Premillennialism – Its Definition

The second way of understanding the millennium is called PREMILLENNIALISM, that is, the belief that Christ will return before (pre) the millennium. In considering premillennialism, however, we must realize that what is popularly called that today is really a very different thing. It is Dispensationalism. This will be considered later because it is characterized by an entirely different approach to Scripture. Usually, today, when churches advertise that they are premillennial, they mean dispensational.

What we are concerned with now is what might be called historic premillennialism. According to J.G. Vos,

Premillennialism is that view of the last things which holds that the second coming of Christ will be followed by a period of world-wide peace and righteousness, before the end of the world, called “the Millennium” or “the Kingdom of God,” during which Christ will reign as King in person on this earth.

Its History

This view has a long history in the church. Dr. D. H. Kromminga outlined this history, along with that of the other millennial views, in his The Millennium in the Church (1945). Of course, in the earliest years of the New Testament church premillennialism was not as developed as it is today. The Church Fathers: Irenaeus (115 to 142-200?), Justin Martyr (100?-165?) and Tertullian (160?–230?) all held to this view. Originally, it was simply a reflection on t he six days of creation and the seventh day of rest. The six days of creation represented the history of the world before the coming of Jesus Christ a second time. The seventh day represented the Millennial reign of Christ after His return. This reign, either in person or through His saints was to be a literal one thousand years. At the close of the millennia} sabbath the final judgment was to take place and the new creation would be here.

Peter Toon in his essay “Puritan Eschatology: 1600 to 1648,” in The Manifold Grace of God: Papers read at the Puritan and Reformed Studies Conference, 1968, reminds us that:

In spite of the condemnation made at Ephesus, and in spite of Augustine’s Amillennialism, a literalism lived on. In the days of the Reformation some believed in a literal one thousand year rule of Christ. Thus, Calvin would write: “Now to assign to Christ a thousand years, so that he would afterward cease to reign, were too horrible to be made mention of (Commentary on 1 Thess. 4:17; cf. Institutes, Bk. III. xxv, 5).” This literalism lived on among the Puritans, although usually they were literalists of the Postmillennial school. And it lives on today. No longer, as we have seen, are postmils literalists about the thousand years. Premils usually are, however.

The last fifty years have given us The Approaching Advent of Christ by Alexander Reese and The Second Coming of Christ by Henry Frost-both explanations of historic Premillennialism. In even more recent years, George Eldon Ladd of Fuller Seminary has given us some very perceptive works from the same viewpoint: Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God, A Commentary on the Revelation ofJohn, The Blessed Hope, and his essay in The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views edited by Robert G. Clouse, among others. Also, there is the recent Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy by J. Barton Payne.

Its General View of Christ’s Return

Although, as we have already indicated, there are differences among premils as to the various details, we can outline their general understanding of the return of Christ as follows:

The present age in which we live is preparatory for the Millennia! Kingdom which is yet to come. During this present age what are generally called “the Signs of the Times” take place. Apostasy, wars, famines, earthquakes and false Christs as predicted in Matthew 24 take place. During this time, the evangelizing of the nations will have fully taken place. Then the Anti-Christ will arise. He will head up the rebellion against God and the resulting tribulation for the church will follow. How long this tribulation will be is not agreed upon. The premil scholar Henry Alford indicates that it will be short (Matt. 24:22). Others see it lasting anywhere from three and a half days to seventy–five years.

Suddenly, Christ will appear in order to reign. This is the coming taught in Revelation 19:11–16. At this appearance the “first resurrection” will take place. This will be the resurrection of dead Old and New Testament believers, including all believers who have ever died. At the same time the living believers will be transfigured and, along with those of the “first resurrection,” will be caught up, or raptured, to meet Christ in the air (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). At the same time the Jews looks at the Messiah and is saved. (They use Isaiah 8:17 and 59:20, among other texts, to prove this.) J. Barton Payne conceeds, however, that this may not include every individual Jew (Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy, p. 655).

Almost immediately after this meeting in the air Christ and His Bride, the church, will come to earth for the Millennial Reign (Rev. 19:14). The Millennium will be a reality. The church, both Gentile and Jew (for there is only one church or people of God), will reign with Him. At this moment the Battle of Armageddon will take place (Rev. 19:19–21; 16:16). This will bring the destruction of the Anti-Christ.

Then the Millennial King, Jesus Christ, will separate the righteous from the unrighteous and hold the unrighteous in His control as He rules with a “rod of iron”–a term which symbolizes to them a forceful, stern and effective rule over these rebellious people (Rev. 2:27; 12:5; 19:15). Many believe that this rule will be from the Millennia! capital, Jerusalem.

