Postmillennialism sees Christ coming to set up his kingdom after
the millennium when man has adequately prepared the world through faithful
preaching of the gospel message as the church is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Although some postmillennialists hold to a literal millennium of 1,000 years,
most postmillennialists see the thousand years more as figurative term for
a long period of time (similar in that respect to Amillennialism).
Among those holding to a non-literal "millennium" it is usually understood
to have already begun.
This eschatological view looks for a great revival in the church. Swelling
numerical growth and spiritual vitality leading up to the Second Coming.
Postmillennialists believe Christ will not come again until after there
has been what Robert Bater of Queen's Theological College in Kingston, Ontario,
calls "a holy utopia" - a Millennium that has been achieved on Earth by
human means.
Jonathan Edwards, a staunch postmillennialist of
his time, believed in the gradual accomplishment of the utopian kingdom
of God. The progress of the gospel message would assure the return of Christ
toward the end of the twentieth century - right around the year 2000, to
be exact, according to Edwards.
The Westminster Larger Catechism espoused an eschatology mostly in harmony
with postmillennialism. Frequently used terms for this current belief are
are Christian Reconstruction, Kingdom Now Theology and Dominion Theology.
The strongest postmillennial influence in America today comes from the Chalcedon Foundation, founded in 1965 by Rousas
J. Rushdoony. Rushdoony published his first book, By What Standard?
in 1959 and was instrumental in the development of the homeschool movement
during the 1960s. In general, Rushdoony's vision was for the reconstruction
of society based on Christian principles. In Rushdoony's book Institutes,
he argues that Old Testament law should be applied to modern society and
supported the reinstatement of the Mosaic law's penal sanctions. Under such
a system, the list of civil crimes which carried a death sentence would
include homosexuality, adultery, incest, lying about one's virginity, bestiality,
witchcraft, idolatry or apostasy, public blasphemy, false prophesying, kidnapping,
rape, and bearing false witness in a capital case.
Watch more video by Rousas J. Rushdoony
Rushdoony's work has been used by Dominion Theology advocates who attempt
to implement a Christian theocracy, a government subject to Biblical law,
especially the Torah, in the United States. Authority, behavioural boundaries,
economics, penology and the like would all be governed by biblical principles
in Rushdoony's vision, but he also proposed a wide system of freedom, especially
in the economic sphere.
Major theological problems remain intact for postmillennialism, and nineteen
hundred years of church history argue directly against this position. Postmillennialism
is the least popular among Christians today: apparently deteriorating world
conditions don't square with its premises. Today not a single evangelical
seminary is committed to postmillennialism.
Most people think things are getting worse rather than better. There is
no evidence that the church, through the spread of the gospel, is purifying
the world. Conversely, all one need do is look around to see that the world
is polluting the church in perfect fulfillment of 2 Tim. 3:1-5, which describes
the decline of the church in the last days. Scripture makes it clear that
the end of the age will not be characterized by world revival. It will be
the Antichrist's ultimate hour of power, cut short not by the universal
spread of the gospel but by the Day of the Lord judgment.
