Note: We’ve been providing a lot of Bible studies on eschatology, posting as we find them, or they have become available, or as we wright them. Soon we’ll make a post that will put them in preferred reading (viewing) order as an educational tool for the reader. That’s a goal here at TCJ, to make us better men and women through Christian education and ministry, better with our tools, and more knowledgeable and competent to survive what may come.

Eisegesis is reading into the text of the Holy Bible your presuppositions, personal view, or agenda, looking for confirmation bias in the Scriptures. Almost every American today, even the educated, operate their daily life in search of bias confirmation. This is very dangerous and has no place in proper Bible interpretation, nor is it wise in any discipline. Exegesis is drawing out the meaning, swallowing your pride, and letting God speak the truth to your heart regardless of how it makes you feel; it’s the plain meaning of Scripture in context.

We might have worded some things differently and have slightly differing views, but in the main, this is a very good brief overview of eschatology.

What is Postmillennialism?

When thinking about eschatology today, few Christians are even aware of the postmillennial view. When I have traveled to Russia, Ukraine, Latin America and other nations on short term missions trips, I am usually asked this question by new converts: “Are you pre-trib, mid-trib or post-trib?” as if these were the only three forms of eschatology. I often have to explain that I am not a dispensationalist. It is difficult to show some Christians that there is another way of looking at the end-times and the millennium altogether.

Postmillennialism (literally, “after the thousand years”) is the belief that Christ will physically return to the earth only after a non-literal millennium is completed. Postmillennialism is optimistic about the end times. Christ’s reign over the earth from heaven increases during the millennium, which is thought to be not a literal one thousand year period, but “a very long time.” Postmillennialism places the Church in a role of transforming whole social structures before the Second Coming and endeavoring to bring about a “Golden Age” of peace and prosperity with great advances in education, the arts, sciences and medicine.

All Christians must believe in the literal, physical return of Jesus Christ. Christians may differ in their opinions as to the nature of the millennium and the exact sequence of end times events without departing from biblical orthodoxy.

However, I believe that major problems have been caused by the most popular system: dispensational premillennialism. Ironically, I did not know anything of the postmillennial view until I became aware of the limitations of the dispensational paradigm. In searching for a view to replace dispensationalism, I found postmillennialism to be most convincing.

The article goes on to provide a brief overview of not just the four main eschatological views but several views and sub-categories. It also provides an understanding of “the antichrist,” the second coming, the Beast of Revelation, the great tribulation, and more.