that I had taken too much for granted.

The "young, restless, and Reformed" were a product of the late 90s and early 2000s – they had questions, and the Internet gave them access to all sorts of answers. When they googled "How do I know if I'm saved?" or "How do I know the Bible is true?" the best answers they found were by Reformed theologians like R.C. Sproul, John Piper, John MacArther, and more.

So this documentary serves at least three purposes:

1. It is a history of how God steered this questioning generation towards just what they needed to know Him. 
2. Calvinist also shares many of the answers these seekers were after. Producer Les Lanphere went to today's biggest name Reformers and and hit them with some of the biggest questions. So, in addition to learning some recent history, the audience learns timeless biblical truths. 
3. The film also introduces us to a host of solidly Reformed teachers. In addition to Sproul, Piper and MacArther, Lanphere talks to:

• Michael Horton
• Tim Challies
• Robert Godfrey
• Joel Beeke
• Paul Washer
• James White
• Carl Trueman
• Jeff Durbin
• ...and many more

That's an impressive, long list; Lanphere has put in the time and effort needed to make this a very special film.

That extra effort also comes out in all the slick transitions and special effects – this looks good! One fun bit is running gag of sorts. Lanphere used 80s-era computer game style graphics to animate and illustrate some points. So, for example, when discussing Roman Catholicism's "faith plus works" position, we see what looks like an old arcade game, and scroll through some possible "fighters" until the selection stops on Martin Luther.

An interesting tangent that's briefly explored is the impact Reformed Rap had on these young seekers. I watched this with a group of 20-somethings who had never heard of Timothy Brindle and Shai Linne and they were amused and maybe even a little shocked that "Rap" could be paired up with "Reformed." But is it really so surprising that a medium which gives primacy to the word would be a great one for communicating the deepest truths about God?

CAUTIONS

While all the Reformed teachers we're introduced to are quite conservative, they do have some differences among them that aren't ever discussed. The most notable concerns baptism – there's a roughly 50/50 divide among the speakers, with half believing in credo-baptism (Piper, MacArthur, Durbin, White, Challies) and the other half, infant-baptism (Sproul, Horton, Trueman, Beeke, Godfrey).

Other differences also exist, so while a discerning student can learn much from these men, discernment is indeed needed.

CONCLUSION

I've shared this film with two different sets of friends and everyone has really enjoyed it. This will be a hit with anyone 18 and up who has an interest in Reformed Theology. It probably won't convince a non-Reformed friend, but it will probably give the two of you a lot to talk about and explore further.

If you use it for a group movie night, consider having an ice cream and brownie break at maybe the one hour mark. There's just so much packed in here, that a break is needed to allow folks to think through and discuss what they've been seeing and hearing.

You can check out the trailer below, and further down you can see two YouTube videos that are featured prominently in the film because of the impact they had on the young, restless and Reformed generation.

You can buy Calvinist here.

How to Answer the Fool (free film)

Documentary
85 minutes, 2013
Rating: 8/10

“Why should I believe in God?”

That might seem the first, most obvious question we would have to know how to answer if we were going to hit the streets to tell people the gospel truth. But Romans 1 tells us otherwise. There we read that on some level everyone knows God exists – God has made Himself known through his creation. So, then, spending our time trying to argue for God’s existence simply isn’t fruitful. We are flattering the sinner, treating his ridiculous claim as if it was serious. As the apologist in this film, Sye Ten Bruggencate explains, if someone were to come up to us and say they didn’t believe in words, would we believe him? No, we would treat his foolish claims as just that.

So while some Christians do try to give reasons to believe in God and believe in the Bible, in How to Answer the Fool, Sye Ten Bruggencate wants to teach us how to skip right past that and instead talk to the unbeliever about how it is only by acknowledging God, and the Bible as his Word, that the world makes any sense.

This is a “presuppositional” approach to defending our Christian faith – an approach that starts with the Bible. It is the way Pastor Douglas Wilson also does apologetics, as demonstrated in the documentary Collision, but whereas Wilson focuses on morality – demonstrating that an atheist has no basis on which to complain about anything being wrong – Bruggencate focuses on the issue of reason here. He shows some rather bright atheistic university students that they have can’t justify their belief in reason. He makes his case so well that the students give up on reason, and start to argue that they actually know nothing. Sye attempts to guide the student into realizing how very foolish – how downright comical! – it is for a person paying thousands of dollars a year to learn to deny that they have ever, or could ever learn anything. He encourages them, to instead acknowledge the God who makes reason possible.

The mix of on the street exchanges, examples of famous evangelists doing evangelism wrong, and one on one clips/interviews with the “star” of this film, Sye Ten Bruggencate make this both entertaining and incredibly challenging. The only caution I would give for it is that while some approaches to evangelism flatter the sinner by treating his foolish claims as legitimate, presuppositional apologetics runs the risk of “flattening the sinner.” Sye shows how we can demolish foolish arguments, and we are indeed called to demolish these foolish arguments. But we must do so in love, and loving demolition is a tricky task, and one that must be taken on with care. I would recommend this film as the best instructional film on presuppositional apologetics, and Douglas Wilson's Collision as the better example of doing it winsomely.

It is a must-see film – one that should be used in all our schools, and one that should be seen by every member of our churches, though preferably in a setting where the film can be discussed, and the very real risk of “flattening the sinner” considered.

Counterfeit Counseling

A comparison of counseling philosophies

Lecture

60 minutes, 2012 

Rating: 8/10

A good friend with a bad father was, as a young man, sent by his church to a local Christian counseling center to get help controlling his anger. But instead of addressing what he could do about his anger, the counselor had my friend talk again and again about how bad his father was. There might have been some need for the counselor to get a basic understanding of my friend's history, but there was no need for the counselor to encourage him to repeatedly rehash the sins of his father. This was a violation of the fifth commandment and something that simply should not have been part of any Christian counseling.  But as Bard Bigney explains in this DVD lecture, most of what goes by the name of Christian counseling is nothing but secular psychology baptized with a few Bible verses. 

Many years ago, after planting a church, Bigney was overwhelmed by the number of people who needed help with their problems. So he went looking for a good counseling center he could partner with.

I went to the YellowPages.... picked out a dozen or 15 Christian counseling ministries.... And I made myself a list of good questions..... "What is your understanding of man's condition, from birth?" You would be shocked at what Christian counselors were saying! Why? Because they've been trained more in psychology and Freud and Maslow and Skinner than God's Word.... And they would say, "basically good." I'd say, "Basically good? That's not what the Bible says!"