Postmillennialism (6)

The Postmillennial Interpretation of Revelation 20 (cont.)

In the past, the majority of postmillennialists explainedRevelation 20:7-9 as teaching that the millennium will be followed by a final apostasy from the gospel and law of Christ and by a worldwide rebellion against the kingdom of Christ. Towards the very end of history, Satan will be loosed to deceive the nations and marshal them against the church. Among those who taught this final apostasy were the Presbyterian J. Marcellus Kik and the Christian Reconstructionist Gary North.¹ Kik's interpretation of the passage is representative: "For the thousand-year period he [Satan] was bound. He could no longer deceive the nations.... At the end of the millennium period he is again to be released to deceive the nations. That will be a woeful day for the world."²

Recently, prominent postmillennial Christian Reconstructionists Rousas J. Rushdoony and Martin G. Selbrede have rejected the teaching of a final apostasy as pessimistic. According to Selbrede, the millennium of Revelation 20 (which he understands as the glorious reign of the church over all her enemies in a "golden age") will climax in the salvation of every living human. To such a world, Christ will return. No worldwide rebellion against the kingdom of Christ will intervene between themillennium and the coming of Christ. Selbrede calls his doctrine of the last things "eschatological universalism" and praises it as a teaching of "unbounded optimism." He acknowledges that he is dependent for both the teaching and its name upon the noted Presbyterian theologian Benjamin B. Warfield.

The Optimistic Interpretation of Revelation 20:7-9

Optimistic though this rejection of a final apostasy and rebellion may be, it still must reckon with Revelation 20:7-9: "And when the thousand years [the millennium] are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth...to gather them together to battle...[against] the camp of the saints...and the beloved city." Even optimism must be "bounded" by the word of God.

Selbrede, the contemporary Christian Reconstruction postmillennialist, relies entirely on Warfield's exegesis of the crucial passage on a final apostasy.³ Warfield's explanation is a denial that the "little season" of Satan's loosing (Rev. 20:3) follows the thousand years in history. Rather, the "little season" is contemporaneous with the thousand years. While the saints are living and reigning with Christ in heaven, Satan is constantly opposing the church on earth. According to Warfield, the binding of Satan for a thousand years (Rev. 20:2) refers to his inability to trouble the saints in heaven. The loosing of Satan for a little season refers to his warfare against the church on earth (during much of the same time that he is bound with regard to the saints in heaven). In Warfield's explanation of the binding and loosing of Satan, time is not in view. It is a mistake to think in terms of before and after, as though Satan is bound before the millennium and loosed after it.

The chaining of Satan is not in the event a preliminary transaction, on which the security of the saints follows: nor is the loosing of Satan a subsequent transaction, on which the security of the saints ceases. The saints rather escape entirely beyond the reach of Satan when they ascend to their Lord and take their seats on His throne by His side.... But while the saints abide in their security Satan, though thus "bound" relatively to them, is loosed relatively to the world—and that is what is meant by the statement in verse 3c that "he must be loosed for a little time." ...We must here look on the time-element...as belonging wholly to the symbol and read in the interpretation space-elements in its place.4

Although Warfield does not make this explicit, his explanation of Revelation 20:7-9 includes that gradually Satan's assault on the church during the "little season" (which for Warfield is the entire present age up to the beginning of the "golden age") will weaken as the gospel converts more and more members of the nations, Gog and Magog. Then will be realized the "golden age," which will culminate in the conversion of every living human (Warfield's and Selbrede's "eschatological universalism"). Finally, Christ will return to a "converted earth."

Evidently, the "golden age" with its eschatological universalism must be inserted into Revelation 20 between verse nine and verse ten. The falling of fire from heaven upon the enemies of the church in verse nine cannot refer to the second coming of Christ, for according to Warfield and Selbrede no enemy of Christ remains at His coming. But the casting of the devil into the lake of fire in verse ten must occur at Christ's second coming. The "golden age" of postmillennialism must, therefore, be found between verse nine and verse ten.

This is the exegesis of Revelation 20:7-9 that Selbrede recommends to his postmillennial comrades, who hitherto have been afflicted with the dread malady of pessimism inasmuch as they have allowed the passage to convince them of a final apostasy. Selbrede's recommendation of Warfield's exegesis of the passage comes with a high cost to postmillennialism. The cost is giving up Revelation 20 as proof of postmillennialism's "golden age." As I pointed out earlier in this series on the last things, Warfield demonstrated that the millennium of Revelation 20 refers to the intermediate state. The living and reigning of the saints with Christ take place in heaven, not on the earth. According to Warfield, there is nothing of a "golden age" on earth in the whole of Revelation 20(Warfield finds the "golden age" of postmillennialism elsewhere in Revelation).5 It is very much to be doubted that postmillennialism is willing, or can stand, to pay this cost, even in order to rid itself of the incubus of a final apostasy.

Erroneous Interpretation

Warfield's interpretation of the loosing of Satan, inRevelation 20:7-9, is erroneous. It is so egregiously erroneous as to betray that Warfield's exegesis is driven by his postmillennial theology. A loosing of Satan towards the end of history resulting in a worldwide rebellion against the kingdom of Christ contradicts the dearest tenet of postmillennialism, namely, that history must come to a close with an earthly, visible, and complete victory of the Messianic kingdom. Therefore, the loosing of Satan must be explained away, regardless that the explanation violently conflicts with the plain language of the text and regardless that the explanation is burdened with insoluble difficulties regarding other elements of the passage, as Warfield himself admits.

The truth is that the loosing of Satan from his chain and prison follows the thousand years during which he had been bound: "When the thousand years are expired (Rev. 20:7)." "When" is a particle of time. The words "are expired" translate the Greek verb that means "were ended," or "were brought to [their] end." It is the same word used of the ending of the thousand-year period in verse three of Revelation 20 and there translated, "should be fulfilled": "that he [Satan] should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled." The thought is that Christ has a purpose with the binding of Satan for a thousand years. This purpose is the gathering of the elect church out of the nations by the preaching of the gospel. This purpose would be impossible of realization, if Satan were not bound and thus prevented from deceiving the nations under Antichrist. Only when Christ's goal, or end, with the thousand years has been reached, in the salvation of the entire church, will He loose Satan for a little season, to do his damnedest.

The element of time is very definitely in the passage, both grammatically and with regard to the doctrine.

That the loosing of Satan follows the millennium in time is clearly taught also in verse three. Satan is bound for a thousand years "that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled[that is, ended, in the sense of having been brought to their appointed goal]: and after that he must be loosed a little season." Time is everywhere in the text. Time is prominent. Time is of the text's essence. Satan is bound at the beginning of the thousand years. During the long period of the thousand years, Satan remains bound. Only when the thousand years have ended is he loosed: "after that." And he is loosed "a little season [of time]."

