REFORMED WITNESS
Volume I, March 1993, Number 3
The three articles featured in this newsletter briefly compare and contrast two interpretations of Biblical prophecy concerning the Millennium. Professor Hanko, author of the first article, is an amillennialist. Rev. Jones, in the second article, responds to Prof. Hanko's essay with a defense of postmillennialism. In the final piece Prof. Hanko answers Rev. Jones' response.
The Illusory Hope of Postmillennialism
Article by Prof. H. Hanko
From the January 1, 1990 issue of The Standard Bearer.Also in this issue:
See more articles by this author
Especially in our time of theological confusion, many different views have appeared in the church on the question of the millennium. One such view is called Postmillennialism.
Among those who hold to a postmillennial position, many of them Calvinists, there is a considerable amount of disagreement on various details. The purpose of this article is not to enter into a thorough discussion of Postmillennialism, list all the differences of opinion, examine the teachings, and evaluate them in the light of the Word of God. For our purposes, we are content with a broad definition. Whatever the differences may be, all Postmillennialists agreed on the broad definition which Loraine Boettner offers in his book, The Millennium (The Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing Company, 1966; p. 4): "Postmillennialism is that view of the last things which holds that the Kingdom of God is now being extended in the world through the preaching of the Gospel and the saving work of the Holy Spirit, that the world eventually will be Christianized, and that the return of Christ will occur at the close of a long period of righteousness and peace called the Millennium." Postmillennialists, therefore, look for a period of time, not necessarily a literal 1000 years, before the coming of Christ during which Christianity is supreme in the world and a kingdom of peace, with great prosperity and unequaled happiness, characterizes our earthly planet. It will be an earthly kingdom of Christ, realized in this present world, and a kingdom which Christ takes to Himself when He comes again upon the clouds of heaven. Hoeksema writes of this also (Reformed Dogmatics, Reformed Free Publishing, 1966, pp. 816,817): "The postmillenarians, as the name indicates, believe that the millennium is antecedent to the coming of Christ. Before the coming of Christ there will be a special dispensation of gospel preaching and its effect, so that before Christ's coming the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, even as the waters cover the bottom of the sea. Besides, a glorious reign of peace...is expected....They...expect a realization of the kingdom of God on earth, upon the scene of which Christ will come. " While it is not our purpose to examine Postmillennialism, we briefly mention some of the objections which can be brought against this view. It is based on an interpretation of prophecy which, much like premillennialism, fails to reckon with the typical character of the Old Testament and interprets various prophecies in earthly terms. It fails to reckon with significant passages of Scripture which teach things quite contrary to the postmillennial view. We have in mind a passage such as Luke 18:8b: "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Quite contrary to what the Lord means with this rhetorical question, the Postmillennialist would answer: "Yes, He shall find a world in which faith is the characteristic of most men." It speaks of the kingdom of Christ in earthly terms, in spite of the fact that the Lord Himself emphatically states: "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). It stands in sharp contrast with the whole body of Biblical data which describes the days prior to the coming of Christ as days in which lawlessness abounds (Matthew 24:12), persecution is the lot of God's people (Matthew 24:16-22, Revelation 11:13,17, etc.), and Antichrist reigns in a universal kingdom in which there is no room for the saints of Christ. We oppose such views of the coming of Christ and the events which precede His coming. The Postmillennialists are an ardent group of men. They have little patience with anyone who does not agree with them. In personal correspondence one defender of Postmillennialism called us "pessimistic" and "kamikaze Christians" - i.e., Christians who, after the pattern of Japanese pilots at the end of World War II, are intent on committing ecclesiastical suicide. The point of these and similar objections is that the believer who holds to an amillennial position has no hope. He takes a dark view of the future. He is gloomy and sees only the dark sides of life. All he sees in the world is a creation under the curse, a world filled with sin and getting worse, a hopeless situation beyond repair and impossible to salvage. He wanders through life with a long face and a pessimistic outlook. He should be optimistic and enthusiastic. He should look at this world and think of what it will become. He should keep his eye fixed upon a great and glorious kingdom which shall presently be realized here below. He should not look at the dark side of the picture, but at the bright side, that here in this present world the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdom