uneasy eschatology - are some answers too simple?

The forefather of Evangelical thought, Carl F. H. Henry, wrote in God, Revelation, and Authority:

Evangelical expositors disagree over the question of a literal thousand-year earthly reign of Christ. One’s view of the millennium has sometimes been made a test of evangelical authenticity or fellowship, even though this was not the case either in apostolic times or in the larger course of church history. Surely the issue should not be given a prominence above that extended to eschatological priorities expressly affirmed by the ecumenical creeds. (6:504)

Some may look at this statement by Carl Henry and say “Look, if ever there was proof that the EFCA should drop its distinctly Premillennial view, it’s the very point that Henry was making in the early 1980’s.” But not so fast, if we make what the ecumenical creeds declare the standard of what we include (or in this case delete) from our test of fellowship we end up with something very different from our current Statement of Faith. Look in the early creeds for a specific statement regarding Penal-Substitution. Is it there? Maybe implicitly... But it wasn't until Anselm’s work was enhanced by 16th century Reformers that Substitutionary Atonement was fully articulated by theologians. Should we then strike Penal-Substitution from our SoF? By no means! The ecumenical creeds do not deal adequately with the challenges that Christendom has faced in the centuries of thought and criticism that have followed them. For this reason they cannot exist as a test of what we include or delete from our Statement of Faith in the 21st Century.

The question of whether or not there should be a millenial position in our SoF deserves to be asked, but it should not be answered in this way. Considering all of the other changes being made to the SoF perhaps this is one that can be put on the backburner. An issue that has been embraced by so many in the EFCA for the last 50 years could probably stand to be analyzed by itself during a Mid-Winter with action being taken afterward toward either continued support of the Pre-Millenial position or a broader view like the one that the current draft revision proposes.