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Session 8 – Eschatology (Abstract of Systematic Theology by James P. Boyce)

Video: Session 8 – Eschatology

Abstract of Systematic Theology by James Petigru Boyce
Session 8 – chapters 39-42
Subject: Eschatology
Wednesday Logos – 7-22-26

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Opening Prayer

There we go. Come on, Lord. Connected to HDMI 3. So input again now. It should show up. Thank you, David, I appreciate it. See if this guy works now. Yeah, it helps if I turn them on. Okay, let’s get going. Sorry, we’re running a little bit behind with some technical issues. Thankfully, we’re not dealing with anything challenging tonight. It’s just the end times. Let’s go ahead and pray, and we will get rolling.

Thank you so much this evening. We thank you for your Word. It illuminates, it shows us the way, it shows us the path to follow. We pray, God, that you continue to illuminate our hearts on these issues, and help us to think your thoughts after you. We pray that you would be blessed tonight, Lord. Thank you for being in our presence, and may you be lifted up. Amen.

One More Session

One question before I forget. If we had one more session next week, who’s interested in having one more session next week and can make it? I know you might not be able to make it. Okay, well then plan on next week, and that’ll be our last. That sound like a plan? Awesome. Great. So you can pace yourself. Exactly, I can slow way down.

The Fundamentals of the Faith

I’m not going to get into it, but it was really the fundamentalist-modernist controversy, and what they hammered out is what is required when someone says they’re a believer. What should they have to ascribe to? What are the essentials of the faith? Back in that time, fundamentalist was not a derogatory term. A lot of people, even Christians today, think it’s derogatory, like they’re a legalist or something like that. But back then, the fundamentalists weren’t. So what do you have to hold in order to be considered Christian? In other words, what are the essentials, as they became known, or the fundamentals? Because the problem was people might say, I trust in Jesus, but I don’t believe in the Bible. Or I trust in Jesus, but I don’t believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. That’s really what was happening. I trust in Jesus, but I don’t believe Christ paid for my sins. So then what does it mean to trust in Jesus? There’s a reason we’re looking at this. What came out of it was this idea of the fundamentals of the faith. There’s five of them. You’ve probably heard of them in some shape, form, or fashion.

The first one was the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture. It’s a fundamental of the faith. Basically, you believe the Bible’s the inerrant, inspired Word of God. Now we’re going to go through some of these. When people get saved—I got saved in adulthood when I was at college—most people, when they get saved in adulthood, don’t have all their theology lined up. And so the question is, as they go along in their Christian life, what happens? Are they growing? It’s one thing to believe something due to ignorance, but then you’re presented with the evidence of God’s Word and you’re like, oh wow, I was clearly wrong. But it’s another thing to be presented with the evidence and you deny the truth.

I remember when I first got saved, I was in college, I went to a high schoolers’ group meeting and was talking about abortion. And I remember thinking to myself, I’m pretty sure everyone in this room is pro-life. And this little light bulb went on. I had never really been confronted. He wasn’t pressing it; he was just talking about it. But I was confronted, in a sense, to realize, oh, what do I really believe about this? And it was crystal clear. I didn’t even have to look at any Scriptures, but I was like, oh yeah. I had only been saved for a couple months, and I was pro-choice before that, right? So some of those things quickly fall into place. Now if you would have started showing me Scriptures, I would have quickly come to the conclusion, yeah, clearly I can’t hold that position anymore.

So when we’re talking about some of these things, people are like, oh, well, I got saved and I really wasn’t sure about the Bible. Well, that might be the case, but what happened as you started to live out your Christian life? And as you’re presented with the truth of God’s Word, did you continue to deny it? Well, that’s going to be a problem. So anyway, that’s the first one.

The second one is the virgin birth. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary. We’ve already looked at it previously. Full deity and full humanity from the beginning. Next one is the deity of Jesus Christ. He’s fully God. He’s the second person of the Trinity. He’s not merely a teacher or prophet, a good person. The next one is the substitutionary atonement. Christ died on the cross as a substitute. He paid the penalty for our sin through his shed blood. And then the last one is the bodily resurrection of Jesus and his second coming, or his return. So Jesus physically rose from the dead.

Twenty, thirty years ago, liberal churches, pastors would talk about him rising from the dead, but if you pressed them on that point, it’d be like, oh, he spiritually rose, or his essence, or the idea or the hope that he brought rose. There’s no physical resurrection that they believe. Now they probably just deny it completely. I’m not sure. So this idea of the bodily resurrection of Jesus and his second coming. Think about it. What do each of these things deal with?

