Category: Eschatology

Justin Taylor posted some observations on premillennialism and Sam Storms’ article on why he became an Amillennialist. Though–as a postmillennialist–I would have several problems with Amillennialism, nevertheless Sam provides some excellent thoughts that exclude a Premil interpretation of the New Testament data.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

In this final article, I would like to list some (not exhaustive) characteristics of postmillennial thinkers. Certainly all eschatological positions may share these characteristics, but my premise is that only a Postmillennial eschatology grants such motivation and theological vigor to live in such a way.

a) Postmillennialists have a sober view of life. By that I mean that Postmillennialists will view life from the eyes of Scriptures. He is not going to despair and go into deep depression if he doesn’t get the job he wanted. He will live by faith and not by sight. He is not going to become apocalyptic about life and society. He is going to look at what is going around Him and say: God is in control.

b)      Postmillennialists will be committed to Biblical Revelation. By that I mean that Postmillennialists will look at life from a Biblical perspective. A Postmillennialist will not interpret life in light of the newspaper. He is going to be committed to Special Revelation alone. If the story of the Bible presents a picture, which on its surface seems contrary to modern Science or modern psychology, then let the grave swallow science and psychology and let Postmillennialists exalt the authority of the Bible for all of life.

c) Postmillennialists are very curious about the world. By that I mean that Postmillennialists will tend to enjoy reading broadly. He/She will enjoy Tolkien and Lewis, while enjoying a book on the Biblical perspective on friendship and hospitality. He will enjoy movies and then he will enjoy criticizing movies from a Biblical Redemptive perspective.  The consistent Postmillennialists will be cautious about learning all things from one perspective alone. He will study both sides. He will seek to understand the position of their opponents and carefully give a proper response. Postmillennialists will love politics, not because politics is a savior, but because he wants politics saved. He will love food, wine, beer, and cigars. Even though he might not like the latter, he will at least affirm that they are God’s gifts to men to be used moderately and wisely.

d) Postmillennialists believe that our worship is informed by Biblical Principles in both Old and New Testaments. By that I mean that the Bible provides rich principles of worship that must not be overlooked. The Psalter provides us with a variety of responses. The Psalms were covenantal psalms to be sung corporately. The Psalms do not deny the wrath of Yahweh against His enemies, nor does it not deny the expressive passion of the Psalmist.  The Postmillennialist sees worship as a joyful endeavor. He shouts with the Psalmist: “Let us go unto the house of the Lord.”

e) Finally, the Postmillennialist loves children. He loves babies. He loves to hear babies crying, laughing, eating and playing. He loves children, because God loves them. The Postmillennialist loves to see little covenant children sing. He knows that Jesus calls little children unto Himself. For this reason, Postmillennialists believe that little ones need to grow up with an education that reflects God’s affections for them. For the postmillennialist, it doesn’t matter if a school is not opposed to Christianity, it doesn’t matter if a school allows them to read their Bible for a few minutes during lunch. None of these things matter. For the Postmillennialist parents, all that matters is that our covenant children hear the Word of the Lord in the morning when he rises and in the evening when sleeps. Our children need to think as Christians and mature as Christians. This can only happen in the context of an explicitly Christian education.

Being a Postmillennialist is more than a label, it’s a way of life. If you are convinced of it, I ask you to live consistently. If you are not convinced of it, I ask you to consider what has been said in these three articles. It may challenge your background. It may lead you to look at life with different lens. But I assure you, the Postmillennial Hope is the direction of Biblical Revelation.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

In our first study we argued that church history provides no definitive position on eschatology. Even to this day, though Dispensational Premillennialism is the predominant position, the evangelical world outside traditionally Baptistic church, such as Methodists, Anglicans, Catholics, Orthodox, Lutheran and Reformed are either Amillennial or Postmillennial. So though premillennial dispensationalists tend to get most of the media attention, this does not mean that Amils and Postmils have been left behind. We are still alive and well on planet earth!

On our second lesson, we went through the Biblical Case for Postmillennial eschatology. We saw that eschatology ought to come primarily from Genesis as opposed to starting in Revelation. In fact, if you do not understand the purpose of creation, you will not understand the purpose of redemptive history. Creation tells us that God made us vice-regents, representatives of His on earth to have dominion over all things. Further, He created this a good world, which was only marred due to man’s sin. Nevertheless, his purpose is to restore creation through the Second Adam and bring victory to His Church.

