DrE, I have a post-millennial question. I do not understand your concern with a rising beast when postmillennialism posits an increase of kingdom Christianity and not an increase of lawlessness.
Obviously, I’m misunderstanding something. Could you please fill me in?
The world was radically altered on Calvary, never to be the same. Christ has risen. He is presently making footstools of all enemies of the Gospel. He reigns today in your heart and my heart and in the heart of every Christian, a number that grows each day, too many to count. His command to make disciples of all nations was not a fool's errand. His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
I just don't understand some Christians' relinquishing this earth to Satan when Christ has told us Satan is bound and cannot thwart the will of God.
This world is God's creation. He loved it enough to send His Son to redeem it. We should see that clearly and not faint nor despair. The Gospel transforms lives and the Gospel will not be silenced. It prospers whoever hears it and accomplishes all that God intends.
Is our life more difficult than the lives of early Christians? Are our sins greater? Is our hope less?
The Gospel does not fail. Two thousand years later we still mark the years by the birth of Jesus Christ.
POSTMILLENIALISM: WISHFUL THINKING OR CERTAIN HOPE?
As Gentry says in the link, "Why would God give up on history, which He began as "very good?" Does not God "make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come." Does He not declare: "My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please" (Isa. 46:10)? If God created the universe for His own glory, He will get the glory!"
But I disagree with some preterists regarding the beast, or anti-Christ. I lean more towards the understanding of virtually every Reformer for over 100 years after the Reformation. So we just have to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, preaching the Gospel and trusting that all liars and tyrants will not end well.
Ultimately, x, Postmillenialism is one area Wesley got right. "Rejoice evermore." It's contagious. As God wills. 8~)
I think what you've misunderstood is that postmillennialism does not posit an increase of kingdom Christianity over time in a straight line. Future generations can disobey. Kingdom progess can, for a time, be reversed. The postmillennialist does not mark progress in terms of decades, maybe not even in terms of centuries. Unlike the pretribber who sees history changing in a single generation, the postmiller sees things occuring over thousands of years. And inbetween, there's nothing that says things can't look a whole lot like a dress rehearsal for the Tribulation.