Amillennialism
A view held among orthodox Christians
The view that the thousand years of Revelation 20 describe Christ's present reign from heaven between his first and second comings.
Also called: amillennial, amillennialist, amil, realized millennialism
What it means
Amillennialism teaches that there will be no separate thousand-year earthly kingdom before the final state. The name is misleading: amillennialists do believe in the millennium, but they read it as the whole age between Christ's ascension and his return. Satan is bound now, in that he cannot stop the gospel going to the nations; the saints who have died reign with Christ in heaven; and the "first resurrection" is either the new birth or the believer's entrance into Christ's presence at death.
At the end of this age there will be a time of trouble, and then Christ will return once, visibly and bodily. The dead will be raised, all people judged, and the new heavens and new earth revealed. Amillennialists read Revelation as a series of visions that cover the same age from different angles, rather than as a strict timeline.
Amillennialism has been the majority view in the Reformed churches and is common among Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists, though the confessions do not require it. It is one of the millennial views held by faithful Christians.
In Scripture
John sees Satan bound and the saints reigning with Christ for a thousand years.
Jesus says no one can plunder a strong man's house without first binding him.
Those who hear Christ's word pass from death to life now, and later all in the tombs will rise.
God has raised believers with Christ and seated them with him in the heavenly realms.
The day of the Lord brings the end of the present heavens and earth, and a new heaven and earth.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 33.1-3; LBCF 1689 32.1-3
On this site: End times
Related terms
PremillennialismA view held among orthodox Christians
The belief that Christ will return before a literal thousand-year reign on earth.
PostmillennialismA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that Christ will return after a long age in which the gospel spreads and the nations are widely converted.
Partial preterismA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that many New Testament prophecies, especially in the Olivet Discourse, were fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, while Christ's bodily return is still to come.
PosttribulationismA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that the church will go through the tribulation and be gathered to Christ at his one visible return at its end.