Premillennialism: What is the Basis in Scripture?
The following article is taken from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. I have copied it to my webpage because I believe that it clearly sets forth the premillennial view, or interpretation of scripture. The following is the entire article without added emphasis. The captions were modified as far as type size or boldness, but nothing within the text has been modified or deleted. -- Harley Pinon
Millennium:
Premillennial View
mi-len´i-um
Divergent Views - Scope of Article
I. THE TEACHING OF JESUS
The Millennium Not before the Advent
(1)
Parable of the Wheat and Tares
(2)
Parable of the Pounds
II. TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES
1. Expectation of the Advent
2. Possibility of Survival - Its
Implications
3. Prophecy of “Man of Sin”
4. No Room for Millennium
5. Harmony of Christ and Apostles
LITERATURE
Divergent Views - Scope of Article:
The great majority of evangelical Christians believe that the kingdom of God
shall have universal sway over the earth, and that righteousness and peace and
the knowledge of the Lord shall everywhere prevail. This happy time is commonly
called the Millennium, or the thousand years' reign. Divergent views are
entertained as to how it is to be brought about. Many honest and faithful men
hold that it will be introduced by the agencies now at work, mainly by the
preaching of the gospel of Christ and the extension of the church over the
world. An increasing number of men equally honest teach that the Millennium will
be established by the visible advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. The aim of this
brief article is to set forth some of the Scriptural grounds on which this
latter view rests. No reference will be made to objections, to
counter-objections and interpretations; the single point, namely, that the
Millennium succeeds the second coming of Jesus Christ, that it does not precede
it, will be rigidly adhered to. Those who hold this view believe that neither
Christ nor His apostles taught, on fair principles of interpretation, that the
Millennium must come before His advent.
I. The Teaching of Jesus.
The Lord Jesus said nothing about world-wide
conversion in His instructions to His disciples touching their mission
(Mat_28:19, Mat_28:20; Mar_16:15; Luk_24:46-48; Act_1:8).
The Millennium Not Before the Advent:
They were to be His witnesses and carry His message to the race, but He does not promise the race will receive their testimony, or that men will generally accept His salvation. On the contrary, He explicitly forewarns them that they shall be hated of all men, that sufferings and persecutions shall be their lot, but if they are faithful to the end their reward will be glorious. But world-wide evangelism does not mean world-wide conversion. The universal offer of salvation does not pledge its universal acceptance. In His instructions and predictions the Lord does not let fall a hint that their world-wide mission will result in world-wide conversion, or that thereby the longed-for Millennium will be ushered in. But there is a time to come when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters the sea, when teaching shall no longer be needed, for all shall know Him from the least to the greatest. Our dispensation, accordingly, cannot be the last, for the effects stated in that are not contemplated in the instructions and the results of this. To the direct revelation of Christ on the subject we now turn. In two parables He explicitly announces the general character and the consummation of the gospel age, and these we are briefly to examine.
(1) Parable of the Wheat and Tares (Mat_13:24-30, Mat_13:36-43).
Happily we are not left to discover the meaning and
scope of this parable. We enjoy the immense advantage of having our Lord's own
interpretation of it. Out of His Divine explanation certain most important facts
emerge: (a) The parable covers the whole period between the first and second
advents of the Saviour. The Sower is Christ Himself. He began the good work; He
opened the new era. (b) The field is the world. Christ's work is no longer
confined to a single nation or people as once; it contemplates the entire race.
(c) His people, the redeemed, begotten by His word and Spirit, are the good
seed. Through them the gospel of His grace is to be propagated throughout the
whole world. (d) The devil is also a sower. He is the foul counterfeiter of God
's work. He sowed the tares, the sons of the evil one. (e) The tares are not
wicked men in general, but a particular class of wicked brought into close and
contaminating association with the children of God. “Within the territory of the
visible church the tares are deposited” (Dr. David Brown). It is the corruption
of Christendom that is meant, a gigantic fact to which we cannot shut our eyes.
(f) The mischief, once done, cannot be corrected. “Let both grow together until
the harvest.” Christendom once corrupted remains so to the end. (g) The harvest
is the consummation of the age. This is the culmination of our age; it
terminates with the advent and judgment of the Son of God. He will send forth
His angels who will “gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling,
and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire ....
