David Dann has been working with the West Main church of Christ in Lewisville, Texas since 2010. ddann1@hotmail.com.
The doctrinal system known as “Premillennialism” is a perversion of the gospel of Christ (cf. Gal. 1:6-9). Premillennialism misinterprets, misuses, and distorts the gospel of Christ into something it was never intended to be. Please consider the danger of this destructive system of doctrine.
What Is Premillennialism?
Premillennialism, or dispensationalism, is the doctrinal system which holds that, at some future point in time, Jesus Christ will come again to the earth and will usher in a literal one thousand year period during which He will reign over a physical kingdom while occupying the throne of King David in the city of Jerusalem. Premillennialists generally believe that, at the conclusion of this one-thousand year reign, the final judgment will take place. The prefix “pre” indicates that we are currently living in the period of time before this earthly kingdom has been established. The word “millennial” has reference to the thousand-year period during which Christ will supposedly reign on earth. Thus, premillennialism is the term applied to the belief that Christ will come to the earth to reign as an earthly king for a period of one thousand years at some point in the future. Many premillennialists subscribe to the pre-tribulation view of this doctrine, which promotes the idea that Christ will catch up, or “rapture” the saved into heaven, those left behind on earth will experience seven years of severe tribulation, the Jews will be gathered to Palestine, a physical battle of Armageddon will take place, and then Jesus will return to the earth to reign for a thousand years. This vast puzzle of error is based primarily on a misunderstanding of Revelation 20:4, wherein John writes, “And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”
What Is Wrong With Premillennialsm?
1. It denies the fulfillment of God’s promises. In order to unfold His plan to redeem mankind from sin through Jesus Christ, God made three major promises to Abraham, including the nation, land, and seed promises (cf. Gen. 12:1-3; 22:17-18). God fulfilled all three of these promises regarding the descendants of Abraham when He made Israel into a great nation (Exod. 19:6), when He gave them possession of the land of Canaan (Josh. 21:43), and when He brought the Savior into the world to be a blessing to all nations of the earth (Gal. 4:4-5). Premillennialists deny that God fulfilled His promise to give Abraham’s descendants the land of Canaan because their doctrine demands that the Jews take possession of the land God promised to give them in the future. But the Israelites already received the land, lost the land through their disobedience, and experienced a return of a remnant to the land following the Babylonian captivity. When they originally received the land, the Bible says, “So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it” (Josh. 21:43). Israel possessed the fullest extent of what God promised to give them (cf. 1 Kings 4:21). The problem with premillennialism is that it denies that God has fulfilled His promises and looks to the future for fulfillment of those things that have already been fulfilled.
2. It claims the kingdom has not been established. Jesus preached the message of the kingdom from the beginning of His earthly ministry until the end (Matt. 4:17, 23; 25:1). However, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36). The kingdom of Christ was established through His death, burial, and resurrection and it remains a spiritual kingdom composed of all those who obey the gospel. Paul wrote to the church at Colosse, saying, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13-14). The apostle John and all other Christians were already “in the kingdom” of Christ in the days of the apostles (Rev. 1:9). The problem with premillennialism is that it looks for a future establishment of a material kingdom of Christ when His true kingdom has already been established.
3. It misunderstands the mission of Christ. Premillennialists teach that Jesus began by preaching the kingdom, but changed His message and began to preach the church as a temporary substitute for the kingdom when He saw that He would be rejected as king by the Jews. However, following the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, John writes, “Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone” (John 6:15). The truth is that Jesus rejected the opportunity to be made king on earth, simply because reigning as an earthly king over an earthly kingdom was never the Lord’s plan. Premillennialism paints Jesus as One who failed to establish Himself as an earthly king when He came into this world. But Isaiah prophesied of Christ and His mission, saying, “He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for His law” (Isa. 42:4). Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed to the Father, saying, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4). Did Jesus finish the work He came to the earth to accomplish, or does He need to return to the earth in order to finish about a thousand years more worth of work that He has not yet finished? The problem with premillennialism is that it distorts the mission of Jesus from being that of the suffering Savior who came to give His life for the sins of mankind, into one in which He failed to accomplish what He originally set out to accomplish, but will somehow successfully reign as an earthly king the next time He comes.
