Toledo Conference on Eschatology

Friday night Terry and I drove to Toledo to attend the Toledo Reformed Theological Conference. We have gone quite a few times, and we knew it would be a lot of listening and sitting. In that respect, it is always a bit tiring. The conference this year was called, "How Long, O Lord?" It was actually lectures on three views of eschatology - Post Millennial View, A Millennial View, and Pre-Millennial View. It was my least favorite conference ever, but I did learn some things about other views that people have. Eschatology, unfortunately, is something that is hard to be dogmatic about because it is hard to prove any one view with any positive certainty. (oxymoron?) After hearing the two other views (in great detail) I still hold to the one I had originally, pre-millennialism. The other two, in my opinion leave out a lot of scripture and basically believe that we are now living in the millennium.

It is always good for me, though, to be reminded that Jesus Christ is going to return like he said. It may not be just how we envision it, or it may not be when we expect it or think it will happen, but he will return. He always keeps his promises! We need to live with that in mind every day, and we tend (or at least I do) to forget about it or just figure it is a long way off, so how does it affect me? It was good to look at the scriptures and be reminded that God keeps his word. No matter how crazy the world seems sometimes, God is still the same and his plan is still on schedule. It is also a good idea to realize that we just don't know everything. It makes us want to study more and learn more so that we can be more informed, but even then there are some things that we will just have to wait to find out. We can still be sure that he is coming because we know that God is faithful and true to his word. So, even though the conference was long and it was tedious listening to all the speakers, it was good to think again about Jesus' coming and how important it is to live each day like he is coming at any time...and it may be today!