If you don’t believe the Bible, then how do you really know who God is? How do you know what salvation is? If you say you believe in Jesus, the question is, which Jesus? Is it the Arian one? The partially man one? The partially God one? The fully man, partially God? The fully God, partially man? You think about the deity of Christ—well, that’s again dealing with the Arian heresy, the modern-day Jehovah’s Witnesses. Think about the virgin birth. We’re back to some of those Christological heresies that we looked at. He’s fully human, fully God. Think about the atonement. We’re back to Jesus. Why did Christ die? Was he just a good example? And then the bodily resurrection. Again, it kind of knocks out certain heresies. There’s no Gnosticism, no docetism. So Jesus coming back is one of the fundamentals of the faith.

Christ Is Coming Back

Here’s the thing: all believers everywhere believe this. So when we talk about the end times, no one out there doubts that Jesus is coming back. If they’re a believer, no one doubts it. Now they disagree on the when and the how and the where and all those things, but they all believe he’s coming back. So this is something we should rejoice in, right? When it comes to end-time theology, all else is a far second when compared to this truth. Jesus is coming back. We can all agree on that. That’s by far the most important point. He’s coming back.

So a few things to notice about his return. He will return personally, John 14:3:

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

(John 14:3)

I will come again. It will be him, not a shape, not a form, not an emissary, not a representative. The Bible also says he will return suddenly. If we have more time, you can flip to these verses if you want, but I’m just going to keep going.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

(2 Peter 3:10)

All right, suddenly, like a thief. He’s going to return visibly. Think of Acts chapter 1, verse 11. The angel speaking:

Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

(Acts 1:11)

So they see him; he physically goes up. As he left, that’s the same way he’s coming back: physically, visibly. Hebrews 9:28:

So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

(Hebrews 9:28)

So he will return visibly. He will return in bodily form. Really we could use the Acts verse that we just read. We could also use 1 Thessalonians 4:16:

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

(1 Thessalonians 4:16)

And then lastly, he will return soon. James 5:8: “You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” And then Revelation 22:20: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” Here’s the thing: we should long for Christ to return. Revelation 22:20, again I just read it. What does it say at the very end? Amen, come Lord Jesus. Maranatha, if you want the Greek.

Longing for His Return

Then Titus—there’s actually quite a few verses that talk about this. I think it’s important enough we’ll look at probably all of them. Titus 2:12–13:

training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

(Titus 2:12–13)

So we’re waiting, and it’s a blessed hope. And Philippians we looked at earlier this year in the sermon. Philippians 3:20: “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior.” 1 Corinthians 16:22, very similar to the Revelation passage: “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!” 2 Peter 3:11–14—if you have any questions on any of these, or if I’m going too fast, just say something.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

(2 Peter 3:11–14)

2 Timothy 4:8: “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” Right? So you loved his appearing; we’re looking forward to it. I already read it, but I’ll read it again, Hebrews 9:28: Christ will appear a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting. I love that word, eagerly—eagerly waiting for him. And then Romans 8:23:

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

(Romans 8:23)

That’s most of the verses. So the question is, do we long for his return? Because carnal Christians don’t, if there is such a thing. Those who enjoy the world a bit much are okay with him delaying a bit longer. But let me tell you, persecuted believers, they’re ready. They are ready. Elderly believers, mature in the faith, they’re ready. Those with deep walks with the Lord, they’re ready. So it can be a measure, to some extent, of our spiritual condition. Do we long for his return? Because we should.

We Do Not Know the Hour

We do not know when Christ will return. A couple verses. Matthew 24:44: “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” So we don’t know. Matthew 25:13: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” And then Luke 12:40: “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” So we don’t know, and also we can’t know. We’ve looked at some of those verses previously, but Mark 13:32–33: “Concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Right?

Now have people claimed over the years to know? Lots of people, right? What do we call them? What’d you say? Wrong. False prophets, right? Some of you might not have been alive, but remember, what was his name? Oh, Edgar Whisenant. 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. He’s still wrong today. So different people have predicted it. One of the founders of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Charles Taze Russell, he predicted it. Of course whenever you get it wrong, usually they either push the date back or they come up with some interpretation or excuse, and then they push it back, and then they push it back, and they continue to be wrong. People still follow them. Pretty crazy, but they do.

Signs That Precede Christ’s Return

All right, so signs that precede Christ’s return. Take one of these, I’ll give half to you. You can pass it straight back. You will need a pen or a pencil for this part. And what I want you to do when you get it, it’s signs that precede Christ’s return—everything that must occur before Christ. So it’s Matthew 24. You could look at a couple of different gospel passages as well, but Matthew 24 is the one most people turn to. Take a moment. Circle, underline, whatever you want to do. All right, here we go.

