1022. Is Christ's Coming Before or After the Millennium? Does It Matter?

Is Christ's Coming Before or After the Millennium? Does It Matter?

There are two schools of thought concerning the Second Coming of our Lord. These schools are at variance. The one is commonly called premillennial and the other postmillennial. Millennium is from the Latin word "mille-annum" and simply means a thousand years. The expression "a thousand years" occurs five times in Revelation, chapter 20; but that period of blessedness, known as the Millennium, occurs under various names in very many Scriptures. Its most common name is "The Day of the Lord."

The postmillennialist holds that Jesus will not come until after the thousand years; the premillennialist, on the contrary, holds that the Lord's coming ushers in the Millennium. Our attitude toward the Second Coming of Christ depends on our viewpoint–whether we are "pre" or "post."

If Christ does not come till the thousand years are finished, there can be no immanency to His coming.

The days of blessedness, when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea;" when "righteousness and truth shall kiss each other," and when "every man shall sit down under his own vine and fig tree;" have certainly not come yet, nor is their coming in sight.

When the immanency of the Second Coming is destroyed, the believer's attitude to the coming is destroyed. Can one be "watching," "waiting," "looking for," "hastening," "loving," "praying for" and "ardently expecting" the coming of Christ, if that coming is indefinitely postponed?

The purpose of this study is to clearly and consistently set forth the vital distinctions between the two millennial schools, presenting the vital Scriptural conceptions which are at stake.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR