Theological FAQ: What is Postmillennialism?

What is theology?
Why is the study of theology important?
Where do we go to learn about theology?
What is the Bible About?
What Makes the Bible Unique?
Can anyone read and understand the bible on his own?
Does the Church have to interpret the bible?
What principles of interpretation are necessary to study the bible?
What does the term “grammatical-historical hermeneutic” mean, and why is it important?
Is a “grammatical-historical hermeneutic” different from a “Christ-centered hermeneutic”?
Is the whole bible about Christ, or just the New Testament?
Isn't it reading too much into the Old Testament to see references to Christ on every page?
Wasn't the Old Testament written especially to the Jews, so that it doesn't apply in the same way to Christians?
What does the term “sensus plenior” mean?
Is a grammatical-historical hermeneutic opposed to sensus plenior?
What does the term "analogy of faith" mean?
What is the Gospel?
What is Dispensationalism?
Is Dispensationalism biblical?
Does the bible teach a pre-tribulational rapture?
Does the bible teach that in the end times there will be a restored Jewish state and a restored temple?
Does the bible teach that there are two peoples of God, Israel and the Church?
What is Amillennialism?

many of them see the “thousand years” as a more poetic way of speaking,

Actually, they see most everything eschatological as a "poetic" way of speaking.

Unfortunately, the world has no end of "interpretive poets."

My husband says Christianity is Judaism with a happy ending.

Postmillenialism is happiness all along the way. 8~)

Does the Gospel fail in this life?

What better way to neuter the Christian opposition than for the bad guys to claim victory in this life right from the start?

The Gospel does not fail and Christ reigns in heaven and earth today.. Jesus told us so..."...Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..."

There are plenty of tribulations for the Christian, but they serve the purpose of God to bring us closer to Him and trust Him more completely.

How many Christians 2,000 years ago? How many today? The vector is positive, not negative. And thus we must continue to work to make that so, according to the will of God.

Conceding defeat is never a smart move, politically, morally or spiritually.

dispensationalism

BY

LEWIS SPERRY CHAFER

1871-1952

Founder/President of Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas; Professor of Systematic Biblical Theology; Editor, Bibliotheca Sacra

(C) Copyright, 1951, by LEWIS SPERRY CHAFER: In the Public Domain

http://bartimaeus.us/pub_dom/dispensationalism.html

I think there are 2 separate issues that you might be conflating here. Just because one believes that the Bible predicts a future age where the sins of man wax greatly doesn’t mean that you believe the Gospel will fail in this life or this world. The triumph of Christ can be seen as already completed on Calvary, and in fact inevitable since before man was cast out of Eden, and nothing that happens or will happen in this world can change that.

You have a positive outlook on the role of Christians and what we can accomplish, and I agree that is good and something we should encourage. However, I think it’s also good to heed the warnings in the Bible that many will claim to follow Christ and do His work, but He will not know them. Just looking at the number of self-professed “Christians” today doesn’t tell us much about the state of the church and its work.

Sure, there are wolves among the sheep. Life is imperfect. We are imperfect. But it seems to me Christians can and should and will have a positive affect on the culture around them. The Great Commission is testament to that fact. Why did god create us in the first place? For his glory, now and always.

When a Christian says life will only get worse so what's the point in working towards and expecting a positive Christian community, cui bono?

POSTMILLENIALISM:
WISHFUL THINKING OR CONFIDENT HOPE?

Or, conversly the Christian might say “The world is getting worse even so come Lord Jesus” who said “My kingdom is not of this world”

The PM position can certainly be seen as an optimistic one but should our optimism be focused on us changing the world through influence or Christ changing it through regeneration?

The PM position can certainly be seen as an optimistic one but should our optimism be focused on us changing the world through influence or Christ changing it through regeneration?

Definitely the latter. As men are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit makes himself known in this world. Tangible, positive results, IMO. God so loves this world He gave His only begotten Son to redeem it.

[The following is a synopsis of the evangelical postmillennial position by Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen.]

There is enough misunderstanding of evangelical, Bible-believing postmillennialism abroad today that it would be worthwhile to make note of the kind of constitutive doctrinal convictions which have been set forth by its representatives.

