Is Premillennialism the Historic Christian View?

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My name is Brian Gunter. I am the senior pastor at Salem Baptist Church in Walker, Louisiana,

and I hold to the historic pre-millennial position on biblical eschatology.

Now, to explain my position, I want to begin by giving three key distinctives to my position

that really lays out what historic pre-millennialism is. And as I do that,

I want to explain that my position is called historic pre-millennialism,

because that would be different from dispensational pre-millennialism. Now,

dispensational pre-millennialism arose much later in church history and began really

less popularized in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly in the English-speaking world.

And so it's not to confuse my position, which is pre-millennial with dispensational pre-millennialism.

It's called historic pre-millennialism, because it's the type of pre-millennialism

that was held by many of the early church fathers, that is, the pastors of the early church.

So you see a man like Justin Martyr riding at the very turn into the second century,

into the first century, beginning of the second century, and he holds essentially to the same

eschatology that I do today. That doesn't mean that all the early church fathers held

in the same position. They did not. I'm millennialism was particularly also prominent in the early

church, but we call it historic pre-millennialism because it is a much older form of pre-millennialism

that is quite different from the much later dispensational pre-millennialism. So to give you those

three distinctives of my view, the first is that my view is both pre-millennial and post-tribulational.

Let me define those terms for you. When we say that my view is pre-millennial, we're speaking

of the understanding that I would have of the relationship between the second coming of Christ,

that is, when Christ will return physically, bodily to the earth, which He has created at the very

end of history. So we're talking about the relationship between the second coming of Christ

and the millennium that John speaks of in Revelation chapter 20. I'll speak later to

defining the millennium and how I understand it and what it really is, but when we talk about

something being pre-millennial, we mean that such a person holds that the second coming will be

prior to the millennium. If you hold to post-millennial, a post-millennial view, that means that you

believe that the second coming will be after the millennium. So millennium first, then the second

coming, that's post-millennialism, and my view is the opposite second coming of Christ first,

then the millennium. Our millennialism, which literally means no millennium, essentially most

millennials will say, that they understand the millennium in Revelation 20 to be spiritual in nature,

that Christ is ruling and reigning through His church on the earth, but that this millennium

spoken of is one in heaven. And so the omillennialists does not hold to a literal earthly millennium,

like the other views do, including my own. And then dispensational pre-millennialism holds the same

as my own view of historic pre-millennialism that Christ will return prior to the millennium.

Now to be quite honest, that's about where the similarities between historic pre-millennialism

and dispensationalism end as far as I'm concerned. My view is most different from dispensationalism

than any of the other views, and you'll see more why as we go on, but it is indeed pre-millennial

in nature that the second coming again will be prior to the millennium. The other thing my

view is historic pre-millennialism is post-tribulational. What does that mean? Well, it means that I believe

that the second coming will be after the tribulation. So now we're talking about the relationship

between the second coming and the great tribulation that Jesus speaks of in texts like Matthew chapter 24

and Mark 13, which is called the Olivet Discourse. I understand that the great tribulation spoken

of in scripture is something that the church itself will go through. So dispensationalism famously

holds that the church will not go through the great tribulation in a pre-tribulational

dispensational pre-millennialism, and then some hold a mid-rath, mid-trib view that the first half

of the great tribulation the church will go through, but the second half, when God pours His wrath

out on unbelievers, that that will be when the church is raptured and taken away and no longer

on the earth. I hold that as I read the scriptures, like in Matthew chapter 24, we're told that in

verse 29 that immediately after the tribulation of those days, the Son will not give its light and

all this, and then as I understand the text, Christ returns. And so I believe that the scripture

teaches us that we indeed will go through tribulation, even the great tribulation, this intensified

period of persecution of the church at the very end of history. So again, my view is pre-millennial

and post-tribulational, and that is a distinctive that sets it apart from all the other views

in holding both of those positions. Also, another distinctive of my view is I hold that the kingdom

is now but not yet. Now this phrase now but not yet was popularized by a man named George

Eldon Ladd. He was a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary writing in the 1950s and 60s. He wrote a book

particularly intended to help those coming out of dispensational pre-millennialism called

the Blessed Hope. And that was a book that really helped me in my early days of studying these

things. And so to say that the kingdom is now but not yet, which really is one of the great

emphasis of the historic pre-millennial view, is to say that I do believe the kingdom is right now,

meaning I believe that right now Christ is ruling and reigning through his bride, the church

on this earth. The kingdom is now. This would really also probably be shared by most omelinulus and

definitely by most pre-millennialists, maybe not by dispensationalists though. They tend to separate

the kingdom in this world in a very strong way. But I understand Christ to be reigning right now

through his church on this earth, but I also understand the kingdom to be not yet, meaning

that I don't believe that the fullness of Christ's kingdom can can happen and that the kingdom

cannot be culminated until the second coming occurs in Christ's on the earth with his people.

