Why I’m not postmillennial

Christians have differed in interpreting the cryptic reference to a thousand years in Revelation 20. On the surface, it seems to teach that God’s people will be raised from the dead to reign with a returned Christ for a thousand years, after which will come a brief rebellion and battle before the last judgement. 

Eschatological choices 

The church of my childhood was officially amillennial, interpreting the thousand years symbolically to indicate the time between the two comings of Christ. While the Baptist church of my youth took no official position, premillennialism tended to dominate among parishioners, based on an ostensibly literal interpretation of this text. The thousand years were still to come – an era of perfect righteousness, marred only by an eventual – and inexplicable – release of Satan from the pit for a last ditch attempt to derail God’s coming kingdom.

Only in recent years have I made the acquaintance of postmillennialists, who expect a gradual advance of the kingdom of God in the present age to be followed by a long period of widespread obedience to his will before Christ returns. As attractive as this prospect appears, I do not find the position persuasive.

Is this what the kingdom looks like? 

First, some tend to identify the advance of God’s kingdom with a general improvement in the human prospect. We are living longer and more productive lives than our forebears, reaping the benefits of the huge advancements in medicine, technology, transportation and communication. But such advances have also caused us to esteem ourselves as near gods, altering our environments to please our subjective aspirations. Longer and healthier lives do not necessarily make for moral and spiritual improvement.

Second, some postmillennialists tend to identify God’s coming kingdom with highly disputable political programmes aimed at making their country great again or even enforcing the Old Testament law in unmediated fashion on contemporary religiously plural societies. Such efforts actually represent an abandonment of politics in that they assume it possible to bypass the ordinary avenues of consensus-building in our earthly polities.

Third and finally, virtually all postmillennialists assume that any progress righteousness might make in the present age is irreversible, leading inexorably to the coming of Christ. Yet the Muslim invasions of the seventh century and after reversed the early successes of the gospel in the eastern Mediterranean world. And even if we were to experience a renewed Christendom, as many would love to see, that in itself would not erase the unseemly pride likely to accompany any effort to create it.

Where I land 

That probably makes me amillennial. The thousand years are a symbol of Christ’s present reign after his ascension. In his sovereignty, God may see fit to use our feeble efforts to advance his kingdom, but for now we await its final consummation with patience and humility.