Evangelical postmillennialists champion the inspiration, infallibility, and sole doctrinal authority of the Bible.
Evangelical postmillennialists believe that fallen man is totally unable to do any saving good, cannot atone for his sins, and can become a member of the kingdom of God only through the redemptive work of the Savior and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
Evangelical postmillennialists teach the glorious, personal return of Jesus Christ at the end of history to judge the world.
Evangelical postmillennialists insist that at his first advent Jesus, the Son of God, came as the Messianic or Mediatorial King and established His saving Kingdom among men on earth. Citing Philippians 2, Acts 2, Ephesians 1, Hebrews 1, and a host of other Biblical texts, William Symington wrote these Words in his study, Messiah the Prince, or, The Mediatorial Dominion of Jesus Christ: "Christ's appointment [to the kingly office] was still farther intimated by his actual investiture with regal power at and after his resurrection . . . . Christ's appointment gives him rightful claim to the implicit and conscientious obedience of every moral creature . . . . This appointment affords ample security for the overthrow of all Christ's enemies, and the ultimate establishment of his kingdom in the world." David Brown could hardly be clearer: "Christ's proper kingdom is already in being; commencing formally on His ascension to the right hand of God, and continuing unchanged, both in character and form, till the final judgment."
Evangelical postmillennialists are painfully aware that those who belong to Christ -- the church -- are appointed to suffering in this world, and will inevitably undergo persecution and affliction, in following their Savior and King. Listen again to Symington: "The members of the church have many enemies. The devil, the world, and the flesh, are in league against them. They wrestle not only against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickednesses in high places. They are required to assume the character, equipments, and attitude of soldiers..... Satan, the chief and leader of these enemies, exasperated at his overthrow, makes a desperate effort to regain his lost dominion over them; and although he cannot succeed, he does much to annoy such as have been rescued from his grasp."
Charles Hodge commented upon 2 Corinthians 4 that Paul there "compares himself to a combatant, first hardly pressed, then hemmed in, then pursued, then actually cast down. This was not an occasional experience, but his life was like that of Christ, an uninterrupted succession of indignities and suffering.... We constantly illustrate in our person the sufferings of Christ. We are treated as he was treated; neglected, defamed, despised, maltreated...."
Evangelical postmillennialists believe that the gospel is to be preached to all nations by the church prior to the second advent of Christ, eventually bringing worldwide conversion, and that this is the church's calling from God. Charles Hodge taught: "The first great event which is to precede the second coming of Christ, is the universal proclamation of the Gospel.... The conversion of the Gentile world is the work assigned the Church under the present dispensation." B. B. Warfield argued that "precisely what the risen Lord, who has been made head over all things for his church, is doing through these years that stretch between his first and second comings, is conquering the world to himself; and the world is to be nothing less than a converted world.... All conflict, then, will be over, the conquest of the world will be complete, before Jesus returns to earth."
Evangelical postmillennialism maintains that the victorious advance of Christ's kingdom in the world will take place in terms of the present, peaceful and Spiritual power of the gospel rather than through a radically different principle of operation, namely Christ's physical presence on earth using violence to subdue opposition. A. A. Hodge put it this way: "The Scriptures, both Old and New Testament, clearly reveal that the gospel is to exercise an influence over all branches of the human family, immeasurably more extensive and more thoroughly transforming than any it has ever realized in time past. This end is to be gradually attained through the spiritual presence of Christ in the ordinary dispensation of Providence, and ministrations of the church." Charles Hodge insisted that "There is no intimation in the New Testament that the work of converting the world is to be effected by any other means than those now in use.... It is to dishounour [sic] the Gospel, and the power of the Holy Spirit, to suppose that they are inadequate to the accomplishment of this work."
Evangelical postmillennialism believes that with the power of the Holy Spirit working through the church's preaching of the gospel, in gradual stages of growth, the preponderance of men and nations will submit to Christ at some time in the future. B. B. Warfield drew this generalization: "the nature of the whole dispensation in which we are living, and which stretches from the First to the Second Advent, [is] a period of advancing conquest on the part of Christ.... The prophecy [of Romans 11] promises the universal Christianization of the world." Elsewhere he wrote: "If you wish, as you lift your eyes to the far horizon of the future, to see looming on the edge of time the glory of a saved world, you can find warrant for so great a vision only in the high principles that it is God and God alone who saves men, that all their salvation is from him, and that in his own good time and way he will bring the world in its entirety to the feet of him whom he has not hesitated to present to our adoring love not merely as Savior of our souls, but as the Savior of the world.... The redemption of the world is similarly a process. It, too, has stages; it, too, advances only gradually to its completion...."
EPists do not hold that each and every individual on earth will someday be saved, but that at some future time the vast majority will; in Christ's wheat field there will always be found some tares, up until the final harvest in judgement. Charles Hodge taught that "it is not to be inferred from this [Biblical promise of Gentile and Jewish conversion] that either all the heathen or all the Jews are to become true Christians. In many cases the conversion may be merely nominal. There will probably enough remain unchanged in heart to be the germ of that persecuting power which shall bring about those days of tribulation which the Bible seems to teach are to immediately precede the coming of the Lord."
Evangelical postmillennialism teaches that there will be a final apostasy or falling away just prior to the return of Christ in judgment on the world. Interpreting Revelation 20, A. A. Hodge wrote: "Christ has in reserve for his church a period of universal expansion and of pre-eminent spiritual prosperity, when the spirit and character of the "nobel army of martyrs" shall be reproduced again in the great body of God's people in an unprecedented triumph of their cause, and in the overthrow of that of their enemies, receive judgment over their foes and reign in the earth; while the party of Satan, 'the rest of the dead,' shall not flourish again until the thousand years be ended, when it shall prevail again for a little season." Charles Hodge held that "The great truth set forth in these prophesies is, that there was future . . . a great apostasy in the Church; that this apostasy would be Anti-christian (or Antichrist), ally itself with the world and become a great persecuting power... [which will] be over taken with a final destruction when the Lord comes."

The end.