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
Here, then, we have the beginning, progress and consummation of our age. Christ
Himself introduced it, and it was distinguished for its purity and its
excellence. But the glorious system of truth was soon marred by the cunning
craftiness of Satan. No after-vigilance or earnestness on the part of the
servants could repair the fatal damage. They were forbidden to attempt the
removal of the tares, for by so doing they would endanger the good grain, so
intermixed had the two become! The expulsion of the tares is left for angels'
hands in the day of the harvest. This is our Lord's picture of our age: a
Zizanian field wherein good and bad, children of God and children of the evil
one, live side by side down to the harvest which is the end. In spite of all
efforts to correct and reform, the corruption of Christendom remains, nay, grows
apace. To expel the vast crop of false doctrine, false professors, false
teachers, is now as it has been for centuries an impossibility. Christ's solemn
words hold down to the final consummation, “Let both grow together until the
harvest.” In such conditions a millennium of universal righteousness and
knowledge of the Lord seems impossible until the separation takes place at the
harvest.
(2) Parable of the Pounds (Luke 19:11-27).
Jesus was on His last journey to Jerusalem, and
near the city. The multitude was eager, expectant. They supposed the Kingdom of
God was immediately to appear. The parable was spoken to correct this mistake
and to reveal certain vital features of it. “A certain nobleman went into a far
country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.” There is little
difficulty in grasping the main teaching of this suggestive narrative. The
nobleman is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; the far country is heaven; the
kingdom He goes to receive is the Messianic kingdom, for the victorious
establishment of which all God's people long and pray. The servants are those
who sustain responsible relation to the Lord because of the trust committed to
them. The rebellious citizens are those who refuse subjection to His will and
defy His authority. His return is His second coming. The parable spans the whole
period between His ascension and His advent. It measures across our entire age.
It tells of Christ's going away, it describes the conduct of His servants and of
the citizens during His absence; it foretells His return and the reckoning that
is to follow. Mark the words, “And it came to pass, when he was come back again,
having received the kingdom.” It is in heaven He receives the investiture of the
kingdom (Rev_5:6). It is on earth that He administers it. The phrase, “having
received the kingdom,” cannot by any dexterity of exegesis be made to denote the
end of time or the end of the Millennium, or of His receiving it at the end of
the world; it is then He delivers it up to God, even the Father (1 Cor 24-28).
The order and sequence of events as traced by the Lord disclose the same fact
made prominent in the parable of the Wheat and Tares, namely, that during the
whole period between His ascension and His return there is no place for a
Millennium of world-wide righteousness and prosperity. But Scripture warrants
the belief that such blessedness is surely to fill the earth, and if so, it must
be realized after Christ's second coming.
II. Teaching of the Apostles.
1. Expectation of the Advent:
There is no unmistakable evidence that the apostles
expected a thousand years of prosperity and peace during Christ's absence in
heaven. In Act_1:11 we read that the heavenly visitants said to the apostles,
“Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven?” This attitude of the men
of Galilee became the permanent attitude of the primitive church. It was that of
the uplifted gaze. Paul's exultant words respecting the Thessalonians might well
be applied to all believers of that ancient time, that they “turned unto God
from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven”
(1Th_1:9, 1Th_1:10). It is the prominent theme of the New Testament epistles. In
the New Testament it is mentioned 318 t. One verse in every thirty, we are told,
is occupied with it. It is found shining with a glad hope in the first letters
Paul wrote, those to the Thessalonians. It is found in the last he wrote, the
second to Timothy, gleaming with the bright anticipation of the crown he was to
receive at the Redeemer's appearing. James quickens the flagging courage, and
reanimates the drooping spirits of believers with this trumpet peal: “Be ye also
patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand”
(Jam_5:8). Peter exhorts to all holy conversation and godliness by the like
motive: “Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2Pe_3:12
margin). Amid the deepening gloom and the gathering storms of the last days,
Jud_1:14 cheers us with the words of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, 'Behold, the
Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon ... the
ungodly.' John closes the Canon with the majestic words, “Behold, he cometh with
the clouds,” “Behold, I come quickly.” These men, speaking by the Spirit of the
living God, know there can be no reign of universal righteousness, no
deliverance of groaning creation, no redemption of the body, no binding of
Satan, and no Millennium while the tares grow side by side with the wheat; while
the ungodly world flings its defiant shout after the retiring nobleman, “We will
not have this man to reign over us”; and while Satan, that strong, fierce
spirit, loose in this age, deceives, leads captive, devours and ruins as he
lists. Therefore the passionate longing and the assurance of nearing deliverance
at the coming of Christ fill so large a place in the faith and the life of the
primitive disciples.
2. Possibility of Survival - Its Implications:
In 1Th_4:17 Paul speaks of himself and others who
may survive till the Lord's coming: “Then we that are alive, that are left,
shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air” (compare 1Co_15:51, 1Co_15:52).
