Postmillennialism and Amillennialism

Postmillennialism and Amillennialism - By Kit R. Olsen - http://raptureready.com/featured/olsen/k14.html

 

Postmillennialism teaches Christians will create a Golden Age on earth, gradually defeating the forces of evil. They believe they can help established a beautiful peaceful world, and then Jesus Christ will return and establish His eternal kingdom.

 

Some who believe this call themselves Reconstructionists and label it Dominion Theology. Some of them accept certain ideas within Preterism, believing that many of the prophecies of the "last days" have already been fulfilled.

 

This doctrine must also be rejected because it denies the future literal fulfillment of key prophetic Scriptures including the Rapture, Tribulation and Second Coming. It also rejects a literal millennial  kingdom. The belief that Christians will someday establish a theocracy on earth is absurd, to say the least.

 

For the last one hundred years the influence of Christians has waned greatly. However, the power of the major false religions (Roman Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism) have increased significantly along with atheism and humanism.

 

The forces of darkness have also strengthened their control over nations throughout the world. A rapid movement in the last century was initiated consolidating the power of Satan's henchmen amongst governments worldwide-with the creation of numerous political and economic unions.

 

That effort is growing stronger in this century with no signs of slowing. A world government, economy and religion under the power of Satan is inevitable just as the Bible says (Revelation 13 and 17).

 

Amillennialism denies that there will be a literal kingdom over which Christ will rule on earth for 1000 years. It teaches that the 1000 years mentioned six times in Revelation 20 is symbolic . Augustine wrote in his book, The City of God that the book of Revelation is a spiritual allegory, that the millennial kingdom began with the Church, and Christ's reign on earth is spiritual in nature.

    

Jesus Christ will return at the end of the Church Age and establish a literal 1000-year millennial kingdom. The erroneous theology of Amillennialism was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church and also by most of the Reformers who sadly held on to some of the unscriptural doctrines of the Church of Rome.

 

A few of the early Church fathers of the first and second centuries believed in Amillennialism, but none of their writings are extant. There are a few references to their beliefs in the writings of Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.). As noted previously in this book, the vast majority of the early Church fathers taught that there would be a millennial  kingdom.

 

Only a handful of them rejected a literal kingdom; Clement of Alexandria, Caius, Origen and Dionysius. The latter two are considered to have been heretics. It was not until Augustine (354-430 A.D.), a Catholic Church bishop, began to write on eschatology that the belief in a spiritual millennial  kingdom took hold.

 

He was a faithful Roman Catholic priest who held to all of the false doctrines of the church, including the damnable doctrine of Purgatory. The Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and most of the Reformed denominations teach the false doctrines of Amillennialism.

 

The skewed teaching of Amillennialism does not make sense. It denies the literal fulfillment of Bible prophecy. It is inconceivable that God would fulfill all the prophecies of the Messiah's First Coming in a literal manner, and then have most of the prophecies of His Second Coming fulfilled in an allegorical (spiritual) manner. (Hebrews 13:8).

 

One must ask who is more trustworthy concerning doctrine: The false Roman Catholic Church-which invented Amillennialism or the Holy Spirit, the Apostles and the early Church fathers? The Reformers held on to that false doctrine when they split from the Catholic Church just as some continued to teach other false doctrines-such as infant baptism.

 

The identity of the prince of Daniel 9:25-27 is misconstrued by Amillennialists; they argue that the in verse 25 and the anointed one in verse 26 is Jesus (which is correct), but that the prince in verse 26 was Titus.

 

They claim the identity of he in verse 27 is Jesus who they believe made a covenant with Israel at the beginning of His ministry and broke it after 3.5 years. This is Scripture-twisting with a nonsensical twist. The

 

Such an interpretation is creative hyperbole but it is impossible-by all rules of grammar-for the he in verse 27 to refer back to the anointed one of verses 25 and 26. It can only refer back to the prince of verse 26 (Titus). Another insurmountable problem with this clumsy eisegetical trick is that Jesus did not make a covenant with Israel when He began His ministry.

 

Titus did not make a covenant with Israel, and neither did anyone else in the 1st century A.D. that could be considered a fulfillment of that prophecy. The Antichrist who is to come in the future will make that covenant.

 

Amillennialists think the false Catholic religion got it right, while the Old Testament prophets-Jesus Christ, the Apostles and the early Church fathers got it wrong. Here is just a sampling of some of the respected Church fathers who taught that there will be a literal millennial  kingdom:

 

Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Hermas, Polycarp, Ignatius, Papias, Pothinus, Justin Martyr, Melito, Hegisippus, Tatian, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Apollinaris, Cyprian, Commodian, Nepos, Coracion, Victorinus, Methodius and Lactantius (Chafer, Lewis Sperry, Systematic Theology, Vol. 4, pp. 271-274).

 

Additionally, at the Nicene Council, "318 bishops from all parts of the earth placed themselves on record" in believing in a literal millennial  kingdom (ibid., p. 275). The teaching of the Catholic Church on this matter is wrong. The Old Testament prophets, Jesus Christ, the Apostles and the early Church fathers are right that there will be a millennial  kingdom.

 

Those who hold to Amillennialism would do well to consider carefully where that doctrine came from. Did it come from the Holy Spirit who gave it to bishops of the Roman Catholic Church or was it given to the Old Testament prophets, the Apostles and early Church fathers? They must also consider why Jesus taught a literal millennial  kingdom. Was He mistaken? Of course not.

 

Postmillennialists and Amillennialists use the same method of study. They use the eisegesis procedure, meaning that they  insert into the text a meaning that is simply not there. They make the text say what they want it to say, rather than accepting what the text itself says.