Amillennialism

Amillennialism (Latin: a- "not" + mille "thousand" + annum "year") is a view in Christian eschatology named for its denial of a future thousand-year, physical reign of Jesus Christ on the earth, as espoused in the premillennial and some postmillennial views of the Book of Revelation. By contrast, the amillennial view holds that the number of years in Revelation 20 is a symbolic number, not a literal description; that the millennium has already begun and is identical with the church age (or more rarely, that it ended with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.); and that while Christ's reign is spiritual in nature during the millennium, at the end of the church age, Christ will return in final judgment and establish permanent physical reign. Some postmillennialists and nearly all premillennialists hold that the word "millennium" should be taken to refer to a literal thousand-year period.

Terminology

Many proponents dislike the name amillennialism because it emphasizes their negative differences with premillennialism rather than their positive beliefs about the millennium, and although they prefer alternate terms such as nunc-millennialism (that is, now-millennialism) or realized millennialism, the acceptance and wide-spread usage of these latter names has been limited.

Teachings

Comparison of Christian millennial interpretations

A comparison with other types of millennialism

Amillennialism is differentiated from at least two other types of millennialism: premillennialism and postmillennialism. Premillennialism, although it has two distinguishable forms called pretribulationism and posttribulationism (see the chart on the right), believes in both cases that the second coming of Christ takes place before the millennial kingdom, while postmillennialism holds that it happens after the millennial kingdom. For premillennialists, the return of Christ is a cataclysmic event initiated by God to bring a very sharp break from the wicked reality of the world by inaugurating the millennial kingdom on earth. For postmillennialists, in contrast, the return of Christ happens after Christians, with the tribulation gone long before around 70 C.E. (preterism), responsibly set in motion the mellennial kingdom by establishing cultural and political foundations.

Amillennialism

Amillennialism, in spite of its prefix a ("not"), does not mean that it does not believe in a millennial kingdom at all. It only denies the existence of a literal 1000-year kingdom on earth. The millennium is a metaphor for the age of the church, and the kingdom is spiritual as Christ's reign at the right hand of God in heaven. For ammillennialists, therefore, the millennial kingdom only means the church as it exists on earth, somehow pointing to the kingdom of God in heaven. This kingdom of God in heaven does not involve a direct, personal reign of Christ on earth. Rather, this kingdom in heaven is manifested only in the hearts of believers (Luke 17:20-21) as they receive the blessings of salvation (Col. 1:13-14) in the church. The age of the church, symbolized by the millennium, began with Christ's first coming and will continue until his return, and the church as a reflection of God's kingdom in heaven is considered to be far from perfect and still characterized by tribulation and suffering. For the "binding" of Satan described in Revelation has only prevented Satan from "deceiving the nations" (Rev. 20:2-3), not totally pushing him back. The forces of Satan remain just as active as always up until the return of Christ, and therefore good and evil will remain mixed in strength throughout history and even in the church, according to the amillennial understanding of the parable of the wheat and seeds (Matt. 14:24-30, 36-43).

So, although amillennialism is similar to postmillennialism in rejecting the millennium preceded by the second coming, it largely differs from the latter by denying the latter's preterist assertions that the tribulation was a past event fulfilled in the Jewish-Roman War of 66-73 C.E., and that the millennial kingdom therefore will be manifested on earth in a visible way with great political and cultural influence. According to amillennialism, it is only at the return of Christ when the final judgment takes place that the tribulation will be overcome and Satan and his followers will be destroyed. At that time, also the physical resurrection of all will take place for the final judgment, and the eternal order will begin. Thus, the physical resurrection takes place only once, although according to premillennialism a distinction should be made between the first resurrection before the millennium, the physical resurrection of the righteous dead (Rev. 20:4-5) and the second resurrection after the millennium, the physical resurrection of the wicked dead (Rev. 20:13-14). For amillennialists as well as for postmillennialists, the first resurrection does not exist as physical resurrection; it only means spiritual resurrection, which simply refers to conversion or regeneration that occurs during the millennium.

When the millennium given in Rev. 20:1-6 is interpreted by amillennialism as a metaphor for the whole age of the church, it is just like the "thousand hills" in Psalm 50:10, the hills on which God owns the cattle, are considered to refer to all hills, and the "thousand generations" in 1 Chronicles 16:15, the generations for which God will be faithful, are taken to mean all generations.

Amillennialism was popularized by Augustine in the fifth century and has dominated Christian eschatology for many centuries. Many mainline churches today continue to endorse amillennialism.

History

Early church

The first two centuries of the church held both premillennial and amillennial opinions. Although none of the available Church Fathers advocate amillennialism in the first century, Justin Martyr (died 165), who had chiliastic tendencies in his theology, mentions differing views in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, chapter 80: "I and many others are of this opinion [premillennialism], and [believe] that such will take place, as you assuredly are aware; but, on the other hand, I signified to you that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise."

