Amillennialism

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Amillennialism is a doctrine which maintains that the millennial kingdom referred to in Revelation 20:1-6 is not a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth. Hence the name a-millennial, with a- functioning as the negative prefix. However, rather than believing in no millennial age, amillennialism contends that the period described in Revelation 20 was inaugurated (i.e. began) at Christ's resurrection and will continue until his Second Coming. For this reason, amillennialists sometimes argue that an alternative name like realized millennialists would be more accurate.

Contents

Top level distinctions

  • Premillennialism - Christ will return prior to a literal 1000 year earthly reign.
  • Postmillennialism - Christ's return will follow a 1000 year golden age ushered in by the church.
  • Amillennialism - Christ is presently reigning through the Church. The "1000 years" of Revelation 20:1-6 is a metaphorical reference to the present church age which will culminate in Christ's return.

Principles

There are several principles which, while not entirely unique to amillennialism, combine to form the grounding from which this understanding of eschatology springs.

The analogy of faith and Biblical theology

The analogy of faith is a Reformation principle for the interpretation of Scripture, which can be expressed as "Scripture interprets Scripture". The fundamental principle of Biblical theology is that of progressive revelation, which states that God reveals himself in increasing measure throughout history, and that His revelation climaxes in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ.

As a result of these principles, we expect the New Testament to interpret to the Old, all the while showing us God, in Christ, more clearly.

Two-age theology

One of the major contributions of Reformed theology to this area of eschatology, and allied areas, has been the application of the two-age framework. This New Testament paradigm looks at Christian experience in terms of the 'now' and the 'not yet'. Perhaps that most eloquent and well-known statement of this principle is the Apostle Paul's words to the Corinthian church, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face" (1 Cor 13:12). An example of the way this framework is applied in the New Testament is in the theme of "new creation". Beloved of New Testament writers, this theme is often referred to in terms indicating that it is both a present reality (2 Cor. 5:17) and a future hope (Rom. 8:20–21); the message of the New Testament is that the new creation is something we taste now and will, one day, know fully.

Covenant theology

While the covenant theology in its most developed form is associated with the Reformed tradition, Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism both apply aspects of the covenant theology in their own expressions of eschatology, which are also amillennial. This is most clearly seen in the agreement between the three traditions that the church is, in some sense and by some means, the inheritor of the promises in Scripture — in short, that just as Israel was the people of God in the Old Testament, so the church is the people of God in the New Testament. Such a belief, called supersessionism and denigrated as "replacement theology" by its critics, has been the historic belief of the church.[1]

Scriptural understanding

As with most theological positions, there are many different exegetical routes to and through amillennialism. The following overview should not be taken as a normative statement of "the" amillennial understanding of the relevant passages so much as "an" amillennialist understanding.

Isaiah 65:17–25

This passage of Isaiah is difficult for interpreters, no matter their pre-conceptions, and it should not be pressed further than it can reasonably go. Amillennialists, broadly speaking, interpret this passage as referring to the final state.

Our passage describes a time of blessing, when Yahweh makes a new heaven and a new earth. Many commentators have interpreted this passage as describing the Millennium; however, Isaiah 66:22 does not leave this option open to us, as God guarantees that the new heavens and the new earth will never pass away, while the Millennium is a period of time with a definite end. Moreover, John the Apostle's description of the "new heavens and the new earth" in Revelation 21 echoes the language of Isaiah 65:17-25 so much that it seems thought that his vision was of the same or similar to Isaiah's.

Literal, millennial interpretations of any stripe run aground in other ways, too. Such views must explain how all the inhabitants of this blessed age shall be "the blessed of Yahweh" (v. 23) when the righteous and the wicked live in co-habitation during the Millennium, and how sorrow and distress will be done away with, while sin is still in existence. The problems of a spiritual interpretation are small in comparison with these issues.

In this passage, then, Isaiah foresees a time when all sorrow, distress and death are done away with, when all men's ventures meet with success, and when Yahweh will take delight in all that happens in his creation.

Daniel 9:24–27

This prophecy predicts a period of seventy weeks, for the accomplishment of several promises:

Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city,
1. to finish the transgression,
2. to make an end of sin,
3. to make atonement for iniquity,
4. to bring in everlasting righteousness,
5. to seal up vision and prophecy
6. and to anoint the most holy place. (v. 24, NASB)

These six promises are to set the tone for our interpretation, which, as the list itself makes clear, is focused on the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Although it is generally acknowledged that "weeks" refer to weeks of years rather than weeks of days, Amillennial interpreters may vary in their exact application of this principle and their choice of where to start these weeks. Some would argue that it can be shown to be entirely plausible that the beginning of the seventieth week coincide with the start of the ministry of the Lord Jesus.

