Pete's Blog

Kim Riddlebarger (a guy, not a girl), a pastor who's best known (which is a relative statement since relatively few know him) for his work studying eschatology, in particular, defending amillennialism, wrote a funny blog entry today. He comments that Rick Warren has released some new Purpose Driven materials, and quotes Warren as saying that they arrived just in time for the financial crisis for people to find hope in the tough times. Dr. Riddlebarger then implies that it's a money grab.

Anyway, Riddlebarger satirises Warren's announcement, writing an ad for his own books. There's one line in there which I think is hilarious. Here's an excerpt from the satire, and I've emphasized the parts which contribute to his great line:

In these days of economic uncertainty, a proper view of the end-times is a must. To help you navigate these perilous times the Riddleblog reminds you of the two books written by its proprietor. If these uncertain times have you worrying about your job, retirement savings, and 401K, you need to buy both my books (multiple copies to give to all your friends and family) which will help you know what is going on, and will also ensure that I don't have to worry about these things. [Emphasis and hyperlink added.]

If you read the full post, you'll notice that Dr. Riddlebarger comes down very hard on Rick Warren. Just so you know that I wouldn't drink Jim Jones' kool-aid (i.e., that I don't automatically believe or agree with everything certain people say), I'd like to point out that Dr. Riddlebarger's approach doesn't seem to demonstrate Christian love. Rick Warren might have a low view of repentance (at least in application, probably not in word) and he might have a differing view of God's sovereignty than my own, but I don't have any reason to doubt that he's genuinely interested in the salvation of lost souls through his materials. If Dr. Riddlebarger does, he doesn't present it in this post. I think that he should give Warren the benefit of the doubt. (I made my thoughts aware on his blog post.)

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I highly recommend a lecture that Dr. Riddlebarger delivered where he gives a couple of the best arguments for amillennialism. He also runs through a few of the objections that come up from this system. The lecture's about an hour long and then there's about ten minute's worth of questions and answers. He starts off with a long introduction, talking about the dangers of dispensationalism, the existence of popular dispensationalist materials and scholarly dispensationalist materials, his own books, and other stuff. It's good, maybe a bit repetitive, but if you only want to hear him talk about amillennialism, start at 23:43.