SESSION 4 Part 4 – POSTMILLENNIALISM

POSTMILLENNIALISM (cont'd)

• ·         Look up and read Matthew 24:29-31

It’s at this point that other perspectives part ways with preterism. After all, how could this text have possibly been fulfilled in the first century?  If “the Son of Man [came] on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,” wouldn't everyone have noticed?  Doesn't this passage describe the end of time?

Not necessarily!  At least in the preterist perspective, Jesus may have been referring to something very different than the end of time.  In the first place, many of the terms in this text draw from the Old Testament images of divine reckoning or judgment .  Remember how Isaiah described the fall of Babylon that occurred in 539 BC?  “The stars … will not give their light.  The sun will be dark at rising, and the moon will not give it’s light” (Isaiah 13:10).  Ezekiel used similar language to depict the fall of Egypt (Ezekiel 32:7-8).  The prophet Isaiah even reported a vision of God coming on the clouds of heaven to judge Egypt (Isaiah 19:1).

Did God physically ride on a cloud over the continent of Africa when Egypt fell?  Probably not.  Were the sun and moon darkened once and for all when the nations of Babylon and Egypt fell?  Of course not!  These declarations were prophetic descriptions of God’s judgment on specific nations.  In the same way—preterists suggest—Jesus drew from the language of these prophets to describe God’s judgment on Israel in AD 70.  And, as for the “loud trumpet call,” this too could depict a time of divine reckoning in the Old Testament prophets (Isaiah 27:13, 58:1; Jeremiah 4:5-21, Hosea 8:1).

But what about “the sign of the Son of Man”?  According to Matthew 24:30, “the tribes”—possibly a reference to the tribes of Israel—“will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds!”  Could such an event really have happened in the first century?  In response, preterists point out that not only Jewish people, but also Romans did report unexpected happenings in the clouds around AD 70.

Josephus, Jewish historian: “I suppose this account would seem to be false except that eyewitnesses vouched for it…Before sunset, chariots were seen in the air over the whole land, and armored soldiers were speeding through the clouds and encircling the cities…As the priests were going by night into the inner court, they felt a quaking and heard a great noise.  After that, they heard a sound something like a large crowd saying, “Let us leave this place.”

Tacitus, Roman historian:  “In the sky, there appeared a vision of armies in glittering armor in conflict.  Then a lightning flash from the clouds illuminated the temple!  The doors of this holy place suddenly opened, a superhuman voice was heard declaring that the gods were leaving, and at the same time came the sound of a rushing tumult.”

In light of these reports, is it possible that some “sign of the Son of Man” did appear in the skies around AD 70?  Many orthodox preterists think so.  If the preterists are correct on this point, it could be that the great tribulation (Matthew 24:21) occurred in those ghastly years between the beginning of the Jewish-Roman War in AD 66 and the fall of Jerusalem in 70.  After Jerusalem fell, God began to “gather his elect” from among the Gentiles (Matthew 24:31), this will continue until the “fullness of the Gentiles” comes to faith in Jesus (Romans 11:25).

 Never Underestimate the Power of the Light!

Of course,  orthodox preterists—as well as other postmillennialists—also believe that Jesus will someday return physically to earth.  When that time comes, “the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18; see also Acts 1:9-11: 1 Corinthians 15:51-52).  According to postmillennialists, this will occur after a long period of earthly peace.  In the meantime, if you are a postmillennialist, your task is to proclaim the gospel toall people in preparation for the dawning of a millennial kingdom!

And what if you’re not a postmillennialist?  Perhaps you’ve concluded that postmillennialism and preterism fall short in their interpretations of Scripture.  If that’s the case, don’t despair!  You can still learn from both of these perspectives.  Even if you don’t believe that the destruction of the temple in AD 70 fulfilled the prophecies of Jesus in Matthew 24, preterism is a reminder of how important that event was to people in the first century.  And, when it comes to postmillennialism, the emphasis on the power of the gospel should call every Christian to be more passionate about proclaiming how the gospel can transform peoples lives.

Regardless or your millennial perspective, it is possible to embrace the belief that the gospel really can change the world.  And by gospel I mean far more than the initial statement that helps someone understand how to confess Jesus as the risen Lord—although such statements are certainly important!  What I also mean is the constant awareness that, in every moment of my life, I desperately need what God has provided in the crucified Christ.  The gospel is my constant reminder that any good that I do is only because of grace that God has lavished on me in Jesus Christ.  Whatever problem I may face in life, the gospel forms the foundation for God’s solution—and, if the gospel is not foundational to the solution, either I don’t understand the problem or I don’t understand the gospel.  That’s the true power of the gospel.  And, even if you’re not a postmillennialist, that’s good news!