In opposition to Warfield's assertion that the little season of Satan's loosing is the same period of time as the thousand years during which he is bound, verse three sharply distinguishes the time of Satan's binding from the time of his loosing. A thousand years is a long time. It is the time from Christ's ascension until shortly before His coming again. In contrast, the time of Satan's loosing is very brief: "a little season" (literally: "a little time"; time is in the passage literally). And this will be a great comfort to the church that must suffer the consequences of Satan's loosing.

If further evidence of the falsity of Warfield's (and Selbrede's) interpretation of the loosing of Satan were required, it would be that this interpretation forces Warfield to explain the "nations" mentioned in verse three as the elect church in heaven. According to Warfield, the binding of Satan refers strictly to his inability to trouble the saints in heaven in the intermediate state. When verse three, then, teaches that Satan is bound "that he should deceive the nations no more," the meaning must be that he is bound so that he will not deceive the elect in heaven. Warfield recognizes his problem: "The only real difficulty lies in the word 'nations' [in v. 3]. Should we not expect 'saints' instead—for is it not merely with reference to the saints that Satan is supposed to be bound?"6 Half-heartedly, Warfield suggests as the solution to his problem that "nations" in verse three "may include Christians also."7 But he quickly admits that his attempt to explain "nations" in verse three is unsatisfactory. "It cannot be pretended that a real solution of its ['nations' in v. 3] difficulties has been offered in any case; it remains a dark spot in an otherwise lucid paragraph and must be left for subsequent study to explain."8

Apart from the usage of the word "nations" elsewhere in the book of Revelation, the word "nations" is used in verse eight of Revelation 20 to refer to masses of ungodly men and women on the earth. The "nations," identified as Gog and Magog, are the reprobate, ungodly enemies of the true church, whom Satan unites in the little season of his loosing to attack the church. The "nations" of verse three are the ungodly in the world whom Satan cannot deceive during the thousand years, but whom he does deceive during his little season after the thousand years. The "nations" in verse three are the same as the "nations" in verse eight. They are not the elect, believing church, much less the elect in heaven. They are the reprobate wicked, who are always susceptible to Satan's influence. One thing, and one thing only, prevents them from being deceived during the thousand years, and this is Christ's binding of Satan so that he cannot deceive them before Christ has accomplished His great purpose of gathering His church.

Warfield's interpretation of the loosing of Satan, let it be noted, completely distorts the prophecy of Revelation 20:7-9. The passage teaches a loosing of Satan towards the end of history that culminates in an all-out, worldwide attack on the church of Jesus Christ. The church will finally be delivered from this attack and from her ancient foe by a wonder. Fire will come down from God in heaven to devour the hordes of ungodly that assail the church. At that time, Satan will summarily be cast into hell. And then the final judgment will sit (Rev. 20:10ff.).

What is the explanation of the passage by Warfield (and presumably by the Christian Reconstructionist Selbrede)? Satan's attack on the church throughout this present age concludes with the total conversion of the nations, Gog and Magog, that had been attacking the church. Gog and Magog will be saved, to the last man or woman. The camp of the saints and the beloved city will go up on the breadth of the earth, compass the nations that are on the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, about, and successfully evangelize them so that every human then living will be saved. Then will follow a long period of earthly dominion by the saved human race, the "golden age." Where Satan will be during this "golden age," and what he will be up to, we are not told. To this "converted earth," Christ will one day return.
Revelation 20:7-9 is turned on its head.

David J. Engelsma  
http://sb.rfpa.org/articles/chapter-four-postmillennialism-6 

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1 See the previous installment in this series on the doctrine of the last things.

2 J. Marcellus Kik, An Eschatology of Victory (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1971), 246.

3 See Martin G. Selbrede, "Reconstructing Postmillennialism," The Journal of Christian Reconstruction: Symposium on Eschatology 15 (Winter, 1998), 187, 188.

4 Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, "The Millennium and the Apocalypse," in Biblical Doctrines (New York: Oxford University Press, 1929), 655, 656.

5 See David J. Engelsma, "The Millennium (2)," Standard Bearer 85, no. 15 (May 1, 2009): 345.

6 Warfield, Biblical Doctrines, 656, 657.

7 Ibid., 657.

8 Ibid.

Postmillennialism (5)

The Loosing of Satan

Just as Satan has been bound by 

the exalted Jesus Christ at the beginning of the millennium, so he will be loosed by Christ at the end of the millennium. The loosing of Satan is taught in verse seven of Revelation 20: "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison." In harmony with the truth that the binding of Satan refers to Christ's preventing Satan from deceiving the nations during the period of the thousand years (Rev. 20:3), the loosing of Satan will mean his deception of the nations: "And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog" (Rev. 20:8).

This final feature of John's inspired vision of the millennium poses a huge problem for postmillennialism. Evidently, even on a postmillennial interpretation of Revelation 20 history will end in a massive, worldwide revolt against the kingdom of Jesus Christ. But this prospect contradicts postmillennialism's fundamental conviction, and dearest desire, that Christ's kingdom will enjoy an earthly victory over all its foes within history. Anything else, on postmillennial thinking, would mean the defeat of Jesus Christ.

The problem of the loosing of Satan, to launch a worldwide attack on the kingdom of Christ at the end of the millennium, has occasioned a rift in the ranks of the postmillennialists. In the past, the overwhelming majority of postmillennialists were forced by the clear and conclusive testimony of Revelation 20:7-9 to recognize that the millennium will be followed by a powerful, widespread uprising against Christ and His kingdom. They acknowledged a final apostasy from Christ on the part of multitudes that had confessed allegiance to Christ and outwardly observed His law during the millennium, even though these postmillennial theologians saw that this apostasy at the very end contradicted their notion of a final victory of Christ within history.

Pessimistic Postmillennialists

Jonathan Edwards recognized that, after the long time of the church's enjoyment of millennial glory on earth, "a little before the end of the world, there shall be a very great apostasy, wherein a great part of the world shall fall away from Christ and his church." Edwards based this teaching of a "dark time" for the church towards the very end on Revelation 20:7-9.¹

The postmillennial Presbyterian J. Marcellus Kik wrote that after the "Christianizing" of all nations during the millennium "there will be a world-wide apostasy." This apostasy will take place "just previous to the second coming of the Lord." Constrained by Revelation 20:7-9, the otherwise optimistic Kik warned the church of "fearful days...for the Christian Church" towards the end of history. He sounded like a good amillennialist.

That this gloomy prospect troubled the ardent postmillennialist, in view of its drastic tarnishing of his "golden age," he indicated when he wrote: "It may seem strange that it will be possible to turn a host of happy people, prospering under the blessing of God, into such a world-wide rebellion." This is indeed strange. But this is by no means the strangest aspect of a final apostasy and rebellion for postmillennialism. The strangest of all is that a postmillennialist thinks that history comes to an end with the overthrow of the postmillennial kingdom of Christ and, therefore, with the defeat of King Jesus. "The apostasy will cover the earth. Only a remnant represented by The Beloved City will remain faithful."²

Leading Christian Reconstructionist Gary North also was compelled by Revelation 20:7-9 to recognize the breakup of the millennial kingdom of Christ by a vast apostasy towards the very end of history.

There may be a few isolated postmillennialists who deny that this prophecy [Rev. 20:7-9 —DJE] refers to a rebellion at the end of history, but such a view makes little impression on anyone who reads

Revelation 20

. Those who accept the plain teaching of

Revelation 20

must admit that a rebellion occurs at the very end of history. In fact, this rebellion calls down God's fire from heaven, which ends history.³

North confronted the "troubling question for postmillennialism" that this scenario raises: "The postmillennialist argues that the kingdom of God is to be progressively manifested on earth before the day of judgment.... Then how can these events take place?"4 To solve this problem, North wrote an entire book. The solution turns out to be an intriguing understanding of the doctrine of common grace.

North assured his readers, especially his postmillennial readers, that "the final rebellion" of Satan and hordes of humans "at the end of the millennium is no testimony against postmillennialism."5

(Unboundedly) Optimistic Postmillennialists

Some of North's postmillennial cohorts are not convinced. It seems to them that a worldwide rebellion against the millennial kingdom of Christ towards the very end of history represents the defeat of Christ and the refutation of a, if not the, fundamental principle of postmillennialism. Writing in the Winter 1998 issue ofThe Journal of Christian Reconstruction, leading Christian Reconstructionist Martin G. Selbrede revealed that the father of Christian Reconstruction, Rousas J. Rushdoony, called the admission of a final rebellion against the Messianic kingdom, by his own disciples, "an amillennial hangover."6 This was an odd figure for one who was himself intoxicated with the heady wine of an earthly victory of a carnal kingdom of Christ in history. But this dismissal of the teaching of a final apostasy and rebellion as the after-effects of amillennial drunkenness did indicate that Revelation 20:7-9, rightly understood, confirms the amillennial doctrine of the last things. History will come to an end, not with an earthly victory of the kingdom of Christ in a "golden age," but with a massive assault upon Christ's kingdom. Rather than a world-dominating empire, the true church will be a beleaguered city. Selbrede himself took sharp issue with his postmillennial allies over their doctrine of a final apostasy on the basis ofRevelation 20:7-9. With what in postmillennial circles is a damning indictment, Selbrede condemned Gary North's defense of a final apostasy as "an ultimately pessimistic postmillennialism."7

Selbrede refused to recognize a final apostasy that will break up and follow the millennial kingdom of Christ, if only for a short time. On the contrary, according to Selbrede, the millennial kingdom of Christ on earth will go from strength to strength until every human then living will be regenerated and obey the law of God from the heart. Selbrede predicted "the conversion of the total population of the world" prior to the second coming of Christ.8 "There simply [will not be] any unregenerated people around.... The number of unregenerated as a percentage of the world population will be steadily decreasing down to zero."9

To such a world, in which absolutely every human without exception is a born again, sanctified, law-abiding citizen of the kingdom of Christ, Jesus Christ will return.

This optimistic view of the grand finale of history (characterized by Selbrede as "unbounded optimism"), Selbrede called "eschatological universalism."10

Postmillennial Warfield

The phrase "eschatological universalism" and the doctrine of the last things it describes, namely, the salvation of every living human, are derived from the Presbyterian theologian Benjamin B. Warfield. Selbrede appealed to Warfield. The rejection of a final apostasy and the startling teaching of the eventual salvation of every living human are not merely the vagaries of some unboundedly optimistic Christian Reconstructionists. The sober Presbyterian Warfield taught that sometime in the distant future, prior to the coming of Christ, every living human will be saved. Explaining Romans 11:25ff., concerning the "fullness of the Gentiles" and the salvation of "all Israel," Warfield wrote: "The prophecy promises the universal Christianization of the world,—at least the nominal conversion of all the Gentiles and the real salvation of all the Jews." He went on to speak of "the converted earth."11

In a sermon on John 1:29, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," Warfield described Jesus' taking away the sin of the world as a process in history. The process will climax in the salvation of all living humans:

In the end, when the process is over, no unfruitful trees will be found growing in God's garden, the world, no chaff be found cumbering God's threshing-floor, the world. The vision he brings before us, let us repeat it, is the vision of the ultimate salvation of the world, its complete conquest to Christ.12

Warfield called this postmillennial expectation of the future, before the coming of Christ, "eschatological universalism." It is not the teaching of the final salvation of every human who ever lived, but the teaching of a future salvation of every human alive at that time. "The Scriptures teach an eschatological universalism.... In the age-long development of the race of men, it will attain at last to a complete salvation, and our eyes will be greeted with the glorious spectacle of a saved world."13 

So extreme was Warfield's postmillennial fervor, and so consistent his theological thinking, that he wondered whether the salvation of every human might not include the "perfecting of the world"—the "complete elimination of evil from the world"—at the height of the "golden age."

Whether they [the biblical passages Warfield is considering—DJE] go so far as to say that this winning of the world implies the complete elimination of evil from it may be more doubtful. In favor of the one view is the tremendous emphasis laid on the overthrow of all Christ's enemies, which must mean precisely his spiritual opponents—all that militates against the perfection of His rule over the hearts of men.14

Heaven on Earth

The state of earthly affairs envisioned by eschatological universalism is simply heaven on this earth, apart from the presence of Jesus Christ at His coming. It is complete deliverance from every reprobate ungodly foe and virtual deliverance from sin, apart from the destroying and cleansing work of Jesus Christ at His return in the body.

Why would one living in those heavenly days even desire the coming of Christ?

It is evident that those carried away by this vision of the earthly future—Warfield, Rushdoony, and Selbrede—do not fervently long for the coming of Christ. Rather, their hope is fixed on the "golden age."

That B. B. Warfield held these fantastic, thoroughly unbiblical notions is significant. Such eschatological fancies are not merely the dreams of wild-eyed "Fifth Monarchy Men" in Cromwell's England or of rambunctious Christian Reconstructionists in Tyler, Texas and Moscow, Idaho. Rather, they are the logical implications of the basic tenet of postmillennialism: Christ's kingdom must have dominion within history, and the dominion must be earthly, visible, and complete.

Indicating the appeal for postmillennialism of Warfield's rejection of a final apostasy and proposal of eschatological universalism, if not the necessity of these notions on postmillennial principles, is the adoption of these ideas by the Presbyterian Loraine Boettner in the later, 1984, edition of his popular advocacy of postmillennialism in the book The Millennium. In the original, 1958, edition of the book, Boettner taught a final apostasy on the basis of Revelation 20:7-9, although, by his own admission, he "wanted to accept Dr. Warfield's position that there would be no final apostasy." But in the later edition, Boettner "adopted the view of Warfield without apology...debunking the final apostasy doctrine."15

Also Norman Shepherd, at the time an Orthodox Presbyterian theologian teaching at Westminster Seminary, was open to Warfield's postmillennial doctrine, teaching it to his students as a "plausible" eschatology.