We will conclude this study by offering some classical objections to postmillennial eschatology and make some observations on how postmillennial eschatology calls us to be as Christian worshipers.

What are the objections to Postmillennial Eschatology?

a)      Objection: Postmillennialism incites violence because they believe they can coerce people to believe the gospel.

Answer: Postmillennialists have never claimed in any of their writings that violence is the means to achieve an end. In fact, we believe that the only One who can righteously bring judgment is God Himself and not man. Postmillennialists believe very strongly that only the gospel can change hearts. We can never change hearts through violence, but only through the gospel proclamation. Man is changed by the grace of God working through the means of grace. Greg Bahnsen summarized the Postmillennial Vision in this manner: “Postmillennialists believe that the victorious advance of Christ’s kingdom comes about by means of the preaching of the gospel and the powerful work of God’s Spirit in regeneration and sanctification. That is, it is the pursuit of the Great Commission, rather than the use of violence or military confrontation, which peacefully secures the widespread conversion of the world and brings it to obey all that Jesus has commanded (cf. Matthew 28:18-20).”[1] In fact, generally, Postmillennialists are very skeptical about the legitimacy of American wars.[2] This charge is simply a false charge.

b)      Objection: Postmillennialists overlook the dimension of suffering and weakness in the Christian life. They forget the theology of the cross.

Answer:  This is a traditional Lutheran Amillennial critique. It is a very unfair criticism. It is almost as if Amillennial writers choose not to read our literature. Postmillennialists never downplay the “the dimension of sorrow and suffering in the life of the Christian or in the History of the Church.”[3] Can you imagine the postmillennial Scottish Covenanters denying the element of suffering when their own brothers were brutally massacred? In the 17^th century the Covenanters were shot at the spot for not giving allegiance to the King. This period came to be known as “the Killing Time.” Even though, the Covenanters who are still very much alive today in small Presbyterian denominations are committed to the victory of the gospel, they do not minimize the harsh history suffered by their forefathers.

The great postmillennialist Charles Hodge wrote about II Corinthians 4: “”We constantly illustrate in our person the sufferings of Christ… [being] neglected, defamed, despised, maltreated….”[4] Greg Bahnsen summarizes beautifully the postmillennial view of suffering: “Postmillennialists trust the word of

the Lord that, even when contrary to outward appearances, our sufferings in this world eventuate in a greater manifestation of Christ’s saving rule on earth, not a diminished one. We suffer to be sure, but it is a suffering-unto-victory, rather than a suffering-unto-defeat”[5]

c)       Objection: Postmillennialism entangles church and state

Some object that if the kingdoms have been given to Christ, then this violates the separation of Church and State. First, we have to define what we mean by separation of Church and State. If by that you mean that the Church does not have the right to speak against the immoral acts of the government, then I’d say that separation does not exist in the Bible. But if you mean that the Church has different responsibilities than the state, then I agree.

This is an important point in our modern day. Postmillennialists do not believe that the US Constitution is God’s law. Further, Postmillennialists do not believe that America is the New Israel. [6] We must be very careful in confusing America’s agenda with the kingdom’s agenda. We believe that though both church and state are under the rule of Jesus, “they are responsible to fulfill their God-given duties…in other words, “the church never has the right to wield the sword, and the state never has the right to administer the sacraments.”[7]

d)      Finally, a Biblical Objection. Postmillennialists say that the number of saved will be much greater than the number of lost. How does this idea harmonize with Jesus’ teaching that the gate is narrow…and few are those who find it (Matthew 7:13-14; see Mat. 22 and Luke 13). Does this contradict the Postmillennial hope that the Great Commission will be accomplished?

Answer:  This is a very fine objection, which deserves a fine answer. We begin to answer this question then we consider that the gospel accounts portray the Jews as strong opponents of Jesus. The religious leaders despise Jesus and they despise him even more when He declares to be the Messiah, the One sent from God who pre-dates Abraham.  Jesus’ observation about the gate being narrow has more to do with the exclusivity of his message. In other words, to say that the gate is narrow is to say that there is only one Messiah. It does not mean that only few are going to make it to heaven in the space of all redemptive history.

The second answer to that objection is to note that we must keep the gospel in its original context. Jesus makes statements that only apply to a first century audience, not to the twenty first century. For instance, when Jesus addresses the Pharisees and condemns them for killing the prophets, he is referring to the Old Testament prophets. Jesus is addressing a particular generation. We have to be careful not to apply the language Jesus meant for one group and apply it to a different group. With that in mind, when Jesus speaks of the narrow gate and how few are those who find it, Jesus is referring to the Jews that lived in the first century. In fact, even throughout the course of Jesus’ ministry, the Jews “become more and more hardened in their rejection of Jesus until they finally crucified their Messiah.”[8]

So this text is not addressing the question of how many people will ultimately accept or reject Messiah.

All these passages and others like it, have a very particular time-frame in mind. In order to refute Postmillennialism, critics have to take them out of their historical context and misapply them. In Revelation chapter 5, John says that Christ by His blood ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. This does not prove the Postmillennial case, but at least it gives us a picture of the redemption of Christ through the gospel. That it will be broad and cosmic in scope.

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[1] Cross-Examinations: Objections to Postmillennialism answered by Greg Bahnsen, 1992.

[2] Greg Bahnsen opposed the Gulf War. Also, James Jordan, Gary North, Douglas Wilson, Peter Leithart and others.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Quoted in Bahnsen’s article.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Dr. D. James Kennedy may have been the closest to think in these terms.

[7] Keith Mathison, Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope, pg. 203.

[8] Mathison, p. 209.

At Trinity Talk, we have had a few guests discuss eschatology with us. Yesterday we had Gary Demar discussing his book Last Days Madness. The book was a paradigm shifter for me some years ago. It was a sort of eschatological wake-up call. Orthodox Preterism combined with an optimistic eschatology solved my gnostic dilemmas and shattered my “to be or not to be active” questions. In light of my current re-reading of Mathison’s Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope, my recent interviews with Gary Demar and Joel McDurmon and a three part series I presented at Providence Church, my mind is naturally consumed with this topic. As a result, here are some random thoughts:

a) A natural outworking of the kingdom of God means that one day all Christians will be Postmillennialists.

b) Passages of suffering in the Bible seem to have a more first century orientation, if we allow the context to speak for itself. Nevertheless, we are not immune from suffering. Suffering for a Christian leads to victory and not defeat.

c) Martin Salbrede once said that the law of God in the Bible is always tied to some statement about government. Thus, Postmillennialism must have a theonomic vision at its root.

d) Satan works to give the Church an unrealistic vision. He works very hard to persuade us to view the world through human sight and not by faith.

e) We already live in a theocracy, as Jim Jordan puts it. Our goal is to tell people they are insane for not believing in a Theocracy (God’s rule).

f) Postmillennialism virtually founded these United States through the Puritans. If there had been no vision, we would still be under British rule.

g) The Dutch Reformed turned the Dispensational tide by teaching us to apply our Calvinism.

h) Worship is at the center of true Biblical revival.

i) You forsake the Church you forsake dominion.

j) Not all Presuppositionalists are Postmillennial, but all Postmillennialists must be Presuppositional if they are consistent.

k) There is no other alternative for the covenant family, then to give their children covenant education.

l) Modern Postmillennialists are the only ones I am aware of addressing issues of family and church and state from a Biblical perspective and not from the theory of natural law.

m) Convince a man of Postmillennialism and you have convinced him to be a student of theology for life.

n) Postmils strive for true catholicity.

o) We actually believe in the Lord’s Prayer.

p) As I mentioned in my series, we do not look to the past, but to the future. Though our heritage is great, our future will be greater.

q) Wealth is not evil…in fact, apart from wealthy Christians the gospel will not have gone as far as it has.

r) We believe in the effectiveness of the Great Commission.

s) Technology used properly is good, not bad. The gospel has gone farther in this generation than any other generation due to the advances of technology.

