Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond

Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond (Counterpoints Series). Edited by Darrell L. Bock. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999, 329 pp., $16.99 paper.

Zondervan's Counterpoints series provides a forum for comparing and critiquing different views on important theological issues. This series includes books presenting the major views concerning creation, sanctification, hell, the Law, miraculous gifts, pluralism, the rapture, and the book of Revelation. One view is defended by a proponent and then briefly critiqued by the other writers. Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond follows this approach and centers on "whether or not there is a future intermediate earthly kingdom of a literal thousand years over which Christ will rule before the new heavens and new earth are established" (p. 7).

The case for postmillennialism is presented by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., Professor of New Testament at Bahnsen Theological Seminary in Placentia, California. Gentry has recently defended the preterist approach to Revelation in the Counterpoints book Four Views on the Book of Revelation (1998) and has written numerous related works, including The Beast of Revelation (1995), Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation (1996), and He Shall Have Dominion: A Postmillennial Eschatology (1997). As a theonomic postmillennialist, Gentry expects the proclamation of the gospel to convert the vast majority of people in the present age. Increasing gospel success will gradually produce a time in history in which faith, righteousness, peace, and prosperity prevail at the individual, social and national levels. After an extensive period of these conditions, Christ will return visibly, bodily, and gloriously to end history with the general resurrection and the final judgment (pp. 13-14).

Gentry categorizes postmillennialism into three major types: Puritan, generic, and theonomic. The Puritan form of postmillennialism holds that the millennium will exist for a literal thousand years and will begin with the conversion of the Jews. A righteous state governed by God's law will emerge, and then Jesus will return. Generic postmillennialists believe that the millennium "spans all of the new covenant phase of church history, developing incrementally from the time of Christ until his Second Advent" (p. 18). Theonomic postmillennialism (also known as Christian reconstructionism) envisions the gradual return to Biblical norms of civil justice as a consequence of widespread gospel success. Gentry assembles his case for postmillennialism on the theological foundations of God's purpose in creation, sovereignty, and provision. He then charts the redemptive-historical flow of the covenants: creation and Edenic, Abrahamic, and the new covenant established by Christ. He also suggests that post-- millennialism emerges from a careful study of passages such as Psalm 2, Isa 2:2-4, Matthew 13, John 12:31-32, Matt 28:18-20, 1 Cor 15:20-28, and Revelation 20.

The case for amillennialism is presented by Robert B. Strimple, Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary. Strimple has written The Modern Search for the Real Jesus: An Introductory Survey of the Historical Roots of Gospels Criticism (1995). In defending his position that there is no future literal millennium, Strimple first analyzes major OT themes (Israel, the land of Canaan, the city of Jerusalem, the temple, the sacrifices, and the kingdom of David) and how they are interpreted in the NT. He suggests that the OT prophets spoke of the glories of the coming messianic age in terms of their own age, employing terms and ideals with which they and their listeners were familiar as they pointed toward this everlasting kingdom. He then interprets John 5:28-29, 2 Thess 1:5-10, Rom 8:17-23, 2 Pet 3:314, 1 Cor 15:20-26, Romans 11, and Rev 20:1-10. Strimple concludes that the return of Christ, the resurrection of believers (and the change of living believers), the resurrection of the unjust, the judgment for all, the end, the new heaven and new earth, and the eternal states of heaven and hell occur together in one cluster of end-time events-like one dramatic grand finale of redemptive history.

Craig Blaising, Professor of Christian Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, defends premillennialism. Blaising has teamed with Darrell Bock to edit Dispensationalism, Israel, and the Church (1992) and write Progressive Dispensationalism (1993). Premillennialism holds that Jesus' coming will be prior to his establishment of an earthly thousand-year kingdom. Blaising observes that premillennialists differ concerning the nature of the rapture, specifically whether it is temporally distinct from, or a temporal phase of, the second coming. Pretribulationism holds that the rapture will take place before the tribulation (i.e. a period of apocalyptic woe and distress) prior to Jesus' second coming. Midtribulationism maintains that the rapture will occur during this tribulation. Posttribulationism holds that the rapture and the second coming are indistinguishable temporally and occur together in the one event of Jesus' second coming, which transpires at the end of the tribulation. Blaising then surveys two predominant views concerning eternal life (the spiritual vision model and the new creation model) and additional varieties of premillennialism (classical dispensationalism, progressive dispensationalism, reductionist, holistic, dualist, and historicist). A progressive dispensationalist, Blaising proposes that the millennial kingdom revealed in the book of Revelation, "while new in its specific content, is compatible with earlier revelation concerning the eschatological kingdom and the manner of its coming" (p. 200). Finally, Blaising examines Revelation, interpreting pivotal texts, suggesting a useful outline and concluding that martyrs will be raised to reign with Christ on earth.