All Articles For A Defense of (Reformed) Amillennialism

Postmillennialism in the Reformed churches teaches the saints to expect an earthly victory in the future before the coming of Christ. The majority of the human race will be converted to Christ and added to the church. The world will be “Christianized.” Christians will govern all nations, controlling all aspects of national life. Christians will dominate whatever ungodly remain, punishing them for misbehavior and compelling them to obey the laws of God. There will be no great departure from the faith by Christian churches and professing Christians in the future. There will be no Antichrist and antichristian world-kingdom in the...

The literal interpretation of Old Testament prophecy ends in a carnal Messianic kingdom. The literal interpretation of the prophecy of Isaiah 65:17ff., advocated by postmillennialist Christian Reconstructionism, ends in an earthly kingdom of Christ. Besides, a consistently literal interpretation leads to absurdity. Not even the most ardent advocate and practitioner of a literal interpretation of Isaiah 65:17ff. can carry it off, as was demonstrated in the previous editorial. But Old Testament prophecy of the coming Messianic kingdom may not be interpreted literally. To do so is, at best, to become a dispensational premillennialist, turning eschatology into the restoration of Old...

Response to the editorial, “Jewish Dreams” (theStandard Bearer, Jan. 15, 1995), has made clear how deep and entrenched are the inroads of postmillennialism into Reformed circles. The editorial, written at the beginning of a new year, reminded Reformed Christians that our only hope, according to the Bible, is the second coming-of the Lord Jesus. It sketched in broad outline the traditional, creedal Reformed conception of the last days: abounding lawlessness; widespread apostasy; the Antichrist; and great tribulation for the true church. It gave a warning against the false hope that is known as postmillennialism, quoting a Reformed creed that condemned...

The postmillennial dream of a “Christianized” world in history rests finally on Old Testament prophecy of a coming, glorious kingdom of Christ (see the editorial, “Those Glorious Prospects in Old Testament Prophecy,” in the Aug. 1, 1996 Standard Bearer). That Old Testament prophecy which more than any other is supposed to prove postmillennialism and refute amillennialism is Isaiah 65:17ff.: For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth . . . I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy…. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled...

Jesus Christ is victor. He is victor already now. He is victor in this world. We do not see this yet. But we believe it as the clear testimony of the Bible. In His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, He has become the Lord. He sits now at God’s right hand. He wields the power of providence, upholding and. governing all things (Eph. 1:19-23; Heb. l:3; Rev. 5): Jesus Christ is victor as Mediator of the covenant and Head of the church. By His atoning death .and bodily resurrection, He has conquered sin, Satan, death, .and the ungodly world and has...

The gross error of postmillennialism is that it misconceives the victory of Christ in history as carnal rather than spiritual. Gary North is wrong when he says, “It’s not a question of ‘dominion vs. no dominion’; it’s a question of whose dominion” (Unconditional Surrender, ICE, 1988, p. 317). It is emphatically not a question of “whose dominion.” Jesus Christ has dominion. Jesus Christ has dominion in the world in history. Jesus Christ has dominion now. Not only does Jesus Christ now .have dominion over all creatures, including His enemies, by His power, but also He now has dominion in His...

The name by which the distinctively Reformed doctrine of the last things is known is “amillennialism.” This name derives from the 20th chapter of Revelation. Six times in verses 1-7 is mentioned a period of “a thousand years.” An angel binds Satan for “a thousand years” (vv. 1, 2). The result is that Satan cannot deceive the nations for “a thousand years” (v. 3). John sees certain souls living and reigning with Christ “a thousand years” (vv. 4, 6). The rest of the dead lived not again until the “thousand years” were finished (v. 5). When the “thousand years” expire,...

It is the Reformed doctrine of the last things that the last days are a time of departure from the faith by many and a time of persecution of the true church by a wicked world. Apostasy and persecution characterize the entire age from Christ’s ascension to His second coming. They increase and intensify at the very end in connection with the coming of the Antichrist and the establishment of the universal kingdom of the beast. The Reformed faith repudiates the notion that the last days hold the prospect of the conversion of the majority of the human race so...

The risk that an editor takes when he launches a series of editorials is that the series will be interrupted. Reasons for the interruption are varied — and sometimes compelling. The danger includes that the interruption will be extended for some time and several issues of the magazine.By the time the editor resumes the series, the reader has forgotten the earlier articles in the series. This danger with all its fullness has overtaken the editor of the Standard Bearer. In the January 15, 1995 SB appeared an editorial, “Jewish Dreams,” rejecting the earthly kingdom of postmillennialism as the hope of...

The apparent difficulty with Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:34 is that they seem to predict the end of the world in the lifetime of His disciples. He has been instructing the disciples concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world (v. 3). He has just spoken of His visible, bodily coming in the clouds (v. 30). Then, in verse 34, He declares, “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” In fact, of course, He did not return, nor did the world end, in the lifetime of the generation...