The 3 Main Views of the End Times

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To get your copy, simply head over to solamedia.org/slash/partner to join us in encouraging even more people to grow in knowing God and seeing everything in His light. For a while I've wanted to make an introductory video on the three main views of the end times. This is a subcategory of what we sometimes call eschatology. You might have heard that word. Eschatology is the study of the last things, and while the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is a part of that, eschatology also has to do with the ultimate purpose and goal of history from a Christian perspective.

So I'm going to briefly introduce the three main eschatological views, premillennialism, post-millennialism, and amillennialism. I'm not going to try to argue for one view over another, so this is going to be more descriptive. Although I will let you know which one I hold to at the end of the video.

So let's jump in.

So, the first thing you should know is that these three views are so-called because of how they understand the reign and coming of Jesus in relation to the millennium described in Revelation chapter 20. Here's the key text. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while.

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to Life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea. That's Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 through 8.

Okay, so you'll note John's description of a 1,000-year or millennial reign of Christ. As its name makes clear, premillennialism sees the return of Jesus as happening. Prior to the millennium, hence premillennial. According to this view, Christ will return and establish his physical kingdom on earth, during which time he will reign over the world, ushering a period of peace and prosperity. It's important to note that this is one of the things that distinguishes this view from the post- and amillennial views.

It's this idea that Jesus Christ has not yet begun his millennial reign. While premillennialists would want to affirm the kingship of Christ, they'd argue that this particular manifestation of it has not yet come. Come into being. The two most popular versions of premillennial theology are historic premillennialism and dispensational premillennialism. Historic premillennialism gets its name from the idea that many early Christian writers, including Irenaeus and Justin Martyr, are said to have held to a form of this belief.

It's sometimes called post-tribulational premillennialism because, unlike dispensational premillennialism, it doesn't embrace the idea that the church will be raptured prior to what is called the Great Tribulation.

Now, while historic premillennialism has ancient pedigree, dispensational premillennialism has enjoyed a lot more popularity in the modern era. The distinctive features of dispensational premillennialism are: one, a clear distinction between the church and the nation of Israel, two, a particular way of reading the Bible.

Sometimes we call this a hermeneutic, and in particular, a hermeneutic that focuses on the literal interpretation of biblical texts, and three, the glory of God as being the driving force behind human history. Those three things are taken from Charles Ryrie's work, Dispensationalism. He was a really well-known classic dispensationalist.

Now, just to be fair to the other eschatological views, they too would argue that we need to properly understand the relationship between Israel and the church, take the Bible seriously by employing sound hermeneutics, and understand the flow of history as governed by God and for his glory. It's not that one of these views necessarily takes the Bible more seriously or has a higher view of scripture, it's that they differ in how to understand the relevant biblical texts.

So, back to dispensationalism. It derives its name from the fact that it divvies up biblical history into a series of what are called dispensations or sometimes administrations of God's rule. Perhaps its most distinctive feature is its belief that Jesus is going to rapture believers prior to the second coming. They understand passages like Revelation chapter 3, verse 10, as teaching that the church will not be around for the great tribulation period, and therefore the church has to be removed prior to the great tribulation, hence the rapture. The rapture of the church describes a moment when God snatches up all of the faithful into heaven right before he pours his wrath out onto the earth.

Passages that are read by postmillennialists and amillennialists as referring to the second coming of Jesus, like 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 15 through 17, are understood by dispensational premillennialists as referring to this rapture event.

So, just to summarize, premillennialists believe that Jesus is going to come back and establish his physical kingdom on earth. At some point in the future, his return is going to usher in a 1,000-year reign of peace and prosperity, which will culminate in the final judgment of Satan.

So, if premillennialists see Jesus coming back before the 1,000-year reign, the postmillennialists sees the return of Jesus as happening after. After it. By the way, there's some question about whether we're talking about a literal 1,000 years here. You know, is Jesus going to reign for exactly 365,000 days? Or is John using symbolic language, a symbolic number to indicate a very long period of time?

