I certainly believe so. I subscribe to a view known as Postmillennialism.
(Dan 2:35 NIV) …But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
(Mat 13:31-32 NIV) He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. {32} Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”
(Mat 13:33 NIV) He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
One writer introduces Postmillennialism in his intro to a paper on the subject as follows (quoting several other authors):
“The reason for writing this article is because I feel that in general Christians are pessimistic about their eschatology. Now of course there may be good biblical reasons for this and I will not dispute that, however there are equally good biblical reasons to adopt an optimistic eschatology about the future and it is these biblical reasons that I want to examine. After all the Y2K hype is behind us, now is a very good time to re-examine our eschatology about the future. While I do not believe that this short analysis of postmillennialism will convert everyone to full blown optimism about the future, I hope that it will at least challenge our thinking and spur us on to fulfil the great commission.
For the unbeliever what he thinks about his origins will do much to shape his attitude about himself and how he acts in this life. For the Christian the question about our origin has been settled, God created us. Our ultimate future has also been settled, we go to heaven. It is the bit in-between especially the future of Christians and Christianity on earth that is uncertain. Will there be a tiny remnant in a world dominated by evil and the evil one when Christ returns, or will the world have been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ such that the kingdom of Satan is a tiny remnant.?
The question, about our future, is crucial because it affects how Christians act in society and also, how it will affect our attitude to the great commission. While premillennialism is most pessimistic, and amillennialism is neutral, postmillennialism is optimistic about the future. With the popularity of dispensationalism and the view that Christ is coming soon (in our generation) we have adopted a neutral position with regard to society. It has been rightly said that ‘all it requires for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing’. As a result we have handed the world to Satan rather than plundered his kingdom (Acts 26:18 ), and we have forgotten that the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8).
Are we to revert to monastic position of the Middle Ages, which rejected interaction between Christianity and culture?[2]
(Mat 5:13 NIV) “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
Our pessimistic view about the future when combined with the imminency of the return of Jesus Christ when combined produce a strong cocktail which tends to prevent us making long term plans for the future. This may include such simple things such as not making provision for our retirement. We neglect the future and therefore do not invest in the next generation through our children. In our evangelism the training of children through Sunday school and Christian schooling is important. It should come as no surprise that the father of the modern christian home schooling movement was a postmillennialist.If we believe in a bright future then we will invest in our children who will be the next generation.
My heart is that that we fulfil the Great Commission and I believe that postmillennialism is the eschatology that motivates us the most in actually doing this. How we interact with society is really a secondary issue. However, establishing Christianity within a nation will have social consequences. If nothing else this essay should make clear the wide scope of the Great Commission and its success.
Gentry contends that postmillennialism is amillennialism extended to its logical conclusion [3] and certainly they have much in common. Gentry defines the basic idea of postmillennialism as:
Postmillennialism expects the proclaiming of the Spirit-blessed gospel of Jesus Christ to win the vast majority of human beings to salvation in the present age. Increasing gospel success will gradually produce a time in history prior to Christ’s return in which faith, righteousness, peace, and prosperity will prevail in the affairs of people and of nations. After an extensive era of such conditions the Lord will return visibly, bodily, and in great glory, ending history with the general resurrection and the great judgement of all humankind. [4]
Mathison also gives a definition of postmillennialism:
‘Like amillennialism, postmillennialism teaches that the “thousand years” of Revelation 20 occurs prior to the Second Coming. Some postmillennialists teach that the millennial age is the entire period of the time between Christ’s first and second advents, while others teach that it is the last one thousand years of the present age. According to postmillennialism, in the present age the Holy Spirit will draw unprecedented multitudes to Christ through the faithful preaching of the gospel. Among the multitudes who will be converted are the ethnic Israelites who have thus far rejected the Messiah. At the end of the present age, Christ will return, there will be the general resurrection of the just and the unjust, and the final judgement will take place.’ [5]
Charles Hodge (1797-1878) explains his optimistic theology thus.
