Posted on 01/31/2010 8:41:49 AM PST by Gamecock
“Amillennialism” comes from a term that means, literally, “no thousand years”. Thus, it is essentially a way of interpreting Revelation 20, which six times mentions a period of a thousand years, during which Satan is bound and believers reign with Christ. Amillennialists believe that there will be no future thousand-year period of time when the Kingdom of God will be visibly flourishing in the world, and the whole earth will be fruitful and at peace. Speaking symbollically like the rest of Revelation, the millennium is simply a figurative way of speaking of a long period of time that is taking place after Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of God with his resurrection. Amillennialists believe Revelation 20 is one of a series of visions, each of which describes the entire period of time between Christ's first and second comings in a different manner. The millennial Kingdom is taking place now, for Satan has been bound by Christ's work on the cross, so that he can no longer hold all the nations in deception; and believers, who seem to be persecuted and afflicted, are really reigning with Christ, and causing his Kingdom, which does not now come visibly, to spread to every corner of the earth. There is a difference of opinion in amillennial interpretation over whether those who reign with Christ are believers who are still alive, or those who have died in the Lord, and are now in his presence.
Some amillennialists object to the term “amillennialism,” because they do not properly believe that there is no millenium, they just believe that the millennium spoken of in Revelation 20 is taking place now (figuratively), and thus there will be no future golden age of the Kingdom, prior to Christ's coming and ushering in the eternal state. Amillennialists also believe that Revealtion 20 is more fully understood when reading John chapter 5 (John being the same author as Revelation). Two resurrections are also spoken of in this passage (one spiritual and one physical at the end of the age). It reveals that when Christ returns to judge the earth, the resurrection of the wicked and the righteous occur simultaneously. This contrasts sharply with premillennialism which asserts that there is a one thousand year seperation between the resurrection of the righteous and thw wicked, which John 5 excludes the possibility of. Amillennialism is really the most simple of the various eschatologies as it affirms that Jesus will soon return to judge the living and the dead and then comes the resurrection, or the eternal state, which Christ will reign on the new earth.
And on the same subject, I found this link through a Freerepublic thread:
Pre-Tribulation-rapture
http://watchmanbiblestudy.com/BibleStudies/Definitions/Def_Pretrib.htm
I don’t believe in Amillennialism for a second. Such a belief is totally broken off from the root of ancient Judaism, Hebrew culture and Jewish eschatology. Those who espouse this doctrine probably know very little of the Jewish background of the New Testament. It is so important to know the theological context and background the New Testament was written in, in order to properly understand it. You can’t read it like a 21st century American, but a 1st century Jew.
shalom
Sorry, when i say “you” I don’t mean “you”, but those who espouse this non-biblical doctrine.
How do the amillennialists explain away the Marriage Feast when Jesus comes for his bride?
There are different viewpoints regarding the end times (eschaton) a study of eschatology (study of the end times) the viewpoints are: Amillenialism - espoused by Martin Luther and John Calvin. Post Millennialism - Jonathan Edwards, C.H. Spurgeon, and R.C. Sproul, Historic Premillennialism - espoused by Justin Martyr AD 100-165 and John Warwick Montgomery (current theologian) and Dispensational Premillennialism - espoused by Dr. Charles Stanley, Rev. Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsay
check out www.reformed.org/eschaton.
Amillennialsim is actually considered the only one that is truly considered Biblical. But theologians are still arguing over whose viewpoint is the correct one. Eschatolgy is one of those views whereby some people part company over the difference of views.
Reformed theologians will fight about each one. sometimes to the point of callinmg the other a heretic and false teacher.
Please note my education as a theologian and pastor is that of the Reformed (Amillennialist). yet there are others in the Reformed whom believe in Post -Millennialsm and others whom believe in Premillennialism). However I am no longer a part of the Reformed Church, but now part of a Conservative Lutheran denomination. Which is Amillenialist. The denomination leadership has never heard of Dispensentational premillenialism.
Okay, I guess were done here.
Isn’t the Roman Catholic Church amil? And I believe the TEC.
LiteKeeper:
Yes, the Catholic Church teaches the amill view, which is totally in line with St. Augustine and the dominate view until the 19th century when certain Protestant Biblical Scholarship, particularly the Scofield Bible and related Commentary became a dominate influence over American and English Protestants and was used by Pastor Darby to begin teaching what is now the unorthodox Rapture doctrine.
I attend two churches regularly. The pastor at the PCA one is amillenial and the one at the non-denominational one is dispensational/premillenial.
Because one’s view of eschatology has no bearing on one’s salvation so long as the Gospel is understood, I try not spend too much time paying attention to speculation on the subject. However, I for sure am NOT a dispensationalist and I don’t believe in the “Left Behind” stuff either.
I would completely agree with that statement. As I get older I find it interesting to try to put myself in the perspective of the Apostles when they were still being trained by Jesus. Stories about them arguing over which will be at Jesus right hand give a strong clue about how much they had yet to learn, as well as some of their motivations (at first) for following Jesus.
p4lr
Yeah ... only by amillenialists.
I think you may enjoy (?) reading this article. It can be an eye-opener to those caught up in millenial theories - especially the "thousand year" scenario.
I submit that we each have our own rapture, we each have our own tribulations. Revelation of John is apocalyptic literature, applicable to us with today’s problems, not merely telling of those people in some indefinite past or future.
Once upon a time it was the standard, that Revelation of John was used by Christians to buck up morale under persecution. Only when the Roman Empire became Christian under Constantine and his successors was it turned into prophecy, was Rome, the Whore of Babylon had to be sanitized, so that in the highly charged atmosphere of Byzantine/Roman religious politics, the Book of the Revelation of John could be kept in the canon, and not ruthlessly suppressed as was the Gospel of Peter.
The marriage feast is when the faithful are rewarded. This happens all the time when one faithful dies and meets his reward. Amillenialists just think it happens to each of us, “by inches” rather than all at once, forever to some, but not to others who have already died.
Similar with ideas like the rapture. All faithful get raptured, rather than suffer death. “Oh death where is thy sting?” Rather than have the rapture be something that is missed by all Christians except the few who are raptured on ‘the big day’. If rapture was only for that few, then all other Christians who looked forward to it are looking forward to it in vain.
Actually, you apparently know little about ammilennial interpretation--as it is the oldest, and arguably the most "Jewish" of all the various schools of eschatological interpretation. A simple, amelennial understanding of Jesus' (one, not 3 or 4) return dates back into the age of the Fathers, that is into the first 3 centuries after the resurrection.
Amillennialism the ONLY school of eschatology that correctly takes into account the specifically Jewish post-exilic literary genre of apocalyptic literature--which, in harmony with Jewish thought at the time, spoke of EVERYTHING in mysterious symbols, including (and perhaps especially) NUMBERS (like the number 1,000).
Complex Dispensational eschatology by contrast--developing in (relatively isolated) early America, assumed the modernist precisionist tendancy to ALWAYS make numbers as literal & exact, and never symbolic--hence it literalizes "1,000 years" in a way--according to Jewish appocalyptic tradition--the original writer never intended--and the original readers never understood.
Check it out--I used to agree with you, until I investigated what the vast majority of the Church universal has believed for millennia....
Jesus is coming, the dead will rise, and then the Judgement. All the rest of eschatology is details compared to that...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.