Norman Shepard (sic)...felt that "Warfield's arguments were very persuasive, and that the interpretation, far from being inadmissible, is in fact quite plausible." He informed me [Martin G. Selbrede—DJE] that he did indeed mention Warfield's view in class at Westminster, classifying it as both possible and plausible.16

It would not be surprising that a postmillennialist propose the resurrection of the dead saints prior to the coming of Christ. Why should the dead saints miss out on the glories of the millennial kingdom? Why should not Christ's victory in history extend also to His dead citizens?

Optimistic as those who reject a final apostasy may be, they must still reckon with Revelation 20:7-9. How do they evade the teaching of this passage that "when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed from his prison"?

Prof. David J. Engelsma 

http://standardbearer.rfpa.org/articles/chapter-four-postmillenialism-5-0

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¹ Jonathan Edwards, The History of Redemption (Grand Rapids: Associated Publishers and Authors, n.d.), 325-328. The nineteenth-century Scot postmillennialist David Brown likewise taught a final apostasy on the basis of Revelation 20:7-9 (see his Christ's Second Coming: Will It be Premillennial, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1983, 440-449).

² J. Marcellus Kik, An Eschatology of Victory (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1971), 234-245).

³ Gary North, Dominion & Common Grace: The Biblical Basis of Progress (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1987), x. The book is of particular interest to Protestant Reformed readers. The learned Christian Reconstructionist agreed with the Protestant Reformed Churches regarding common grace: "God also shows no favor to the non-elect, covenanted followers of Satan" (ibid., 37). Courageously violating the code of silence of Reformed theologians regarding Herman Hoeksema, North praised Hoeksema as "perhaps the most brilliant systematic theologian in America in this century" (ibid., 6). Dr. North has his moments. The trouble is that they are not eschatological.

4 Ibid., 250, xiv.

5 Ibid., 178.

6 Martin G. Selbrede, "Reconstructing Postmillennialism," The Journal of Christian Reconstruction: Symposium on Eschatology 15 (Winter 1998): 204.

7 Ibid., 161.

8 Ibid., 222.

9 Ibid., 154.

10 Ibid., 152.

11 Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, "The Prophecies of St. Paul," in Biblical Doctrines (New York: Oxford University Press, 1929), 624.

12 Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, "The Lamb of God," in The Saviour of the World: Sermons Preached in the Chapel of Princeton Theological Seminary (Cherry Hill, New Jersey: Mack, repr. 1972), 62.

13 Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, The Plan of Salvation (Boonton, New Jersey: Simpson, 1989), 105.

14 Warfield, "The Millennium and the Apocalypse," in Biblical Doctrines, 663.

15 Selbrede, "Reconstructing Postmillennialism," 148, 149. "We cannot believe that at the end God...will suddenly and purposefully throw away that victory [of the earthly kingdom of Christ of postmillennialism—DJE] and permit the Devil a world-wide triumph even for the briefest time" (Loraine Boettner, The Millennium, Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, rev. ed., 1984, 74, 75).

16 Ibid., 150. It becomes increasingly clear that the formerly Orthodox Presbyterian and presently Christian Reformed theologian Norman Shepherd has been, and is still today, a powerful advocate of the theology and world-reconstructing purposes of the federal vision, especially as it is found in Christian Reconstruction. Not only does he teach justification by faith and works—salvation by law—but he is also a proponent of postmillennialism in its most extreme, "unboundedly optimistic" form: no final apostasy, but the salvation at some future time of all humans then living.

Postmillennialism (4)

The Postmillennial Interpretation of Revelation 20

The interpretation of Revelation 20, the one passage in Holy Scripture that mentions the millennium, or thousand-year period, is basic to the right understanding of the millennium and, indeed, of the truth of the last things generally. The explanation of the passage by Reformed amillennialism appeared earlier in this treatment of the biblical doctrine of the last things.¹

Here I sketch the interpretation of the passage by the leading spokesmen of postmillennialism in the Reformed tradition. According to the Puritans and their modern disciples, Presbyterian postmillennialists such as J. Marcellus Kik and Loraine Boettner, and the Christian Reconstructionists, who lean heavily on Kik's exegesis of Revelation 20, the millennium of Revelation 20 is a very long period of time, extending (in the judgment of most) from the ascension of Christ to a time shortly before Christ's coming again.

Like amillennialism, therefore, postmillennialism explains the millennium figuratively, not as a literal period of one thousand years. Indeed, many postmillennialists suppose that the heyday of the millennium—the "golden age" for the church on earth—will last for hundreds of thousands of years prior to the second coming of Christ.

But it is in its explanations of the binding of Satan (vv. 2, 3) and of the reign of the martyr-saints with Christ (v. 4) that postmillennialism differs radically from amillennialism in its interpretation of Revelation 20.

The Binding of Satan

Postmillennialism understands the binding of Satan to be Christ's gradual restricting of Satan's influence upon men and nations throughout this present age until finally at least the vast majority of humans alive in the world are converted to Christ; all nations are "Christianized," that is, governed by the law of God and influenced by the Spirit of Christ in all their activities; and such evils as war, poverty, and crime are severely curtailed.

The more optimistic postmillennialists suggest that when Satan's binding has been fully realized, even sin and death will sharply diminish. R.J. Rushdoony promises a "world relatively free of crime, at peace, and men having a long life expectancy."² Christian Reconstructionist Martin G. Selbrede envisions "voluntary obedience to Christ on a world-wide scale so total that all rebellion and depravity have been 'extinguished.'" Selbrede is certainly right to describe his millennial hope as "unbounded optimism."³

A curious feature of the postmillennial conception of the binding of Satan is the notion that the binding of Satan is dependent upon the aggressive actions of the church. Postmillennialists charge that Satan's obvious influence over nations and people in our day is the fault of the church. If the church would exert herself, she could accomplish Satan's full binding in the postmillennial understanding of it. Whereas Revelation 20:1 places the chain that binds Satan in the hand of the angel, postmillennialism puts it in the hand of the church.

Unfortunately the Church of today does not realize the power that Christ has given her. Christ has placed in her hands the chain by which she can bind Satan. She can restrain his influence over the nations. But today the Church bemoans the fact that evil is becoming stronger and stronger. She bemoans the fact that the world is coming more and more under the control of the Devil. Whose fault is that? It is the Church. She has the chain and does not have the faith to bind Satan even more firmly. Satan is bound and the Church knows it not! Satan can be bound more firmly and the Church does it not!4

Christian Reconstruction likewise condemns the Christian church for the sorry state of a world under the spiritual domination of Satan. Especially if the church would promote the law of God in national and societal life, Satan would soon be completely bound.

The teaching that the coming of the millennial kingdom of Christ in its full glory is being held back by an unfaithful church is yet another instance of the striking formal similarities of postmillennialism to premillennial dispensationalism that I have already noted.5 Dispensationalism teaches that the millennial kingdom Christ intended to establish at His first coming was delayed by the unbelief of the Jews. Postmillennialism teaches that the millennial kingdom in the fullness of its power and glory is being delayed by an unfaithful church.

