Max King (theologian)
Max R. King (born 1930) is the founder of the school of thought known as transmillennialism. King was a minister in the Churches of Christ for 40 years before developing transmillennialism.[1][2]
King created a field of theology that he termed "covenant eschatology". He contended that Biblical eschatology was not related to the end of the space-time universe, but to the transition of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. King offered a unique interpretation concerning the millennium as found in Revelation 20 as pertaining to the forty-year period from 30-70 AD. He called this time "the transition period" from Old Covenant to New Covenant. In King's view, this transition opened the way for the full presence of God to dwell with all of humanity. To describe this relationship, King coined the phrase "Comprehensive Grace".
King's transmillennialism emerged in the late 1990s as an alternative to dispensational premillennialism, amillennialism or postmillennialism. It differentiated itself from Reformed preterism and Christian reconstructionism in view of postmodern issues facing the emerging church and the need to forward its scholarship in the context of historical Jesus studies. In King's view, the covenantal transformation of the first century serves as a model for personal, organizational and societal transformation today. King's first major book, The Spirit of Prophecy, was published in 1971. He published a monthly print journal, The Living Presence, for 15 years; it is currently available in electronic format. King's annual "Covenant Eschatology Seminar" spanned the 1990s and continues today as the "Transmillennial" national conference. Some of King's other major works include Old Covenant Israel and New Covenant Salvation and The Cross and The Parousia of Christ.
King lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. His organization is Presence International.
His son, Tim King, is president and CEO of the David Group.[3]
Full preterism
Presence International, a non-profit organization based in Colorado Springs, holds annual conferences that teach that all prophecy was fulfilled, including the Second Coming of Christ, the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgement, by the year A.D. 70 at the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. With the New Covenant fully established, all of humanity has been reconciled with God. This view of Universal reconciliation is referred to as comprehensive grace.
References
- ↑ King, Tim R. (2003). Give me this mountain: The story of Presence Ministries. Colorado Springs: Bimillennial.
- ↑ Foster, Douglas Allen, Dunnavant et al. The encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell movement: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004 “Strict Preterism, of "Transmillenialism" is a twentieth-century minority position among Churches of Christ espoused by Max King, his son Tim, and a small number of Churches of Christ in Ohio. This view holds "that AD 30 to 70 represented the millennial reign of Christ, and that this Last Days period transformed all things and ushered in the covenental kingdom" p306
- ↑ Theooze.tv Webcast interview by Tim King