Despite what I say below, I am a premillennialist. I believe in a future, literal, 1000-year earthly reign of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem. I want to state that first and foremost.
But I also believe that Premillenialism destroyed the Gospel. Here’s how:
Premillennialism is the belief that at some future point in time, Jesus will return to earth, set all things straight, and rule over the entire earth with righteousness and justice from Jerusalem for 1000 years. Among those who hold this view, it is also a commonly held belief that things will get worse before they get better. There are biblical prophecies which seem to indicate as much.
So when people who hold these two ideas read the Gospels, and specifically the announcments of Jesus that the Kingdom of God is at hand, that it is within us, among us, and breaking in on the world, they read such statements as prophecies about the future Millennium, and therefore, any instructions for how to live as Kingdom people or spread the Kingdom are pushed off into some future time.
In other words, it is argued that since the Kingdom did not fully “arrive” with Jesus, all the kingdom principles and values can be shoved onto a generation in the future by-and-by when Jesus return and sets all things right. Until then, the earth and most of the people in it can just go to hell.
That is strongly stated, but it’s how we live. We revel in wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, and diseases because we think such things show that Jesus is about to return. And maybe it does, but that doesn’t mean that we can sit back, twiddle our thumbs, and watch it all with glee on the evening news.
In fact, I k now some Christians who actually pray for things to get worse, because the worse things get, the better off Christians are. After all, doesn’t Jesus say that He won’t return until the days become like Sodom and Gomorrah? These Christians want to read about rape, murder, and pillage, because these are signs of the end times.
And yet, all such things are completely and utterly contrary to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is not just about getting people to believe in Jesus so they can get eternal life and go to heaven when they die. While that is part of the Gospel message, it is only about 1% of it.
The rest of the Gospel concerns how those who have believed in Jesus should work to make the world better. The purpose of the Gospel message is to bless the people of the world, to stop injustice, to free the slaves, to rescue the captives, to break the chains of bondage, to bring peace to war-torn areas, to restore health to the sick, to take light into the darkness, and help to the hurting.
By putting off the Kingdom of God until “the future millennial reign of Christ” we have divorced most of the message of Jesus from the Gospel of Jesus. We have gutted the Gospel of it’s significance for our lives here and now, and made it entirely about the life ever after.
Premillennialism has done this.
I’m not saying we cannot be premillennialists. We can. I think the Bible teaches it. But we must avoid the pitfall of thinking that since Jesus will return at some point in the future to fix everything, we can just sit back and wait for it to happen. That is not the Gospel. That is not following the teachings or the example of Jesus.
So this year, what are you going to do to live the Gospel? How are you planning to restore kingdom principles into your life, your family, and your community?
I really dislike the moving fingers because they are so distracting.
Yes, they are distracting. Ha ha. So much for animated gifs.
Hey Jeremy!
Great blog content. I just recently came across your blog from a friend of mine, though I now forget which friend that is! 🙂
As a premillenialist myself, I understand where you’re coming from. One nice thing about postmillenialists is, in spite of their twisted Kingdom-now dominionist theology, they really contend for a change on the earth NOW.
I think the best response to the question you pose is this:
Between the NOW and the THEN, God is operating in a time of amnesty toward mankind. He withholds His judgments, which ultimately lead to the full establishment of His Kingdom on earth, for the sake of love towards the wicked. When He comes, He will set everything right.
What do we contend for in this age before the culmination of our blessed hope? We contend for everything that’s possible!
Contend for the ending of abortion! Contend for world peace! However… Realize that our work will forever be lacking until He splits the skies and returns.
The problem I have with the dominionist mindset is that it presupposes that we can fully establish the Kingdom without the physicial presence of the King.
We need the King here, but in the interim let’s pursue to make this earth and its inhabitants as fitting as possible for the King’s return.
I’m a premillennialist myself, and agree 100% with everything you wrote. I balance my premillennialism and the Gospel exactly as you have described. I am now your friend, and your friend is my friend, even though you cannot remember who he is. Ha ha.
I have added your blog to my Google Reader.
All I can add is that Jesus said He has come so that not only will we have life, but have it more abundantly.
We were told to go into the world to preach the Gospel.
See how close we are at this point in History to having the Bible translated into all of the known languages in the world.
It will come to a point where people will have their hearts hardedend and their ears closed to the Message of Grace.
I just look to the happenings in this current political season. I believe we were allowed to choose a dastardly, charismatic man to lead this great nation.
I believe the veil has been lifted. Just listen to the nonsense coming from his supporters on almost a daily basis. It seems they just can’t help themselves from showing their ‘true colors.’ I pray God still has his hand on this nation, let alone the spirtual warfare taking place around the globe.
In short, it is all in His time, right? We still have our responsibility to reach out when and where we can.
When I first became a Christian (I had no Church background prior to this) almost all of the people I knew were dispensationalists, and therefore premillenialists. I just thought that was what it meant to be a Christian. I got caught up with the fashion of watching for prophecies being fulfilled that might indicate that Jesus was about to return soon. I read books like The Late Great Planet Earth which strongly suggested that Jesus would return some time in the 1980’s. Of course he didn’t, and as far as I’m aware, none of the speculations in that book came true.
As I read more and grew in my faith I realised there were other interpretations of the scriptures that dispensationalists, who tended to be strongly premillennialist, used to support their view. Over the years, and to this day, I still see so many speculations about current events and end-times and to be honest, the whole thing wearies me. I have looked at all the views surrounding the millennium. They all have strong and weak points about them.
I guess these days I would call myself a pan-milleniumist because I believe it will all pan out the way God wants it to. Jesus will return, I know that for sure. But whether I take a literal view of the millennium or see it as symbolic… the fact that good men and women argue about it leaves me to want to just keep an open mind. The fact that the millennium is only mentioned by name once in the whole of scripture, makes me very wary of being dogmatic about it. It amazes me how some Christian get so hot under the collar over one tiny passage of scripture. Fortunately, here in the UK, for the most part, it doesn’t seem to be as big an issue as it is in your part of the world.
The biggest problem I have with popular premilleniumism is that it is a distraction. Some seem so caught up in what this prophecy means, and how a current event may fulfil it, that they have forgotten their mission to be kingdom people. And like you say, they seem to glory in every disaster that inflicts this sad world. I just want to try and serve Him the best I can and I know I can trust him with whatever happens in the future.
I still sort of consider myself a premillennialist, but I love what you wrote there at the end … it’s a distraction. As you say, it causes people to get so caught up in prophecy, that they neglect to be and do what God has called them to be and do in this world.