What postmillennial interpretation of the binding of Satan ignores is that the binding of Satan is a present reality, not a future possibility. He is bound. He has been bound. He has been bound as tightly and completely as can and need be during this present age. The one who has bound him is an angel from heaven, not the church. The church has many important callings. Binding Satan is not one of them. And, of utmost importance, the binding of Satan concerns one limitation of the devil, and one only: he is not able to deceive the nations, so as to bring about the world-kingdom of Antichrist. His binding has nothing to do with converting a majority of the human race, "Christianizing" the nations, putting an end to wars, diminishing crime, and increasing "material blessings" for the human race.

The Reign of the "Souls"

The reign of the "souls" with Christ of Revelation 20:4-6, according to postmillennialism, coincides with the gradual binding of Satan. Throughout the present age, as Satan is increasingly bound, the church progressively gains influence in society and power over the nations until at last, in the heyday of the millennium, she will have dominion—earthly dominion—over all the nations of the world. By the word of God (for Christian Reconstruction especially the law of God), the church and her members will control politics, civic justice, public morality, economics, education, the media, entertainment, and the arts—worldwide. Coming is a universal, earthly kingdom of Christ, prior to the bodily return of Jesus Christ. This will be the mediatorial, or Messianic, kingdom in its fullest and final manifestation. Leading postmillennial theologians teach that this glorious manifestation of the kingdom of Christ may last hundreds of thousands of years before Christ returns.

This splendid earthly kingdom will be the victory of Christ in the world. Apart from this kingdom, Christ would be defeated.

For this kingdom, the postmillennialists ardently hope—as ardently as the dispensationalists hope for their earthly kingdom.

When this kingdom holds sway over all nations and peoples, the Christian Reconstructionists intend to implement once again the civil and judicial laws of the Old Testament, which ordered the national life of Israel. Hence, the name "theonomy" for the doctrine of Christian Reconstruction. "Theonomy" means 'law of God' with reference specifically to the civil and judicial laws of Old Testament Israel. Christian judges likely will sentence Sabbath-breakers to be stoned to death according to the Old Testament law of Numbers 15:32-36.

The First Resurrection

Basic to this postmillennial explanation of the reign of the saints with Christ is its interpretation of the "first resurrection," in Revelation 20:5, 6, as regeneration. Postmillennialism denies that the first resurrection is the translation of the souls of elect believers into heavenly life and glory at the moment of death. It is essential to the postmillennial explanation of the reign of the saints, as to its understanding of the millennium, that the first resurrection be interpreted as regeneration. For only then can the reign of the saints take place on the earth. If the first resurrection is, in fact, the translation of the souls of believers at death, the reign of the saints of Revelation 20:4-6 occurs in heaven as part of the communion of the saints, in their souls, with the reigning Christ at the right hand of God. And this would mean the collapse of the entire postmillennial conception of a coming "golden age" for the church in history, at least on the basis of Revelation 20.

Kik, therefore, calls the interpretation of the "first resurrection," in verse five, as the spiritual regeneration of God's people in this world the "key" to a right understanding of the millennium of Revelation 20.6

Postmillennial, Christian Reconstructionist (to be redundant) David Chilton does not greatly exaggerate when he judges that he can dispose of amillennialism by refuting its interpretation of the first resurrection as the translation of believers into heaven in their soul at death.

We can dispose of the amillennial position right away, by pointing out the obvious: this is a resurrection, a rising again from the dead. Dying and going to heaven is wonderful, but, for all its benefits, it is not a resurrection. This passage cannot be a description of the state of disembodied saints in heaven.7

With regard to John's seeing "souls" reigning with Christ, postmillennialists point out that "souls" can refer to 'persons,' or to 'lives.' Here, they say, the reference is to regenerated persons reigning on earth in both a body and a soul, especially during the time of the "golden age."

This postmillennial interpretation of the reigning of the saints, as seen by the apostle in Revelation 20:4-6, is exposed as false by the conclusive testimony of the passage that the reign of the saints follows their death—their physical death. It is not, therefore, a reign on this earth, but a reign in heaven. The conclusive testimony is not only that John sees "souls," in distinction from "men," or "believers," or "saints," that is, men and women living earthly life in the body, although this deliberate mention of "souls" is significant. Earlier, referring to the same persons in virtually the same language, John located "the souls of them that were slain for the word of God" "under the altar" (Rev. 6:9). He distinguished these souls (and their abode in heaven) from their brothers who still must be killed, as the saints in heaven had been, by the wicked who "dwell on the earth" (Rev. 6:10, 11).

But the conclusive testimony is that John sees "souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus." These persons, who have been killed by the anti-christian world-power for their faithful confession of Jesus Christ, lived and reigned with Christ. Souls of those who have been beheaded do not exercise earthly dominion in history.

That the souls who reign with Christ are the saints who have been taken up to heaven at death is confirmed by the mention of the "second death" in verse six. The second death is hell, as verse fourteen establishes: "The lake of fire [is] the second death." The first death is physical death. Corresponding to these two forms of death are two forms of resurrection, or deliverance from death. The second is the resurrection of the body into immortality. The first is the translation of the soul of the believer at the moment of physical death.

Contrary to the emphatic, but ungrounded, denial of the postmillennialists, the deliverance of the believer in his soul at death is indeed resurrection. The soul of the regenerated Christian in earthly life is corrupted by sin as much as is his body. Besides, his soul is earthy—completely adapted to living earthly life in this world and completely unsuited to living heavenly life in the other world, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. In addition, as corrupted by sin (as corrupted as is the body) and as guilty of all kinds of transgressions of thought, will, and passions, the soul of the believer is fully deserving of the punishment of eternal death at the moment of its separation from the body in death. That Christ perfectly purifies the soul of depravity, transforms it so that it is now fit to live heavenly life, and takes the soul into the eternal life of heaven at the moment of the believer's death is resurrection—real life for the believer out of real death.

The Intermediate State

Revelation 20:4-6 describes the "intermediate state" of elect believers.8

So clearly does the passage speak of the intermediate state that Benjamin B. Warfield, postmillennialist though he was, acknowledged that Revelation 20:4-6 teaches the intermediate state, and may not, therefore, be appealed to by postmillennialism on behalf of a reign of the church on earth. Recognizing that the "souls of them that had been beheaded" are "disembodied souls," Warfield concluded, concerning the millennium of Revelation 20, particularly verses four through six:

The picture that is brought before us here is, in fine, the picture of the "intermediate state"—of the saints of God gathered in heaven away from the confused noise and garments bathed in blood that characterize the war upon earth in order that they may securely await the end. The thousand years, thus, is the whole of this present dispensation, which again is placed before us in its entirety, but looked at now relatively not to what is passing on earth but to what is enjoyed "in Paradise."9

He added: "The millennium of the Apocalypse is the blessedness of the saints who have gone away from the body to be at home with the Lord."10

The Earthly Victory of Christ

Most postmillennialists, however, differ with Warfield. In the light of their exegesis of Revelation 20, particularly the binding of Satan and the reign with Christ of believing members of the church, as sketched above, most postmillennialists view the millennium as the history of this present age destined to climax in the future in a long period of time during which the church will enjoy almost total earthly victory over her enemies.

