Hermeneutics in Eschatology P4 - Postmillennialism

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Disclaimer: 

Remember my intention is not to promote one view over another, these posts are intended to prepare you for the discussion and to help you form your own position. 

Definition:

Postmillennialism believes that the millennium is an era (not a literal thousand years) during which Christ will reign over the earth, not from a literal and earthly throne, but through the gradual increase of the Gospel and its power to change lives. 

After this gradual Christianization of the world, Christ will return and immediately usher the church into their final eternal state after judging the wicked. 

It is called postmillennialism because, according to this position, Christ will return after the millennium.

Distinctions:

• The favored method of Biblical interpretation is the covenant-historical.
  
  
• Its position on Israel and the church would be that the church is the fulfillment of Israel.
  
  
• The Kingdom of God represents a spiritual entity experienced on earth through the Christianizing affect of the Gospel.
  
  
• The Millennium is a Golden Age of Christianity that takes place prior to Christ's second advent during which Christ will virtually rule over the whole earth through an unprecedented spread of the Gospel; the vast majority of people will be Christian.
  
  
• There is no definitive position on the role of Satan within postmillennial thought.
  Some postmillennial theologians argue that Satan was bound by Jesus (similar to amillennialism), while others would argue it remains a future event (in agreement with premillennialism).
  
  
• Key Passages: Psalm 2; Isaiah 2:2–4; Matthew 13; 28; John 12.
  
  
• Miscellaneous:
  • Higher degrees of interpreting First Century events in the light of prophecy; preterism often goes hand-in-hand with postmillennialism.
  • Of the several versions of postmillennial eschatology, the reconstructionists seem to be gaining the most popularity in the world today.
    
    
• Major proponents: Jonathan Edwards, B. B. Warfield, Greg Bahnsen, Loraine Boettner, Kenneth L. Gentry Jr., David Chilton, and Gary North.

Synopsis:

You have very likely never met a committed proponent of postmillennialism. That was not always the case. Early in American history, postmillennialism was, in some sense, an American eschatology. Now it’s a theological peculiarity to hear someone speak of postmillennial ideas. In part, that’s because postmillennialism is a difficult system to quantify.

There are several different versions of postmillennialism, but one of the views gaining the most popularity is that of the theonomists. Generally speaking, the postmillennial theonomist viewpoint holds to a partial-preterist interpretation of Revelation and the various judgment prophecies in the Gospels, believing that the majority of those prophecies were fulfilled in 70 A.D. at the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

Postmillennialists see the millennial kingdom as the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham that he would become "a great nation" and that "all peoples on earth would be blessed" through him (Genesis 12:2-3). This holy reign will come about via gradual conversion (rather than premillennialism's cataclysmic Christological advent) through the spread of the Gospel — this incremental progress is drawn from many pictures found throughout Scripture. (Deuteronomy 7:22 and Ezekiel 47:1-12)

Postmillennial optimism is also nurtured through many of the prophetic Psalms. 

The Psalms often speak of all nations fearing Him, salvation being known among all nations, the ends of the earth fearing Him. 

(Psalm 2:1-12; Psalm 22:27; Psalm 67:2, Psalm 67:7; Psalm 102:15; Psalm 110:1). 

Another passage that well feeds this earthly optimism is Isaiah 2:2-3 in which the nations will stream to the righteousness of God.

Key Terms:

Covenant-Historical: Covenant theology is an approach to biblical interpretation that appreciates the importance of the covenants for understanding the divine-human relationship and the unfolding of redemptive history in Scripture. Blending insights from systematic and biblical theology, covenant theology explains the economic Trinity, communion with God, the person and work of Christ, the sacraments, justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, the role of obedience in the Christian life, the believer’s assurance of salvation, the unity and progress of redemptive history, and more, in light of the Bible’s teaching on the divine covenants.

Reconstructionist: Reconstruction, by definition, looks backward, seeking to reconstruct what is believed to have been lost.  Christian reconstructionists advocate for a theocratic government and libertarian economic principles. They maintain a distinction of spheres of authority between self, family, church, and state. 

Theonomists: Theonomy, from theos (god) and nomos (law), is a hypothetical Christian form of government in which society is ruled by divine law. Theonomists hold that divine law, particularly the judicial laws of the Old Testament, should be observed by modern societies.

Partial-Preterist: Partial preterism (often referred to as orthodox preterism or classical preterism) may hold that most eschatological prophecies, such as the destruction of Jerusalem, the Antichrist, the Great Tribulation, and the advent of the Day of the Lord as a "judgment-coming" of Christ, were fulfilled either in AD 70 or during the persecution of Christians under Emperor Nero.