SESSION 4 Part 3 - POSTMILLENNIALISM

POSTMILLENNIALISM:

  Building A Better World

But what about the great tribulation?  Where can this time of suffering and trials fit into such an optimistic view of the end times?  And who might the beast and the antichrist be?  Postmillennialists do understand the great tribulation as an event that happens before the millennial kingdom—but postmillennialists differ on exactly when and how the tribulation takes place.  Jonathon Edwards, for example, speculated that 1,260 days in Revelation 12:6 might symbolize 1,260 years from the time when the bishop of the city of Rome began to dominate the church.  And so, according to Edwards, the years of the great tribulation “began in the year 606, when the pope was first seated in his chair and was made universal bishop.  They will therefore, end about 1866.”

There’s another postmillennial perspective on the great tribulation that’s become increasingly popular over the past several years: This perspective is known as Preterism [PREH-terr-izm].  The word Preterism comes from the Latin praeteritus (“past” or “bygone”) and suggests that many events described in end-times texts happened in the first-century.  Theologian R. C. Sproul is probably the best-known orthodox preterist postmillennialist.

Matthew 24:1-3  New International Version (NIV)

·        The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times

24 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ² “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”  ³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

It was around the year AD 30 when Jesus spoke these words.  It’s clear that he was prophesying about a future event—but what future event was he predicting?  Many Christians have understood these words of Jesus as a reference to a great tribulation that, even for us today, remains in the future.  Preterists place the fulfillment of this prophecy in a very different time and place, however.  According to preterists, this text was fulfilled around the year AD 70.  Specifically, preterists point out how Jesus states twice in this text that these afflictions will occur in “this generation” (Matthew 23:36; 24:34)—and the approximate span of a generation in Scripture is forty years.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at this text from a preterist perspective and see what we find!  What were the disciples actually asking?  The disciples asked two questions: (1) When will the Jewish temple be destroyed?  And, (2) what will be the sign of the Messiah’s “return” and “the end of the age”?  In preterist perspective, the Messiah’s return does not refer to the physical return of Jesus to earth; it refers instead to his judgment of the nation of Israel because they rejected Jesus as their Messiah.  “The end of the age” points to the ending of a chapter in God’s work with the nation of Israel.  According to preterists, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 answered both of the disciples’ questions.

• ·         Look up and read Matthew 24:4-28

When was the time of false messiahs?  Matthew 24:4-14: “Many will come in my name, saying ‘I am the Christ’”  Jesus predicted in these verses, and that’s precisely what occurred in the years approaching AD 70—as did earthquakes and conflicts and famines!  An earthquake rocked Pompeii in AD 62.  The Jewish historian Josephus described the 50s and the 60s as a time when “the country was filled anew with robbers and imposters… These imposters and deceivers persuaded the multitude to follow them into the desert, and pretended that they would exhibit manifest wonders and signs, that should be performed by the providence of God.

Then, of course, there was the war that broke out in AD 66 between several bands of Jewish revolutionaries and the Romans.  At first, there were Jewish victories, including an ambush at Beth-Horon that resulted in the slaughter of an entire Roman legion.  By the late 60s, revolts were blazing not only among the Jews in Judea and Galilee but also among other people-groups in Gaul, Spain, and Africa.  In AD 68, Emperor Nero committed suicide and—before Vespasian rose to the rank of emperor in AD 69—three other emperors rose and fell amid vicious conflicts in Rome.  Under Vespasian and later his son Titus, more Roman legions arrived in Galilee and Judea, sweeping southward toward Jerusalem and crushing every hint of rebellion.  On the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Josephus wrote, “one could see the whole lake red with blood and covered with corpses, for not a man escaped.”  During the siege of Jerusalem, food was so scarce in the city that a woman cooked her own infant, ate half of the body, and offered the other half to others.

But had the gospel been proclaimed in “the whole world” by this time, as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:14?  The phrase “the whole world” may simply mean that the gospel has been made available beyond the Jewish people, to people of every nation.  And, according to Paul, when he wrote his letter to the Colossians around AD 57, the gospel had reached “the whole world” (Colossians 1:5-6; see also Romans 1:8).  So—according to preterists—everything that Jesus described in these verses found it’s fulfillment in the years leading up to the destruction of the Jewish temple.

What was the “abomination of desolations”? (Matthew 24:15-28).  The prophet Daniel predicted a day when “the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary… On the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate” (Daniel 9:26-27).  Many biblical scholars—not only among postmillennialists but also among amillennialists and historical premillennialists—see the Roman army’s entrance into the Jewish temple in AD 70 as a fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy.  Ancient church leaders such as Athanasius of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo, and John Chrysostom also understood this desecration of the temple to be the abomination of desolations.

And indeed, in those horrible moments when the Romans swept through the city of Jerusalem, the Jewish temple was desolated in the most abominable ways.  According to Jewish tradition, Titus—the general of the Roman army—dragged a harlot into the Holy of Holies and committed fornication with her there on top of a scroll that contained the Hebrew Scriptures.

Roman soldiers carried their battle standards into the temple courts.  Atop every standard was the image of an eagle, a creature that the soldiers worshipped.  Significantly, the Greek word translated vulture in Matthew 24:28 also means eagle.  Could it be that Jesus prophetically glimpsed these idolatrous Roman battle standards forty years before the Romans set foot in the temple courts? 

(To be continued)