A few amillenialists such as Albertus Pieters understand Pseudo-Barnabas to be amillennial. In the second century, the Alogi (those who rejected all of John's writings) were amillennial, as was Caius in the first quarter of the third century. With the influence of Neo-Platonism and dualism, Clement of Alexandria and Origen denied premillennialism. Likewise, Dionysius of Alexandria argued that Revelation was not written by John and could not be interpreted literally; he was amillennial.

Origen's idealizing tendency to consider only the spiritual as real (which was fundamental to his entire system) led him to combat the "rude" or "crude."

In general, however, premillennialism appeared in the available writings of the early church, but it was evident that both views existed side by side. The premillennial beliefs of the early church fathers, however, are quite different from the dominant form of modern-day premillennialism, namely dispensational premillennialism.

Medieval and Reformation periods

Amillennialism gained ground after Christianity became a legal religion. It was systematized by St. Augustine in the fourth century, and this systematization carried amillennialism over as the dominant eschatology of the Medieval and Reformation periods. Augustine was originally a premilennialist, but he retracted that view, claiming the doctrine was carnal. Although he argued that Christ's reign was spiritual and not literal and earthly, and that the church was currently living in the millennium, Augustine held to a literal 1,000 year millennium that could end in perhaps C.E. 650 or, at the latest, 1000.

Amillennialism was the dominant view of the Protestant Reformers. The Lutheran Church formally rejected chiliasm in the The Augsburg Confession—“Art. XVII., condemns the Anabaptists and others ’who now scatter Jewish opinions that, before the resurrection of the dead, the godly shall occupy the kingdom of the world, the wicked being everywhere suppressed.’" Likewise, the Swiss Reformer, Heinrich Bullinger wrote up the Second Helvetic Confession, which reads, "We also reject the Jewish dream of a millennium, or golden age on earth, before the last judgment." John Calvin wrote in Institutes that chiliasm is a "fiction" which is "too childish either to need or to be worth a refutation." He interpreted the thousand year period of Revelation 20 non-literally, applying it to the "various disturbances that awaited the church, while still toiling on earth."

Modern times

Amillennialism has been widely held in the Eastern Orthodox Church as well as in the Roman Catholic Church, which generally follows Augustine on this point and which has deemed that premillennialism "cannot safely be taught." Amillennialism is also common among "mainline" Protestant denominations such as the Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican churches. Many, but not all, partial preterists are amillennialists. Amillennialism declined in Protestant circles with the rise of Postmillennialism and the resurgence of Premillennialism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but it regained prominence in the West after World War II.

Criticism

Many premillennialists accuse amillennialists of over-spiritualizing parts of the Bible. Moreover, the amillennial view that good and evil will persist has led some postmillennialists to accuse amillennialists (and premillennialists) of being overly pessimistic. Amillennialists have countered that the Parable of the Weeds and the Parable of Drawing in the Net show that the good and evil will be sorted out only at the end of the world.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Augustine, Saint Bishop of Hippo. City of God 20.7. New York: Modern Library, 1950.
• Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, XXV.V. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, [1960].
• "Chiliasm," Article found in The Anchor Bible Dictionary on CD-ROM. Logos Research Systems, 1997.
• Comenius, Johann Amos, ed. The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart. Paulist Press, 1998. ISBN 080910489X
• Dunn, James D.G. Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways, A.D. 70 to 135 W.B. Eerdmans, 1999. ISBN 0802844987
• Eusebius, The Ecclesiastical History 3.28.1-2. G.P. Putnam's sons, 1926-32.
• The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol.8, p. 273
• Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church, Vol. 2 Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, n.d.
• Warfield, B.B. "The Apocalypse" in Selected Shorter Writings, vol II. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1971. ISBN 0875525318
• Warfield, B.B. "The Millennium and the Apocalypse" in Biblical Doctrines, vol. II in Works. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, n.d.

External links

• "A Defense of (Reformed) Amillennialism"—a series of articles by David J. Engelsma from the Standard Bearer (April 1, 1995 through December 15, 1996). Retrieved December 5, 2007.
• [http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Eschatology/Amillennialism/ various articles on Amillennialism—from Monergism. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
• various articles on Amillennialism—Grace Online Library. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
• "Millennium and Millenarianism" – from the Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
• a dispensational premillennialism perspective—Blue Letter Bible summary. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
• On The Thousand Year Reign (Chiliasm) Elder Cleopa of Romania—Eastern Orthodox view. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
• "Millennium"—from Christian Cyclopedia (Lutheran perspective). Retrieved December 5, 2007.
• "Millennium"—by Nathan J. Engel (Lutheran perspective). Retrieved December 5, 2007.

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