What Premillennialism Demands:
Jun 18th, 2007 by Nathan White
If you are a Premillennialist (whether Dispensationalist or not), there are several things you must necessarily believe:
-You must necessarily believe that physical death will continue to exist beyond the time of Christ’s second coming.
-You must necessarily believe that the natural creation will continue, beyond the time of Christ’s second coming, to be subjected to the curse imposed by the fall of man.
-You must necessarily believe that the New Heavens and New Earth will not be introduced until 1,000 years subsequent to the return of Christ.
-You must necessarily believe that unbelieving men and women will still have the opportunity to come to saving faith in Christ for at least 1,000 years subsequent to his return.
-You must necessarily believe that unbelievers will not be finally resurrected until at least 1,000 years subsequent to the return of Christ.
-You must necessarily believe that unbelievers will not be finally judged and cast into eternal punishment until at least 1,000 years subsequent to the return of Christ.
Amillennialists don’t see these beliefs being taught in Scripture.
-Sam Storms (From Monergism.com’s page on Dispensationalism/Premillennialism)
2 Peter 3: “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 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 dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the rapture…
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the thousand year reign of Christ on earth…
“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, 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 the rapture, and the thousand year reign on earth…
“But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.“
Nathan,
Are you stirring up trouble again?LOL. These are good points to bring up that should make premilleialists at least think about their position. Whether they are corrected or not is up to the Spirit of God, but I think these are some of the very same things I was beginning to think on years ago when I dropped dispensationalism. Maybe the Lord will use those same thoughts to help others in this area.
Tim,
I’m also hoping that the premillennialists will at least think about how their position runs into conflict with many passages of scripture, but in my experience, there have been 3 stumbling blocks in this regard:
1) Many Premills don’t know their position well enough to deeply consider critiques of their system. For example, I know many Premills who would look at the Sam Storms list above and wonder if they really believed that or not.
2) Premills who do know their position very rarely wish to engage anyone on their position, unless to bring up Revelation 20 and the ‘1000years’ or something. They are much like the Arminians who would rather throw out ‘proof’ texts instead of actually getting serious about exegesis. Whether it’s ‘John 3:16 buddy!’ or ‘Revelation 20 says 1000years six times!’, the absence of serious interaction is certainly noticable.
3) Most Premills hate reading critiques of their system, so I doubt any of them paid attention to this post –much less the comments. I would be more than happy to discuss, however, as always
SDG
Question for premillers:
What will we, as sinless, supernaturally powerful immortals, be doing for a 1,000 years on a sin-cursed earth? Ruling over the sinful earthlings? If that’s the case, I’d rather pass. I don’t want to watch over unregenerate sinners for thousand years and deal with their sin cursed problems. That sounds more like an annoying babysitting job.
Davide,
That last comment of yours literally (pun intended) made me chuckle.
Nate, do you think one’s view on this issue is necessarily played out in one’s position on Israel?
You might find the following link interesting: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/north7.html
Hey James,
I think that has a lot to do with it, but it is not the end all. There are men from all positions: post-, pre-, and Amill, who believe that Israel will be restored in the future. I am certainly not one of them, though I kind of see how they get there.
I’ll check out that link you posted, thanks.
–
Nathan
Dear Beloved in Christ Jesus,
Here is an excellent example of how to write a book on this important subject/doctrine. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested on this subject. Even if you would not agree with the author’s view, I am sure you will be blessed by how the author has addressed this controversy in the history of the church.
http://wipfandstock.com/store/The_Millennial_Controversy_in_the_Early_Church
“These were more fair minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they recieved the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”
Acts 17:11 (NJKV)
The following is the description from the book “The Millennial Controversy in the Early Church” by Dr. Martin Erdmann. I would recommend this book to everyone who wants to know more about this important subject from a historical perspective.
“The belief in a literal millennium was an important aspect in the Christian eschatology of the ante-Nicene age. Most of the Asiatic Church Fathers derived their chiliastic convictions not only from the millennial passage of Revelation, but also from the Jewish concept of a Golden Age, as described by the Hebrew Prophets and further developed by Jewish apocalyptic writers. The chiliastic doctrine was challenged, on exegetical and philosophical grounds, by the Alexandrian school of theology in the third century. The Church’s elevation to imperial favor by Constantine was followed by a further shift in the understanding of the millennium. The chiliastic hope of a future earthly reign of Christ was substituted with the view of a realized millennium constituting the secular dominion of the Roman Church. The factor that most contributed to this change was Augustine’s spiritualized interpretation of the first resurrection. He understood it to mean a resurrection of those dead in sin, raised to spiritual life. In his book, ‘De civitate dei,’ he advanced the opinion that the kingdom of God was already set up at Christ’s first coming and nothing remained to be accomplished before the final judgment except the brief reign of the Antichrist. Thus the teaching of a literal millennium became discredited because it was perverted by some of its friends and misrepresented by its opponents.”
The Millennial Controversy in the Early Church
By Dr. Martin Erdmann
http://wipfandstock.com/store/The_Millennial_Controversy_in_the_Early_Church