Well, we are living in the end times. We are living in the final chapter of redemptive history according to scripture because Christ was the first fruit from the dead. See 1 Corinthians chapter 15. The new creation has now broken into the old creation. And to talk about this theme in this episode, we have a question today about a theologian named George Eldon Ladd, who was born in 1911 and died in 1982 at the age of 71.

The question comes to us from a listener named Matthew. Dear Pastor John, I've been reading a lot of books recently by a professor from Fuller Seminary I'm sure you're familiar with, Dr. George Eldon Ladd. I'm intrigued by his writings, but I don't know what to make of his theological leanings, whether or not he is an evangelical.

What is your opinion on Ladd? Did you ever have him as a professor, and how did he shape your theology today? Well I totally did not expect a question like this, and I'm so happy to have it. Because I don't hesitate, Matthew, to say that I'm thrilled that you are reading George Ladd.

I really am. I knew George Ladd personally as my professor in the days when I was at Fuller Seminary from '68 to '71. That's a previous century. That's 1968 to '71. I took his basic course on New Testament theology, which became that book New Testament Theology, and was in his home for discussion at least once.

He was, as many evangelicals were back in those days, a kind of broken man with many personal flaws, but I had an affection for him, still do, because of what he taught me. I totally regard him as an evangelical. In fact, I would say he was a conservative evangelical, and one who would affirm all the so-called fundamentals of the faith, even though he himself would not want to be called a fundamentalist.

He was what was being called in those days neo-evangelicals, who were trying to distance themselves from fundamentalism in the sense of engaging with frontline Christian scholarship and cultural involvement. What I mean when I call him an evangelical, just to put clear meat on the bones, is, number one, he believed in the inerrancy of the Bible, he believed in the substitutionary work of Christ on the cross, where God actually propitiated His own wrath against sinners so that we could be justified by faith alone.

He believed in the necessity of hearing the gospel in order to be saved, and that people must be born again in order to escape hell, which was real and conscious eternal torment. He believed in the necessity of good works as a demonstration of faith, and the necessity of preaching the gospel to all the nations so that they'd have a chance to believe and be saved.

I know personally he believed all of those things. So let me just mention a few other things about him so that you can get your bearings as you read and know what you're in for, or what the wider perspective is on some of the things you're seeing, maybe. Ladd's book, which bears the present title "The Presence of the Future," used to be called "Jesus and the Kingdom." When it first came out and I read it, it was called "Jesus and the Kingdom." That book, in answer to your question, "What Kind of Influence?" was a path-breaking book to describe the pervasive nature of eschatology in the New Testament.

What I mean by that is that eschatology is not simply what happens in the future at the end of the age, but since Christ, the Messiah expected for the end of the age, has come and has broken into the present age, brought the kingdom of God to the present, he brought the future into the present so that all of life is eschatological.

The future is here, because the present participates in the already of the kingdom, but the not yet of the consummation. That's the paradigm that has shaped virtually everybody in biblical studies in the last 50 years. He wasn't the only one who spoke it, but I think he was one of the decisive voices for creating that kind of mindset that is virtually in every seminary in the country.

Everybody talks in terms of the already of the kingdom and the not yet of the kingdom, which is absolutely right to talk about. Here's a second thing. Ladd wrote a very important book called The New Testament and Criticism, in which he tried to show how an evangelical can make a judicious use of contemporary critical methods of Bible study without undermining the doctrine of inerrancy.

Third, Ladd was perhaps best known among conservatives because of his strong affirmation of premillennial eschatology and post-tribulational return of Christ. In other words, he did not believe that the church would be raptured out of the world, followed then by a period of tribulation, followed by the second coming. Rather, he believed that the next major event on God's eschatological calendar, after the revealing of the man of sin and 2 Thessalonians 2 and a great period of tribulation, that the next big thing is the second coming, when Jesus would establish his earthly millennial kingdom for a thousand years, after which Satan would be released, there would be a great final battle, and then the inauguration of the final state of the new heavens and the new earth.

This is now called—has been called, anyway, for years—historic premillennialism. And I found the arguments compelling in those days, and as I've tried to continue to weigh them, I still find them compelling, so I'd be happy to be a Ladd-like premillennialist today. I could wish—one more thing—I could wish that every believer today—we're talking, what, how many years since he passed away?

Fifty-plus years, maybe? I can't remember when he passed away. I could wish that every believer would read his New Testament theology. Oh, what a wonderful education would lie in store for the person willing to put in the effort. And it's not too demanding. If you can read Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology, you can read Ladd's New Testament theology.

It does not presume Greek and Hebrew. So I think Ladd's New Testament theology is accessible, and I congratulate you on discovering this man who flourished in the middle of the 20th century, and I think the Church needs his teaching today. Well, that is high applause. Wow. Thank you, Pastor John, for going back into your history and sharing that with us, and thank you for listening and making the podcast a part of your week.

You can subscribe to our audio feeds and search our past episodes in our archive and even reach us by email with a question of your own, even questions that relate to authors and books and folks who have influenced Pastor John in the past. You can do all of that through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

We are going to return on Friday, and I think, if I remember correctly, it's a Bible reading question from a very busy man with a job and a wife and kids who has such a limited time in the Word each day. He wants to know if there are any shortcuts to Bible reading and how deep you must go each day to benefit from reading.

It's a really good question for busy dads. It's a really good question for busy moms. It's a really good question for busy students. Anybody who feels the time crunch on their Bible reading, it's going to be, I believe, an important discussion. That is on Friday, I think. It's coming up.

At some point that question is coming up. I think it's on Friday. Until then, I'm your host, Tony Reiki. Whatever's on Friday, I'll see you then. 1. What are some of the shortcuts to Bible reading? 2. What are some of the shortcuts to Bible reading? 3. What are some of the shortcuts to Bible reading?

4. What are some of the shortcuts to Bible reading? 5. What are some of the shortcuts to Bible reading? 6. What are some of the shortcuts to Bible reading? 7. What are some of the shortcuts to Bible reading? 8. What are some of the shortcuts to Bible reading? 9.

What are some of the shortcuts to Bible reading?