Millennial Views Pt. 3: Postmillennialism
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. - Revelation 20:1-3
After a brief hiatus, we’re back to the subject matter of three millennial views by examining the final of the three, postmillennialism. If you need a refresher on the other two millennial views, I invite you to read my previous articles premillennialism and amillennialism.
What is Postmillennialism?
As you probably guessed by the prefix post, in this millennial view, the return of Christ happens after the conclusion of the millennium. It is similar to amillennialism in that the postmillennial view does not view the thousand-year reign of Christ from Revelation 20 to be a literal thousand years where Christ rules physically, but rather it is the Church age. So, in essence, we are in the millennium right now. The biggest difference between postmillennialism and the amillennial and premillennial views is the absence of the Great Tribulation. In postmillennialism, the gospel’s influence will increase to the degree that there will be so much good in the world that it will usher in the return of Christ to the earth complete with the final judgment and the inauguration of the eternal state with the new heavens and the new earth. This undoubtedly makes postmillennialism the most optimistic of the three millennial views, but optimism alone is not enough. What is the biblical basis for this view?
Biblical Citations for Postmillennialism
The Great Commission is cited by postmillennials as an expectation that the gospel will overcome the world as it sits currently. This is not to say that everyone everywhere will become Christians, but that biblical Christianity will have such a widespread following and influence that it literally changes the moral landscape of society. It will take time and will not happen all at once, but over the course of human history, the world will morally improve to the point of ushering in the peace of Christ’s reign. For the postmillennial, Christ’s authority in heaven and on earth means that eventually, all will submit to His reign. Coupled with this is Psalm 110:1, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” This verse is meant to imply that the way the enemies of Christ are made His footstool is through their repentance and submission to His rule. The more gospel influence there is, the fewer enemies of Christ there are.
One final citation is the parable of the mustard seed from Matthew 13:31-32, “He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” In this, the postmillennial believes that the Church with its small beginnings will one day fill the world to the point of being an overcoming influence.
Responses to Postmillennialism
Of the three millennial views, postmillennialism is the hardest to justify biblically. To begin with, as we look back at the course of human history, it seems as though we have become increasingly wicked rather than gradually becoming good. While there are eras of human history that are especially bad and some that were generally peaceful, human depravity is becoming more and more apparent. In just the last 120 years, we’ve seen two global wars, the Holocaust, the Cambodian genocides under Pol Pot, Stalin killing millions of people, 9/11, and now, at the time of this writing, Israel is at war with the terrorist organization Hamas, who invaded Gaza and killed over 1,200 people including infants whom they beheaded. Just as disturbing is the support from across the globe for their actions, including in America at the educational and governmental levels. This is not even to mention the millions of aborted unborn children and the vast sexual immorality being practiced, celebrated, and forced upon children in the public education system. While we cannot base everything on experience, it is hard to see how the world is gradually becoming a better place. We are more wicked now than we’ve ever been.
Further, while the Church is indeed growing and spreading, so is hostility towards the gospel message. No one can deny that the Church grows the fastest and is healthiest amid persecution, but on a societal level, hatred of the gospel has only increased. In regard to the parable of the mustard seed as a biblical citation, it is bad exegesis to press the details of a parable in this manner. Jesus said the kingdom of God would grow and indeed it has, but the point was not to stress the extent of that growth, simply that God would oversee its growth and that it would not be prevented from growing.
As for the Great Commission as a proof text for postmillennialism, the authority Christ has in sending His people should not be assumed to mean that He will exercise it in such a way as to result in a conversion of the majority of the world. On the contrary, we are told that many will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Italics mine). Additionally, in Luke 17, Jesus says, “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.” The people of Noah’s day were so wicked that God destroyed the earth by flood, only sparing Noah and his family. This is what it will be like when Christ returns, the wickedness of men will be widespread, resulting in complete destruction and the sparing of only the people of God (Revelation. 19:11-21). Finally, Jesus’ question from Luke 18:8 indicates that the earth will not be dominated by those who have faith, but by those who do not. “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
One final observation is in regard to the absence of the Great Tribulation in the postmillenial view. Jesus made it plain that there would be a time prior to His return of global tribulation the likes of which the world has not seen (Matthew 24). Postmillennials address this by explaining that the tribulation Christ teaches on refers solely to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Yet this does not address the fact that Jesus said the whole world would see His coming (Matthew 24:30).
It would appear that the biblical bases for the postmillennial view are derived more from assumption and inference than the actual meaning of the text. We have to be careful when interpreting any biblical text that we do not infer meaning into a passage where that meaning was never meant to be conveyed. This is eisegesis, and it always results in faulty theology. I am not in any way saying postmillennials are heretics, but allegorizing biblical text and pressing for details that are not there can be dangerous. When it makes sense to do so, we should always take a biblical text at face value. Postmillennialism appears to read meaning into the text that is not there.
Summary
The postmillennial view is by far the most optimistic of the three millennial views. However, the biblical bases for this view coupled with the state of the world and its increasing wickedness reveals that it is also the least likely of the three views. In the end, every view agrees that Christ will return, He will judge, and ultimately, He will rule and reign forever. The debate is one of timing. So long as we can agree on the truth that Christ is returning as He promised he would, then we may disagree on when that will occur, since none of us really knows anyway. Let us have such debates with civility, grace, and humility, and may the Lord Jesus hasten His return. Come, Lord Jesus!
Soli Deo Gloria