of our God and His Christ. Is he a part of only a few who hold to the truth? Never mind; presently the Reformed faith shall be the faith which is dominant in the whole world. Is he persecuted now by the wicked? Bear it patiently because presently he shall himself be in power and the wicked shall either be non-existent or at least completely under the control and rule of the righteous. Are there social problems of war, race inequalities, poverty, sickness, suffering? It will all presently be different when in this world the rule of God shall be over all, the Reformed faith shall hold sway throughout the world, the kingdom of Christ in which all life's problems are solved shall presently be established. As the law of God is enforced in all the world, we shall have a kingdom of great prosperity, of world wide peace, of freedom from disease and suffering, of happiness and joy such as the world has never known. It is something wonderful to look forward to and it gives the child of God something to work for with bubbling hope. Is this the object of the hope of the Christian? It all sounds so nice. One could almost wish that it were true. Postmillennialism, however, holds before us an illusory hope. In this desert of sin and death in which we live, postmillennialism can only give us the promise of a mirage. It is important-for our spiritual well-being that we recognize that postmillennial hope is indeed that and nothing more. It is a mirage because it speaks of a kingdom here in the world of great joy and happiness for God's people when such is in fact not the case. It is like saying to mountain climber, who is near the point of total exhaustion, to keep courage, for just around the next bend in the trail the walk is easy and without obstacle -- when in fact it is still ten miles to the summit. It is a mirage because it promises to the people of God a kingdom here in this world, this world, this present world in which we live. It is a mirage, therefore a false hope, because it fails to reckon properly with the fact of sin. All the grief, the suffering, the trouble, the pain of war and earthquake, the vicious character of sin, the agony of death -- all are the result of sin. Sin entered the world with the disobedience of our first parents. Nothing will be changed until sin is taken away. Christ did this on His cross. He took away the sins of His people. Deliverance must wait until we are taken out of this world into another world where sin is no more. Nor must it be forgotten that, because of sin, the curse of God entered into the warp and woof of the creation itself. Shall this be changed here in this world? Romans 8 says loudly, No! "For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also..." (vss.20-23). To fasten our hope upon an earthly kingdom is to fasten our hope upon a kingdom in which the curse still is present. I do not want that kind of a kingdom. Postmillennialism cannot take sin as seriously as do the Scriptures. It is a mirage because the kingdom which the Postmillennialists describe is, in fact, the kingdom of Antichrist. I do not doubt that a kingdom of peace, of great plenty, of enormous prosperity and uncounted riches, of beauty and splendor such as the world has never seen, will some day be established. Scripture points us to that. What makes one cringe, however, is that this kingdom is described by Scripture as the kingdom of the beast (read Revelation 13). This makes postmillennial thinking of considerable spiritual danger. Rev. Hoeksema writes somewhere in this book, Behold He Cometh, that the spiritual danger of postmillennialism is that it tempts the people of God to identify the kingdom of Antichrist with that of Christ. This is not hard to understand. How nice it would be if we did not have to worry about persecution, about the terrible tribulation of the Antichrist's kingdom. How nice it would be if we could rather look forward to our faith pervading all the world. The song of postmillennialism is a lullaby. It is a sweet siren song that gradually sings the child of God to sleep. It is a song which is so beautiful, so entrancing, that he forgets all about this calling to watch for the coming of the Lord. And so when a very beautiful and glorious kingdom comes to this world, he will say: Ah, our dreams are realized, our hopes are fulfilled, our longings are satisfied; the kingdom of our Christ has come. But, lo and behold, it is the kingdom, not of Christ, but of Antichrist. Do you respond to this by saying , "Never fear. I will be able to tell the difference. I can never possibly confuse the two. I know how Christ's kingdom is different from that of Antichrist"?If your say this, then all I can do is warn you that the deception is very real and very much a possibility. The Lord was deeply concerned about this very thing when He told us, "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch, that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before" (Matthew 24:23-25). The hope of the believer, and for this I am profoundly grateful, is not on any kingdom in this sorry world, but is fastened with eagerness, with longing and with great optimism, on the everlasting kingdom of righteousness which shall be realized only in the new heavens and in the new earth where sin shall be no more.