So when I say the kingdom is now, I'm saying Christ is ruling and reigning right now through his

people, but when I'm saying it's not yet, I'm saying we've not seen the fullness of the kingdom.

We've only seen a glimpse of the glory of Christ's kingdom that is to come. So we know in part

now, but one day we will fully see the beauty of Christ's glory and his kingdom as he rules and

reigns on this earth through his people and himself being present with his church after his return.

The third distinctive of my view concerns the nature and the purpose of the millennium. The nature

of the millennium, I understand it to be a real earthly millennium. Christ is going to return to

this earth and rule and reign with his people on this earth. By the way, the post-millennialist also

holds to a real earthly kingdom. He just understands that kingdom as prior to the second coming. I

understand that earthly kingdom as after the second coming, but the post-millennialists and I both

emphatically hold to a real earthly kingdom, whereas generally speaking, the omillennialists and the

dispensational pre-millennialists do not hold to the kingdom being essentially this earth being

made new and restored in Christ, ruling and reigning in and through his people on this earth.

And so again, you have to understand that the nature of the millennium means that

Christ is coming to this earth so that He would rule over the earth He has created and redeem it

and restore it. So what is the purpose of the millennium? It's to demonstrate that Christ has

indeed defeated all of His enemies, that He has seduced them, that He has placed them under His

feet and under His church's feet so that the enemies of Christ are destroyed and now Christ

rules and reigns with His people in this millennial kingdom. Now to explain to you a little bit better how

my position is different from the other major eschatological positions, I'd like to briefly take a

look at Revelation chapter 20. In Revelation chapter 20 verses 1 to 3, we see an angel coming down

from heaven and he has this key to the bottomless pit and it says in verse 2 that He sees the dragon,

the ancient serpent, who is the devil in Satan and he bound him for a thousand years and he threw him

into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations.

And he longer, I understand Satan being bound during the millennium as Satan no longer being able

to deceive the nations as the New Testament describes him doing right now. So in 2nd Corinthians

chapter 4, the Bible says that the God of this world, Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers to

keep them from seeing the light of the knowledge of glory of Christ. And so what we see in the New

Testament is that Satan is indeed deceiving people right now and at the millennium as a time when

Satan is bound in such a way that he can no longer deceive the nations, I understand that to mean

that this is some future time when Satan will not be able to actively deceive people the way he

presently is doing so. But also the millennium itself, now this is going to differ between different

historic pre-millennialists, but I don't think the millennium has to be exactly 1,000 years.

In fact, I think it's likely not exactly 1,000 years. I think most of the numbers in the book of

Revelation are symbolic in nature and many of them we are told by John, the author himself, that

this is a symbolic number and we're often told what the symbolic numbers means like in Revelation

chapter 1, the Holy Spirit is called the Seven Spirits of God. Well, certainly God doesn't have

seven spirits, but seven shows the perfection and completeness of the Holy Spirit as God and

therefore he is called the Seven Spirits of God, but we're talking about the one Holy Spirit.

And so many numbers in Revelation are symbolic and I understand that the millennium is probably not

literally exactly 1,000 years as we reckon time, but a period of time when Christ will demonstrate

his rule and reign over the earth after he returns prior to the final judgment.

Now, as we end, I want to focus on Revelation 20 verses 4 through 7 because this is really,

I think, where the rubber meets the road and you begin to see that the key distinctives and differences

between historic pre-millennialism and the other views. If you look in Revelation 20 verse 4,

