Mary Fairchild
The following is based on the phonetic writing of the expository teaching tapes of Pastor Jim Mooberry.
Understanding what the Bible says about eschatology (the study of last things) is very important. It is from your understanding of eschatology that you will develop your biblical philosophy.
In the personal, immanent, pre-millennial coming of Jesus Christ and His blessed hope– history has a goal. You understand what the preordained course of history is by God, his ordained conclusion of His redemptive plan, and what your place is in it and this will give you wisdom to live a life to the glory of God.
PERSONAL: The angels that appeared at the ascension of Christ declared, “men of Galilee why do you stare looking into the sky. This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven (Acts 1:11). The rest of the Scriptures agree that Christ will return to earth in the future and His return will be just as His departure and that is that it will be visibly and personally. In fact, He will come with the clouds, which is just the way He departed.
“And Jesus said, ‘I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62).
“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him” (Revelation 1:7).
His first coming was through his incarnation included with his death, burial, and resurrection, and ascension. The second time he will come to judge the world and establish his kingdom on earth.
Pre-millennial opens up the theological subject of the Millennial Kingdom of Revelation 20:4. Latin for 1,000 is milli and so the millennium is Latin for 1,000 years. Your viewpoint on this is determined by whether you interpret the Scripture consistently literally or not.
“… and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4)
AMILLENNIAL VIEWPOINT: NO MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. The “A” in amillennial negates the terms. The belief that there is no earthly kingdom. Not now or ever—the key there is “earthly” meaning the “personal” return of Christ. They do not believe that there will be a literal 1,000 year kingdom or reign of Christ on the earth in conjunction with the Second Coming.
They believe that the kingdom of God began at the ascension of Christ as He went back to heaven and resumed His place at the right hand of God the Father—the kingdom is going on right now as He rules mediately through the Church and at the conclusion of this age Christ will return and the eternal state will begin.
For them, the key is the Church in Israel and how you relate these two. Their primary basis is the lack of distinction between God’s plan for Israel and for the Church. They see that the Church existed in the Old Testament—it was the godly people of Israel and the Church exists today and it is the new Israel. The old national Israel has forfeited its promises because of
its rejection of the Messiah. They don’t really see a difference in the people of God. So the promises of God for the nation of Israel for a land and a throne and a kingdom have all been forfeited by their rejection of their Messiah and they are now spiritually fulfilled in the Church in the New Testament and so there is not going to be any earthly fulfillment of any of these things.
Some believe the tribulation was all fulfilled in the first century, but most commonly they believe that it is occurring throughout this age. The reformers like Luther and Calvin identified the papacy as the antichrist and they looked at the book of Revelation and thought they saw it being fulfilled in their own lives in their own time because the tribulation is being fulfilled throughout this whole present age.
The Second Coming is viewed as a single event with no distinction between any rapture of the Church as 1 Thessalonians 4 seems to teach and the return to earth. The Second Coming inaugurates the eternal state so they think things will go on as they are until Christ returns and then immediately the eternal state will begin.
At the time that He returns—first there will be a general resurrection in which all believers and unbelievers will all be raised at the same time. All mankind from the last person Adam will be raised at this time. Following that, immediately there is a general judgment. The purpose of this judgment is to reward the believers, the righteous, and pronounce condemnation on the unrighteous, the unbelieving. The righteous will be judged so because of their faith in the gospel and the imputed righteousness of Christ. The wicked will be judged by their works and condemned. And the wicked angels will also be judged at this time. They believe that the believer continues in conscious joy in heaven and that the unbeliever will continue in conscious existence as well in the lake of fire.
Amillennial adherents: Catholic Church, most of the historic reformation denominations—Lutheranism, Methodism, Anglicanism, Presbyterian… for the most part are amillennial, they believed that they borrowed their amillennialism from the Catholic Church and they really did not reform in that area, the ones who reformed into premillennialism were of a smaller group.
POST-MILLENNIALISM: The post-millennialist believes in a literal earthly kingdom of Christ, but the kingdom of God is now being extended through the preaching of the Gospel and the world will thus eventually be christianized and then after a long period of righteousness and peace on the earth called the millennial kingdom, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s 1,000 years long, then Christ will return—that’s why it is called “post,” Christ will return “post” or “after” and earthly millennial kingdom.