The "Other Side" of Postmillennialism
Letter by Rev. Norman Jones
It is with a touch of sadness that I feel constrained to write a brief response to an article by my friend Prof. H. Hanko which appeared in the January 1, 1990 issue of The Standard Bearer ("The Illusory Hope of Postmillennialism"). Almost always I find myself being instructed and edified by Prof. Hanko's articles and book reviews, but when he took on the subject of "The Illusory Hope of Postmillennialism" he went seriously astray, in my opinion. He faults the postmills for having "little patience with anyone who does not agree with them," but his own rigid perspective on the nature of Christ's Kingdom is just as unbending; and there is nothing wrong with having strong convictions! I find it incredible that Brother Hanko accuses Calvinist postmills, such as the Puritans (some would include Calvin and other Reformers who tried to change the world by the word of God), practically all Presbyterianism until this century, and present advocates of this eschatological emphasis, of being guilty of all the "heresy" that he attributes to them in this article. Biblical postmills get their view of Christ's growing and conquering Kingdom from the Scriptures. To say that we "fail to reckon properly with the fact of sin," that we do "not take sin seriously," that our view of Christ's Kingdom is really "the Kingdom of Anti-Christ," that it "tempts the people of God to identify the kingdom of anti-Christ with that of Christ," and that postmillennialism "is a sweet siren song that gradually sings the child of God to sleep" is simply incredible language, coming from an otherwise well-informed theologian. Further, such an unwarranted attack greatly damages the growing respect that many Calvinists outside of your denomination have been developing for you. Permit me briefly to rebut the article in question with the following points:
From the March 15, 1990 issue of The Standard Bearer.1. The Amillennial position of Prof. Hanko leans heavily on the Olivet discourse (Matt. 24) as proof that the New Testament Age is to grow progressively more evil, with all those ominous signs to become increasingly more apparent. (But where was the high point from which the decline supposedly began?) Postmillennial expositors, on the other hand, see the Olivet Discourse up to verse 34 as having been fulfilled in the last days of apostate Judaism, culminating in the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (cf. Matt 23:36-38; 24:1-2; Lk 21:6-32). Further, they see many of the "Lord is at hand " passages in the New Testament as also referring to the A.D. 70 vengeance of God. 2. Is the Kingdom of Christ not in this world, as Prof. Hanko asserts so boldly? Is this concept simply a mirage? As I read the following passages I find that Christ's Kingdom in history (the fifth monarchy of Daniel) is so far from being a mirage that it is the only abiding reality (Psalm 2; 22:27,28; 37:9-11; 46:8-10; 47; 66:1-4; 72; 86:9; 138:4,5; 149; Isa. 2:1-4; 9:6,7; 11:9,10; 65:19-24; Dan. 2:35,44; 7:13,14; Heb. 12:26-29; Rev. 11:15). Further, the parables of Matthew 13 clearly teach that Christ's Kingdom in this world is to be a growing kingdom, not a diminishing one - from a mustard seed to a tree. Isaiah 9:7 says that "there will be no end to the increase of His government." That one prophecy alone is the