John writes, then I saw thrones and seated on them where those to whom the authority to judge

was committed. That's the church, by the way. And I also saw the souls of those who had been

beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and the Word of God and those who had not worshipped the

beast or its image and not received its mark on their forehead or their hands. That's believers

in Christ and it says they came to life and reign with Christ for a thousand years. This is the

famous millennium, the thousand years when Christ will reign and notice it says that these Christians

who received, they had been beheaded for the testimony of the Word of God and not received the

mark of the beast, they came to life and reign with Christ for a thousand years. Now, this is

important for how you understand the the rest of the book, especially Revelation chapter 13,

with the the beast and the mark and all that. But what I'll say is is that I understand

not receiving the mark of the beast is simply not following after the way this evil world does

things. I don't think the mark of the beast is some specific thing like a computer chip or

literally the number 666 written or tattooed upon someone. No, I understand this to simply refer to

those who go after the world and its ways and its false wisdom. And so those who reject that and

follow Christ instead are beheaded for the testimony of Christ and they are the ones who are

brought to life that is believers in Christ Christians throughout time and history and they reign

with Christ for a thousand years. What does that mean? I believe that during the millennium, after

the second coming, Christians will be raised and glorified and they will reign with Christ for a thousand

years. Now here again is an important distinctive. Some pre-millennialists, even many historic

pre-millennialists hold to the millennium being a time when there will be both glorified and

un-glorified that is Christians who've been glorified and non-believers who haven't been glorified

and resurrected on the earth at the same time. I don't hold to that. I don't think the Bible requires

that nor does the historic pre-millennialist position require it and I think that position is

fraught with a lot of problems. So there's variants even within the major views and that's one of

the differences between some who hold to historic pre-millennialism. And so what I understand is

that the unbelievers are not raised until after the millennium and I get that from verse 5. Revelation

20 verse 5 says, the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.

And then he says, this is the first resurrection. Now the Abilennial and post-millennialists usually

understand the first resurrection to speak of regeneration, not literal bodily resurrection itself.

However, both the dispensational and the historic pre-millennialists are going to hold that,

no, this is the resurrection of believers when Christ returns. And so what I would say is

is that the dead coming to life after the millennium means that Christ is going to rule and reign with

His people on this earth after His second coming for a period of time and at the end of that time

He's going to raise unbelievers. So when you get later in Revelation 20 and verses 7 to 10 and people

say, well, where are all these people who rebel against Christ coming from? They are raised in the

second resurrection after the millennium. And when Christ raises unbelievers, they immediately

rebel against Christ and He destroys them. And so that's where they come from. Now let's end in

Revelation 20 verse 6. It says, blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection.

So you want to be a part of the first, not the second resurrection. So the two resurrections

are being distinguished. So what is the first resurrection? I understand it to be the bodily

resurrection of believers. What is the second resurrection? That is the bodily resurrection of

unbelievers. The first are raised to eternal life and the second group are raised to everlasting

shame and contempt. And I believe that fits with Daniel chapter 12 verse 2 very clearly. And so

blessed is the one it says, who shares in the first resurrection over such the second death has

no power. And the second death is the lake of fire. And so those in the first resurrection

don't go to the second death because they belong to Christ and they're covered by His blood and

they receive eternal life. Over such the second death has no power but they will be priest of God

and of Christ. And they will reign with Him for a thousand years. Now immediately after this

thousand years, Christ raises unbelievers. They rebel then Christ destroys them. And then there's

the final judgment in Revelation 20 11 to 15. What is called the great white throne judgment. And

those who are in Christ are judged according to the perfect sinless life that Christ lived for

them. Their names were written in the lambs book of life before the foundation of the world according

to Revelation 138 and 178. And so they will be granted entrance into eternal life. But those

who are not believers, they're judged according to their sins which are all written in books. It says

in Revelation 20. And being judged according to their sins, they're cast into the lake of fire

that burns forever and ever, which is also called the second death. And so these are the major

positions. And this is how my position fits with them. And even the distinctive of my type of

historic pre-millennialism, I don't hold to things such as a third temple for instance. I don't

think that we have to believe the temple is going to be rebuilt again as many dispensational

pre-millennialists hold. But then some historic pre-millennialists, like George L.

and my ad, hold to a third temple. So again, there's variants within the groups, within the

different views. But I hope this has been helpful. I hope it's helped you better understand where I

am coming from as a historic pre-millennialist. Also to know that not every historic pre-millennialist

is going to agree with everything that I've said here. And also that there is quite a bit of shared

ground between many of the other views, particularly my view, and post-millennialism share many

things. But there is definitely a difference in how we understand the timing of the second coming

and millennium. And whether or not the promises of the kingdom can be fulfilled prior to the return

of Christ or as I hold, that those promises cannot be truly fulfilled until after Christ returns

and is present on the earth with his people. Again, I hope this has been helpful. May God bless you.

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