Professor: Dr. Cornelis P. Venema (USA)
Time: September 4 – 9, 2025

Schedule:

Friday, September 4 – 18:00 – 21:00
Saturday, September 5 – 9:00-12:00
Monday, September 7 – 18:00 – 21:00
Tuesday, September 8 – 18:00 – 21:00
Wednesday, September 9 – 18:00 – 21:00

Place: Brivibas gatve 291, Riga. Registration necessary for participation.
Language: English, with simultaneous translation channel in Russian (on Zoom).

COURSE DESCRIPTION

A theological study of the doctrine of eschatology or the last things. A study of personal and general eschatology, including attention to death, the return of Christ, the millennium, the resurrection, and the last judgment. An investigation of a Reformed approach to the doctrine of eschatology in the tradition of John Calvin, utilizing the classic confessions of the Reformed tradition and the writings of leading Reformed theologians. The course will include a comparison of a Reformed approach with alternative approaches in the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions.

ABOUT PROFESSOR

Cornelis P. Venema is the President and Professor of Doctrinal Studies at Mid-America Reformed Seminary, Dyer, Indiana.

He also serves as an Associate Pastor at Redeemer United Reformed Church in Dyer, and is co-editor of the Mid-America Journal of Theology and contributing editor of a column on doctrine for the monthly periodical The Outlook.

Venema, Ph.D, Princeton Theological Seminary, is the author of several books including The Promise of the Future  and The Gospel of Free Acceptance in Christ: An Assessment of the Reformation and New Perspectives on Paul.

He is married to Nancy, and they have four children. He has regularly taught at Baltic Reformed Theological Seminary since 1999.

COURSE REQIREMENTS

The work of the course will consist of completing the assigned readings, writing a paper, and taking a final examination.

• READING
  • (Preferably) Venema, Cornelis. “The Promise of the Future”. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2000. 512 pages
    ALTERNATIVELY
  • Venema, Cornelis. “Christ and the Future”. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2008. 216 pp.
  • Hoekema, Anthony A. “The Bible and the Future”, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994, 354 pp.
    Deadline: September 9 (by the end of the course)

• FINAL EXAM
  •  An exam on both lectures and textbook reading.
    A study guide will be provided in due time.
    Deadline: September 20
    
• COURSE PAPER
  • Each student will be expected to write a five-page paper on the biblical understanding of the “millennium” of Revelation 20:1-6. In the paper, the student should interact with the four major “millennial” views, and also state his/her own view
    Deadline: September 27

INFORMATION:

Andrejs Prieditis, e-mail: aprieditis@brts.edu.lv,
Phone: (371) 26177539.

COURSE OUTLINE:

1. To acquaint students with the traditional distinction between individual and general eschatology, and the respective topics treated in each division.
2. To identify and know the key biblical evidence relating to the topics of eschatology.
3. To acquaint students with the Reformed confessions’ teaching on the topics of eschatology.
4. To define such key eschatological concepts as: the structure of biblical eschatology, the intermediate state (terms: Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, paradise), amillennialism, historic premillennialism, dispensationalism, postmillennialism, signs of the times, the concomitants of Christ’s return (final judgment, heaven, hell, the new creation).
5. To identify and memorize the principal Scriptural texts and confessional articles that relate to the doctrine of eschatology.