The church shall have dominion over land and sea/earth's remotest regions shall her empire be/they that wilds inhabit shall their off'rings bring/kings shall render tribute/nations kiss her ring.

This earthly victory of His church will be Christ's supreme triumph, according to postmillennialism, and the full and final glory of His kingdom. In jarring conflict with this giddy prospect of Christ's victory in history is the sobering conclusion of the vision of Revelation 20 concerning the thousand years. "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations...and they...compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city" (vv. 7-9).

How does postmillennialism explain this overthrow of the dominion of Christ and His church at the end of the millennium and history? And how does postmillennialism harmonize this worldwide revolt against Christ's kingship at the end with postmillennialism's conviction that Christ must have an earthly triumph in history? Does not this revolt represent, for postmillennialism, the defeat of Christ—the decisive defeat of Christ?

Prof. David J. Engelsma 
http://standardbearer.rfpa.org/articles/chapter-four-postmillennialism-4 

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1. Standard Bearer 85, no. 15 (May 1, 2009): 343-346; no. 19 (August 2009): 448-450.

2. R.J. Rushdoony, God's Plan for Victory: The Meaning of Postmillennialism (Fairfax, Virginia: Thoburn Press, 1977), 2.

3. Martin G. Selbrede, "Reconstructing Postmillennialism," Journal of Christian Reconstruction: Symposium on Eschatology 15 (Winter, 1998): 202, 194. The emphasis is Selbrede's.

4. J. Marcellus Kik, An Eschatology of Victory (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1971), 196.

5 Standard Bearer 86, no. 2 (October 15, 2009): 34, 35.

6. Kik, Eschatology of Victory, 179.

7. David Chilton, Paradise Restored: A Biblical Theology of Dominion (Tyler, Texas: Reconstruction Press, 1985), 196. The emphasis is Chilton's.

8. See my treatment of the intermediate state, with specific reference to Revelation 20:4-6, in previous articles in this series: Standard Bearer 80, no. 9 (February 1, 2004): 210-213; 82, no. 3 (November 1, 2005): 64-67; 82, no. 10 (February 15, 2006): 225-228; 82, no. 20 (September 1, 2006): 465-468; 85, no. 3 (November 1, 2008): 57-60; 85, no. 6 (December 15, 2008): 132-134.

9. Benjamin B. Warfield, "The Millennium and the Apocalypse," in Biblical Doctrines (New York: Oxford University Press, 1929), 649. Warfield found evidence for a future "golden age" elsewhere in Scripture, especially the Old Testament prophecies and Revelation 19:11-21.

10. Ibid., 662.

Postmillennialism (3)

Postmillennialism in the Reformed Tradition (cont.)

Contemporary advocates of postmillennialism in Reformed and Presbyterian churches, particularly the disciples of the Puritans and the Christian Reconstructionists, can appeal to a prominent, powerful strand of the Reformed tradition in support of their doctrine of the last things. Unlike premillennial dispensationalism, the other important challenge to Reformed amillennialism, postmillennialism must be taken seriously by the Reformed church in the twenty-first century.

Edwards and the Puritans

In the preceding installment in this series on the doctrine of the last things, I quoted Jonathan Edwards' postmillennial hope in his The History of Redemption1 as representative of many, though not all, of the Puritans. George Marsden accurately describes Edwards' (and many of the Puritans) bright view of the earthly future of the church. During the coming millennium, "almost everyone would truly follow Christ. As a result, wars would cease, nations would dwell together as brethren, 'the wolf should dwell with the lamb.' There would be 'vast increase of knowledge,' and 'all heresies and false doctrines shall be exploded.' In short, the triumph of Christ's kingdom [in the "golden age" of the millennium—DJE] 'is an event unspeakably happy and glorious.'"2

Edwards called the coming earthly reign of Christ through His church the "church's latter-day glory."3

Marsden indicates an important motivation of Edwards' doctrine of a future millennium prior to the coming of Christ. Edwards was concerned that the number of those who are saved be greater in the end than the number of the lost.4

Typical of the postmillennial Puritans was Edwards' expectation of a future great revival that would usher in the millennium. In order to bring this necessary revival about by the extraordinary work of the Spirit, Edwards organized a vast, worldwide prayer chain. All Christians everywhere in the world were to pray at the same time that the Spirit would send the great revival.

It is a very suitable thing, and well-pleasing to God, for many people, in different parts of the world, by express agreement, to come into a visible union in extraordinary, speedy, fervent, and constant prayer, for those great effusions of the Holy Spirit, which shall bring on that advancement of Christ's church and kingdom that God has so often promised shall be in the latter ages of the world.

Edwards concluded that this prayer for the great revival and, thus, for the millennium was a "duty" of all Christians.5

Recognizing that the biblical teaching of future lawlessness in the world and nominal church, of apostasy on the part of churches and professing Christians, of the rise of Antichrist, and of great tribulation for the true church is a "great damp" on millennial hopes and prayer chains, Edwards neatly consigned the realization of all such New Testament passages to the past, specifically, the time of the Protestant Reformation. "This notion [of a future Antichrist and tribulation—DJE] tends to discourage all earnest prayer in the church of God for that glorious coming of Christ's kingdom, till it be actually come; and that is to hinder its ever being at all."6 That is, like all postmillennialists, Edwards was, and had to be, at least a "partial" preterist.

A full, consistent preterist in eschatology is one who explains all New Testament prophecies of Christ's coming and the things attending that coming as having been fulfilled in the past, whether in AD 70 in the destruction of Jerusalem, or in the time of the persecution of the early New Testament church by the Roman empire. A "partial," inconsistent preterist is a theologian who does exactly what the preterist does with eschatological prophecy, except for the prophecy of the coming millennium and the prophecy of the bodily return of Christ—especially the prophecy of the coming millennium.7

Dutch Reformed

It was not only the Puritans in the broadly Reformed tradition who taught postmillennialism. Prominent, influential Dutch Reformed theologians also advocated a coming "golden age" for the church before the return of Christ. Wilhelmus àBrakel looked for "the glorious state of the church during the thousand years prophesied in Revelation 20."8 Ushering in this glorious, earthly state of the church, àBrakel held, will be a "conversion of the entire Jewish nation," involving "a restoration of the nation [of Israel], not only in a spiritual sense, but also in a physical sense"; the return of the Jews to Canaan; and the literal rebuilding of the earthly city of Jerusalem.9

Waxing ecstatic over the prospect of the "wondrous increase in the measure of grace," the "great numbers" of converts, and the fine earthly state of the church worldwide in the millennium, as well as of the grand, earthly kingdom of the Jews in Canaan, àBrakel exclaimed, "Oh, what a glorious time this will be!" Wistfully, he added, "Who will then be alive?"10—a question that ought to have made him reexamine his postmillennial eschatology. Are all the Old Testament saints and the multitudes of New Testament Christians who will have died before the millennium to miss out on the most wonderful realization of the kingdom of Christ?

