Arguments Against
What’s The Point?
As we come off this previous week of the millennium, we’ve taken a lot of things into consideration about the end times. We’ve discussed the three views of premillennial, amillennial, and postmillennial and why scripturally, each camp believes what they believe. While I will not be discussing what view I personally take, I will be providing the evidence for and against each of these views from God’s Word, so that you personally can consider which stance you take. My goal here is not that you can read just two blog posts and have all the ins and outs of each viewpoint, but rather to have a base-level understanding of the pros and cons of each viewpoint. As Ligonier Ministries says, “Of all the aspects of eschatology, the doctrine of the last things, perhaps none is more controversial than the millennium. Even in an era when many people do not devote much effort to studying theology, much time is spent trying to figure out the teaching on the millennium.” With our first post this week discussing the details and scriptural evidence of each of these viewpoints, we will be taking an opposite approach today as we look at the cons of each viewpoint and some things to consider about their reliability.
Premillennials
For starters, let’s look at premillennialism. As a quick refresher, this viewpoint states that Jesus will return before the great tribulation of seven years and take His people back to heaven with Him before He reigns on earth for a literal 1,000 years. Probably the biggest argument against this viewpoint would be how the book of Revelation is read as a whole. The reason for this is that if one can see how this book is full of symbolism and poetry, we have reason to question whether or not this 1,000 years should be taken literally or figuratively. As Marius Barnard states, “One Hermeneutical principle is especially relevant here – it is what theologians refer to as the Analogy of Faith. According to this principle we must interpret a particular passage of Scripture in the light of the rest of Scripture…I soon realized that if I was going to be consistent in my application of this principle, I would have to bid farewell to my beloved Premillennialism.” This principle that helps all people study God’s Word is one that should definitely be taken into consideration here. It is vitally important that we understand the context in which this passage was written and that we also understand the narrative and analogies that the author intended. This is why passages like Psalm 34:15 can be read as an analogy and have almost no arguments against it. This passage says, “The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous, And His ears are toward their cry for help.” Obviously, we know that the Father is not a physical being and that He does not possess actual body parts like eyes and ears as we do. This is clearly written in a narrative to describe how God views the righteous in a way that human beings can understand and relate to. It is this argument that premillennialists face more often than not. Premillennials may be the side that believes Revelation 100% at face value, however, if what was written was intended to be figurative and not literal, then wrong interpretations can clearly creep in from this viewpoint.
Amillennials
Furthermore, let’s look at the amillennial viewpoint. This view again believes that we are currently living in the millennium and that life on earth will get worse and worse throughout the gospel age(meaning from Christ’s first coming to His second coming) until He returns for His people once and for all. This view clearly doesn’t take the 1,000-year millennium literally and believes that it is a figure of speech for ‘a long time’. One of the biggest arguments against this is the promise of God made in the Old Testament to the nation of Israel. Look at what the prophet Isaiah says about the New Jerusalem in Isaiah 65:17-18 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness.” Now if there is no literal 1,000-year reign of Christ, then it’s hard to argue that there would be a literal New Jerusalem that Jesus reigns over as well. The amillennialist would have to give an interpretation of how one is to view the New Jerusalem that is spoken of in Revelation and the Old Testament prophets if we are to avoid making these prophets out to be liars.
Postmillennials
Right along with this view is postmillennialism. This view fits right in with amillennialism because the questions that the amills face are the same ones the postmills face as well. Postmillennials again believe that we are living in the millennium and that things on earth will get increasingly better for Christ-followers as time goes on. Obviously, this viewpoint is very similar to that of amillennialism apart from the growing prosperity. Because of that, we’ll look at the cons to the latter part of this viewpoint since the cons to the former have already been listed. If one is to believe that things will get better before Christ returns, one would need to interpret when and how God’s wrath described in Revelation would be dealt with. Revelation 16:1 tells us, “Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” It is untenable that at some point during the millennium, God’s wrath will be seen all over the world. And if you don’t believe that Christ came to gather you up before this wrath takes place(which postmillennials don’t), and you also believe that things will get increasingly better until Christ comes back, then you must be willing to admit that all of God’s wrath was poured out on this earth very early on at the beginning of the millennium.
This is a tough sell when you consider that the millennium began according to postmillennials when Christ first came. One could even argue that this wrath could’ve been so close to the coming of Christ, that we should at least have some recollection of these wrathful events in the rest of the New Testament. These are the viewpoints that postmillennials must take into consideration when taking this stance. Now before we close, I want to remind everyone that the views of the end times are not a salvific issue, and praise God for that! These questions and arguments against these viewpoints are not meant to frustrate you or push you into arguments with your friends. This post was simply to push you further into the Word of God so that you may clearly see and understand what you truly believe about the last days, and I hope and pray that's exactly what this post has done.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] Barnard, M. (2022, January 8). Why every Christian should (at least) consider the Amillennial view. https://georgebaptist.co.za/why-every-christian-should-at-least-consider-the-amillennial-view/
[3] Why Every Calvinist should be a premillennialist, Part 1. (2007, March 25). Grace to You. https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-334/why-every-calvinist-should-be-a-premillennialist-part-1
[4] The Millennial Reign of Christ | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org. (n.d.). Ligonier Ministries. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/millennial-reign-christ
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