In this week’s blog we are going to speak on the Amillennial view of the millennium, or rather, the lack thereof a millennium as this view holds. To get straight to the heart of this take on the millennium I will refer you back to last week’s blog where I stated that, “This view is referred to as the non-millennial view, ‘a’ means ‘non’.”[1] The term “millennium” is a combination of two Latin words “mille” (thousand) and “annum” (years). Therefore, the term amillennial literally means “no thousand years.”
Amillennialism has been one of the pre-dominate theories in eschatology for almost two-thousand years. The amillennial concept came to prominence around the year 400 A.D. through the teachings of Augustine, who was a major proponent of there being no literal millennium. Again, as discussed in my prior blog, this view takes a more allegorical or spiritualized look at Scripture and denies a literal interpretation. This leaves more wiggle room in interpretation and allows God’s Word to be manipulated into what one wants to believe (this fact alone is disturbing).
Some of the difficulties with amillennialism come directly from the name itself. Remember, it means no millennium, the name alone will not stand up to the truth of Scripture because Scripture itself speaks of the coming millennium in Revelation 20. If you haven’t read Revelation 20, I recommend you do because that passage has quite a bit to say about the coming millennial period and will aid the reader in understanding what the future holds. In most translations of the Bible this chapter has the heading of “The Thousand Years,” or some variation of that heading. Yet, amillennialism teaches a figurative interpretation of Scripture, and can therefore pass this passage off as allegorical or as a non-literal thousand years. Amillennialism teaches that the figurative thousand years started with Christ’s resurrection and ascension (what we know as the Church Age). So, now we are living in that thousand-year reign of Christ because He in essence is reigns from beside the Father and that the Holy Spirit is restraining evil in the world. I do not deny that the Lord is working in the world, and the Spirit is turning some people from evil. But what I’m asking is, does the world look as if evil has been restrained?
In verse 2, of chapter 20 it says that Satan will be bound for a thousand years. Why? “So that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended (v.3).”[2] Only when Satan is removed from the picture can peace prosper, but during the millennial reign of Christ the earth will know righteousness, peace, and justice in perfect form (Isaiah 9:7; Hosea 2:18-20; Habakkuk 2:14). Look at the world around us, people are homeless and hungry, murder rates are at all-time highs, infidelity is rampant, injustice is everywhere, children go missing, parents abuse their children, churches are condoning ungodly lifestyles, governments oppress their people and I need not go on because we all see it. So, again I ask, does the world look as if evil has been restrained? These things alone conflict with the amillennial worldview.
There are more questions that are raised by allegorical view of amillennialism. If we are living in the millennial reign of Christ. What happened to the Tribulation Period spoken of in Scripture? Are we living in the Tribulation/ Millennial reign as Augustine claimed? That itself would be somewhat of an oxymoron, perfect peace and perfect terror at the same time, that doesn’t mesh well. Is Satan bound? When so much evil is prevalent in the world, the great antagonist still seems to be working. What about the two resurrections? The Bible plainly states that there will be a resurrection of the saved and the lost (Acts 24:15), and that these will be separated by a thousand-year period (Rev. 20:5,6). The amillennial view leaves too many unanswered questions, all of which can be fully revealed and explained with a literal interpretation of God’s Word.
On a final note, I personally, struggle with allegorical views of the Bible. But I also believe that a person should get into the Word themselves, with prayer, and let the Holy Spirit guide them into the truths to be found in the Bible. I once heard Matthew Chandler from the Village Church in Dallas, Texas say that, “if you are just repeating what you have heard others say about what’s in the Bible, then you are just a parrot.” So, get in there and find out what God wants to tell you. As always, if you haven’t made a decision to follow Christ then I encourage you to do so. Tomorrow is never promised, but salvation is always waiting.
Blessings,
Pat
[1] https://threeinthefire.com/the-three-views-of-the-millennium/
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 20:3.