Postmillennialism
A 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.
Also called: postmillennial, postmillennialist, postmil
What it means
Postmillennialism teaches that Christ's return comes after (post-) the millennium, which is a long period, not necessarily a literal thousand years, in which the gospel triumphs across the earth. Through the preaching of the word and the work of the Spirit, most of the world's people will come to faith, and the nations will be shaped by Christian truth. Then Christ will return, the dead will be raised, and the final judgement will follow.
Postmillennialists ground their hope in Christ's present authority over all things, in his parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, and in the many prophecies that all nations will worship the Lord. Christ must reign until all his enemies are put under his feet. This hope shaped many Puritans and later Presbyterian theologians, and it fuelled much of the great missionary movement.
Postmillennialism is one of the millennial views held by faithful Christians and is permitted by the Westminster and 1689 confessions. It should not be confused with the liberal belief in human progress, which has nothing to do with the gospel.
In Scripture
The kingdom is like a mustard seed that becomes a tree and leaven that works through the whole batch.
The Lord's king sits at his right hand and rules in the midst of his enemies.
All authority has been given to Christ, and he sends his church to disciple the nations.
All nations will stream to the Lord's house and learn his ways.
Christ must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 33.1-3; LBCF 1689 32.1-3
On this site: End times
Related terms
AmillennialismA 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.
PremillennialismA view held among orthodox Christians
The belief that Christ will return before a literal thousand-year reign on earth.
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.
TheonomyA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that the civil laws of the Old Testament, including their penalties, remain the standard for civil government today unless the New Testament changes them.