death knell to pessimistic Amillennialism! Did not Christ tell His church to make disciples of all the nations (Matt. 28:18-20), not just individuals? Was He merely expressing a pious wish or was He declaring a prophetic reality based on His powerful reign from the Father's throne? Does not Paul teach that Christ shall reign (in history) until all His enemies shall have been put under His feet and He has abolished all (ungodly) rule, authority and power (I Cor. 15:24,25)? Yes, the Kingdom of Christ is very much in this world, beginning in the regenerate heart and working itself outward to bring all spheres of life under Christ's Lordship (Eph. 1:20-22). The Luke 18:8 passage, on which Prof. Hanko places so much weight for a defeated church at the end of history, may be better interpreted to mean that when the Son of Man comes to destroy Jerusalem (cf. Matt. 24:30; 26:64) in A.D. 70 He will not find faith in the "land" (of Israel) in that generation (Matt. 24:10-12). If the geography needs to be extended, Paul complained of the same problem of lack of faith on the part of many as he neared death at the end of that same period of time (II Tim. 1:15; 3:13; 4:3,10,16). Often Amills will appeal to John 18:36 as proving that Christ's Kingdom is not in the world in any external manifestation. But a closer view of the text simply shows that our Lord was referring to the source of His Kingdom, not its sphere of operations. His Kingdom comes from heaven, not from the power politics of the Jews. But His Kingdom is here in power; it is not restricted to heaven. Indeed, John declares over and over that the saints rule with Christ on earth (Rev. 2:26,27; 5:10; 11:15-18: 20:4,6). 3) As far as the Reformed Confessions are concerned, the original Article 36 of the Belgic Confession reflected the dominion orientation of the Reformers rather than the vapid "pluralism" of their descendants who put "democracy" ahead of biblical theology and corrupted the article. The Heidelberg Catechism (Q. 124) in explaining the Second Petition of the Lord's Prayer certainly teaches that Christ's Kingdom is in this world, that it is a conquering kingdom, and that "every power" (including every society and government) that exalts itself against God and His Christ is to be destroyed! Or in the words of Psalm 2, the nations have been given to Christ and He "shall break (rule) them with a sceptre of iron" (vs. 9).
All of this will be accomplished in history, not after the Judgment Day, and it will be accomplished by the pure preaching of the Law and the Gospel (Isa. 2:1-4; Matt. 28:18-20; II Cor. 10:3-5). If this faith and confident expectation sound illusory and "unrealistic," I can only say that most of Reformed Christianity has believed it fervently for many centuries. To say that postmills who have led the way in missions and the Christianization of Western culture for centuries (see Iain Murray's The Puritan Hope) were really motivated by a false hope and were actually promoting the Kingdom of Anti-Christ is, I say again, simply incredible. I shall refrain from any stronger conclusions.Thank you, gracious editor, for your patience and willingness to let your readers hear the other side of this subject. May God lead all of us into the riches of His truth through patient study, comparing Scripture with Scripture, and a willingness to learn from all the brethren.