Signs that precede Christ’s return. What do y’all got? I don’t want you to raise your hands so we’re not shutting things out. Daniel? The proclamation of the gospel to the whole world. Yep, gospel must be preached to all the nations. What else? And read the section that shows that that’s what we’re talking about. Daniel, what do you got? Verse 13, part two of it, or actually 14, sorry. “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed…” Who said temple destroyed? Where does it say? Okay. What else we got? Caleb? Yep, good job, so there’ll be wars. Does that verse also say earthquakes? I can’t remember. Is that verse 7? Yep. So wars and earthquakes are both. You can have them as separate items. That’s fine. What else we got? Yep. So verse 5, and kind of 23 through 27, false prophets will appear. People will claim to be Christ; they’ll be working signs and wonders. What else we got? I think there’s at least one more in this passage. Matthew 24:29–30 talks about there’ll be signs in the heavens. And then again, we’ll just keep going. You can chime in if you need to.

The coming of the man of sin and the rebellion, which is 2 Thessalonians 2:

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.

(2 Thessalonians 2:1–3)

So we have the coming of the man of sin, or lawlessness, and the rebellion. And then you have the salvation of Israel, Romans 11:25–26:

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.”

(Romans 11:25–26)

All right, those are the things that precede Christ’s return.

Things That Occur After Christ’s Return

Now, how about the things that occur after Christ’s return? Depending on your millennial position, Christ could return and some of these things could not happen for a while, like a thousand years. But these are things that happen after Christ’s return. The first one is judgment of believers and unbelievers. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Also Revelation 20:11–15:

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

(Revelation 20:11–15)

So we have the judgment of believers and unbelievers. You could also say there’s judgment and then there’s the final punishment, which really I just read, of unbelievers. You have the giving out of rewards, final rewards for believers. Then we have Satan is thrown into the lake of fire. Verse 10 of Revelation 20:

And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

(Revelation 20:10)

Just FYI, all positions believe this particular thing happens at the final judgment. And then a few more things: believers will live with Christ in the new heavens and a new earth for all eternity. Revelation 22:1–2, 22:4–5. And then a few things it talks about: there’s no more sin, death, sorrow, suffering, Revelation 21:4. And the triune God will reign and be worshiped forever. Amen? Revelation 22:3:

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

(Revelation 22:3)

Why don’t we stop there? That’s kind of like an introduction to the end times. Let’s stop there and then we’ll come back and we’ll get into the rest of it. Sound good? About five minutes.

A Short Break

[audio unclear — class break; informal conversation about a deck-staining job and a wood-treatment product called Petrowood, including work on Justus’s house]

All right, we’re going to get rolling again.

Four Approaches to Revelation

There are four ways of approaching—if you’re talking about end times, I mean, you have to include the book of Revelation. So there are really four ways of approaching the book of Revelation. And some people, unbeknownst to themselves even, might use a combination of these things. I’m going to guess most of you have not heard of this section, at least you’ve probably not heard of it before, or maybe just slightly. It basically deals with how do we approach the timing and nature of the prophecies in Revelation, and to some extent Daniel, the Olivet Discourse that we just looked at, Matthew 24.

The first is futurism. This is probably how most people generally think if they think of the book of Revelation. A person who is a futurist when it comes to the book of Revelation interprets most of the prophecies as still awaiting future fulfillment. Hence the term futurism. With the bulk of the prophetic text being fulfilled at the end of history. So they would probably see most of Revelation as not having yet occurred.

The next is historicism. I think I’m saying that right. You could probably pronounce it a couple of different ways. This person interprets most of the prophecies as being fulfilled evenly throughout history, the history of the church, by specific events. We’ll look at some examples in a little bit. So futurists: most of those are coming in the future. Historicists: it’s being fulfilled evenly throughout church history.

Next one is idealism. This person interprets most of the prophecies as being fulfilled throughout the history of the church, but not in a specific, oh, we can point to it. The historicists would say, we can point to that event in Revelation and say here is where it occurred in history. But the idealists wouldn’t point to a specific event. It’s just, these are things that have happened throughout church history. And then the preterist—I know some of you love this—interprets most of the prophecies, especially those in Revelation, as already fulfilled in the past. Praeter is Latin for past, hence the name. So they would see it as fulfilled mostly in the past, specifically in the first century AD.

Now, preterists kind of break into two. So you have partial preterists and you have full preterists. The partial preterists would be really what I just read you. Most of the prophecies, most of the events fulfilled in Revelation, are already fulfilled. But the full preterist is going to blow your mind. They believe all the events in Revelation have been fulfilled. Every single event, all the way through the last chapter. So they would include the second coming already having occurred, and the final judgment, and the new heavens and the new earth, and we’re now living in the eternal state. Kind of stinky. There are no major future eschatological events left. The return of Christ was a spiritual judgment coming, not a visible bodily return. Most people would put this into the category of heresy, but there are people out there who claim to be believers. I forget who in the past year or so came out as a full preterist, and it kind of just blew people’s minds. Anyway, so those are the four approaches, and it represents the main lenses through which Christians have sought to understand the book of Revelation over the centuries. And like I said, most believers usually combine elements from more than one view. Sometimes your millennial position might lean more towards looking at Revelation through this lens, and another millennial view might look at it more strongly through another lens.

