Has the Time for Amillennialism Arrived?

Has the Time for Amillennialism Arrived?

Thomas Allen

Premillennialists believe that Jesus’ Second Coming occurs before the Millennium,  Jesus’ thousand year-rule on earth. Postmillennialists believe that Jesus’ Second Coming occurs after the Millennium.  Amillennialists reject the notion that Jesus physically rules on earth for a thousand years. According to amillennialists, the millennial is symbolic and refers to heaven where the saved reign with Christ.

Postmillennialism became the dominant eschatology following Lincoln’s War until the Great Depression. By the time Israel became an independent country in 1948,  premillennialism was the predominant eschatology.

During the 1830s, postmillennialism became popular among the Puritans in New England and New York and eventually spread across the country. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, it was the dominant eschatology. It was prominent in the Republican Party since its founding in 1854. (Since its founding, the Republican Party has been the party of big government and government-business partnership.) With the William Jennings Bryan revolution, postmillennialism captured the Democratic Party in 1896. (Before 1896, the Democratic Party was the party of small government and laissez-faire economics.) Postmillennialists believed that the world must become evermore righteous and sin evermore suppressed before Jesus returns. Thus, postmillennialists become an integral part of the progressive movement. Abolitionism grew out of postmillennialism. Later, postmillennialism led to prohibition and women’s suffrage (because most women favored prohibition).

Postmillennialists allied with the Progressives, many of whom were already steeped in postmillennialism. With the election of Wilson, postmillennialists came to power. It could and did use the US government to impose its program to make all Americans righteous. With the war, it could make the world righteous. Then, Jesus would return.

However, between the two world wars, postmillennialism began to wane, and premillennialism began to wax. With the Great Depression and World War II, support for postmillennialism faded, and premillennialism moved to the forefront.  With the Reagan administration, premillennialism gained an enormous influence over the federal government as many key officials, including President Reagan, were premillennialists.

The Balfour Declaration during World War I and the founding of Israel following World War II were a boom for premillennialism. The Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the founding of Israel in 1948 used to be key dates for premillennialists. Based on the date of the Balfour Declaration, Jesus’ Second Coming should have occurred in 1957 (40 years) or 1987 (70 years). Based on the founding of Israel, the Second Coming should have been in 1988 (40 years) or 2018 (70 years). (Since these key dates have passed, they have to find new timelines. The Six-Day war of 1967 has become popular with many premillennialists.)

Premillennialists believe that the world must become worse and worse before Jesus returns. So, they offer no resistance to despotic governmental oppression and perpetual war. After all, most premillennialists believe that they will be raptured before the horrors of the tribulation arrive. Besides, they can do nothing to prevent the inevitable. Moreover, since Israel and large scale war in the Middle East and probably a nuclear world war are key to their eschatology, they promote war in the Middle East and readily sacrifice America and the rest of the world on the altar of Israel and Zionism. Some even promote war and tyranny to hasten Jesus’ return.

While the postmillennialists encourage evangelizing Jews, premillennialists discourage evangelizing Jews. Most premillennialists believe that God made a deal with the Jews such that they, unlike the rest of mankind, can be saved independently of Jesus.

Since both postmillennialism and premillennialism lead to oppressive despotic government and war, has the time come to abandon them for amillennialism, which is popular among many denominations? Amillennialists believe that good and evil will ebb and flow, but the world will never become as good as the postmillennialists believe and seek to make it or as bad as the premillennialists believe and seek to make it before Jesus returns. Consequently, amillennialists have less incentive to promote oppression and war than do the postmillennialists and premillennialists. 

Copyright © 2021 by Thomas Coley Allen.

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