Response to "The 'Other Side' of Postmillennialism"
Article by Prof. H. Hanko
There are a couple of misunderstandings which ought, perhaps , to be cleared up before I enter the substance of Rev. Jones' article. The purpose of my article was not to refute the error of postmillennialism by means of a thorough exegetical study. If Rev. Jones is interested in such a refutation he may consult an article I wrote earlier for an Officebearers' Conference and which was subsequently published in the Protestant Reformed Theological Journal. The purpose of this article was to demonstrate that the biblical position , sometimes called "the Amillennial position," is not a pessimistic interpretation of Scripture, but an eminently optimistic viewpoint for the church to take. In connection with this purpose, I was compelled to warn God's people against the spiritual dangers involved in postmillennialism. It is my fervent hope and prayer that those who hold to postmillennialism "do not actually promote the kingdom of Antichrist"; but Herman Hoeksema was right when somewhere he warned God's people of the spiritual danger involved. It is not inconceivable that , if the saints are looking for a glorious kingdom here on earth, they will be tempted to identify the kingdom which Antichrist establishes with the kingdom of Christ. It will be hard enough in that dreadful day to stand for the cause of Christ without putting other spiritual temptations in the way. In no way did I suggest that the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is not manifested in this world. The kingdom of Christ is manifested in this present age in the preaching of the gospel to the ends of the earth; in the gathering of the church; in the establishment of covenant schools; in the godly and holy walk of the saints as they reveal in all their lives the sovereign rule of the grace of Christ in their hearts; in the throngs of faithful in every age who do not bow the knee to Baal, but bow instead in humble worship of King Jesus. But this manifestation of the kingdom here in the world is in sharp antithesis to the all-pervasive rule of the powers of darkness. The saints walk here in this world as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. They are, and one can consult the apostle Peter's first letter as proof of this, pilgrims and strangers in the earth who seek the heavenly kingdom and live in hope of its realization in the coming of the day of the Lord. In the meantime, they suffer persecution at the hands of the ungodly; but they rejoice even then in the hope of another day. To use the word of the Holy Spirit in Hebrews 11: "These all died in the faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country, And truly, if they had been mindful of that country to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city" (vss.13-16). And these were not simply old dispensational saints who did not understand that this "better country" was to be realized in this world, but they were that "cloud of witnesses" which surrounds us and encourages us to "run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (12:1,2). This great antithesis between the citizens of the kingdom in the world and the citizens of the kingdom of darkness is rooted in the great "antithesis" of the rule of Christ in the world. Christ indeed rules over all, including hell's demons. But Rev. Jones knows too that this rule of Christ is a rule of grace in the hearts of the elect, and a rule of power in the lives of the ungodly. Psalm 2, of all the texts in Scripture, can hardly be a support for a kingdom in the world in which the nations shall bow in humble worship to King Jesus. If the postmillennialists are right that Psalm 2 refers to an earthly kingdom, why then does the Lord laugh? Does He laugh because He has made all the nations His willing , joyful subjects? No, the Lord's laughter is the laughter of derision. He has set His King upon His holy hill of Zion. The heathen rage and imagine vain things. They take counsel together against the Lord and His anointed. But the awful, bone-chilling laughter of the God of heaven and earth is because in all their raging they serve the purpose of the establishment of the kingdom of heaven. Indeed He rules them with a rod of iron; but it is nevertheless to break them, for He dashes them in pieces like a potter's vessel. I am aware of the fact that the final question between amillennialism and postmillennialism is a question of the interpretation of prophecy. It sometimes seems to me that there is very little difference between the interpretation of prophecy used by the postmillennialists and that used by the premillennialists. However that may be, we had better get straight some basic principles of Old Testament prophetic interpretation before we apply such passages as Isaiah 9:7, Psalm 2, Psalm 22:27, 28, Psalm 37:9-11, and others to a kingdom of Christ here on earth. The limitations of an article in The Standard Bearer make a thorough discussion of this question impossible, although it is something that needs very much to be done. Prophecy is part of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. In prophecy God speaks of His eternal purpose and will with respect to the salvation of His church, the triumph of the kingdom of His dear Son, and the way in which history as a whole