The Truth will Set you Free: Amillennialism

Monday, March 12, 2007

Amillennialism

by Jason E. Robertson @ http://fide-o.blogspot.com

What Amillennialism Is Not:

It does not deny the existence of a "millennium."
It does not require one to be a pedobaptist or immersionist.
It does not symbolize everything in the Bible.
It does not have a non-literal understanding of the Bible.
It does not hold to a literal "golden age" on earth like the many Postmillenarians.
It is not "replacement theology."
It is not anti-semetic.

What Amillennialism Is:

1. It follows a grammatical-historical-literal interpretation of the Scriptures which includes the allegorical interpretations. For example, Amilleniarians recognize that Galatians 4:21-31 is literally requiring its readers to recognize the allegorical or "spiritual" lessons God taught us in Genesis with reference to Sarah and Hagar. Such literal interpretive principles leads one only to conclude that Israel as an ethnic group in the OT was real but typological spiritually. And that Abraham's true offspring or true "Israel" has nothing to do with one's ethnicity but one's faith (Galatians 3:29).

2. It looks at the Bible as a unit which contains no contradictions.

3. It believes there is no “gap” in Daniel’s prophecy of Seventy Weeks, but that it was fulfilled with the desolation of the Temple and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and the Roman army in 70 A.D. (as the Tribulation judgment against non-believing Israel).

4. It believes explicitly in the millennium of Revelation 20 as a complete period of time, the length of which is only known by God, and that the millennial kingdom of Christ began with His incarnation and will consummate at His Second Coming. It could better be called a “Realized Millennium.” It believes that the millennium is the literally the spiritual reign of Christ on earth in the kingdom of His church and in the saints in heaven. It believes entrance to the on-going millennium is gained solely through the new birth, and that John refers to this as the first resurrection in Revelation 20:6 (supported by Ephesians 2:1,5,6 and Colossians 2:13; 3:1.) It believes that every person who is born again immediately becomes a child of the King and immediately begins an eternal reign with that King, and that the present phase of that reign is a mere foretaste of what lies beyond the Second Coming.

5. It believes that although he cannot prevail against the Church, Satan still goes about as a roaring lion tempting, defying, deceiving, until Christ shall put him down finally at His Second Coming. It believes that good and evil will exist side by side until the harvest, which Jesus said will be the end of the world (Matt. 13:39). 15. It believes that Satan will be allowed to mount one final climactic antichrist rebellion and apostasy just before the Second Coming (Revelation 16:14; 20:7,8). It believes in only one first resurrection and only one last trump.

6. It believes the Second Coming of Christ to be a literal, visible, bodily coming. It believes that at the Second Coming all the saints, living and dead, will be raptured to meet the Lord in the air, given new spiritual bodies, and then escort their King to the earth. It believes that the millennium will end with the Second Coming of Christ followed by the judgments of the living and the dead, saved and lost (Matt. 13:24-30; 47-53) and the creation of a new heaven and earth. It views the Second Coming as the consummation of the Redemption story prior to everlasting glory on the New Earth.

Just to name a few of the many Amillenarians* and some of the many like-minded Post-millenarians: