Sermon Tone Analysis

The Millennium

There are three major positions in the church on what is called the Millennium .

The word Millennium refers to a 1,000-year period.

It is taken from the Latin prefix milli, which means 1,000.

So, we are in the third millennium after Christ.

The word Millennium means one thousand years.

The Bible passage that mentions the “thousand years” is .

Let me read it and you tell me how many times the phrase 1,000 years appears.

OK?

This expression, taken from Latin words, means 1,000 years.

The Bible passage that mentions the “thousand years” is Rev. 20:1–7, where the word appears six times.

The Latin Vulgate uses mille anni and its variant renderings to translate the Greek chilia ete.

Various theological proposals have been offered to explain this passage from Rev. 20 as well as various other Scriptures that might be taken to speak to the same issue.

One’s view on this text will be determined by one’s approach to interpreting predictive prophecy and by one’s view on symbolic and apocalyptic language.

Broadly there are three schools of thought: amillennialism, premillennialism, and postmillennialism.

The prefixes “a,” “pre,” and “post” suggest the view of the timing of the Lord Jesus Christ’s second advent in relation to the “thousand years.”

Hence, postmillennialists argue that Christ returns after the “thousand years.”

Premillennialists argue that Christ comes before the thousand years.

Amillennialists also contend that the Lord comes after the thousand years much like postmillennialists, but they understand the thousand years differently.

For the amillennialist, as the prefix suggests, there really is no literal thousand years.

Instead, the whole interadvent period between the first and second comings of Christ is taken to be the “millennium.”

This expression, taken from Latin words, means 1,000 years.

The Bible passage that mentions the “thousand years” is Rev. 20:1–7, where the word appears six times.

The Latin Vulgate uses mille anni and its variant renderings to translate the Greek chilia ete.

Various theological proposals have been offered to explain this passage from Rev. 20 as well as various other Scriptures that might be taken to speak to the same issue.

One’s view on this text will be determined by one’s approach to interpreting predictive prophecy and by one’s view on symbolic and apocalyptic language.

Broadly there are three schools of thought: amillennialism, premillennialism, and postmillennialism.

The prefixes “a,” “pre,” and “post” suggest the view of the timing of the Lord Jesus Christ’s second advent in relation to the “thousand years.”

Hence, postmillennialists argue that Christ returns after the “thousand years.”

Premillennialists argue that Christ comes before the thousand years.

Amillennialists also contend that the Lord comes after the thousand years much like postmillennialists, but they understand the thousand years differently.

For the amillennialist, as the prefix suggests, there really is no literal thousand years.

Instead, the whole interadvent period between the first and second comings of Christ is taken to be the “millennium.”

Three Major Views

Three Major Views

Six times.

But what does a thousand years mean?

Well, you’d think it means a thousand years, but there are actually three different views on what that phrase means and when the 1,000 years occurs.

The three schools of thought among Christians concerning the millennium are: premillennialism, postmillennialism, and postmillennialism.

The prefixes “pre,” “post,” and “a” refer to the timing of the Christ’s second coming in relation to the thousand years.

The prefix pre means “before.”

Premillennialists argue that Christ comes before the thousand years.

They understand that Scripture teaches that Christ will return and sets up a 1000-year kingdom on earth over which He reigns.

Broadly there are three schools of thought: amillennialism, premillennialism, and postmillennialism.

The prefixes “a,” “pre,” and “post” suggest the view of the timing of the Lord Jesus Christ’s second advent in relation to the “thousand years.”

Hence, postmillennialists argue that Christ returns after the “thousand years.”

Premillennialists argue that Christ comes before the thousand years.

Amillennialists also contend that the Lord comes after the thousand years much like postmillennialists, but they understand the thousand years differently.

For the amillennialist, as the prefix suggests, there really is no literal thousand years.

Instead, the whole interadvent period between the first and second comings of Christ is taken to be the “millennium.”[1]

The prefix post means “after.”

Postmillennialists argue that Christ returns after the thousand years.

They understand the Millennium to refer to a golden age on earth where the gospel has triumphed, most of the people on earth are Christians, and we enjoy peace for a long time and then Christ returns.

The church brings in the Millennium, and the 1,000 years is not a literal 1,000 years.

The prefix a means “no” or “without.”

Amillennialists, as the prefix suggests, contend that there really is no literal thousand years.

For the amillennialist, the period between Christ’s first coming and His second coming is taken to be the Millennium.

In other words, we are in the Millennium right now, with Christ reigning from heaven in the hearts of His people—and it’s been 2,000 years, so the 1,000 years is not literal.

There will be no earthly kingdom in this view; the millennium is spiritualized.

Amillennialists also contend that the Lord comes after the thousand years much like postmillennialists, but they understand the thousand years differently.

For the amillennialist, as the prefix suggests, there really is no literal thousand years.

Instead, the whole interadvent period between the first and second comings of Christ is taken to be the “millennium.”[1]

Amillennialists also contend that the Lord comes after the thousand years much like postmillennialists, but they understand the thousand years differently.

For the amillennialist, as the prefix suggests, there really is no literal thousand years.

Instead, the whole interadvent period between the first and second comings of Christ is taken to be the “millennium.”[1]

So, which view is right?

Well, good people, smart theologians, and dedicated Christians throughout the ages have adopted all of these views.

I would call myself a premillennialist.

Many Old Testament prophecies and New Testament passages seem to speak of a literal earthly kingdom, and this was the view for the first few hundred years of the early church.

I understand and can appreciate amillennialism, and I have several friends who hold to this position.

For me, however, there are too many passages that need to be explained away, or reinterpreted, or spiritualized in order to make it work.

It seems like a system imposed on the Scriptures rather than a straight forward reading of the text.

[1] Zachariades, D. (2003).

Millennium.

In C. Brand, C. Draper, A. England, S. Bond, E. R. Clendenen, & T. C. Butler (Eds.),

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (p.

1127).

Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Postmillennialism has fallen on hard times.

It was popular in the 1800s, but then came WWI and WWII.

Plus, the biblical teaching seems to be that rather than things getting better and better as history progresses, things will actually get worse and worse before Christ returns—the love of people growing cold, increased persecution of God’s people, false teachers and false prophets multiplying.

Hermeneutics: Rightly Interpreting Scripture

Part of the reason that good people can come to different conclusions on the meaning of the biblical text has to do with how they interpret the Bible.

They have different approaches, or a different hermeneutic.

Herman—what?

Hermeneutics is the branch of theology that focuses on identifying and applying sound principles of biblical interpretation.

The word comes from the same Greek word as the Greek god Hermes—the messenger god.

The Bible was written over a period of roughly 1,500 years by 40 different authors using three languages.

They had different vocabularies, personalities, and cultural backgrounds.

And it’s our job to try to understand what they wrote—what God wrote through them.

And while it doesn’t take a PhD to understand the Bible, we do need to be careful with how we handle the text.

Paul says to Timothy:

We need to be careful when we’re reading and trying to understand Scripture that we are handling it rightly, or accurately.

We need to do our best when interpreting the Scriptures.

Paul was very clear that when he wrote Scripture, he wanted his readers to understand it.

There are two basic approaches to biblical interpretation, or hermeneutics.

We could classify them as spiritual/allegorical, and literal/face value.

NASB

Hermeneutics: Rightly Interpreting Scripture

Rightly interpreting Scripture