t) Paul seems to place “unity” at the center of Christ’s mission to bring all things together in heaven and on earth. The only eschatology that makes sense out of this mission is postmillennialism. Amils and Premils–with exceptions–see no interest in such endeavor.

to be continued…

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Daniel 2 & 7

Daniel 2 & 7 are very important chapters in the eschatology debate. They are picked up by our Lord in his kingdom parables in Matthew 13. These chapters in Daniel are fulfilled in the New Testament age. The Prophet Daniel focuses on two aspects of God’s kingdom: a) The gradual growth of the Kingdom and b) the starting point of the kingdom, which is when Christ is ascended into Heaven. Daniel 7 says that the Son of Man (a common Messianic Title) comes to (or goes up to) the Ancient of Days. He ascends into the Right Hand of the Father. The promise of Daniel is that when the King ascends into Heaven, when all authority is given unto Him in heaven and in earth, then the Kingdom will begin its gradual growth. Jesus picks up this theme when he says that the kingdom is like a seed, which is planted and eventually covers the whole earth.

In Daniel 2, Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. “King Nebuchadnezzar saw a vision of a great image with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, and legs partly of iron and partly of clay” (Dn. 2:32-33). This great image was destroyed by a stone, cut without hands, which subsequently grew into a great mountain that filled the earth. Daniel explained the meaning of the dream to Nebuchadnezzar:

Four powerful kingdoms — the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman — would dominate the history of the world until the God of heaven Himself sets up a new kingdom that will never be destroyed (Dan 2:36-45).[1]

We see in Daniel that this kingdom is set up in the days of the Roman Empire (RS). The logical conclusion here is that when Christ ascended unto the right of the Father, the kingdom of God began its work of growing. Postmillennialist say that the seed is the kingdom and that the seed of the kingdom was sown in the Ascension of Christ and it will only stop growing in influence when Christ deems the work done.[2]

Psalm 110

Psalm 110 is the most often quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament. The text says: “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make all your enemies a footstool.” This passage provides the foundation for the ascension and present reign of Christ as the “great Priest-King.”[3] For our purposes, Psalm 110 proves that Christ can be reigning without being physically present on earth. Psalm 110 tells us that the Lord is seated with Yahweh. This proves a) that Christ Jesus is God and b) that Christ Jesus is not on earth, but seated at the right hand of the Father. Premillennialists believe that for Christ to rule over His enemies, He must come physically to earth and usher the millennium in the future. This passage says that the Lord is conquering His enemies not from earth, but from heaven. Christ begins His work of conquering His enemies and bringing them into submission not in a distant future, but when He ascended. The Kingdom began in the First Coming of Christ in the first century.

There are many New Testament passages that prove the Postmillennial hope, but two passages come to mind as crucial in seeing the advance of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Matthew 28:18-20

Everyone is familiar with the Great Commission. But what are its implications? Again, Postmillennialism says that the promises of God will be fulfilled in history because it only makes sense if it is fulfilled in history. The text says “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…” Here in this passage we see the “instrumental means by which Christ will fulfill all of the great covenant promises of the Old Testament.”[4] This is the means by which the kingdom of God is established on earth. The kingdom will grow and be victorious through discipling all nations. The discipling happens when we baptize people in the Triune Name and then when we teach them to observe the commandments of God. You may even see here one of many reasons Reformed people baptize infants. The order is we baptize first and then we teach them the commandments.

“Israel was given the responsibility of being the mediator of God’s blessing to all nations in the Old Testament, but she failed.”[5] Christ has now been given authority in heaven and on earth and through His power by the work of His people, the Church will not fail. As Mathison concludes, “With the power and authority of Christ the King behind the command, and with the outcome resting in His hands, ultimate failure is not possible.”[6]

The Book of Acts is the story of Postmillennialism. The Spirit pours His power upon the early church for the purpose of going to the ends of the earth. Acts is the beginning of the agenda of the church. In other words, Acts is the greatest of all conspiracy theories. It begins with humble disciples passing on the faith to other disciples; multiplying continually their numbers.