Most postmillennialists opt for the latter. If the premillennial view emphasizes the future reign of Christ, we might say that the postmillennial view emphasizes the present reign of Jesus. Thinking back to that key passage in the book of Revelation, during Christ's 1,000-year reign, Satan is bound so that he can no longer deceive the nations. In the postmillennial view, Jesus is presently reigning and Satan is limited in his ability to lead the nations astray. As a result, the gospel is making headway and the world is getting better.

It might be a little too simplistic to say this, but I think it can maybe help you understand some of the key differences. Premillennialism sometimes seems to suggest that the world is getting worse and worse leading up to the Great Tribulation period. Postmillennialism, oftentimes emphasizes this idea that the world is getting better through the reign of Christ and the gospel. The upward trajectory in postmillennialism leads to a golden age of Christ's reign, not after his return, but before it. The nations are converted and Jesus' enemies are fully and finally conquered.

They often appeal to passages like Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 25 and following. He, that is Jesus, must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for God has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

Postmillennialists will typically also appeal to the descriptions of the kingdom of God described in the prophets that seem to talk about a reign of peace and prosperity for God's people that is also contemporaneous with the reality of death still being a present thing. Think of Isaiah chapter 65, verses 20 through 25, for example. Promises throughout the prophets and also throughout the book of Psalms of a universal reign of God and the transformation of the nations are all a part of this postmillennial optimism. Again, I think it's safe to say that in the postmillennial view, Jesus' return will happen after a prolonged period of gospel advancement and Christian influence on the world. Just like there are different kinds of premillennialism, there are also different kinds of postmillennialism.

Some of them emphasize more of a slow burn transformation through conversions approach. Others tend to emphasize more of a top-down institutional takeover approach.

Now, of the three views, amillennialism is probably the most unfortunately titled because the alpha privative Ah in amillennial suggests no millennium. But amillennialists do, in fact, believe in the present millennial reign of Jesus. They tend to see this reign as extending from Christ's ascension and heavenly enthronement to his second coming.

So the thousand years is symbolic of this present age leading to what we call the consummation. If both the postmillennialists and the premillennialists are looking forward to a kind of golden age reign of Christ on earth in the future, right, for the premal believer right after Jesus returns, for the post-mill believer ushering in his return, well, then the amillennialists emphasizes the Present and spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom. In fact, one thing we could say about each of these views is that the question isn't whether each one would identify Jesus as a king, but how they define the nature of his kingship and reign. In the amillennial view, the progressive advancement of the gospel and of the kingdom in this age does not necessarily translate into a golden age of peace and prosperity for the church. And often those prophetic golden age passages are read as referring to the new creation.

If the post-millennial view places the eschatological focus on Christ's kingly rule in the present, leading to a period of triumph for the church, the amillennial view places the eschatological focus on the consummation of history at the second coming of Jesus. It emphasizes Christ's present spiritual sovereign rule. Jesus is currently reigning in the midst of his enemies, Psalm 110, verse 2. And when he returns, those enemies will be vanquished once and for all. Until that point, the church may.

May enjoy more or less peace at various points in history, but it's not looking for a golden age prior to the new creation. Peter said in 2 Peter 3, beginning in verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be destroyed, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Now, I said I wouldn't try to argue for one view over another, but if you're curious, I embrace the amillennial view. Would love to hear what your view is in the comments and why. And I'll end with this: despite their differences, faithful followers of Jesus can adopt one of these three approaches without compromising their Christian faith. The main thing to affirm is that Jesus is indeed coming back bodily. And that is something that premillennials, post-millennials, and amillennials all believe.

They might differ on the events leading up to or transpiring after Christ's return, but all of us can say, Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus. Here at Sola, we encourage disciples and equip disciple makers by drawing on the riches of the Reformation to apply historic Christian theology to all of faith and life. Our work is only possible thanks to the generosity of thousands of supporters across the world. in order to keep our resources free? We need your support.

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