All because Amillennialism has a branding problem.
I started this Blog under the mistaken impression that all Amillennials were also Full Preterists, but I now know there is actually no overlap between them. Amillennials absolutely expected a still yet future Bodily Resurrection of The Dead.
Or well that’s the impression I get from the Facebook Groups I’m in. Wikipedia says Perfect Amillennialism rejects a Bodily Resurrection, and still even connected Imperfect Amillennials to heretical views like those of Cerinthus as well the view that the First Resurrection and Second Resurrection happen at the same time. But Wikipedia has a limited understanding of many things.
The A- prefix implies they don't believe in any Millennium, but that’s only what the Millennium is to Pre Millennials and sometimes also Post Millennials. They actually more so then Post Millennials believe in the Millennium being fulfilled in the Church Age.
Amillennial are Post Millennials in that they believe the Parousia happens after the Millennium, and Post Millennials are Millennials in that they disagree with Premillennialism on the Millennium involving Christ physically ruling on Earth. So the difference between them isn’t defined by the terms themselves really.
I do believe the Millennium being a Thousand year time period is literal, but that is equally as atypical for Amillennialism as it is for Postmillennialism. Holding that view while being not Premillennial is as far as I currently know unique to me.
The only thing that ends when the Millennium expires is Satan’s Imprisonment, his attempt to destroy the Camp of the Saints and Beloved City is destined to fail. And with the help of Inspiring Philosophy’s video on Biblical Time (who is Post Millennial) I can easily argue more time passes between Satan being let loose and his being cast into the Lake of Fire then it at first appears on a casual reading.
Amillennials are sometimes Idealists (which I ultimately am not but borrow some elements from) but also sometimes Partial Preterists or Historicists, which both apply to my view in some ways.
Postmillennials are like Premillennials in how many of their errors come from taking passages about New Jerusalem and the New Heaven and New Earth applying them to the Millennium. Revelation 20 depicts a Camp of Saints during this period, representing them as a set apart camp not as ruling the world politically. 1 Corinthians 15:22-28 places the Subduing of his enemies after the Parousia. The Olivet Discourse and Thessalonian Epistles also depict the Parousia happening to a world far from perfected.
If He returns to a full Christianized world why is He returning as a “Thief in the Night” to those not prepared?
Postmillennials will also cite the same passages I cite to prove Universal Salvation, but that’s what I believe fully happened at the Parousia not before. They also The Lord’s Prayer, what we are doing in that Prayer is asking for The Kingdom to Come, it is done by The Father’s Will not ours.
The Great Commission is already accomplished, The Gospel has been Published in every nation. Our mandate was to be a Witness and teach the Nations not to take them over. Matthew 28:19 says to “teach all nations” in the correct translations not “make disciples”. Even with the "make disciples" translation that would just mean there being disciples from all nations, not the nations in their entirety.
Bible Prophecy indisputably predicts a time when the Entire World will be converted to Christ, the disagreement is if that happens before or after the Second Coming. Every account of the Second Coming depicts a world still not perfected.
I do believe we have a mandate to strive to make the current better as much as we can. Those are things we are told to do regardless of what our Eschatology is. But we will not be able to make the world Perfect before Jesus Comes Back. I believe we are principally supposed to lead by example, not by taking the reins of power. We are to be Separatist Anarchists not Revolutionaries.
Postmillennials acting like only their view believe The Church will succeed is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what The Church's mission is. Our Goal is to Be a Witness, not to take over the world.
I have no innate expectation about whether things will get better or worse before the end from where we are now. But I have Faith in the Victory of Christ.
I still don’t like the term Amillennial, I like to define my views based on what I do believe in rather than what I don’t. But academically that’s the situation I’m stuck in.
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