serves His great purpose. Sometimes prophecy is predictive, sometimes not. Sometimes prophecy discusses in bold detail the "day of the Lord," sometimes it zeros in on particular circumstances in the life of the nation of Israel as the life of that nation was part and parcel of the realization of God's purpose. The "day of the Lord" is that great day when, in distinction from the dispensation of types and shadows, God realizes His purpose. That day began with the incarnation. It ends with the return of Christ upon the clouds of heaven to make all things new. You say: "But 2000 years have elapsed in that one day?" Peter reminds us that a day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. It is one great day of the fulfillment of God's unchangeable promise. In speaking of that day, prophecy in the Old Testament was given within all the "trappings" of the dispensation of types and shadows. It was given within the context of the time in which God spoke typically and symbolically to a nation typical of the church of all ages, living in the typical land of Canaan, surrounded by typical ceremonies of the law; and, therefore, in all the typical language of that time. It is no more right to identify the kingdom of Solomon spoken of in Psalm 72 with a kingdom of Christ here upon earth than it is possible to identify the raising up of the tabernacle of David (Amos 9:11) with the rule of Christ with the Jews in Palestine and the rebuilding of the old temple -- especially when the Scriptures themselves inform us that the fulfillment of Amos is in the gathering of a catholic church (see Acts 15:15-18). It is a mistake to identify the rule of Christ as described in Psalm 2 with a postmillennial kingdom when Scripture itself tells us that verse 7 was fulfilled in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead (see Acts 13:33). It is easy to refer in passing to many passages of Scripture. But one ought really to consider their meaning. Just a glance at a few of them will show how far from any postmillennial conceptions of a kingdom they are. Psalm 22:27-28 appears in the context of Christ's suffering. How beautiful that already in the Old Testament we have the assurance that Christ's atoning sacrifice was to exalt Him in the highest heavens so that He might gather a catholic church in which "the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him." There is no reason in the verse itself or in the whole of its context to apply this to an earthly kingdom when all the Scriptures (including the great commission -- to which Rev.Jones refers) speak of that great work of God in gathering His church from all the nations ofthe earth. Psalm 37:9-11 seems hardly to be a text to which a good postmillennialist would appeal, unless the reference is to the one statement: "The meek shall inherit the earth." But so far as I know, no one ever has disputed this point that Jesus Himself makes in His sermon of the mount. That is, in fact, why believers, though beleaguered and hard-pressed in the world, live in joyful optimism. The day is coming when they shall inherit the earth. That this earth is the renewed earth when heaven and earth are joined in one perfect kingdom of righteousness is exactly the promise of Revelation 21:1. That Isaiah 9:7 speaks of an increase of Christ's government is beyond dispute. But to hang a postmillennial viewpoint on that word seems to be stretching things a bit. The LXX has (translated from the Greek): "His rule shall be great." The German has: "Auf dass seine Herrschaft gross werde." And this surely is the idea of the Hebrew. And so we could continue to look at dozens of individual texts, all of which can not be interpreted as referring to an earthly kingdom of righteousness. There are some passages in the New Testament to which Rev. Jones refers, which require a brief answer. I am aware of the many who interpret Matthew 24 as referring only to the destruction of Jerusalem. That the Lord has this in mind is readily granted. But that the Lord speaks of His own coming at the end of the age and gives signs of that coming is His own testimony. The disciples ask: "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?" The Lord does not say: "Never mind those questions; I want to discuss something else with you." He answers their earnest questions and gives them the signs of His coming and of the end of the world. That He does so in the context of the destruction of Jerusalem is not surprising when we consider that Jerusalem's destruction was the end of the dispensation of shadows and the dawn of the age of the realization of the promise. Presumably the reference to the Lord's parables in Matthew 13 is especially to the parables of the mustard seed and the hidden leaven. I have treated these in my book "Mysteries of the Kingdom," and need not repeat here what was said there. Hebrews 12:26-29 would surely not be the kind of passage a postmillennialist would appeal to. So far as I have noticed, no postmillennialist would ever say that the kingdom of Christ to be realized here upon this earth is brought about by the "removing of those things that are shaken (which, according to vs. 26, refers to heaven and earth); nor that even this glorious kingdom to be realized here on earth is a "kingdom which cannot be moved." Even an ardent Calvinistic postmillennialist