Millennial Views

By Mal Couch, Th.M., Th.D., Ph.D.
Founder/President, Tyndale Theological Seminary and Biblical Institute, Fort Worth, Texas

The word millennium in Greek, chilia, means one thousand as in one thousand years and is used six times in Revelation 20.2-7. The word clearly defines the length of the earthly Kingdom reign of Christ. Three views have dominated Christianity as to what constitutes the Millennium or Kingdom:

Premillennialism. The early church was ‘pre’millennial and expected Christ to return and establish the throne of David as promised in the Old Testament. Premillennialism holds to the literal promises of an earthly Kingdom and cites how the apostle Peter referred to 2 Samuel 7.12: David was “a prophet and (knew) God had sworn an oath to him…He would raise up Christ to sit on His throne,” Acts 2.30. Many references describe this coming blessed, earthly period. For example, the Anointed King will have the nations for His inheritance, Psalm 2.8, and He will gather “the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth,” Isaiah 11.12, and exercise justice in the land of Israel, Isaiah 9.7. “The wolf also will dwell with the lamb,” Isaiah 11.6, and “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord,” Isaiah 11.9.

In time, the Church departed from Premillennialism, although there is some evidence the teaching lingered for some centuries among certain groups. For example, Antioch in Syria was a great Christian teaching center, which appears to have made known a literal understanding of Scripture for generations. At the beginning of the 19th Century in England, a natural and normal approach to Biblical interpretation was revived, accompanied by an explosion of interest in Premillennialism, which grew even more rapidly during the 20th Century.

Amillennialism. Early on, interpretation in the Church began to shift away from belief in Premillennialism. Clement of Alexandria, circa 155 – 220 A.D., believing in the divine origin of Greek philosophy, taught all Scripture must be allegorically understood. This idea began to slowly grow and was systematized and propounded by Origen of Alexandria, 185 – 254 A.D., and further propagated by Augustine of Hippo, 354 – 430 A.D., who made the view popular. With the Greek negative ‘a’ in front of the word ‘millennium,’ this view says there will not be a literal, earthly Kingdom established.

The Reformers restored Bible interpretation to a more literal approach, except in the area of Bible prophecy. Many still took an allegorical approach when teaching about the Kingdom. They taught the literal promises to Israel were passed on to the Church in a spiritualized way and there would be no regathering of the Jews to the land and no literal one thousand year reign of Christ.

Postmillennialism. This view was first propagated by Daniel Whitby, 1638 – 1726 A.D., a Unitarian. Postmillennialists hold the Church is progressively building and bettering itself.

World War I and finally World War II, virtually ended the hopes of the postmillennialists. Mankind’s cruelty was made evident and things were not getting better, as was being taught. However, there are some dedications Postmillennialism is returning in new forms. Some are teaching if the Church restores all the demands of the Old Testament Law, then it could conquer society and restore righteousness, making it possible for the promised Kingdom to be realized.