As therefore the Scriptures teach that the kingdom of Christ is to extend over all the earth; that all nations are to serve Him; and that all people shall call Him blessed; it is to be inferred that these predictions refer to a state of things which is to exist before the second coming of Christ. This state is described as one of spiritual prosperity; God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh; knowledge shall everywhere abound; wars shall cease to the ends of the earth, and there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord. This does not imply that there is to be neither sin nor sorrow in the world during this long period, or that all men are to be true Christians. The tares are to grow together with the wheat until the harvest. The means of grace will still be needed; conversion and sanctification will be then what they ever have been. It is only a higher measure of the good which the church has experienced in the past that we are taught to anticipate in the future. This however is not the end, After this and after the great apostasy which is to follow, comes the consummation. [6]
It is important to distinguish postmillennialism from theonomy (Dominion Theology or Christian Reconstruction) which is one particular branch of postmillennialism. This believes that both the civil and moral law of the Old Testament is still binding on society today. However this is not the model given to us in the New Testament in which Paul says “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Rom 13:1 NIV).
It is also important to distinguish postmillennialism from the optimism of evolutionary thought, the idea that man improves progressively with the flow of history. Postmillennialism agrees with the depravity of man but also believes in the power of the gospel to transform man.
Mathison lists some of the things that postmillennialism is not. [7]
- Postmillennialism is not liberalism
- Postmillennialism is not the social gospel
- Postmillennialism is not universalism
- Postmillennialism is not perfectionism
- Postmillennialism is not nationalism
What it is. [8]
- The kingdom of Christ has been inaugurated
- The kingdom is Redemptive
- The growth of the kingdom is progressive
- The kingdom grows supernaturally
- The growth will lead to worldwide conversion
- The kingdom will be perfectly consummated only at the Second Coming.
Whereas postmillennialism sees a gradual overcoming of evil in the world; amillennialism sees a parallel growth between good and evil in this present age.”
Why will things get better? The Gospel!
Before someone thinks the wrong thing, the above statement does NOT imply that those who hold to other views do not believe the gospel. God forbid that someone think that.
I just believe that the proclamation of the gospel will see it’s fruit prior to the Lord’s return, not after.
October 30, 2007 at 8:47 am
Les,
Certainly Christians should be the most positive, hope-filled people in the universe. As this relates to the proclamation of the gospel, what I am seeing in my 32 years of following Christ and being engaged in evangelism, is a population that is moving away from any real knowledge of Scripture. And since faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ, such a broad ignorance of Scripture causes me to scratch my head and wonder, how can we win people to Christ if there is little real knowledge of God through the Scriptures. I am involved with a man in his 60’s right now who is in the process of joining us. This will be his 6th Presbyterian church. As we have explored the gospel however, he literally could not find the gospel of Mark. He started in Genesis and didn’t know where to go. The most elementary things about Christ and the gospel are unknown to him. That’s the bad news. The good news is that he is teachable and learning and having a series of “aha” moments. Explaining the gospel to someone like this takes time. 20-30 minutes won’t do it. This is an intelligent, educated, “successful” man.
Of course God can save anyone in a moment without my involvement. Thankfully.
Bill
October 30, 2007 at 8:52 am
Les,
As this relates to missions. During 11 years in West Africa, I came to the conclusion that the only hope for transformation was the gospel. You may say, “duh!” What else should a missionary believe? I had that in my head before I went but I saw that with the entrenchment of tribalism and corruption, and everyone doing what was right in his own eyes, the battle there would be won one soul at a time. As the kingdom of God took root in one heart, they could be transformed. Humanly speaking I could not see how the kingdom could be broadly established there for transformation. I wonder, what would Africa look like when Postmillenialism reaches its fullest expression.
Bill
October 30, 2007 at 9:29 am
Bill, only God knows what Africa will look like. Interestingly, an article from Calvin College in 2005 said,
“In 1900 there were about 9 million Christians in all of Africa. By the year 2000 that number had grown to 380 million.
Calvin College provost and professor of history Joel Carpenter says that Africa is home to the greatest growth of Christianity in the world right now.”
This and other projections for Africa, Asia and S. America are phenomenal. They do, of course, include Catholics. But
the point is the shift away from the tribal religions to the God of the Bible.
As to your second point all the more reason to continue to trumpet the scriptures. And, as to your method of the relational Gospel sharing–from the beginning, the basics, kudos and amen!