Examples: The Mark, the 144,000, and Babylon

Let’s look at some examples of each position. The mark of the beast: political control in the end-times tribulation. It will be enforced by the Antichrist and false prophet, possibly involving advanced technology. Every time you hear about the microchip implanted in the wrist, or whatever digital ID that prevents people from buying or selling unless they pledge allegiance to the beast, the number 666 is seen as a specific identifier. Some people thought that the COVID shot—not kidding; I know someone who was greatly concerned that the COVID shot was the mark of the beast, and that was their grounds for not taking it. Okay, so that’s futurism.

Historicism: the mark symbolizes allegiance to oppressive anti-Christian powers throughout history. In this case, you could say specifically the Roman Catholic Church or other totalitarian systems. So it would point to a particular thing, the Roman Catholic Church or the papacy. It represents economic and social pressure to conform to false religious or political authority across the church age.

Idealism: the mark is a symbolic picture of total spiritual loyalty to the world system. So it’s symbolic. Loyalty to the world system, Satan, or any anti-God power in any era. It contrasts with the seal of God on believers and represents how people choose to live by the values of the beastly empire rather than by God’s commands.

Preterism—so what do you think of preterists? They’re going to think it’s likely already happened, right? So the preterists: it refers to the imperial cult and system of first-century Rome, and Emperor Nero in particular. The mark was a real requirement to participate in Roman trade, emperor worship, gods. 666 is that number-code referencing Nero. Which there’s evidence for that. I mean, people believe these things because there’s evidence for these things.

All right, the 144,000. What does the futurist believe? They’re going to believe it’s a literal group of Jewish, maybe evangelists or protected servants, who will be sealed by God during the future great tribulation. Futurists, though, it’s not yet happened. They will proclaim the gospel worldwide and remain faithful amid intense persecution before Christ’s return. Historicism: they represent the complete number of faithful people throughout church history. So it pictures the full church, all true believers preserved through the ages. Idealism: it’s a symbolic number standing for the entire people of God, a little bit of crossover with historicism. Symbolic number standing for the entire people of God in every age. It emphasizes spiritual completeness, protection, victory for all believers, both Jewish and Gentile, who are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Preterist—so the futurist, right? Not yet, hasn’t happened. Preterist, already happened. Refers to the faithful Jewish remnant, or early Jewish Christians, who were protected during the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. The number symbolizes the complete preservation of God’s covenant people amid judgment.

Then one last one, Babylon the Great. Again, the futurists: not happened yet, something in the future, a literal future world system, city, or superpower. It could possibly be a revived Rome. Most people that believe this way would talk about—you hear about the one-world government, right?—or a specific end-times economic religious center that will dominate the world, politically, economically, religiously, right before Christ’s return. It will be destroyed suddenly in the final judgments. That’s the futurist. The historicists: it represents a corrupt, false religious system that persecutes the faithful. Idealism: any proud, self-sufficient, seductive world system or city that stands in opposition to God’s kingdom. So it’s not going to point to any particular thing. It’s going to be more of a general thing. Any proud, seductive world system or city that stands in opposition to God’s kingdom represents the recurring pattern of worldly power, wealth, immorality, persecution of believers throughout all of history, ultimately doomed to fall. And then the preterist again is going to see it as already having happened. It primarily refers to first-century Jerusalem as the unfaithful harlot, or the city that killed the prophets and rejected the Messiah. Or some of them see it as the city of Rome, the pagan empire that persecuted the early church. Its fall pictures the judgment on Jerusalem in AD 70, or the eventual decline of the Roman Empire, either one, depending on which way you believe. It might say it refers to Rome. Okay, so that’s kind of the approaches to the book of Revelation.

The Millennium

When we talk about the millennium, it really comes from one passage. And there’s really three main views. There is premillennial, but it kind of has two subsets. The first is known as classical, sometimes just called classic, or historical, premillennial. The second subset is dispensational premillennial. Then the second major view would be postmillennial, and then amillennial.

It really just comes from the Latin, mille, meaning thousand, and annus, which is Latin for year. So that’s where we get that. But where do we come up with that thousand years? Well, that’s coming, I mean, straight from the Bible, Revelation 20:4–5:

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.

