Premi who?

Sunday, in his sermon from Mark 13, the pastor mentioned the various views on the second coming: premillennial, amillennial, and postmillennial. It wasn’t the place, nor did he have the time, to explain these, so I thought I would take his cue and attempt a brief explanation and history of these different eschatological (you like that big word? It means “end times” or last days”) opinions or teachings.

First, Every true believer, Christian church and organization believes in the literal, personal, visible second coming of Christ as stated by the Apostles’ Creed:

"I believe…in Jesus Christ…who was crucified, dead, and buried; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead."

Second, All of this talk of pre-, a-, and postmillennial, is a discussion of the second coming as it relates to the kingdom of God, specifically Revelation 20:1-6, where we read, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The question is two-fold: (1) Will there be a literal kingdom of God on the earth that lasts a thousand years? and if so (2) Does Christ return before (pre) or after (post) this thousand year reign on earth?

Let me also point out that millennium is from the Latin word for thousand, mille. The Greek word is chilia: premillenniallism is chiliasm; premillennialists are chiliasts.

What I want to do is briefly explain each viewpoint, along with a short history of each. Obviously, I believe one of these to be the correct position, but I am striving to be as objective as possible. In case you don’t detect my opinion, I will state it at the end.

Premillennial

Premillennialism is the belief that Jesus will return before the Millennium, the thousand-year kingdom described in Revelation 20:1-6. It is based on a literal interpretation of Revelation 20:1–6. This was the prevailing view of the early church for the first 300 years. We find this in the writings of Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Barnabas, Papias, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and many more. They said this was the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles. It was a continuation of the Jewish understanding of the kingdom of God. They all expected to go through the tribulation and that final battle with the antichrist. They believed the kingdom would be the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies; and in the view of some, the church had replaced Israel. This is known as historical premillennialism. Premillennialism fell out of favor after AD 300 (see amillennial below), but never totally disappeared.

In the 1800s a man named John Nelson Darby developed a theology called dispensationalism. He introduced the idea that seven years before the visible return of Christ, there would be a secret coming of Christ to rapture the church. This is known as the pretribulation rapture. In 1909 Cyrus I. Scofield popularized dispensationalism and pretribulation premillinnialism through the publication of The Scofield Study Bible. This is the premillennial view that most of us are familiar with. 

Amillennial

The “A” means “no”, as in no millennial reign. This is somewhat misleading because amillennialism does believe in the kingdom of God, just not a literal, earthly kingdom. They believe Revelation 20:1-6 is symbolic of the current age, that Jesus is presently reigning from heaven, seated at the right hand of God the Father; that the millennium began with the resurrection of Jesus; that the Church is the kingdom. They believe in the second coming of Christ, and that this coming will bring the new heaven and new earth.

Justin Martyr (died AD 165), who was premillennial, said, "I and many others are of this opinion, and [believe] that such will take place, as you assuredly are aware; but, on the other hand, I signified to you that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise." I tend to think he was saying these others were amillennial, though of course, your guess is as good as mine!

Why did the premillennial view fade in popularity? For (at least) two reasons:

(1) The early church had become very anti-Jewish, and since chiliasm or millennialism was so tied to Jewish thought, it was rejected. This was also why the celebration of the resurrection (Easter) was separated from Passover; previously it was celebrated at the same time as Passover in much of the church.

(2) Allegorical interpretation had replaced literal interpretation. The millennial kingdom was considered too carnal, too physical, so it was replaced with a spiritual understanding of the kingdom.

The amillennial view was adopted by the Catholic church, and was embraced by the Reformers and the churches they started (Lutheran, Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist et al). This is probably the longest held view, and the one believed by the majority of Christians and churches throughout church history. 

Postmillennial

Postmillennialism teaches Christ will return after the millennium or 1,000 year reign of Christ. It teaches Jesus Christ established his kingdom on earth through his preaching and redemptive work in the first century and that he equips his church with the gospel, empowers the church by the Spirit, and charges the church to disciple all nations. Postmillennialism expects that eventually the vast majority of people living will be saved. Increasing gospel success will gradually produce a time in history prior to Christ's return in which faith, righteousness, peace, and prosperity will prevail in the affairs of men and of nations. After a thousand years (or so) of such conditions Jesus Christ will return visibly, bodily, and gloriously, to end history with the general resurrection and the final judgment, followed by the new heaven and new earth. Postmillennialism was a dominant theological belief among American Protestants who promoted reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries such as abolitionism and the Social Gospel. This is the newest, most recently (even though the 19th century seems like so long ago!!) introduced interpretation of the 1,000 years of Revelation 20.

So, where am I? I am a historical premillennialist. I believe the Bible teaches only one second coming - the personal, visible return of Christ in power and glory to set up his kingdom on the earth; that he will reign from Jerusalem for 1,000 years, as the prophets prophesied; after that the Great White Throne Judgment, followed by the New Heaven and the New Earth. Before he returns in glory, there will be the great tribulation (3 ½ years, not 7, but that’s a whole other post!) which we, the church, will go through, and have to do battle with the antichrist. At the coming of Christ Israel will be converted, the dead saints will be resurrected, and those who are alive and remain will be caught up with them (raptured) to meet the Lord in the air and return with him.