Acts 13:46-47

Paul and Barnabas begin speaking boldly the gospel indicating that there is a shift in redemptive history. They are now a light unto the Gentiles and verse 47 says that “they should being salvation to the end of the earth.” This is a quotation of the Servant songs of Isaiah. This is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. Jesus is ascended and now He reigns from heaven and making the enemies of the Gospel on earth a footstool. The Apostolic goal and the goal of the Church is to evangelize the nations; to be a light unto the Gentiles “for the purpose of bringing the covenant blessings of salvation to all the families of the earth.”[7]

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[1] Ralph Smith. The Covenantal Kingdom.

[2] Dispensationalists will attempt to insert a gap of 2,000 years here. According to Ralph Smith, this is “an imposition upon the text that is contrary to its plain, normal, literal meaning.”

[3] Mathison, pg. 80.

[4] Mathison, pg. 116.

[5] Ibid. 116.

[6] Ibid. 116.

[7] Ibid. 119.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

First, let us look at Creation.

What is the purpose of creation? According to Genesis 1, the purpose of the creation is two-fold: a) First, God creates man to have dominion over the earth and b) and to take delight in His creation (Gen. 1:31). In Genesis 1:31, God says that His work is very good.

We read also in Genesis that this world that God created is not in and of itself bad. It cannot be bad because nothing God created was originally bad. It was all very good. Postmillennialists affirm that God created an essentially good creation and that man’s sin marred creation. However, we do not believe that cursing the earth is part of God’s continual purposes for this world. He cursed the world through Adam, so too; we believe that He will bless the world through the Second Adam.

In fact, God gives us a promise in Genesis 3. In verse 15 He says that someone will crush the head of the Serpent. It is in this promise that we begin to see God’s purposes for Redemptive History. In Genesis we see the great distinction between Sin and Redemption. Sin affects more than the soul of man, it affects his surrounding. The action of the First Adam brought a curse to Adam’s spirit (he was separated from communion with God) and to Adam’ surrounding. The text says that there shall be conflict between husband and wife. Sin causes relational problems. Redemption, on the other hand, also affects more than the soul. It affects the person’s surrounding. If someone is redeemed, not only is his soul made new, but his surroundings are made new. Redemption affects the way we live and think. The Bible tells us that all things are made new. The individual who receives new life is called to live differently in his relationships, in his thinking, etc.

What does the promise of redemption have to do with Eschatology? To put this into perspective, the Amillennial position believes that the kingdom of Christ has only spiritual benefits. Therefore, the gospel will not affect our environment. In fact, many Amillennialists will ridicule Postmillennialists as “Transformationalists.” They think that political activism is not the task of the church. The Church is a spiritual body; the kingdom is only a spiritual kingdom. Some Amillennialists will say that we are not in the business of transforming culture. In fact, Professor Richard Gaffin, one of the greatest Amillennial scholars in the 21^st century says that the church “wins by losing.”[1] In other words, she will win by not speaking out; by only minding her own business of preaching the Gospel and administering bread and wine.[2]

Last year, Peter Leithart joined a panel discussion at the Evangelical Theological Society.[3] The other two scholars on the panel were Amillennial scholars. Peter pressed them on the nature of the Psalms. He told them that when we sing the Psalms we are engaging our culture and making a political statement. One of the Amillennial scholars replied, consistently I might add, that they do not sing some of the Psalms because they believe that political psalms (imprecatory Psalms), that is Psalms that convey that the civil government ought to live according to God’s Law belongs to the theocratic nation of Israel, but in the New Testament, the Bible is primarily concerned about our inner being; our spiritual lives.

The Postmillennialists believe that the promise in Genesis to have dominion carries itself throughout the Bible and certainly in the Psalms. My primary criticism of the Amillennial position concerning the Psalms is that I believe that all of the Psalms are political in nature. They all have implications for how we ought to live. Yet they are Christo-centric. Christ carries and is carrying these Psalms into completion in a progressive manner.

In Summary, Genesis affirms that the creation is very good; that God delights in His creation and He asks us to have dominion over it.  He calls us to be His vice-regent on earth. As Keith Mathison observes, “…man was created to be God’s representative, ruling under God and over the creation.”[4] Further, all 150 Psalms are war tools for the people of God to sing, memorize and apply. This is the Postmillennial view.

