3.

Spiritual Postmillennialism


This view states that the second coming of Christ is “post” or after the millennium. It requires for the most part a symbolic interpretation of the Scriptures. The millennium will be a literal period of 1000 years, but instead of it being the reign of Christ on earth, it will be the reign of the church on earth, which Christ reigning only in heaven, before He
returns to earth. There will be a time of universal peace, and acceptance of the Gospel –


Isa. 11:9 “They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”

Isa. 66:23 “From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me, says the LORD.”


This, they say, will be the realisation of the Kingdom of God on earth, so that the whole world will be practically Christianised, the Kingdom of God and the Church being the same thing. But in actual fact none of this can be realised until Jesus comes back to reign on earth.

They also believe that Satan will be bound increasingly as the Gospel is spread.

So in John 12:31 –“Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.”

But here Jesus is referring to the effects of His earthly ministry of miracles 2000 years ago. It is believed that Old Testament prophecies relating to the future of Israel are being fulfilled by the Christian Church. Some Jews will be converted, but there will not be a re-gathering of Israel to the Holy Land, the present return and setting up of modern Israel
being an ‘accident’ of history.


Satan will be released for a little while just before Christ returns, and the brief period of rebellion will be the Great Tribulation. So Rev. 20:7, 8 –

“When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth – Gog and Magog – to gather them for battler. In number they are like the sand on the seashore.”

Christ will return at the close of the millennial period after a brief time of tribulation on earth. Those Postmillennialists who accept the rapture believe that it and the resurrection will be two parts of the same event, there being no interval between them. Others do not accept the rapture at all, it being understood spiritually or symbolically. At Christ’s coming there will be one resurrection of everybody. The first resurrection in Rev. 20:1-6 is spiritual, being the rebirth of the soul in salvation, and the second resurrection is physical, being the resurrection of the body, in which all, saved and unsaved, participate. Everybody will be judged together before the great white throne – Rev. 20:11-15. The present earth and heaven will be dissolved and will give way to a new heaven and a new earth – 2 Pet. 3:10. This interpretation of the millennium has been the most widely accepted one through the centuries of the Church.




4.

Political postmillennialism

Over the Church age the belief has come and gone that Christians would one day take over the world. In recent times in the western world there has been a resurgence of this belief, especially in the Restorationist Movement, called the Reconstructionist Movement in America. The belief is part of what is called “dominion theology” and is charismatic in
nature. The redeemed are destined to rule the world in this present age; to set up a political kingdom in readiness for the return of Jesus. But this view regards Kingdom and Church as the same thing.


In this scheme Rev. Ch. 20 has a definite place. The “thousand years” is taken literally but as belonging to this age. It will be a period of Christian government throughout the world, but it will be achieved without the return of Jesus since He will come at the end of the period when the world is ready to receive Him. In this regard it is fundamentally different
to the premillennial view of the return of Jesus. Since this political millennium has not yet begun on earth, and since the return of Jesus
plays no part in it, the second coming fades into insignificance. Also the present state of the world would suggest that the reign of Christians on earth without Jesus’ return is a long way off.


5.


Classical Premillennialism


“Premillennium” means “before the millennium” and refers to Christ returning before the start of His thousand year reign. Premillennialists believe in the literal interpretation of all the scriptures concerned. The 1000 years in Rev. 20:4 is literal. By “classic Premillennialism” is meant that this is the traditional view which was held in the early centuries of the Christian Church. The Old Testament prophecies about the restoration of the nation of Israel are to be literally fulfilled, and those Jews living at the time of Christ’s return, or just before His return, will be saved –

Zech. 12:10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one who grieves for a firstborn son.”

Zech. 13:1 “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.”

Rom. 11:26 “And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.”

Jesus will reign in Person from Jerusalem over the nations of the world immediately following His Second Coming, this being the fulfilment of 2 Sam. 7:16 – “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.”

The millennium will be a period of universal peace and righteousness for all nations –

Mic. 4:3 “He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” There will be a restoration of peace and harmony between man and nature –

Isa. 11:6-9 “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”

All pagan religion will be destroyed –

Zech. 13:2 “On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more, declares the LORD Almighty. I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land.”

Satan will be locked up in the bottomless pit for 1000 years – Rev. 20:1-3.
At the end of the 1000 years Satan will be loosed for a little while and will organise the unsuccessful rebellion of Gog and Magog –

Rev. 20:3 “He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time…7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the
earth – Gog and Magog – to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.”

Satan will finally be judged and cast into the Lake of Fire to be tormented forever –

Rev. 20:10 “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

The first resurrection in Rev. 20:6 will be the resurrection of believers only. Some see this as coinciding with the rapture and others see the rapture as preceding the first resurrection by a long or short period of time depending on where the tribulation fits in.
The second resurrection in Rev. 20:5,13 is of the wicked, and it does not take place until the completion of the millennium.


6.

Dispensational Premillennialism


This form of Premillennialism goes back to JN Darby in 1830. (See Lecture 8, pages 1 & 2.) It takes Rev. Ch. 20 in much the same way as the Classical form does but everything
is set within the framework of seven “dispensations” or eras of history, the last of these being the millennium. It relates to the Kingdom which, it is said, Jesus offered to the Jews at His first coming but which they rejected. As a result the Church age had to take place,
as a kind of parenthesis within God’s programme, but at the end of the days the Church will be snatched away in the “secret rapture”, which, we are told, could happen at any moment. Then it will be that the kingdom of Israel will be fully restored. The temple will be rebuilt and sacrifices reintroduced.

But this separates the Jews from the Christian Church in the end times, which runs counter to Paul’s teaching about one “olive tree” in Rom. 11:17-26, and also Jesus’ statement about “one flock and one shepherd” in Jn. 10:16. The idea of a rebuilt temple and the resumption of animal sacrifices also goes against the teaching in the Book of Hebrews which argues that the death of Jesus on the cross has done away with the
sacrificial system of the Book of Leviticus (Heb. 8:13).

Unfortunately dispensational teaching is often thought to be a necessary part of the Premillennial view, and so both are rejected. Often Christians are unaware of Classical Premillennialism and that it was the position of the early Christian Church.

Adelaide College



My view is classical Premill, Just thought id show some of the views.

God bless