They see the millennial kingdom being ushered in after the evangelization of the Church and really it is under the auspices of the Church that this kingdom arises and is ruled—Christ reigning through the Church from heaven. They adopt an optimistic view of this present age, they envision a triumphant Church spreading the Gospel to the entire globe
precipitating a golden age when the leadership of the Church is in every dimension of life—economic, social, cultural, political.
So the millennium is not to be considered necessarily just 1,000 years long, it could be longer… and then Christ will return to a world that is at peace and in submission to Him through His Church. This is based on a lack of true distinction between the Church and Israel. The same way as amillennialism believes the Church is the new Israel and has inherited the promises given to Israel in the Old Testament. The major difference is the belief that the promise of an earthly messianic kingdom will be literally fulfilled in a way—but, again, it’s through the influence of Christ’s Body, not through his personal presence after a second coming.
Their end time events would sound like this: the tribulation would be that period of time prior to the establishment or the inauguration of the kingdom through Christianizing the world and the Church will experience a struggle with resistance from spiritual forces of wickedness. The second coming in contrast to both pre-millennialism and amillennialism, which teach that Christ returns to a world that is getting progressively worse… post-millennialists believe that Christ will return to a world that has been converted and is dwelling in peaceful submission to Him through His church.
Christ’s return will be literal and visible, viewed as a single event and the time is unknown. There will be a general resurrection, a general judgment, and the eternal state is really the same vain as amillennialists as well.
Today’s revivalism is a post-millennial thought. It was most popular in the beginning with George Whitefield and Jonathon Edwards. They were the two men who were responsible in the colonies for the Great Awakening, at least God used them in their preaching. It was particularly popular in the 19th century for theologians such as Charles Hodge… and others… do to optimism do to the progress of science and culture and the standards of living in the 19th century. It was the first and second world war that really just about killed off post-millennialism as people began to see, or at least believe that the world wasn’t getting better.
Whitefield and Edwards felt that the Great Awakening, and what was happening there with the revivals was how God would bring the kingdom
in. This was the evidence that God was spreading the kingdom and so they looked forward to these revivals. That’s a not a word that is even in the Bible in the sense that they use it. We can see some instances in the Old Testament of God moving in a remarkable way—of people being saved and of a sense of a sorrow for sin in their lives and these sort of things… but their concept, their interpretation of what was happening was, a post-millennial idea. God was ushering in his kingdom through these revivals.
PRE-MILLENNIALISM: Christ will return “pre” or “before,” an earthly millennial kingdom and then he will be in charge of that reign for 1,000 years—personally reigning on earth. There are two distinct forms of pre-millennialism. One is known as “covenant pre-millennialism” or “historical pre-millennialism” and the other is called “dispensational pre-millennialism.” The difference between the two lies in their view of the distinction again between Israel and the Church.
COVENANT PRE-MILLENNIALISM believes there is an earthly millennial kingdom following the return of Christ, but paradoxically they believe that the kingdom is actually here now as well—that Christ is still reigning through his Church and yet there is to come this further kingdom on earth. “The all ready, but not yet kingdom.”
The key is the Church in Israel. The covenant pre-millennialist sees distinctions between Israel and the Church, but they don’t consistently interpret literally with regards to these things and so they do identify the Church is the new Israel. They see some differences, but they also are very
similar to amillennialism in their viewpoint of the Church. The major difference is that they see a literal earthly kingdom after the return of Christ. They are a combination.
The end time events are the tribulation is viewed as seven year period of time, probably prior to the return of Christ, but since there is no distinction really between the Church and Israel, and they do not view the tribulation as the conclusion of Israel’s history before God inaugurates the
kingdom, then they believe the Church will go through the tribulation. There are some at Trinity Seminary that are covenant pre-millennial or very close, if not.
The second coming and the rapture are viewed as simultaneous, they’ll happen at the same time. Two resurrections will occur in contrast to amillennial and post-millennial which just have one general resurrection. The covenant pre-millennialist believes there will be a resurrection of the righteous or the believers at the return of Christ, the resurrection of the unbelievers, the wicked, will not occur until after the kingdom is over and then the eternal state is viewed similarly to the others.
DISPENSATIONAL PRE-MILLENNIALISM is what I believe the Bible teaches. If you follow a literal interpreted method throughout, which is hard to do because there are figures of speech, but you will see that there is a difference between God’s plan for the Church and His plan for Israel. During time, after the creations of the new heavens and the new earth, I believe that there is a blending together into the Church as the one Body of Christ. While acknowledging some continuities for the people of God, there are separate purposes in time for these entities.