believes, I think, that this earthly kingdom, as glorious as it is, shall be moved when Christ comes again. Neither Ephesians 1:20-22 (I think this is the passage Rev. Jones refers to - his article has Eph. 21:20-22) nor I Corinthians 15:24,25 refers to a postmillennial kingdom by any stretch of the imagination. Christ is exalted in the highest heavens over all God's works, sovereign in all history, with "all things under his feet", because He is "the head over all things to the church." And I Corinthians 15:24,25 emphatically states: "Then cometh the end!" Christ indeed rules universally and puts "down all rule and all authority and power". He rules till He has "put all enemies under his feet." Then He delivers up "the kingdom to God,even the Father." Both, quite obviously, refer to Christ's universal rule over all the wicked by which He makes them serve the purpose of the full salvation of the church in the day of His coming. I am thankful that Rev. Jones refers to our Three Forms of Unity, for in all these Forms there is not so much as a breath concerning a postmillennial kingdom. Article XXXVI of the Belgic Confession I have explained in a recent issue of The Standard Bearer. The explanation of the second petition in Q. & A. 123 exactly militates against such a postmillennial kingdom. We pray that God may rule us so by (His) word and Spirit, that we may submit ourselves more and more to (Him). We pray that the church may be preserved and increased; that the works of the devil and the world may be destroyed "until the full perfection of thy kingdom take place, wherein thou shalt be all in all." It seems beyond dispute that this heartfelt prayer of God's people is answered only in the day of Christ's coming at the end of time. Certainly, "the full perfection" of Christ's kingdom does not come until that day when Christ returns. I know of no postmillennialist who believes that this earthly kingdom of which they speak is the full perfection of Christ's kingdom. What a beautiful prayer for the second coming of Christ this becomes! Rev. Jones does not like my explanation of Luke 18:8 and prefers to interpret it as meaning "that when the Son of Man comes to destroy Jerusalem, He will not find faith in the land of Israel in that generation." But this is surely reading into the text something which is not there. The words of the Lord are appended to a parable which Christ taught to encourage "men always to pray, and not to faint." The parable is applied in verse 7. If the unjust judge avenged the widow only because "by her continual coming she wearied" him, "Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?" The elect suffer untold agony in this world at the hands of the wicked. It seem as if God does not hear their sobs, for they are not delivered. But we have the sure promise that God , though He bears long with them, will nevertheless avenge them speedily. To that is appended the rhetorical question: "when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" How can this be interpreted to mean: "When Christ comes to destroy Jerusalem He will not find faith in the land of Israel in that generation"? But there are so many more words of the Lord. How often did not the Lord have to instruct the disciples that His kingdom was heavenly when they always had their hopes set upon an earthly kingdom? And when the Pharisees demanded of Him when the kingdom of God should come, "he answered them and said, 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). When Pilate mockingly asked the Lord concerning His kingdom as its King stood bound and helpless before him, the Lord answered: "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence" (John 18:36). Rev. Jones wonders, if the world is getting worse, "where was the high point from which the decline supposedly began?" The answer to that question is, of course, Paradise just before the fall. What Scripture constantly teaches is that, with the fall sin entered into the world. From that moment on, as the catholic church is being gathered, the history of the world is characterized by the organic development of sin as "all those ominous signs (of Christ's coming become increasingly more apparent." That organic development of sin finally culminates in the "man of sin" (II Thessalonians 2:3-12). That is the kingdom of Antichrist. Anyone who asserts that Calvin was a postmillennialist ought to reread his Calvin. That other reformers were postmillennialists is an assertion without proof. That some, especially among Presbyterians, were postmillennial cannot be denied. That Scripture militates against postmillennialism at every turn of the pages is clear beyond doubt. May God lead us by His Word and Spirit to wait patiently, walking as pilgrims and strangers in the earth, for the great day of the coming of our Lord.
From the April 1, 1990 issue of The Standard Bearer.
Amillennialism defined- The amillenarians, as the very name, which is of recent origin, indicates, believe that Scripture does not teach a millennium in any form. They hold that this dispensation of the kingdom of God constitutes the last hour; that therefore it will be followed by no other dispensations, but only by the eternal state of the kingdom of glory. Prof. H. Hoeksema, Reformed Dogmatics 1966, p. 816.
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