The Postmillennial Vision

All right, I’m almost through with my anti-dispensationalism kick…after I get a word in for the alternative. Actually, there’s more than one alternative. But the one I feel is most compatible with the plain teaching of Scripture is postmillennialism. John Jefferson Davis, in his book The Victory of Christ’s Kingdom, sums up postmillennialism this way:

1. Through the preaching of the gospel and dramatic outpourings of the Holy Spirit, Christian missions and evangelism will attain remarkable success, and the church will enjoy an unprecedented period of numerical expansion and spiritual vitality.
2. This period of spiritual prosperity, the millennium, understood as a long period of time, is to be characterized by conditions of increasing peace and economic well-being in the world as a result of the growing influence of Christian truth.
3. The millennium will also be characterized by the conversion of large numbers of ethnic Jews to the Christian faith (Rom. 11:25-26).
4. At the end of the millennial period there will be a brief period of apostasy and sharp conflict between Christian and evil forces (Rev. 20:7-10).
5. Finally and simultaneously there will occur the visible return of Christ, the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked, the final judgment, and the revelation of the new heavens and the new earth.

This was the prevailing worldview of Bible-believing Christians for centuries, before the new teaching of dispensationalism came into fashion. Postmillennialism fueled the great revivals and missionary efforts of the 18th and 19th centuries. Prominent postmillennialists (past and present) include: Jonathan Edwards, Matthew Henry, George Whitefield, William Carey, David Livingstone, R. L. Dabney, A. H. Strong, B. B. Warfield, Charles Hodge, B. H. Carroll, R. C. Sproul, R. J. Rushdoony, Doug Wilson, Gary Demar, Hank Hanegraaf, Ken Gentry, and Rick Warren. There are several postmillennial-leaning organizations worth checking out, including Vision Forum, The Chalcedon Foundation, and American Vision. A good cheap introduction to postmillennialism is Davis’s The Victory of Christ’s Kingdom. I’d also recommend these books: The Messiah’s Second Advent, Zion’s Glad Morning, and The Puritan Hope.

Christ said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” All power. And what’s the very next thing He says? He commissions His followers to take the field: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them…teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” How do we know His gospel will prevail? Because one day “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11: 9). Jesus promised, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12: 32).

Many Christians are rightly abandoning the hokey template of dispensationalism. Many are rediscovering postmillennialism. The more they do so, the more potential there is for real (rather than pre-fabricated) revival.

Welcome to the waters

The title of this blog is a metaphor for the ever-expanding kingdom of God. The passage in Ezekiel 47 from which it is taken describes a small stream flowing from the house of God toward the desert. The stream becomes gradually deeper--first to the ankles, then to the knees, then to the waist--until eventually it is deep enough to swim in. Everywhere it flows new vegetation sprouts up and the desert becomes a garden.

Jesus used the same idea of gradual fulfillment when He preached "the gospel of the kingdom." "Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God?" He asked. "It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: but when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it" (Mark 4: 30-32).

Elsewhere we read that the kingdom is a small stone that broke apart the ancient empires and will grow into a great mountain that fills the whole earth (Daniel 2). Or that the kingdom is like yeast that eventually permeates the whole loaf of bread (Matthew 13). Isaiah tells us that one day "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (11: 9).

These are not speculations or wishes. They are promises from God. The kingdom will gradually grow. The kingdom will be preeminent on earth. The whole world will be blessed by the kingdom.

We realize this is a different perspective than many well-meaning, Bible-believing churches are teaching today. But we hope we can do our part to encourage others to study the promises of Scripture, renew their optimism, and help advance the kingdom.

So what is the kingdom? Is it, as many teach, a literal earthly dicatorship? No. "My kingdom is not of this world," Jesus said (John 18: 36). "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17: 20, 21). The kingdom is spiritual.

Is it something in the distant future, or is it already here? "The time is fulfilled," Jesus announced, "and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1: 15). "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God," He explained, "then the kingdom of God is come unto you" (Matt. 12: 28). The kingdom is now.

Who is in the kingdom, and what are they supposed to do? "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). "But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized" (Acts 8: 12). "I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 16: 18, 19). "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations" (Matt. 24: 14). "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28: 19). The kingdom is the fulfillment of God's redemptive plan. Its citizens are the redeemed.

The kingdom is growing today. There are more citizens of the kingdom now than there were a hundred years ago, and more a hundred years ago than there were 1,000 years ago. It will continue to grow--with or without us. Sadly, many churches are sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the world to deteriorate: waiting--like many of the Jews in Christ's day--for a physical kingdom; waiting for "the church" to fizzle out and fade away. They miss the promises. They miss the point. The desert sands don't bury God's house. The waters flowing from the house of God flood the desert and transform it.

If Christ said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," and, "lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28: 18, 20), then Christians should boldly advance the kingdom in their lives, in their families, in their communities, and throughout the entire world.