The Millennial Kingdom
The fall interrupted God’s creation blessing and mandate for mankind. Because of his disobedience, Adam could no longer exercise his vice-regency in the way God had intended. Any exercise of that original dominion became and continues to be incomplete and imperfect. The psalmist refers to that high and lofty role
The fall interrupted God’s creation blessing and mandate for mankind. Because of his disobedience, Adam could no longer exercise his vice-regency in the way God had intended. Any exercise of that original dominion became and continues to be incomplete and imperfect. The psalmist refers to that high and lofty role
As a result, futuristic premillennialism expects a literal fulfillment of all physical, national, land, and spiritual blessings in the Bible, including those to Israel and the nations.
The identity of Israel in the Bible always includes physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In fact, all seventy-seven uses of Israel in the New Testament refer to ethnic Israel. Sometimes the term Israel is used of believing Jews only (Rom. 9:6; Gal. 6:16), but it is never used to speak of a spiritual community regardless of ethnicity. Also, the church is never called Israel. For example, in the book of Acts, Luke refers to the church nineteen times and to Israel twenty times, but he never calls the church Israel. This compellingly demonstrates God’s intention in keeping these identities distinct.
Futuristic premillennialism rejects all forms of replacement theology or supersessionism, in which the church is viewed as the replacement or fulfillment of promises to national Israel in such a way that removes the theological significance of Israel in God’s plans. It affirms the great importance of the church in God’s kingdom purposes but looks forward to a future fulfillment of God’s covenant promises to Israel and the nations in a future millennial kingdom.
Amillennialism asserts that the millennium of Revelation 20 is being fulfilled spiritually in this present age between the two comings of Jesus and has nothing to do with an actual thousand years. The term amillennialism is somewhat misleading. The prefix a means “no.” But those who hold to amillennialism are not saying that there is no millennium. Instead, they claim that the millennial reign of Jesus and the saints is being realized now. Thus, the millennium is currently occurring.
For amillennialists, Satan is bound in this age in the sense that he was defeated at the cross by Christ and is unable to stop the spread of the gospel to the nations. And the saints of God are currently reigning with Jesus.
Amillennialism has problems that disqualify it. First, it is an overspiritualized position and does not adhere to a consistent use of grammatical-historical interpretation. Without exegetical warrant, it transforms physical and national promises to Israel into spiritual promises for the church and holds that the church has become the new or true Israel.
Premillennialism teaches that the period immediately before Christ’s return will be the worst in human history; postmillennialism teaches that before His return will come the best period in history, so that Christ will return at the end of a long golden age of peace and harmony. (Most postmillennialists deny that the Millennium will last for one thousand actual years; they arbitrarily view that number as symbolic of a long period of time.)
postmillennialism teaches that before His return will come the best period in history, so that Christ will return at the end of a long golden age of peace and harmony. (Most postmillennialists deny that the Millennium will last for one thousand actual years; they arbitrarily view that number as symbolic of a long period of time.)
“The millennium to which the postmillennialist looks forward is thus a golden age of prosperity during this present dispensation, that is, during the Church Age” (Loraine Boettner, “Postmillennialism,” in The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views Robert G. Clouse, ed. [Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity, 1977], 117). That golden age, according to postmillennialism, will result from the spread of the gospel throughout the world and the conversion of a majority of the human race to Christianity. Thus “Christ will return to a truly Christianized world” (Boettner, “Postmillennialism,” 118). The millennial kingdom, according to postmillennialists, will be established by the church, not by the personal intervention of Jesus Christ. Nor will Christ reign personally on earth during the Millennium, but rather through His church.
Postmillennialism also struggles in its understanding that Satan is bound in this present age. It wrongly affirms that the reign of the saints described in Revelation 20:4 is occurring today. These structural problems make postmillennialism unsustainable.
Premillennialism follows the clear sequential chronology of John’s apocalypse and asserts that the kingdom of Revelation 20:1–7 occurs on earth after the second coming of Jesus described in Revelation 19:11–21 but before the eternal state of Revelation 21:1–22:5.
Premillennialism also teaches that a thousand years separate the first and second resurrections of Revelation 20:5, Revelation 20:4 states that martyrs for Christ “came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years,” but Revelation 20:5 then declares, “The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.” Premillennialism holds that these two resurrections are bodily resurrections from the dead that are separated by a thousand-year period. The order is (1) a bodily resurrection of the saints; (2) a thousand-year period; and (3) a bodily resurrection of the lost.
The language of 20:1–3 indicates a dramatic incarceration of the person Satan in a specific location—the Abyss. Much more than a curtailing of Satan’s deceptive activities, this is the incarceration of Satan himself. The binding of Satan is not occurring today.
Third, the reign of the saints mentioned in Revelation 20:4 best fits with a future kingdom reign after Jesus’s second coming. This passage says that the martyred saints “came to life,” which refers to physical resurrection. These saints first appeared in Revelation 6:9–11 as those who were killed for their testimony for Jesus. Coming to life means the resurrection of the body for these faithful saints, and since physical resurrection has not yet occurred, “came to life” in Revelation 20:4 refers to resurrection after the return of Jesus. Also, Revelation 5:10 affirms the coming reign of the saints on earth—“they shall reign on the earth.” However, the experience of the church in this age is persecution, not reigning (Revelation 2–3). Reigning is held out as a motivation for those who endure until Jesus returns (Rev. 2:26–27).
God created the first Adam to rule from and over the earth. Adam failed, but Christians now look to the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) to succeed where the first Adam failed. Man’s task from Genesis 1:26–28 was to rule from the earth and over the earth. In the premillennial scenario, this is exactly what Jesus does. He successfully rules from earth over the earth with an extended reign that is recognized by all. When Jesus does this, he then hands the kingdom over to God the Father so that the eternal kingdom can commence (1 Cor. 15:24, 28). Those who belong to Jesus are also destined for a kingdom reign on the earth. Persecution on earth is the norm for the saints in this age, but a time is coming when the saints will rule in the realm where they are currently persecuted (Dan. 7:26–27; Rev. 2:26–27; 5:10).