Les
October 30, 2007 at 2:12 pm
It is certainly important to discussion eschatologies of the future, but I think the eschatology that makes the most difference to daily living is our eschatology of the present, the eschatology that I believe all of these millenial views share.
This eschatology of the present is the paradox that the kingdom is here, but it is not fully here. The kingdom has been inaugurated, but it has not been consummated. With this eschatology, a overly pessimistic view is that the kingdom has not yet arrived, that we are waiting for a new, greater dispensation of the Spirit. Paul certainly dealt with this under-realized eschatology in Corinth. The overly optimist view arise when we say that the kingdom has fully and completely arrived, leading to over-realized eschatology (which Paul also dealt with in Corinth). Both are a distortion of the kingdom reality inaugurated by Jesus.
How will the Kingdom be completely consummated? We don’t really know, but I do know that we are in the last days (the kingdom has been inaugurated), and Jesus could come at any time like a thief in the night.
October 30, 2007 at 2:39 pm
The point of postmil is just that–that the view of the future and how the kingdom progresses shapes our here and now. Most classic postmills would not agree that the kingdom has fully arrived if what you mean by that is that all is accomplished. No, many nations yet to make disciples of.
It is really without dispute that many of the latter day greatest missionaries were not only Calvinists but postmills as well. Their belief in the promise of God to grow His kingdom here propelled and compelled them (Carey, Edwards, etc.).
As to the “any moment” idea, of course you would expect that my belief in the eventual conversion of all the nations would compel me to respectfully disagree that Christ could come back at any moment. I do not believe that Scripture teaches that. Logically (if not biblically) if the first century Christians were told that then God was not being honest with the folks. But also, there is:
‘My master is staying away a long time,’ Mat 24:48
The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. Mat 25:5
“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. Mat 25:19
Having said all the above, I do love that we are discussing this. I believe it has too long been left to the Trinity Broadcasting Network and the like to shape the minds of our people.
Les
October 30, 2007 at 10:08 pm
Les-
I would love to learn more about postmillenialism. I have many questions. For example, does the New Testament communicate that there will be a future golden age for the kingdom of God, after which Christ will come, or is Christ going to come in the midst of great wickedness mixed with righteousness? It seems to be that the latter is more biblically consistent (going off passage like Mt 24:36-39). Also, is there enough biblical evidence to conclude that all the nations of the earth will be Christianized? This seems to contrast passages like Mt 25:31-21, Rev 19:15 and 20:11-12 which suggest that when Jesus comes back he will find much unbelief and hostility.
Another question: when does the millenium being according to the postmil position? Has it started already? Isn’t the conversion of Israel a precondition for this?
Also, I struggle with the postmil view in the sense that the Bible seems to teach that the church will be a persecuted and suffering church until Christ return: never really triumphant, always an alien. I absolutely agree that Christ’s Kingdom will be completely triumphant, but will this really occur before Christ returns?
As you can see, I am not as informed as I should be, so I look forward to hearing about what you have learned about the postmil position and how it is consistent with the overarching two-age eschatology preached by Jesus and Paul.
October 31, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Geoff, your comment got marked as spam. I just saw it and released it. Late after a long day. Check back later for a reply.
Les
November 1, 2007 at 9:15 am
Geoff, let me say at the outset that I am by no means willing to die on the sword of my view on the millennium. I just happen to believe that postmil fits the Scripture best as I read it.
Having said that, I believe that Paul is simply reminding Timothy that in the Gospel days (these days we are living in and in which they were living in) there will be opposition to the truth and here are examples of how their opposition will manifest it. I take the “last days” to be similar to Hebrews 1.2 (but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.) To me this fits the flow of what Paul has been saying in chapter two about these kinds of oppositions and truth haters:
14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God [1] not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, [2] a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. 19 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
I believe that Paul is encouraging and charging Timothy for the very reason that he was already encountering these kinds of opposition.
In my view, the fact of these kinds of manifestations then or now or in the future does not mitigate the Gospel haveing more and more susscess. Clearly there will always be ungodliness. However, I believe as the church is faithful to preach the gospel, more and more it will have the effect of growing the kingdom!
Whether my interpretation is right I cannot be sure. But, I do hope so.
Thanks brother for your passion for Christ and His church. Continue faithful by His grace!
Les