(Revelation 20:4–5)

So that is where the question really becomes pre or post, or a—. It really is referring to at what point is Christ’s return, as we’re going to see in a moment. Now how long is the thousand years? You’re like, a thousand years. Well, the only position that argues for a strict literal thousand-year reign is the dispensational premillennial view. Now you could be a postmillennial and still believe it’s a literal thousand years, but you wouldn’t be hardcore on that. Postmillennialists might have a wide range. Premillennial, the historic or the classic premillennial, he can believe—he does believe in the 1,000—but he might not believe in an exact 1,000 years. It refers to a long period of time. The only position that specifically can’t hold to a 1,000-year reign will be the amillennial, as you’re going to see in a second. It’s not possible for them to hold to a 1,000-year position. And it’ll become more obvious why in a second.

How Important Are These Views?

Okay, so before we get there, how important are these things? Well, in one sense they’re important because the Word of God discusses it. Yes? Okay. When I was at seminary, one of my friends was in a denomination, and he wanted obviously to become a pastor in that denomination. So when he found out, as we’re going through in our eschatology class, that his denomination holds a particular millennial view, and that as a pastor you have to subscribe to that position in order to be a pastor in that denomination. And so here we are studying it, right? So he kind of had two options at that point. Do you know what the two options are? What’s that? That is true. But he could adhere by basically being like, okay, that’s the position. You can, in one sense, you can convince yourself of any of these. If you read an amillennial and study that, you’ll probably walk away thinking that’s true. And then if you turn and read the premillennial, you’ll walk away thinking, okay, he’s got a point. And then you read the postmillennial, you can walk away thinking they got a point. So he could probably be like, okay, I just won’t look into it much. That’s the position. No problem. I can hold to it, right? Not necessarily anything wrong with that. I mean, it’s millennial stuff. How important is it? But he felt like, okay, if I’m going to be a pastor, I need to look into this, and if that’s what I’m going to subscribe to, then I need to be convinced that that’s the truth. Well, you can imagine what happened. He came to a different position than his denomination, which meant he couldn’t be a pastor in that denomination. They were also paying for him to go through school at the time. Oh! So kind of a bummer.

So for some denominations, it’s like super important. Like super duper duper duper important. Last year I talked to a pastor in this area, and his church won’t let anyone in any type of leadership or teaching position unless they hold to that millennial position that the church holds to. No leadership or teaching position. And he strongly believed this was the right way to do it. So his church, their handbook has it. You can be a member there. You don’t have to subscribe to it. But in terms of any type of leadership, you have to believe that particular millennial view.

And just in this past year, really long sad story. A gentleman came on staff at a church—not the senior pastor—and had been there for quite a while. And I don’t know if he changed his millennial position, or when he came, he had told them, my millennial position is not the millennial position of the church. He was very clear either way, but it was looking like he was going to be the senior pastor. But the challenge was, literally the bylaws of the church was like, this is the millennial position of this particular church. And so the elders talked and were like, I mean, I guess you could potentially change the bylaws, but they felt like they weren’t supposed to do that. And so they couldn’t do this transition, because the senior pastor was retiring, right? And so a lot of the people loved this guy and they got really frustrated. And he was like, well, if I can’t be the senior pastor, I feel called to be that, so I’m going to move on. And so then it caused a church split, and like 30 to 40 percent of the church left.

And when Raymond and Lee Ann Cook were raising support, I went with Raymond one time to meet with another pastor, and the pastor made it crystal clear that if Raymond had the slightest inkling towards one particular of the three, there was no way that his church would support the Cooks. So some people, it’s very, very, very important.

Do you know what Liberty’s handbook says is our millennial view? You guys are like, does it really say something? We don’t have a position. We do not have a position as a church. We don’t even have a position as a church staff or church elder board. So you could hold any position and be—if you met the other qualifications, obviously—and be ordained as an elder at Liberty. So we do not have a position. I mean, the individual pastors have positions, but we do not have a “this is the official position.”

So how important are these things? That is the question. I personally wouldn’t put these things in a tertiary or third. A tertiary—I’m not even sure if I consider it secondary. Some of the things are secondary. Like, primary is Christ’s return, okay, like duh, okay. So yes, that’s crucial. But when we start getting into pre and a- and post, everyone here—all those views are almost guaranteed, because I know y’all, most of you, are represented here. I take no issue with any of you on those positions. You are welcome to believe those things. It does impact, if you really start to get into it, it will impact some of your hermeneutics, especially with the Old Testament. It should. But usually most people aren’t consistent with their premillennial position or post or a- and how they interpret things. They just don’t realize it. That’s okay.