Bibliography:

• Murray, Iain H. Puritan Hope. The Banner of Truth Trust, 1996. (ISBN: 085151247X)
• Kik, J. Marcellus. Eschatology of Victory. Nutley: Presbyterian &Reformed Publishing, 1974. (ISBN: 0875523137)
• Gentry Jr., Kenneth L. He Shall Have Dominion: An Eschatology of Victory. Institute for Christian Economics, 1992 (ISBN 0930464621)
• Boettner, Loraine. Millennium. Presbyterian Reformed Publishing Company, 1992. (ISBN: 0875521134)
• Mathison, Keith A. Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope. Presbyterian &Reformed Publishing Company, 1999 (ISBN: 0875523897)
• Gentry Jr., Kenneth L. "Postmillennialism." Three Views of the Millennium and Beyond. Ed. Darrell L. Bock. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House,1999. (ISBN 0-310-20143-8)

Hermeneutics in Eschatology pt 1

 Greetings and salutations! 

I have determined to revive this old blog page with the purpose of outlining a series of eschatological arguments, laying them out in a way for folks to see and decide for themselves which they believe based on Scripture is the correct approach.

In this post, I want to lay out two basic rules and then outline the base process I am going to take in these posts. 

Rule 1) Be Polite, in that you demonstrate humility,  I don't care how committed you are to one view or another these are things that have been debated by theologians far smarter than you or I for centuries and I don't expect anyone to change their views based on a single blog post or sermon. 

Rule 2) Be Open, if you are not willing to listen and consider positions other than your own then you are not demonstrating the humility or the maturity you think you are. It is okay to hold different views especially when we are dealing with issues that have yet to unfold and NO ONE actually knows 100% for sure that they are right and everyone else is wrong. 

Okay, with these rules in mind let's talk process. 

I have no idea how many posts this will take to work all the way through, but I am committed to being thorough and will do my best to not favor one view over another as I outline each of them. If I miss something please feel free to send me an email. As of this post, my plan is to have a post a week until we reach the end of the conversation, each post giving a brief, but accurate account of the main tenets of the four main existing viewpoints as well as some of the reasons — both Scriptural and interpretive — behind each view. 

These four main eschatological systems that I plan to look at (in no particular order) are as follows:

1) Dispensational Premillennialism
2) Historic Premillennialism
3) Postmillennialism
4) Amillennialism

Please realize that though these views differ significantly on the topic at hand, the Christians who disagree on these matters agree with each other on probably ninety percent of the rest of the Christian life, this is why I posted my two basic rules first so that we can attempt a bit of civility in the discussion. I will also define any words that I use each week that are of importance at the bottom of the post so that hopefully I don't lose you. 

The Millennium in Question

The first question I want to look at is what is the millennium in question. Each of these four main views revolves around what your definition of the millennium is so having a base understanding of that is important. 

When Christians discuss their millennial views, they are speaking of their interpretation of the much-debated passage in Revelation 20:1-10 — NASB.

"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.

"Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

"When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever." (NASB)

Okay so let's break this down. When we look at the question of what is the millennium there are different understandings that will determine your position. 

Many Christians will look at this and want to proclaim that they are "pan-millennial" that it will all pan out in the end. This is dangerous and while I was in this camp for a long time, it is unhealthy. 

That said, there literally is a multitude of interpretations, and regardless of your final interpretation of the thousand years from Revelation 20, it all depends more upon certain factors related to your hermeneutic rather than the strict text of the ten highly debated verses. 

You see, there are several ways in which Christians choose to come to Scripture some right, most wrong, and depending on which of these methods is used, your understanding of eschatological issues — and a host of others as well — will change. 

And since you interpret Scripture primarily through the filter of your understanding of other passages in the Word, your millennial view does have an effect (whether great or small) on the way in which you live your life.

The most important thing you can do here is to ensure that you are working off the right hermeneutic working to view the scriptures exegetically versus eisegetically. 

Okay, I think this is where I will end this post and will pick up later this week/next week with Dispensational Pre-millennialism.

May God bless you and keep you! 

Pastor Jonathan

Definitions: 

Eschatology: the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.

Hermeneutic: concerning interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts. Your Hermeneutic is the lens through which you interpret God's Word. 

Exegtically: related to exegesis which is the Science which consists in establishing, according to the standards of scientific criticism, the meaning of a text, in particular. of the Bible.  Exegesis is legitimate interpretation that "reads out of" the text what the original author or authors meant to convey.

Eisegetically: related to Eisegesis which is the process of interpreting the text in such a way as to introduce one's own presuppositions, agendas, or biases. It is commonly referred to as reading into the text. It is often done to "prove" a pre-held point of concern, and to provide confirmation bias corresponding with the pre-held interpretation and any agendas supported by it. Eisegesis is best understood when contrasted with exegesis.