Broken Theological Priorities
In certain countries it comes to meet an eccentric interest in the superficial, visible, curiosity-attracting events in eschatological perspective. The evil is not so much an evil in itself: it is a malformation or over-rank outgrowth drawing to itself a surplusage of religious interest, at the expense of what is more essential and vital in the eschatological sphere. The resulting evil lies largely in the deficit thus caused in the appraisal of other eschatological processes far overshadowing in importance this one feature, at least to the normally-constituted Christian mind. Its tendency towards eclipsing views more important than itself has done much harm. It is not an uncommon experience at the present day for one who expresses dissent from Chiliasm to be met with the question, Are you then, an unbeliever in βthe second coming?β In other words the subject of eschatology in its broad and tremendous significance has vanished from the field of vision, the delusion has been created that eschatology and Chiliasm are interchangeable, the species has usurped the place of the genus, which is to be regretted, altogether apart from the question whether acceptance of the species is in accordance with the biblical data or not.
Geerhardus Vos, The Pauline Eschatology (Princeton, NJ: Geerhardus Vos, 1930), 227-228
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