Scottish Presbyterians

Postmillennialism has also been the eschatology of Scottish Presbyterians. Writing in the middle of the nineteenth century, David Brown explained the millennium of Revelation 20 as that time in the future, prior to the return of Christ, when the biblical prophecies of the coming glory of the Messianic kingdom will be fulfilled in "their full earthly sense." According to Brown, there will be a "universal reception of the true religion, and unlimited subjection to the scepter of Christ," so that all the religions of the pagans, the "imposture" of Islam, the false religion of the Jews, and the superstition of popery will be abolished. There will be universal, earthly peace; "much spiritual power and glory" because of a more copious outpouring of the Spirit; "the ascendancy of truth and righteousness in human affairs"; and "great temporal prosperity" for true believers and ungodly alike. As is invariably the case with the postmillennial vision, the beginning of the millennium will be the national conversion of Israel.11

Presbyterians in the US

Presbyterians of stature in the United States have also espoused postmillennialism. On the basis, significantly, not of Revelation 20 (the passage that speaks of the thousand-year period), but of Revelation 19:11-21, the vision of the conquering Christ, northern Presbyterian Benjamin B. Warfield forecast a "golden age before the Church," prior to the return of Christ. It will be "at least an age relatively golden gradually ripening to higher and higher glories as the Church more and more fully conquers the world and all the evil of the world." Such will be the church's victory over evil, in Warfield's mind, that he left it an open question whether the millennial "winning of the world implies the complete elimination of evil from it."12

The southern Presbyterian Robert L. Dabney shared his northern colleague's view of the last things. "Before this second advent, the following events must have occurred. The development and secular overthrow of Antichrist...which is the Papacy. The proclamation of the Gospel to all nations, and the general triumph of Christianity over all false religions, in all nations.... The general and national return of the Jews to the Christian Church." Dabney called these future events "this state of high prosperity" for the church on earth. He evidently saw this "prosperity" as the meaning of the millennium of Revelation 20, since he appealed to the chapter in support of his expectation of it.13

The strong presence of postmillennialism in the Reformed tradition does not make the millennial error respectable, much less an option for Reformed churches in the twenty-first century. Postmillennialism is false doctrine concerning the return of Christ, and a practical danger to believers and their children. But the presence of postmillennialism in the tradition does demand that we take the challenge to Reformed amillennialism today, especially by the disciples of the Puritans and by the men of Christian Reconstruction, seriously.

Prof. David J. Engelsma

http://standardbearer.rfpa.org/articles/chapter-four-postmillennialism-3 

rfpa.org 

 

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1 Jonathan Edwards, The History of Redemption (Grand Rapids: Associated Publishers & Authors, n.d.), 305, 307.

2 George M. Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2003), 335.

3 Jonathan Edwards, Praying Together for True Revival, ed. T. M. Moore (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R, 2004), 14.

4 Marsden, Edwards, 335, 336.

5 Edwards, Praying Together, 26. The emphasis is Edwards'.

6 Ibid., 128, 129.

7 For the Reformed criticism of "partial" preterism and the demonstration that "partial," inconsistent preterism necessarily commits one to full, consistent preterism, see my Christ's Spiritual Kingdom: A Defense of Reformed Amillennialism (Redlands, CA: The Reformed Witness, 2001), 129-158.

8 Wilhelmus àBrakel, The Christian's Reasonable Service, tr. Bartel Elshout, vol. 4 (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995), 531.

9 Ibid., 348, 526, 530.

10 Ibid., 516.

11 David Brown, Christ's Second Coming: Will It be Premillennial? (Grand Rapids: Baker, repr. 1983), 424-440. The emphasis is Brown's. As the subtitle indicates, much of the book is also an incisive, helpful criticism of premillennialism. John Macleod says of Brown's book that it was "perhaps the most influential book" of that period in Great Britain on the return of Christ (John Macleod, Scottish Theology, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, repr. 1974, 278). Brown was obviously heavily influenced by the postmillennialism of Jonathan Edwards.

12 Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, "The Millennium and the Apocalypse," in Biblical Doctrines (New York: Oxford University Press, 1929), 662-664.

13 Robert L. Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, repr. 1972), 838.

Postmillennialism (1)

Introduction

The truth of the millennium is corrupted by two, distinct errors concerning the thousand years of Revelation 20. Not only do these two doctrines err in their explanation of the millennium, but they also grossly exaggerate its importance. The millennium, a relatively minor teaching found in only one chapter of the Bible (and that, in the highly figurative and symbolical book of Revelation), comes to dominate all of eschatology and even to occupy an unduly prominent place in the whole of theology.

Such exaggeration of the significance of the thousand-year period of Revelation 20 out of all biblical proportion, thus distorting the millennium (to say nothing of the erroneous explanations themselves of the biblical truth), is millennialism, as pietism is the exaggerated distortion of genuine piety; scientism, the distortion of legitimate science; and Communism, the distortion of necessary human community.

There are two basic forms of this millennialism, differing with regard to the time of Jesus' second, bodily coming in relation to the millennium. The millennial error that has Jesus returning before the millennium is premillennialism. The millennial error that has Jesus returning after the millennium is postmillennialism.

Shared Views

Although these two forms of false teaching concerning the millennium differ, and in some respects differ sharply, they hold certain, important views of the millennium and its implications in common. Both explain the thousand years of Revelation literally, rather than figuratively, although some postmillennialists feel free to expand the coming period of the millennium to hundreds of thousands of years.

Both expect the literal millennium in the earthly future, within present history, before the destruction and renewal of this world.

Both teach an earthly realization of the Messianic kingdom in history—a carnal kingdom consisting of earthly power, earthly prosperity, and earthly peace.

Both make much of the Jews—physical, racial Jews—in their doctrine of the last things. Premillennialists have the restored nation of Israel in Palestine ruling the world under Christ during the millennium. The millennium is for the Jews. Postmillennialists teach that a mass conversion to Christ of Jewish people will signal and usher in the millennium.

Both forms of millennialism rob the contemporary church of much of Holy Scripture. Premillennialism assigns most of the Old Testament and large sections of the New Testament exclusively to the Jews, supposedly God's kingdom people in distinction from the church. Postmillennialism contends that all of the passages, especially in the New Testament, that predict perilous times, lawlessness, apostasy, tribulation, and antichrist were intended for the church before AD 70, insofar as they applied to the church at all. Included among the passages that postmillennialism strips from the church today is the entire book of Revelation, except for the last three chapters.