Verse 25 reads[2]

So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. (NASB)

Verse 25 tells us when the seven and sixty-two weeks will begin, at the "issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem." The counting of seven sevens and sixty-two sevens from the edict to the arrival of Messiah the Prince is clearly true, given that various decrees to rebuild Jerusalem were issued and re-issued in the fifth century BC. The rebuilding of the city took place in troublesome times, as we know from secular history and, more importantly, from the accounts of the rebuilding by Ezra and Nehemiah.

Verse 26 reads

Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. (NASB))

And so after those sixty-two weeks (v. 26), the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. His followers flee, his possessions are divided among the soldiers, and as he looks at his mother, even responsibility for her must given over to another. He is cut off from society, from life and from God. Then the Romans, a people who appeared from nowhere to dominate the world stage, came to destroy both Jerusalem and the Temple, exactly as prophesied, in AD 70. The end truly did come like a flood; only those who knew to be watching (like Christians, heeding the words of both Daniel and Jesus) were spared.

Verse 27 reads

And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate. (NASB)

Amillennialists believe that the pronoun "he" in verse 27 is referring to the "prince" in verse 26 (who they believe is the Messiah), who by his being cut off, made a covenant with his people and put an end to sacrifice and offering. The sacrifices were rendered obsolete by the arrival of the Sacrifice to which they pointed. Amillennialists believe that the continuation of these sacrifices was an abomination to God and the theological cause for the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. The decreed end of the Temple and the priestly system was indeed poured out upon it. All came to pass exactly as Daniel foretold, with the Cross and the sacking of Jerusalem. The message of the passage is clear: God's plan for the Messiah is certain, and as we now know, has not been thwarted.

Premillennialists would object here because the timing of when the sacrifices would be stopped is quite explicit. Verse 27 says that "he" would stop them "in the middle of the week." They argue that if the first 69 weeks are taken as literal years, then the 70th week should be taken as seven literal years. If the 69 weeks were completed at the triumphal entry in AD 32, as some claim, then a 70th week which immediately follows the 69th week would put the end somewhere in AD 39.

Revelation 20:1-6

Amillennialists see the Book of Revelation as having seven distinct sections, each of which describes the state of the church at the time Revelation was written and each of which looks forward in time toward the second coming of Christ. This view is called progressive parallelism and is presented in Hendriksen's More Than Conquerors. The last of these parallel sections is seen as Revelation chapters 20–22, which begins with Christ's victory over Satan and goes onto the final doom; and it is the opening of this section that is seen in Revelation 20:1–6.

By his death and resurrection, Jesus achieved victory over the forces of sin, death and hell (v. 1). "A thousand years"[3] is seen as a symbolic number, indicating both length and completion (or perfection): Jesus has bound Satan for a long time and that binding is perfect, which is not to say that Satan is inactive, but rather that he is bound exactly as far as God wants him to be (v. 2). Although the devil is still active, he no longer holds unfettered sway over the Gentiles, as he did in former times. In those days, God had given the Gentile nations over to the depravities of their minds and the deceptions of the Evil One; now, he has bound the devil and the Gentiles are free to turn to him (v. 3).

And John saw those who had died in Christ, martyrs and those who had contended for their faith (an alternative reading of Rev. 20:4 is "... and because of the word of God, and also those who had not worshipped ..."). As believers in Christ, they were raised to spiritual life by Christ's bodily resurrection, and now are reigning with Christ (v. 4). Those who have died outside Christ, however, did not share in his resurrection, which is the first resurrection (v. 5), although they will be resurrected in the second, or general, resurrection, to eternal damnation (cf. Dan. 12:2). But thanks be to God! for those who have died in Christ have a share in the first resurrection, of which their spiritual life now is a token; they will be priests of God and of Christ and share in his reign (v. 6); and they will be resurrected to eternal life in the second resurrection.

Amillennialist theologians

Notes

  1. ↑ A related charge, that of anti-Semitism, must here be denied. Although it is true that some anti-Semites have attempted to use supersessionism to justify their wickedness, in fact it is precisely the succession of the covenants which shows such attitudes to be sinful.
  2. ↑ The ESV's punctuation here obscures the structure of the text unnecessarily.
  3. ↑ Revelation 20:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 — The term "thousand" is used six times in the passage.

Resources

See also

External links

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