The latest rage, if it could be called that, in Reformed religious circles is a return to Postmillennialism. A preacher-teacher whose blog posts I really enjoy (Doug Wilson’s Blog and Mablog) is a recent convert to this view of eschatology.

There are four major Christian understandings of how God will conclude the present age by ending sin and sinners forever and creating a new heavens and a new earth. They are the aforementioned Post Millennialism, Pre-Tribulation – Premillennialism, Post-Tribulation – Premillennialism, and Amillennialism.

Postmillennialism sees the future as a time when the Church becomes transcendent in the world as it fills the world with the glory of the gospel, and after a thousand triumphal years Christ will return, destroy the remaining followers of this world’s prince, and create a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness will dwell forever. This was a very popular view among mainstream churches in the years preceeding the First World War as they saw the Church advancing civilization into the far reaches of the world The advancement of the great colonial empires). It fell out of favor in the ashes of a devastated Europe and the nihilism that followed.

The pre-trib – premil understanding is what is commonly known as Rapture-ism. This is a pleasant view for Christians to take. At some point in time known only to God, the Church will be suddenly removed from the earth into glory leaving behind all those who have not embraced the gospel. This will be followed by a seven-year period of great tribulation during which the antichrist will reign, the Jews will become followers of Christ, and will come to an end in the great battle of Armageddon and the return of Christ to reign upon the earth for a thousand years.

The post-trib – premil understanding sees a great seven-year long time of trouble coming upon the whole earth during which those who reject the gospel will unite under the rule of The Beast to destroy the Church. As it appears the Church is to be destroyed for refusing to accept the Mark of the Beast, Christ will return, destroy the wicked by the brightness of his coming, and redeem his Church to heaven for a thousand years.

The amil understanding is that the thousand years referenced in Revelation 20 is a figurative number like other numbers in the Revelation and that it is a figure of completeness in which all of God’s work of redemption and restoration will be finished and the universe will be cleansed of sin and sinners forever.

There is one final position that isn’t in the theology books but is well worthy of mention: agnosticism. Not agnostic as to the truth of scripture, or the existence of God, or any of the major Christian doctrines that grow out of faith, but an agnosticism that says, “I know what the bible says, but I don’t know what it means by what it says!”

I find myself an agnostic post-tribulation – premillennialist. I think the post-trib understanding best captures the teaching of Christ about the circumstances and events surrounding his return and its expansion in the Revelation. But whether the thousand years of chapter 20 is meant to be understood as literal or figurative? I don’t know. There are simply insufficient data points to draw a defintive conclusion. You can’t draw a direction from a single point. What do I mean by this? Simply that there is only one reference to the thousand years in the scripture and it is centered on the end of sin. So I know sin ends finally and forever. And I know from other scriptural references there is a judgment of sinners in which the redeemed of the Lord participate that will take place after the Resurrection of the Righteous at Christ’s return. This must apparently happen during the thousand years, but whether the thousand years is in earth years if the Church is in heaven and not on earth? Got me! At least that’s my humble opinion!