Three errors that both forms of millennialism share are especially damning. Both premillennialism and postmillennialism promise the church and her members that they will escape the great tribulation foretold in Matthew 24:21 and many other passages of Scripture. Premillennialism foists the great tribulation on the Jews in the future. Postmillennialism thrusts it on the Jews in the past, in AD 70.

Both regard the millennium as the victory—the victory—of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

And both fix the hope of the believing church, not upon the coming of Jesus Christ that raises the dead, judges all men, and brings about the new world in which righteousness, and only righteousness, shall dwell, as the goal (Greek: telos) of history, but upon the millennium within history, in which unrighteousness shall dwell. For premillennialism, the "blessed hope" is the rapture of the church marking the onset of the millennium.

Because postmillennialism appears in the Reformed tradition and is vigorously advocated by Presbyterian and Reformed theologians, I begin my critical examination of the two forms of millennialism with postmillennialism.

Description and Distinctions

Postmillennialism is the doctrine concerning the last things that teaches that the cause of Christ will increasingly prevail in this world in an earthly, visible manner, so that in the future masses of humans will be converted to Christ—likely, the majority of mankind—Christians will dominate the life of nations, and the evils that have plagued mankind—war, social strife, crime, disease, and poverty—will be severely curtailed, if not eradicated. This world will be "Christianized." Postmillennialism dreams of a "golden age" for the church at the end of history—earthly power, earthly peace, and earthly prosperity.

This culturally, socially, and politically triumphant Christianity will be the Messianic kingdom prophesied by the Old Testament, for example, Psalm 72, in its fulfillment and perfection. Concerning the millennial glory of the church, Iain H. Murray exclaims, "The Church, after all, would be victorious!" (The Puritan Hope: Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy, Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth, repr. 1975, 97; the enthusiastic exclamation mark is Murray's. The implication is that prior to the millennium the church has been defeated.)

The finally victorious, Messianic kingdom of Christ will endure for a thousand years (although, as dreams are wont to do, the period of this earthly victory of Christ's kingdom mightily expands in some postmillennialists to hundreds of thousands of years).

After this "golden age" of a thousand years, Jesus Christ will return to raise the dead, conduct the final judgment, and renew the creation. Some postmillennialists hold that Christ will return to a world under the dominion of Christians. Others, with an uneasy eye on Revelation 20:7-9, the loosing of Satan for a little season after the thousand years, are compelled to acknowledge that the earthly reign of the saints will be broken up at the very end by hordes of the ungodly, so that Christ will return to a world convulsed by war. Herein lies a huge problem for the advocates of the coming earthly victory of the church, to which I will return.

The postmillennialism that appears in the Reformed tradition demands to be distinguished from the old, theologically modernist and unbelieving notion of a coming millennium of peace and plenty for the human race. David Chilton complained that

the dominion outlook [postmillennialism as it appears in the Reformed tradition—DJE] is equated with the liberal "Social Gospel" movement of the early 1900s. Such an identification is utterly absurd, devoid of any foundation whatsoever. The leaders of the Social Gospel movement were evolutionary humanists and socialists, andwere openly hostile toward Biblical Christianity (David Chilton, Paradise Restored: A Biblical Theology of Dominion, Tyler, Texas: Reconstruction Press, 228).

The modernist, or liberal, message of a future millennium proclaimed that this utopia (literally, "no place"), which modernism called "the kingdom of God," would come by the cooperating energies of irresistible evolutionary development and strenuous human effort. Nature and man would bring about the "kingdom of God."

Early twentieth-century Protestant theologian Walter Rauschenbusch gave expression to the modernist conception of the millennium. "We need a restoration of the millennial hope," he wrote. The millennium hoped for would be "a social life in which the law of Christ shall prevail, and in which its prevalence shall result in peace, justice and a glorious blossoming of human life...the brotherhood of man...expressed in the common possession of the economic resources of society." The way in which the millennium will come, according to Rauschenbusch, is "development." This powerful "development" is God Himself immanent "in history...working toward redemption and education." The church must "cooperate" with this immanent deity (who is nothing other than Darwin's evolutionary force applied, with unwarranted optimism, to social progress and the material welfare of the human race) to realize the "kingdom of God."

Of course, for theological modernism there can be no coming of Jesus Christ in the body after the millennium, since Jesus, if He ever existed, remains dead and buried. Rauschenbusch was at pains to insist that his eschatology "of historic development has no final consummation."

It is often said that this modernist hope of future millennial peace and prosperity shattered on the hatred, strife, and devastation of World War I. But Rauschenbusch wrote his book and proclaimed his message of millennial hope in 1917, when World War I was very much in progress. In fact, Rauschenbusch took the war into account, not as a damper on his dream, but as part of the development of the human race towards the coming millennium: "The Great War is a catastrophic stage in the coming of the Kingdom of God" (Walter Rauschenbusch, A Theology for the Social Gospel, Nashville, Abingdon Press, repr. 1978, 208-239).

As deaf to the testimony of history as it is to the witness of Scripture, theological modernism still stubbornly entertains the hope of a "golden age" for mankind by means of evolutionary development and the efforts especially of preachers, politicians, scientists, and teachers in the state schools. Rome has its French Jesuit philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, liberation theologians, and, as his recent encyclical, "Charity in Truth," indicates, the present pope.

Protestantism has its Paul Tillich and hosts of pastors whose message every Sunday morning is love for mankind (referred to as humankind), tolerance of everyone and everything (except uncompromising confession of the truth and unswerving obedience to the law of God), and the uniting of all the nations and peoples of the world (excluding the holy nation, which is the true church).

Natural men and women are moved by this hope of an earthly paradise—a carnal "kingdom of God." American politicians seek votes with the vision of "a new world order." Lenin and Stalin won the hearts of millions, including liberals in the United States, by their announcement of the coming of the millennium in the form of Communism, regardless of Communism's avowed godlessness, mass murders, and dictatorial cruelties. Hitler bewitched virtually all of Germany, including multitudes of German Christians, with the prospect of the "thousand-year Reich"—the millennial kingdom of the messianic Fuhrer—reared up though it was by war, bloodshed, and terror.

With his millennium, Antichrist will seduce the world, including many nominal Christians, who do not have their heart set on the spiritual kingdom of Christ, revealed in the sound doctrine of the gospel (II Thess. 2). The seduction will be the arrival, at long last, of the millennial kingdom of God and Christ (as Antichrist's prophet, the beast out of the earth [Rev. 13:11ff.] will describe it) in its full, carnal, bedazzling, beguiling splendor and beneficence.

From this conception of the millennium, the Reformed postmillennialists are anxious to distance themselves.

Understandably.

Well may they be anxious also that their conception of a carnal kingdom not play into the program of the "king of fierce countenance," who "by peace shall destroy many" (Daniel 8:23-25).

Prof. David J. Engelsma

http://standardbearer.rfpa.org/articles/chapter-four-postmillennialism-1 

http://sb.rfpa.org/