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Course 10 · Lesson 8.3

Amillennial and postmillennial views

12 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 10 outline

Module 1: Sin and Human Nature

  1. Human beings in the image of God
  2. The fall in Scripture: Genesis 3 and Romans 5
  3. Original sin in Augustine and the Western tradition
  4. Ancestral sin and mortality in the Eastern tradition

Module 2: Grace and Free Will

  1. Pelagius and Augustine
  2. The church responds: semi-Pelagianism and the Council of Orange
  3. Luther and Erasmus on the bondage of the will
  4. Monergism and synergism across the traditions

Module 3: Justification and Sanctification

  1. Justification in Paul and James
  2. Justification by faith alone in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions
  3. The Catholic teaching and the Council of Trent
  4. Sanctification, holiness and theosis
  5. Recent ecumenical discussion of justification

Module 4: Predestination and Election

  1. Election and predestination in Scripture
  2. Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin on predestination
  3. Arminius, Wesley and conditional election
  4. Eastern and Catholic views on election and foreknowledge

Module 5: Atonement, Redemption and Adoption

  1. Atonement and its extent: for whom did Christ die?
  2. Redemption: the images of ransom, freedom and return
  3. Adoption: sons and daughters of God
  4. The order of salvation across the traditions

Module 6: Death, Resurrection and Judgment

  1. Death and the intermediate state
  2. The resurrection of the dead in Scripture and the creeds
  3. The final judgment: Christ the judge
  4. Purgatory, the Orthodox practice of praying for the dead, and the Protestant objection

Module 7: Heaven, Hell and the New Creation

  1. Heaven and the vision of God
  2. Hell: eternal torment, annihilationism and universal hope
  3. The fate of those who have not heard the gospel
  4. The new heavens and the new earth

Module 8: The Millennium and Christian Eschatological Traditions

  1. Revelation and apocalyptic literature
  2. Premillennial views, historic and dispensational
  3. Amillennial and postmillennial views
  4. Preterist, historicist and futurist approaches
  5. What the traditions hold in common about the end

All courses

Program / Course 10: Salvation and Eschatology / Lesson 8.3

What you will learn

  • State the amillennial reading of Revelation 20 and its roots in Augustine.
  • State the postmillennial reading and the history of its supporters.
  • Compare what each view says about the binding of Satan, the first resurrection and the course of history.
  • Explain how these views relate to the main Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and Reformed teaching.

The big idea

Amillennialism holds that the thousand years of Revelation 20 is symbolic of the present age between Christ’s first and second comings, in which Satan is bound in a limited sense and the saints reign with Christ. Postmillennialism holds that the gospel will spread so widely that a long period of Christian influence will precede Christ’s return. Both agree that Christ will return after the millennium and not before. Amillennialism has been the dominant reading in the largest churches. Postmillennialism flourished among Puritans and revivalists, and declined in the twentieth century.

Key terms

Amillennialism
From Greek a- (no) and Latin millennium. The view that there is no future earthly thousand-year reign, and that the millennium is the present church age. Some prefer the name realized millennialism.
Postmillennialism
The view that Christ will return after a millennium of gospel prosperity brought about by the Spirit through the church’s mission.
Recapitulation
The idea that Revelation does not move in a straight line but repeats the same period (between Christ’s two comings) in several visions, each from a different angle.
Binding of Satan
In Revelation 20:1-3, the angel binds Satan so that he cannot deceive the nations. Amillennialists connect it with Christ’s victory over Satan in his ministry, death and resurrection.
First resurrection
In amillennial reading, the new life of believers with Christ, either spiritual rebirth or the entrance of the faithful dead into heavenly reign. In premillennial reading, a bodily resurrection.
Realized eschatology
The emphasis that the last things have already begun in Christ, even though they are not yet complete.
Theonomy and reconstructionism
A twentieth-century movement, mostly in the Reformed world, that combined postmillennial hope with the belief that biblical law should shape society. Most Reformed churches have not endorsed it.

Background

In the fourth and fifth centuries, as the church grew in the Roman empire, a different way of reading Revelation 20 became dominant. Tyconius, a North African, taught that the book presents the church’s whole history in repeating cycles, and that the millennium is the present age. Augustine adopted this reading in the City of God (Book 20) after having held the older literal expectation. His view became the standard interpretation in the Latin West, and it was carried into the Middle Ages and the Reformation.