All that said, let’s look at these. I’m going to try to give them as fair a shake as possible. And not—if Liberty did have a particular position, I mean, I would feel impressed upon to try to show you the evidence for that particular position. I think that would only be the right thing to do. Liberty doesn’t. So I’m going to present all three, dash four, to you and help you to at least understand what those positions are. Because most people, and if you don’t know, that’s okay. And most of you will probably walk out of here and next week you probably couldn’t tell much about it. And that’s okay. That’s okay too. I do think these charts that I’m going to pass out are very helpful and just kind of give you a little glance of it. So the first one we’re going to look at is the classic or the historic premillennialism. Just take one and then work its way straight back. I know you’re going to have questions when you’re looking at it. Don’t ask the questions yet. I’ll explain, and then if you still have questions—

Classic or Historic Premillennialism

So, classic or classical premillennialism. The present church age will continue until the great tribulation occurs. After the tribulation, Christ will return to establish his millennial kingdom. When he comes back, believers who have died will be raised and will receive their glorified bodies. Believers still alive will also receive their glorified bodies and will then reign with Christ. At this time, Christ will physically reign over the earth for a thousand years, and most if not all the unbelievers who remain on the earth will get saved. Jesus will reign and there will be peace throughout the earth. Now some premillennialists hold that the heavens and the earth will be renewed. Others believe this will not happen until the final judgment. So there’s some disagreement among the historic premillennialists as to whether the heavens and the earth are renewed at that point or at the final judgment.

At the beginning of the thousand-year reign, Satan will be cast into the bottomless pit and will have no power over the earth during the millennium. After the thousand years, Satan will be loosed from the pit and will have the remaining unbelievers who feigned loyalty to Christ but inwardly rejected him join forces with him. They will be defeated, then Christ will raise from the dead all the unbelievers who have died throughout history, and they will stand before him for final judgment. After the final judgment, believers will enter into eternal life. That’s what you have before you.

So the church age, which is what we’re in, then as we’re going through the church age, the tribulation will occur. It occurs before Christ comes back. Christ comes back—that’s the arrow pointing down, so he comes down—but what happens is the believers get caught up, the catching up of believers, 1 Thessalonians 4, and then it comes right back down. So they’re caught up in the air and they’re basically ushering in the King into his kingdom. They’re caught up into the air, they come right back down. So you see the believers, the BEL, they’re going up, and then Christ is coming down with the believers, and that begins the millennium. Now is it a literal thousand years for the historic premillennialists? Not necessarily.

That’s interesting. So we have the resurrection of believers. When Christ comes back at that point, after the tribulation, when Christ comes back, the dead are raised. They’d be drawing on 1 Thessalonians 4. The dead are raised, right? Those of us who are still alive, we’re all caught up together. We come back down, there’s a millennial reign, and then there’s the resurrection of unbelievers in the final judgment. Hat tip to Wayne Grudem for all these charts I’m showing you.

Was there anybody who had a repentant trust in Christ? Number one? Yes, there are. When Christ returns, coming down, there’s still—I mean, so let’s say right today, right now, he returns, right? I mean, there’s unbelievers on this earth. And so that millennial reign begins and you’re going to basically see an outpouring of the gospel and people getting saved left and right, the revival of revivals. And most of them—some historic premillennialists would say all get saved, some would say most get saved, but the vast majority, they would agree, get saved at a minimum. So when does their resurrection take place, those people getting saved? Yeah. Yeah, that is the question. That is one of the interesting things about this position, is that you have glorified believers with glorified bodies on the earth with unbelievers, and then you have unbelievers getting saved. I’m not sure at what point they get their glorified body, honestly. What’s that? Yeah, it’s pretty convincing. I mean, that is the position.

That is one of the things that people don’t believe that position. They’re like, what is that exactly? Glorified believers living with unbelievers. And then, yeah, what happens? I actually know what they believe when the unbelievers get saved. Do they get the glorified body right then, or do they gotta wait? Questions on that? Okay. So that’s classical or historical. Classic, historic, whatever you want to call it.

Dispensational Premillennialism

Now we’re going to look at dispensational premillennialism. So it’s the second subset of the premillennial view. You guys ever read the Left Behind books? That’s this position, embellished a little bit. Hal Lindsey, yep. One of the front-runners. So a lot of similarities. It might help or might confuse you to have both charts and look at them at the same time. So maybe you just want to look at one. You do what you want. But there are a lot of similarities with the classic premillennialism.

Again, this view says Christ will come back before the millennium. The present-day church age will continue until the great tribulation occurs. After—in this view, before the tribulation, Christ will return to establish his millennial kingdom. So he comes right before the tribulation and snatches away or raptures the believers. They’re up in heaven for, most people believe, seven years. You could—some people believe in what’s called a mid-wrath rapture. So after three and a half years or something like that, there are some divergences within the dispensational camp, but for the most part, just to keep it clean and easy. Again, from that point on, the only really difference is when does the tribulation occur, and how quick does the return of Christ—once he returns, is there this, we would call it like a secret rapture, or something like that. So most, again, if not all the unbelievers who remain on the earth will get saved, very similar.

