- MILLENNIUM
mə'lɛ.ni.əm noun. Thousand years. - 2. One of the thousand-year periods after Christ’s birth: The first millennium, the third millennium, etc.
- 3. Where one thousand-year period ends and another begins.
- 4. [theology] Christ Jesus’s reign on earth, represented in an apocalypse as a thousand-year age.
- [Millennial
mɪ'lɛ.ni.əl adjective.]
Whenever Christians talk about being “premillennial” or “amillenial,” no we’re not criticizing millennials, the kids born after the year 2000. We’re talking End Times theories. (We’ll use other terms to criticize millennials.)
The idea comes from Revelation. In one of its visions
Shall I quote the vision? Yeah, why not.
Revelation 20.1-10 NRSVue 1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years3 and threw him into the pit and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be let out for a little while.4 Then I saw thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its brand on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years.7 When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison8 and will come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, in order to gather them for battle; they are as numerous as the sands of the sea.9 They marched up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from heaven and consumed them.10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
At face value, it looks like Jesus is literally gonna reign over earth, as the human king of a political kingdom, for a literal thousand years. If Jesus returned in 1988 (he didn’t; I'm just picking
But bear in mind: This millennium is part of
Hence Christians have come up with various ideas of what it looks like, and generally I’m going over the main three. Handy-dandy chart time:
Three possible timelines of the future. That’ll make things clear as mud.
Amillennials: The Christian Era is the millennium.
Ancient Christianity first developed in the Roman Empire, and once Christianity was legalized, the emperors became Christian, and Christianity became the favored religion in the empire… it kinda felt to a lot of ’em like they were already living in the millennial kingdom. True, it had tons of corruption, hypocritical emperors, misbehaving church leaders; we Americans know exactly what that’s like. But plenty of them were pretty sure the millennium wasn’t a literal time period; it represents the Christian Era. Which we’re in.
Likewise we got a lot of Christians who look at Revelation, throw up their hands in confusion, and don’t care when the millennium happens. Or how anything happens. They’re just happy to go to paradise when they die, then get resurrected and live with Jesus forever. However it pans out… but in their apathy, they tend to go along with the amillennials. It’s why you’ll find most Christians are amillennial.
Amillennials ignore all the millennium talk of Revelation, and stick with idea we find everywhere else in the bible: Once Jesus shows up, it’s judgment day.
2 Peter 3.8-13 NRSVue 8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be destroyed with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness,12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and destroyed and the elements will melt with fire?13 But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
Simon Peter sure made it sure look like the second coming and the end of the world take place simultaneously. So… was Peter wrong, or did John misunderstand the vision he saw? Is this
Amillennials point out it doesn’t need to be. Y’notice Peter said a millennium is like a day? (In context Peter’s trying to explain
Since there are more passages about how the Lord’s Day (or the L
To amillennals, Jesus doesn’t return to give humanity any last chances. There are none. This, the world we live in right now, is our last chance. That’s why Jesus is delaying his return. ’Cause once he returns it’s judgment day. There’s no thousand-year reign of grace and peace. It’s the end.
As a bible scholar I gotta agree with the amillennials: The weight of the bible passages found throughout the bible, throughout
And it’s for this reason I’m never gonna suggest anyone take a “wait and see” approach when it comes to Jesus’s return: Pick your side now! After all, we never know when we’re gonna die. When it comes to death, I really don’t see any second chances in the scriptures. Better be safe, than infinitely sorry.
But the reason I’m not in the amillennial camp: I can’t bring myself to totally dismiss Revelation 20.
Postmillennials: We establish the millennium.
When the Protestant Reformation took place in the early 1500s, western Chrsitianity was fractured. Christians—or at least their branch of Christianity—didn’t rule the world; didn’t rule God’s kingdom. The kingdom, to their minds, was fractured. So… what becomes of the millennium?
Took a little while, but that’s when Protestants came up with the
The idea appeared here and there over the centuries, but it didn’t really take off till the modern era. Because it’s based on modernism. I know; the label “modernism” has been slapped on so many things, it’s hard to know what anybody means by it anymore. (Most people assume I mean “getting Christianity with the times,” because modernizing regularly gets mixed up with modernism. Nope.)
Since
And some efforts were doomed from the beginning. The National Socialists’ idea of a thousand-year Reich (yep, they totally borrowed postmillennial ideas to sell their platform!) was fueled by nationalism, racism, and war. The Nazis are probably the best example of how much humanity can suck when we let the wrong people take charge. “Make Germany Great Again” made Germany suck.
The world wars woke up Christians to these facts, which is why a lot of churches no longer consider postmillennialism their End Times view. Where we instead see a lot of postmillennialism is in the political arena: There’s always a faction which wants to make their country great, and powerful, and righteous, and solve all its problems, And, no surprise, there’s a lot of nationalism, racism, and war mixed up in their plans, ’cause they’ve found some people-group to use as their national scapegoat.
Premillennials: Jesus establishes the millennium.
Premillennials (like, admittedly, me) take our view from Revelation 20. After the second coming,
All those people who aren’t Christian, don’t know Jesus, don’t even think they wanna know Jesus? They finally get to meet him.
Put into special positions of responsibility and authority are the
These resurrected Christians will rule the world under Jesus. And finally the world will be led right. With justice and fairness. With grace, forgiveness, and mercy. By judges
Oh, it won’t be heaven. Not for another 10 centuries. But
Wait, what about judgment and wrath and all that?
There are both premillennials and amillennials whose ideas of the End have nothing to do with salvation, and everything to do with fire and bloodshed and vengeance and mayhem. It’s all their
All the fruit of the Spirit which Jesus demonstrates, which the Spirit’s trying to grow in us? Irrelevant. God’s gonna smite the wicked, and we get to watch with vengeful glee.
If you’re getting the idea I think this view of the End is twisted and sick, good. But it’s fairly common among twisted and sick Christians. They want evil people to suffer, not repent. They want sinners to die, not come to Jesus. Twisted amillennials imagine Jesus returning to kill all the wicked and destroy the world. Twisted postmillennials willingly offer to kill the wicked themselves. And twisted premillennials also imagine Jesus returning to kill the wicked, and pave his kingdom over their corpses.
True, the prophets’ writings about the L
Now, God’s prophets never state the oppressed, the needy, the Israelis, are believers. Instead they point out God’s in favor of any needy people, Hebrew or not. God objects to other nations oppressing their needy. Any needy. He plays no favorites.
When you really read these L
If God stays true to his character, even on Judgment Day, I can’t expect wrath and anger and destruction right away. Oh, those things’ll come eventually; they always do. But I’ve always recognized the millennium as a repeat of what God did in the Exodus—this time on a global scale. And better: This time with the king living among his people in person. This time with the priests not just limited to the Levites, and the prophets not just limited to the Seventy. God’s gonna show people what his kingdom was always meant to look like. Then present them the choice to accept or reject it.
I expect for many, it’ll be just what they’ve always dreamt of. And for others, for
