70 Weeks of Prophecy
The Bible vs Premillennialism
Part 1
In the world of Eschatology (the study of the end of times) there are diverse opinions about the Kingdom of God. In this article I hope to address two of those positions. The first position is referred to as amillennialism. The amillenial view holds that the millennium represents the period between Christ's death and resurrection and his Second Coming, this period of time being the Church age. The dispensational postmillenial view is a futurist historical interpretation. It predicts that Christ's second coming will inaugurate a literal 1,000-year earthly Kingdom, at the conclusion of which will be the final judgment. The Primitive Baptist, as a group, have always been amongst those that hold to the amillenial view. It would only be fair to note that in the past there have been a few Primitive Baptist individuals who have been led astray by the premillenial position.
Dispensational Premillennialism is a doctrine that was born out of imagination. This theory traces it’s roots to the 1930’s and is linked directly to John Nelson Darby (1800-1832). Darby, a Calvinist theologian, was the founder of the Plymouth Brethren., a religious movement that began in Dublin, Ireland. Darby’s belief in a future 1,000 year reign was largely commercialized by the Scofield Reference Bible produced by C.I. Scofield. The Scofield Reference Bible was introduced into many homes in the 19th and 20th century and along with it’s introduction came the heresy of premillennialism. Another proponent of this doctrine was Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder of the Dallas Theological seminary. Chafer’s eight volume systematic theology of the bible was used throughout “religious” institutions across the country and eventually was taught as sound biblical fact among the most Arminian of institutions. This particular doctrine has been sensationalized recently by such authors as Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins in the popular Left Behind series. Having personally read over 10 volumes of this fiction, yes I have wasted some time myself studying the other view, I can attest that the beliefs of Lahaye and Jenkins are utterly outrageous and astonishingly unbiblical.
The Amillennial view is the fundamental biblical doctrine of a figuritive 1,000 year reign of Christ. The amillenial position is that Christ is currently reigning over his people and is currently seated at the right hand of God the Father. The Amillenial view is that the Church Kingdom is a spiritual kingdom here on earth and that Satan is currently bound or limited in his capacity to thwart the Gospel or to wreak total havoc on earth. One of the common arguments made from premillennialist is that amillenialist “over spiritualize” the books of prophecy. However, it is imortant to understand that the prophetic books of the bible are of no private interpretation and that much of the language used is poetic and symbolic. For example in Revelations 19:11-16 the verses are very full of symbolic and poetic language. The Amillenialist views the things mentioned as being spiritual and symbolic. The Premillennialist argue that these verses should be taken literally. This however will not work unless the Premillennialist wants to agree that Christ will have a literal sword protruding from his mouth when he returns. It is a combination of simple errors like this along with outlandish assumptions that fuel the doctrine of Premillennialism, not too mention the marketability and sensationalism that this doctrine lends to lovers of a good piece of fiction. Conclusion of part 1