Sorry, I’m on the wrong page there. The important difference, I would say, between these two positions, the dispensational and the historic, is that the dispensational has Christ returning twice. That’s the only view that Christ returns twice. There’s a secret coming, and then there’s the visible coming. So he comes, and that first thing he comes down, right? But then gone for seven years, no one sees him. There’s not that archangel and all that stuff. Later he comes back—we’ll see it, but the unbelievers—and then when he returns, that’s the visible thing, and then they see him visibly coming, and then the millennium begins. So the first return is the secret return. This position—it’s actually more of a recent position. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong, but it is more of a recent position. It’s been around for about 100 years.

Christ comes in the clouds and the believers are caught up to him in the clouds, where they then proceed to heaven for seven years. It is at that time the great tribulation occurs. The great ingathering of the Jewish people will occur as they all get saved. This in turn leads to massive revival led by the new Jewish Christians. After the tribulation, Christ comes back with his saints to rule on the earth for a thousand years. After the thousand years, there’s the rebellion which results in the final defeat of Satan. Then comes the resurrection of unbelievers, the last judgment, the beginning of the eternal state.

A few more unique things to this view. This view makes a clear distinction between the church and Israel. This is possible since the church is taken out of the world before the tribulation. And therefore, the Jewish people remain a distinct group. Again, this view also insists on interpreting biblical prophecies literally where possible. This applies to prophecies in the Old Testament referring to Israel. So they believe that those prophecies of God’s future blessings to Israel will yet be fulfilled among the Jewish people. The other positions usually will apply that to the church. That’s how I’ll say it. But if you believe in the dispensational premillennial, anytime there’s a prophecy in the Old Testament that says Israel or the Israelites, or it’s really clear it’s talking about or to the Jews, then that is a promise just for the Jews, not for believers, not for Christians. It’s for the Jews, and God’s going to fulfill it. He’s got a plan for the Jews and he’s got a plan for the church, and it’s really two separate plans.

All right, one attractive feature of this view is it readily allows Christ to return at any time, and it does full justice to those passages which say, you know, thief in the night, right? At the same time, the fulfillment of the signs preceding Christ’s return, it said, will occur during the tribulation. So again, we’re in the church age; at any moment Christ could return. All believers, including those that are dead—the dead are raised, the believing dead are raised—we’re caught up for seven years to heaven, or with Christ for seven years, then we return with Christ and the millennium begins. And then that really is similar with the historic premillennial position at that time, where the unbelievers on the earth get saved. You do kind of still have the glorified bodies living with unglorified bodies and all that, but that is the position. Questions on dispensational premillennialism?

So like you said, in this position, the millennium is a literal 1,000 years, right? Yep. Yep. This is the only one that would be—and again it goes kind of back to what I call their interpretive matrix or their hermeneutics—is they are trying to take things, I appreciate their—when I say their, I’m never going to say we or me or whatever, I’m not going to tell you my position. But I appreciate that they’re trying to be faithful to the text. And if it says 1,000 years, they try to take that as literally as possible. That’s fair.

Postmillennialism

Next is postmillennialism. All right, so post obviously means after: postmillennial, after the millennium. So this view sees the gospel being spread and the church growing more and more so that a larger and larger portion of the earth will be believers. As a result, there will be significant Christian influence throughout the world, and thus societies will be reoriented in all areas to function according to God’s standards. As this happens, gradually, a millennial age of peace and righteousness will occur on the earth. At the end of the millennium, Christ will return to earth, believers and unbelievers will be raised, the final judgment will occur, and there will be a new earth. Then we will enter into eternal life. So we have the church age going on, which leads to the millennium before Christ does not return—Christ does not return before the millennium.

A unique feature about this view is that it is very optimistic about the power of the gospel to change hearts and affect societies. It does seem that it is very similar to—it has some similarities with the historic premillennialism. It’s really just, you know, the thousand—it’s really where does that thousand years sit, before or after Christ. And so the postmillennial, the millennium comes, and then after that Christ returns. Both do see the vast majority of the world getting saved during this millennial reign.

Questions? Yeah. So there is, from what I understand, there is a great tribulation, but there is tribulation throughout. Okay. Yeah. They’re still, yeah, they would still hold to the things in Revelation about the beast and all that. Yep. Most of them are partial preterists. Yes. Very few are—oh yeah. Yeah, this would be one where, not necessarily to be postmillennial, but it does help to be a partial preterist.

I have a first question. Oh yeah, thank you. Would this one kind of imply that the world has to be better before Christ comes, instead of maybe not being as good as it could be? Yeah, I mean, it would be like, again, the mass revival is breaking out before Christ comes back. So you’d see a third Great Awakening, if you will, across the entire world, and societies and countries turning to the Lord, naming Christ as King.