This Millennium will last a literal one thousand years, although G. E. Ladd allows for it to be symbolic of “a real period of time, however long or short it may be” (A Commentary on the Revelation of John, p. 262). During this period which follows Christ’s coming, Satan is bound. This does not mean that his powers are “nullified,” it does not mean “complete immobility.” It is a “way of describing a curbing of his power and inactivity” (Ladd, Revelation, p. 262). Thus, this millennial period will be a fulfillment of what was promised in Isaiah 11: a period marked by a glorious peace. However,

The millennium is not to be confused with the final state, for sin and death still exist. Evil, however, will be greatly restrained, and righteousness will prevail on earth as it never did before. This is to be a time of social, political, and economic justice, and of great peace and prosperity. Even nature will reflect the blessedness of this age, since the earth will be unusually productive and the desert will blossom as the rose (A. Hoekema, The Bible and the Future, p. 181).

Incidentally, J. Barton Payne in his Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy (p.656) indicates that those not in resurrection bodies “will enjoy supernatural life spans” and he points to Isaiah 63:20–23 to substantiate this. Further, it will be a time characterized by the healing of infirmities and freedom from disease (Ex. 23:25b, Is. 35:5, 6a) and also the absence of barrenness or miscarriages (Ex. 23:26 a, Is. 9:3). Thus, it will be a time when the race is multiplied. Also, there will be a rebuilding of the temple and a reinstituting of its sacrifices in Jerusalem (pp. 657, 286). These will be “a symbol of Christ’s presence” but the sacrifices “will have no relation to the question of expiation” since they “will be memorial in character” (p. 286).

At the end of the millennium Satan will be loosed (Rev. 20:7). Once again able to deceive the nations, he gathers them to war against the church. But fire from heaven devours the devil and all his followers and he is “cast into the lake of fire” (v. 10).

Then comes a second resurrection –the resurrection of the wicked dead (Rev. 20:5). This is followed by the Judgment.

This premillennial understanding, according to Ladd, “is the most natural reading of Revelation 20” (Clouse, ed., The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views, p. 18). He sees Revelation 19 and 20 as a unit. He does not see Revelation 20 as a new set of thoughts nor a summary of the rest of the book.

Its Commendable Aspects

Again, there are some commendable aspects to this view of the Millennium. Although it does emphasize the Jews, this emphasis does not usually focus on two separate groups: the church and the Jews. Besides, there is no attempt to place the signs of the times as a future phenomenon nor as something already having taken place. They take place at the present time. Further, there is only one coming, as opposed to the teaching that Jesus will return several times. Also, and Ladd has strongly emphasized this, the Kingdom of God is not only a future experience. Itis right now, too.

Objections to Premillennialism

However, there are problems with historic premillennialism.

1. For instance, in the Millennium, what will be the relation of the resurrected, transfigured saints who will be present, to the unrepentant, untransfigured peoples who will also be present? It appears that glorified, resurrected saints will have to exist in the midst of sin and death for the Millennium. This will be quite a change for those who have been resurrected, since they will have come from the blissful perfection of the intermediate state to a world of sin! 2. Another basic objection concerns the two resurrections: one of the righteous, another of the wicked, both separated by the Millennium. The Gospel According to John 5:28, 29 states very plainly that there will be one general resurrection. By no stretch of the imagination can this text be tortured to mean that there is one resurrection in two parts, separated by a long period of time. Nor can it be made to mean that there are to be two resurrections. Never is the word resurrection used in the plural in the Bible. 3. Also, premillennialism speaks of Christ’s Millennial rule as the “rod of iron rule.” By this is meant a stern, forceful and effective rule of Christ over His rebellious enemies who are present on earth during the Millennium. By this He maintains peace. The term comes from Revelation 2:17, 12:5, 19:15 and is also found in Psalm 2:9. But the word for “rule” can also be translated “shepherd” or “feed.” “Feed” is the common translation in the New Testament (Matt. 2:6, Luke 17:7, John 21:6, Acts 20:28,1 Cor. 9:7,1 Pet. 5:2, Jude 12, Rev. 7:17). In other words, this “rod of iron” rule is connected with caring for His flock, His own. It is protective in nature and results in the destruction of the enemies of His people, rather than in a mere maintaining of order during a Millennium. Floyd Hamilton tells us that Christ acts:

toward the nations as a shepherd would act toward wild animals attacking the sheep! How would a shepherd act toward enemies of the sheep? Certainly by using his rod to dash them to pieces if he could do so. . . . That is, the Messiah, to protect His flock, the true people of God, from their enemies, will execute vengeance on the unbelieving nations who have been persecuting God’s people . . . . In other words we have a picture of terrible judgment visited on the wicked nations who have been troubling the Christian saints . . . (The Basis of Millennial Faith, pp. 89, 90).

4. Finally, the idea of an age between the Second Coming and the New Heavens and Earth is not really found in Scripture. Revelation 20 does not say enough to warrant building a whole theory of the Millennium upon it. For instance, it says nothing about believers who were living at the time of the return, if you follow the premil method of interpretation. Neither does 1 Corinthians 15:23, 24 speak clearly of a Millennium, as some want to say that it does. Further, Scripture indicates very clearly that the Second Coming of Jesus means that Judgment is here—not a thousand years away (see Matt. 25:31, Acts 3:19–21, 1 Cor. 4:5, 2 Pet. 3:10–13).