The Bible continues to develop this theme in the Abrahamic Covenant. God makes a covenant with Abraham. There are three main encounters[5] between God and Abraham, and in every encounter God reveals more about the Promises to Abraham and to His seed.

There are five promises made to Abraham in Genesis:

a)      The first promise is that Abram will become a “great nation.”

b)      The second promise is that Yahweh will make Abram’s name great.

c)      The third promise is that Abram will have divine protection.

d)     The fourth promise is that Abram will be the mediator of divine blessings to all the nations.

e)      Finally, God promises in Genesis 12 to give the land of Canaan to Abram’s descendants (Gen. 12:7).[6]

All of these promises have implications for eschatology. All these promises guarantee God’s faithfulness to fulfill His promises to Abram and His seed. According to Paul in Romans 4, Abraham is the father of all who share His faith. There are two implications for the apostle Paul in Romans:

a)      First, since Abraham represents the Old Covenant saints, Paul ties the New Covenant saints together with Abraham. This means that the people of God are one people from Genesis to Revelation. There are not two peoples, but One people of God, saved by grace through faith in all Redemptive History.

b)      The second implication is found in Romans 4:13. It tells us that the promise to all God’s people, who share the faith of Abraham, is that we would be heirs of the world. The land of Canaan was only the beginning of the fulfillment. But the ultimate fulfillment of land is the whole world and nothing less. The earth is the Lord’s and what is the Lord’s belong to the covenant people.

Therefore, what differentiates Postmillennialism from other positions is that Postmillennialists believe that God’s promises come to pass in history, because it only makes sense if they are fulfilled in history.

There are many passages that could be used as a defense of Postmillennial eschatology, but I would like to focus on two Old Testament passages and two New Testament passages. To be continued…

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[1] Comments made in debate with Kenneth Gentry.

[2] Of course, this is central to the Postmillennial view point as well.

[3] Discussion can be downloaded from wordmp3.com. Discussion with Peter Leithart, D.G. Hart and Michael Horton.

[4] Mathison, pg. 58.

[5] Genesis 12,15,17.

[6] Mathison, pg. 62.

Aaron from “Must Follow” blog writes a good article on why he will not be attending the Shepherd’s Conference this year. He links to an article I wrote some years ago on John MacArthur’s futile attempt to link Calvinistic soteriology with Dispensationalism.

Part I

Part II

Part III

In contrast to the two other millennial positions, Postmillennialists say that Christ will return only after/post the overwhelming success of the gospel in present history. All millennial positions agree that when Christ returns there will be unprecedented victory for the people of God. The Amillennial position like the Postmillennial position, believes that when Christ returns that will be the beginning of the New Heavens and Earth. We will live eternally with our Lord. Premillennial eschatology believes that when Christ returns he will usher in a millennial reign. The people of God will rule on earth with Christ for a thousand years of prosperity; then at the end of the thousand years Satan is set free for a short while and Christ crushes the evil one and sends him to the lake of fire. Then after that, we will live with Christ for all eternity.

The Premillennial scheme is a bit more complex. This is why if you grew up in a Premillennial church, you may remember the charts.

On the other hand, Postmillennialism and Amillennialism are fairly simple to understand. These positions are saying: “We are not waiting for a rapture, then a period of tribulation for seven years, then another coming of Christ (the Second Coming), then a thousand years, then the Final Judgment.” To be sure, scholars who defend premillennialism are very successful in conveying their ideas. After all, they are the majority view.

But if you were to ask the question: “What makes Postmillennialists different from Amillennialism and Premillennialism?” The answer is: Postmillennialism is the only eschatological position that believes in the victory of the gospel in time and in history. In other words, Postmillennialism believes “that the promises in the Old Testament of an age of great blessing on earth will be fulfilled”[1] while the church is on earth.

The question we will answer this morning is, “How can the Postmillennialist demonstrate biblically that the blessings of God’s kingdom come through the spread of the Gospel before the Second Coming?”[2]

Many assume that our understanding of eschatology comes from the Book of Revelation, but in reality our understanding of eschatology ought to come from the Book of Genesis.

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[1] Smith, Ralph. A Covenantal Kingdom: A Brief Summary of Postmillennialism, pg. 3.

[2] Smith, pg. 3