Postmillennialism, by contrast, is mostly a modern view, though it has medieval and patristic precursors. It reached its height in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries among Puritans, American revivalists and many missionaries. This lesson describes each as its supporters state it, notes the critiques made by premillennialists and by one another, and places them within the doctrines of the largest churches.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The amillennial reading

Amillennialists point out that Revelation is full of symbols, so that a thousand years, like the seven heads or the key of the abyss, is likely a symbol of a long, complete period. They argue that the binding of Satan matches New Testament statements that Christ has bound the strong man (Matthew 12:29), seen Satan fall like lightning (Luke 10:18), and triumphed over the powers (Colossians 2:15). Satan is bound in the sense that he can no longer prevent the gospel from reaching the nations, though he remains active (1 Peter 5:8).

The first resurrection is read as the entrance of believers into new life with Christ: either spiritual rebirth (as in John 5:24-25 and Ephesians 2:5-6) or the reign of the souls of the faithful departed in heaven. The second resurrection is the bodily resurrection of all at Christ’s return. Amillennialists note that John 5:28-29 and other texts speak of a single hour of resurrection for the righteous and the unrighteous. They also argue that Revelation 20 repeats earlier visions: the war of the dragon and the church (chapter 12) is described again as Satan’s final assault (chapter 20).

Step 2: Amillennialism in the churches

The Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Lutheran churches and the large majority of Reformed churches have taught or assumed an amillennial pattern: Christ’s kingdom is present now in the church, his return will end history, and the resurrection and judgment will follow. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that the kingdom will be fulfilled not by a historic triumph of the Church but by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil. The Westminster Confession speaks of Christ’s return and the final judgment without any intermediate kingdom, and many Reformed writers, such as Geerhardus Vos and Louis Berkhof, were amillennial. The creeds say nothing of a millennium.

A caution: the major churches rarely state their millennial view in a confession, because the matter has not been seen as central. They simply read the book in this way, and allow debate about details.

Step 3: The postmillennial reading

Postmillennialists hold that the thousand years is a long period, which may or may not be literally a thousand years, in which the gospel is widely believed and the influence of Christ’s rule is seen in society. They appeal to the promises that all nations shall serve him (Psalm 72), that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9), to the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, to the Great Commission, and to Paul’s hope for the fullness of Israel and the Gentiles (Romans 11). Christ reigns from heaven, not on earth, and the kingdom advances by the Spirit through preaching.

After the millennium comes a brief rebellion, then Christ’s return, the resurrection and the final judgment. Postmillennialism’s main supporters include Puritans such as John Owen and Jonathan Edwards, the Princeton theologians Charles Hodge and B. B. Warfield, and Loraine Boettner. The optimism of the nineteenth century, which linked the view to missions, abolition and social reform, helped it flourish.

Step 4: Decline and recent revival

The First World War, the Second World War and the Holocaust led many to doubt that history was moving toward a golden age, and postmillennialism declined, while premillennialism grew. A small revival came from the 1970s, linked partly to theonomy, whose advocates also called for the reshaping of laws on biblical principles. Many postmillennialists distance themselves from this program. Critics say that postmillennialism overlooks passages that predict increasing evil before the end (2 Timothy 3:1-5, Matthew 24:12). Postmillennialists answer that the New Testament also speaks of the growing kingdom, and that the Bible’s warnings are for particular times.

Step 5: Comparing the three families

The three views can be compared on a few questions. When does Christ return relative to the millennium: before (premillennial) or after (postmillennial and amillennial)? Is the thousand years literal and future (premillennial), symbolic and present (amillennial) or a future golden age of gospel influence (postmillennial)? And what is the expectation for history: decline and rescue, struggle until the end, or gradual advance? Each view has Scripture and church history behind it. All affirm the visible return of Christ, the resurrection and the judgment.

  1. What reasons does the amillennial reading give for treating the thousand years as symbolic?
  2. How do amillennialists explain the binding of Satan, if evil seems active?
  3. What texts support the postmillennial hope, and what texts seem to weigh against it?
  4. Why might world events affect how people read Revelation 20?
  5. What does the amillennial view suggest about how Christians should live in the present?
  6. What do all three views agree about Christ’s return?

Examples

Augustine’s change of mind

Augustine writes in the City of God that he himself once held the view that the saints would rest for a thousand years after the resurrection, and that he found the notion tolerable if the joys were spiritual. He later gave the thousand years the sense of the present age. His change shows that serious readers can revise their reading of this chapter in light of the whole of Scripture.