This implies fairly that the apostle did not know that long ages would elapse
between his own day and Christ's advent. There was to his mind the possibility
of His coming in his lifetime; in fact, he seems to have an expectation that he
would not pass through the gates of death at all, that he would live to see the
Lord in His glorious return, for the day and the hour of the advent is
absolutely concealed even from inspired men. The inference is perfectly
legitimate that Paul and his fellow-disciples did not anticipate that a thousand
years should intervene between them and the coming.
3. Prophecy of the “Man of Sin”:
Furthermore, the Thessalonians had fallen into a
serious mistake (2Th_2:1-12). By a false spirit, or by a forged epistle as from
Paul, they were led to believe that “the day of the Lord is now present”
(English Revised Version), 2Th_2:2. The apostle sets them right about this
solemn matter. He assures them that some things must precede that day, namely,
“the falling away,” or apostasy, and the appearing of a powerful adversary, whom
he calls “the Man of Sin,” and describes as “the Son of Perdition.” Neither the
one nor the other of these two, the apostasy and the Man of Sin, was then
present. But the road was fast getting ready for them. There was the “mystery of
lawlessness” already at work at the time, and although a certain restraint held
it in check, nevertheless when the check was removed it would at once
precipitate the apostasy, and it would issue in the advent of the Man of Sin,
and he should be brought to nought by the personal coming of Jesus Christ. This
appears to be the import of the passage.
Here was the appropriate place to settle forever for these saints and for all
others the question of a long period to intervene before the Saviour's advent.
How easy and natural it would have been for Paul to write, “Brethren, there is
to be first a time of universal blessedness for the world, the Millennium, and
after that there will be an apostasy and the revelation of the Man of Sin whom
Christ will destroy by the brightness of His coming.” But Paul intimated nothing
of the sort. Instead, he distinctly says that the mystery of lawlessness is
already working, that it will issue in “the falling away,” and then shall appear
the great adversary, the Lawless One, who shall meet his doom by the advent of
Christ. The mystery of lawlessness, however, is held in restraint, we are told.
May it not be possible that the check shall be taken off, then the Millennium
succeed, and after that the apostasy and the Son of Perdition? No, for its
removal is immediately followed by the coming of the great foe, the Antichrist.
For this foe has both an apocalypse and a parousia like Christ Himself. Hence,
the lifting of the restraint is sudden, by no means a prolonged process.
4. No Room for Millennium:
The apostle speaks of the commencement, progress,
and close of a certain period. It had commenced when he wrote. Its close is at
the coming of Christ. What intervenes? The continuance of the evil secretly at
work in the body of professing Christians, and its progress from the incipient
state to the maturity of daring wickedness which will be exhibited in the Man of
Sin. This condition of things fills up the whole period, if we accept Paul's
teaching as that of inspired truth. There appears to be no place for a
Millennium within the limits which the apostle here sets. The only escape from
this conclusion, as it seems to us, is, to deny that the coming of Christ is His
actual, personal second coming. But the two words, epipháneia and parousía,
which elsewhere are used separately to denote His advent, are here employed to
give “graphic vividness” and certainty to the event, and hence, they
peremptorily forbid a figurative interpretation. The conclusion seems
unavoidable that there can be no Millennium on this side of the advent of
Christ.
5. Harmony of Christ and Apostles:
Our Lord's Olivet prophecy (Mt 24; 25; Mk 13; Lk
21) accords fully with the teaching of the apostles on the subject. In that
discourse He foretells wars, commotions among the nations, Jerusalem's capture
and the destruction of the temple, Israel's exile, Christians persecuted while
bearing their testimony throughout the world, cosmic convulsions, unparalleled
tribulation and sufferings which terminate only with His advent. From the day
this great prophecy was spoken down to the hour of His actual coming He offers
no hope of a Millennium. He opens no place for a thousand years of blessedness
for the earth.
These are some of the grounds on which Biblical students known as
Premillennialists rest their belief touching the coming of the Lord and the
Millennial reign.
Literature.
Premillenarian: H. Bonar, The Coming of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus; Wood, The Last Things; Guinness, The Approaching End of the Age; Seiss, The Last Times; Gordon, Ecce Venit; Premillennial Essays; Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom; West, The Thousand Years in Both Testaments; Trotter, Plain Papers on Prophetic Subjects; Brookes, Maranatha; Andrews, Christianity and Antichristianity; Kellogg, Predition and Fulfillment.
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