4. It ruins the message of Revelation. Premillennial error stems from misusing the book of Revelation and reading into it what is not actually there. While Revelation 20:4 mentions saints who “lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years,” the passage does not mention the second coming of Christ, a bodily resurrection of those who have physically died, an earthly reign, a literal throne in the city of Jerusalem, Christ setting foot on earth, or the actual length of the reign of Christ over His kingdom. The book of Revelation was written to comfort and encourage saints who would suffer persecution by assuring them of ultimate victory in Christ, and its message is presented in highly symbolic language (cf. Rev. 1:1). The construction of an earthly millennial kingdom of Christ out of the “thousand years” mentioned in Revelation 20 does violence to the book’s message and to the message of the entire Bible. Just as numbers are employed symbolically throughout the book of Revelation, so it is that the “thousand years” mentioned in chapter 20 are to be regarded as symbolic as well. The problem with premillennialism is that it twists the message of Revelation in order to concoct a theory which is based on forcing symbolic figures of speech to be understood in a literal way, while adding in numerous details of which the book does not speak.
5. It harms the hope of the child of God. Premillennialsm offers the hope of living on this earth in a future utopian state during the thousand-year reign of Christ. However, the apostle Paul writes that “you were called in one hope of your calling” (Eph. 4:4). The “one hope” of the child of God is not that of living in a millennial earthly kingdom with the Lord, but is instead that of living with the Lord in His heavenly dwelling place for eternity (cf. Matt. 6:19-21). Thus, Paul writes of “the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel” (Col. 1:5). The problem with premillennialism is that it offers an earthly hope to the people of God in addition to the one heavenly hope that is offered by the word of God.
How Does Premillennialsm Differ from a Biblical View of the Future?
1. The second coming of Christ will be the end. Paul wrote of “His coming” saying, “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:23-25). Notice that the second coming of Christ does not mark the inauguration of the kingdom of Christ, but is instead to be considered “the end,” and the point “when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father” (v. 24). Peter wrote of the second coming as the day when “the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Pet. 3:10). Not only will Jesus not establish an earthly kingdom at His second coming, but, in fact, the earth itself will be destroyed and will pass away when He comes. Contrary to what premillennialists teach, the second coming of Christ marks the end of the earth and all things in it, rather than the beginning of Christ’s earthly kingdom.
2. The second coming of Christ will involve the resurrection of all the dead. Of the second coming, Paul writes, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17). However, it is important to understand that the bodily resurrection of all the dead, both righteous and wicked, will take place at the same time at the second coming of Christ. Jesus said, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28-29; cf. Acts 24:15). The bodily resurrection of the righteous and wicked dead will not be distinct events which are separated by a thousand years as premillennialism demands. The second coming of Christ will involve a final resurrection of all the dead, both of the just and the unjust.
3. The second coming of Christ will be followed by the judgment. Jesus marked the second coming as “the last day,” saying, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). Rather than allowing for a thousand years’ worth of days following the second coming, Jesus stated clearly that His second coming would be the “last day” and that the judgment would take place on that day. Of this judgment, during which He will separate those on His left hand from those on His right, Jesus said, “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:46). At His second coming, Jesus will raise all the dead, bring the physical world to an end, and judge mankind, after which each one will enter either heaven or hell for eternity. The description of the “last day” presented in Scripture leaves no room for many of the events which are included on the premillennial calendar. The second coming of Christ will be followed by the final judgment rather than by an earthly kingdom lasting a thousand years.
Conclusion
The premillennial view of the future is vastly different from the view presented in Scripture. The problem, of course, is that premillennialism adds to what is stated in God’s word, while seeking to diminish clear pronouncements of Scripture. The close of the book of Revelation issues a stern warning concerning both adding to and taking away from God’s word (Rev. 22:18-19). We would do well to heed the warning, rather than succumb to the perversion of premillennialism.