A missionary society

In the early nineteenth century, a group of missionaries sailed from New England to share the gospel, believing that the world was moving toward a time when the knowledge of the Lord would fill the earth. They saw their work as part of this movement. Their optimism was criticized by later generations, and defended by some historians as a source of energy for education and reform. (A summary of a common pattern in postmillennial missions.)

Different perspectives

Catholic

The Church teaches that the kingdom is present in mystery in the Church and will be fulfilled at Christ’s return, through God’s victory over evil and not through a historical triumph. Catholic exegesis since Augustine has read the thousand years as the present age or as a figure of the Church’s life.

Orthodox

Orthodox writers generally read the millennium of Revelation 20 as the age of the Church and do not look for an earthly golden age. They emphasize the liturgy as an entrance into the heavenly kingdom now. They do not define the details.

Lutheran

The Augsburg Confession rejects a Jewish-style earthly kingdom before the resurrection. Lutheran theology has followed the amillennial reading, with the church under the cross until Christ’s return. Lutherans also reject the expectation that Christian influence will transform society completely before the end.

Reformed

Reformed theology has included amillennial and postmillennial views, with a minority of historic premillennialists. The Westminster Confession does not state a millennial view. Reformed writers on both sides appeal to the covenant of grace and the reign of Christ now.

Arminian and Wesleyan

Wesleyan churches have contained all three views. In the nineteenth century, Methodist and Holiness revivalism fostered postmillennial hope linked with social reform. Later, premillennialism spread widely among Holiness and Pentecostal churches.

Why it matters

These views show how a single chapter can shape a view of history. Amillennial teaching encourages patience and faithfulness under the cross. Postmillennial teaching encourages hope in the church’s mission. Each has a danger: the first can grow indifferent to the world, the second can confuse cultural progress with the kingdom. Seeing these tendencies helps students read their own tradition’s emphasis fairly.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Amillennialists do not believe in the millennium.

Correction: They believe in the reign of Christ and the saints described in Revelation 20 but hold that it is happening now, not in a future earthly kingdom.

Misunderstanding: Postmillennialists think humans can bring in the kingdom by their efforts.

Correction: Postmillennialists teach that it is Christ who builds his kingdom, through the Spirit and preaching. Human effort is the means God uses.

Misunderstanding: Amillennialism is a modern invention.

Correction: It goes back to Tyconius and Augustine and became the common view in the West. It was assumed by most medieval and Reformation writers.

Misunderstanding: Postmillennialists ignore the second coming.

Correction: They teach that Christ returns visibly after the millennium to judge, as do the other views.

Knowledge check

What is amillennialism?

It is the view that the thousand years in Revelation 20 is a symbol for the present age between Christ’s two comings, in which Satan is bound in the sense that he cannot stop the gospel’s spread to the nations and the saints reign with Christ. Christ’s return then brings the resurrection, the judgment and the new creation.

What is postmillennialism?

It is the view that the gospel will spread so widely that a long period of Christian influence, the millennium, will come before Christ returns. Christ reigns from heaven during it. After a brief rebellion, he returns visibly to raise the dead and judge. It is associated with the Puritans, the Princeton theologians and much missionary work.

Who made amillennialism the standard Western reading, and how?

Tyconius taught that Revelation repeats the church’s history in cycles, and Augustine adopted this reading in the City of God after earlier holding a literal expectation. He read the binding of Satan as Christ’s victory and the thousand years as the present age. His view became standard in medieval and Reformation Western Christianity.

What objection do critics raise against postmillennialism?

They point to texts that predict growing evil before the end, such as 2 Timothy 3 and Matthew 24:12, and to the history of the twentieth century. Postmillennialists answer that Scripture also promises the spread of the kingdom, and that warnings apply to particular times. The debate continues among Reformed and evangelical writers.

Think it through

  1. How might a person’s temperament affect which of the three millennial views seems natural?
  2. Do you think a view of history should shape how a Christian approaches politics, art or work? Why or why not?
  3. Which texts would you want to explain if you held each of the three views?

Independent assignment

A comparison chart

In your notebook, write about 500 words in the form of a chart and short paragraphs. Make a chart comparing premillennial, amillennial and postmillennial views on five questions: when Christ returns, what the binding of Satan is, what the first resurrection is, what the thousand years is, and what is expected for history. Then write a paragraph naming two texts that every view must explain, and how each might do so.

Further study