ISRAEL: God’s national people THE CHURCH: God’s transnational people (no nation; its of all nations)TRIBULATION: 7 yr. Period of time finishing Daniel’s 70TH week; a final conclusion of Israel’s national history before their kingdom. The Church will be raptured prior to the tribulation and at that time there is a resurrection and reward of the Church.
There will be likewise a resurrection of the ward of the Old Testament saints and the tribulation saints when Christ returns to establish the kingdom and then there will be a resurrection and a judgment of the wicked after the Millennial Kingdom is concluded. There will be a personal and pre-millennial coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Covenant is the theology of millennialism. God’s covenants and how he is working out salvation. Some have applied the term covenant pre-millennial to show that it’s really sort of a blend of amillennial and pemillennial. They would put more evidence on the covnenants of God and that covenant people of God whether Old Testament or New Testament are the same as the amillennialist would. So its just really a title and some way to distinguish the thinking behind it.
All view the Church as a reigning Body. That Christ, somehow, through the Church is reigning and has an impact in the earth.
His reign is “within” his Body it’s not meant to mediately be to the world. We have an influence in the world, but the primary lordship of Christ is not over the earth in that sense, but over the Church. He is the sovereign of the universe, but as far as appearance of His kingdom in any sort in the world—I don’t believe that it is here now. The Church is, which is His Body, but His kingdom is yet to come.
To add to the confusion, now there is progressive dispensationalism, which is another correction in people’s thinking about dispensationalism that goes closer to covenant.
Why is this important? If you are a dispensational pre-millennialist and you see a difference between the Church and Israel and God’s plans for them, it’s very clear in the epistle letters and in 2 Peter and in Jude that the age is progressing towards apostasy. If God should give a revival that would have some large and great extent we would be overjoyed, but it is hard to find any prediction of that—there is not prediction of that… There is prediction of apostasy. This idea comes from some Old Testament predictions concerning what you might call a second Pentecost that will occur when the kingdom starts. Joel talks about it and Peter quotes that passage in Acts 2 saying “this is what Joel was talking about…” Peter was saying “if you want to know about what this is all about, this is something of what Joel talked about—its not the complete fulfillment of it as you can see as he continues to quote it. The complete fulfillment will be at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom.
I call it the second Pentecost because I believe then will pour out His spirit on the whole world that is alive because they have survived the tribulation, they are all saved, and they are going into the kingdom and God pours out his spirit on all of them. Those passages are predictions of something that will happen after the tribulation is over, after the return of Christ. If you don’t see a distinction between Israel and the Church, then you can mistakenly believe that those verses are supposed to apply somehow to the Church and to the Church age.
So, when Bill Bright quotes 2 Chronicles 7:14, and I know this is a very popular verse that has been quoted a lot concerning the United States, but it just doesn’t apply to the United States: “If my people who are called by my name (Israel) will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.” That was a promise given to “Israel” and it’s not given to the Church, but this is the primary promise that many are basing this idea on if we will do these things—then God will send a revival.
As far as America and much of the world experiencing this great spiritual awakening by the year 2,000—I have no idea where that comes from, except from extra biblical prophecy in charismatic circles. There’s nothing in the Bible that sets any dates about this stuff at all.
Christians need to be careful about the bandwagons we jump on. Especially, we need to look at our philosophy of history—how is history going to proceed…. It is proceeding towards greater apostasy, we live in an evil and confusing day and Satan is the prince and power of this world. He is planning his own worldwide spiritual awakening or event. I believe there are things he is in the process of planning to bond and coalesce the religions of the world into this great world church—this apostate system.
The post-millennialist thought is still here today. There are some who believe that God’s kingdom is going to be established in the earth. movement. Gary North, David Chilton, … they believe that there should be a reformation of a society by the churches work in legal circles and in the
marketplace… I don’t believe that the Church is going to make society better, the only way it’s going to make society better at all is simply by evangelization as people are saved they will be salt and light and keep society from completely degenerating. Your philosophy of history is critical today.
“The Millennial Kingdom.” VARIOUS SCRIPTURE, 1/26/97; The Faithful Word. Pastor Jim Mooberry