Amillennialism

Okay, the last one. Amillennialism. No, I was going to tell another joke, though. I’m not going to do that. Don’t think I’m being irreverent. But Jesus is up in heaven and he’s got this table and he’s got all the different charts of like the different millennial positions, and he’s looking at them all, and the Father comes over and he’s like, Son, what are you doing? And he’s like, man, I’m just trying to figure out when I’m meant to return. It’s so confusing that even Jesus isn’t sure. Obviously he is, but the point is it can be kind of confusing when you look at the different things.

Okay, amillennial. In Greek, if you add an a- to the beginning of a word, it negates the word. So they kind of get a little slighted there, because the idea is like, no millennium. But they believe that the millennium begins—the church age is the millennium. In one sense it’s kind of the simplest view. So according to this view, Revelation 20:1–10, we read it already, describes the present church age. So we are currently in the millennium, which is just a figure of speech for a long period of time. This is why if you’re an amillennial, you definitely can’t hold to a literal thousand years, because it would go back to really when Christ died and was resurrected. That’s the church age beginning, and we’ve had over 2,000 years of that, right? So they definitely wouldn’t hold to a 1,000 years.

So, according to this view, it’s describing the present church age. At this time, they would hold that Satan’s influence—because we’re in the millennium, Satan’s influence has been greatly reduced so that the gospel can be preached to the whole world. Think of that verse, I think it’s in Luke, where Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning.” So there’s a limitation on Satan currently. Those who are reigning with Christ are those who have already died and are with him in heaven already reigning. Therefore Christ’s reign is not a physical earthly reign, but rather the heavenly reign. In this view, the current church age will continue until Christ returns. At that time, the dead believers and unbelievers will be resurrected. The dead believers will receive their glorified bodies and will enter into eternal life. The unbelievers will face judgment and eternal condemnation. At this time, the new heavens and the new earth will begin and the eternal state will begin.

So the church age, the tribulation is going on throughout church history. Christ returns, and basically at that point—that’s why it would be like the simplest view—boom, everything happens. Resurrection of believers, resurrection of unbelievers, the judgment, the new heaven, the new earth, then the eternal state. Questions on this view? If you keep these four sheets and tuck them in your Bible or something, I mean it is a very easy way to understand. Once you’ve at least had it explained to you the first time, the sheets are for the most part self-explanatory, so it can be helpful. If you want a refresher, you could just take these four sheets out and glance through them and remember what you forgot.

Questions and Closing Prayer

I just had a question. Oh yeah, sorry. So, amillennialism—I’ve heard Mike describe this as kind of a pessimistic perspective, like it keeps getting worse throughout time. Is that necessarily true, or is it more just that there is a brilliant difference? I don’t think that’s necessarily true. That’s a good question. Some amillennials might believe that way. I want to be fair, but I wouldn’t say believing amillennialism locks you into pessimism or optimism.

Yeah? In the beginning of the study before, it was a great tribulation. Post was put that in the past; there were some amillennial who put it right before something. Right where? Right before his coming. Yeah, I tried to make it sort of simple and not confuse too many things, but yes. I mean, all of them have some way of dealing with like a great tribulation of sorts. And they would probably describe it in different ways. If they believe it, it’s going to—obviously, the great tribulation will occur before Christ returns. It hasn’t happened yet. It’s future. Yes. How long have the people in regard to the great tribulation? The postmill would believe that the great tribulation has already occurred? Yes. I think all the positions would believe the great tribulation is still coming up except for the postmill. Yeah. Thank you for that clarification. Any other questions?

All right, awesome. We are finishing almost right on the dot. I’ll pray. We will meet next week, so plan on that. That will be the last one. Pastor Vaughan will be on for next week. I’m not quite sure. I just know when I talk to him he’s like, I really want to do another one. And he’s like, so if people will show up, tell them to plan on it. So, all right, let’s pray.

Lord, we thank you, God, that you do reign, and that we know that one of these positions is right. And help us to just have a proper balance of how much to study this or not. Some people I do feel go way overboard. So help us to just have the proper balance in studying it and knowing about it. And Lord, we do await your return, regardless of when it is. We do agree with those passages that say, Come, Lord Jesus. We are ready for you to return. We’re ready for you to reign on high. We’re ready for our glorified bodies. We’re ready for no more sin, no more sorrow, no more suffering, Lord. And we’re ready to see you face to face. So we pray, God, that we would be those that persevere, that we would continue to put our hand to the plow and not look back, that we’d be faithful servants that choose the narrow path, and that we choose daily, Lord, that we take up our cross and follow you. And we do this for your glory. Amen.