Eschatology means “the study of last things.” It’s the field of Christian theology that deals with things like the second coming of Christ, the end of this age, and whether or not there will be a “rapture.” At first, it seems like unnecessary speculation and something that will do nothing but cause division. After all, didn’t Jesus say nobody knows the day or the hour when He will return, not even Himself? 

However, eschatology is more than trying to predict when certain events will happen. It’s much more important than people realize, because it has to do with the “end goal” of the Church. The Bible does not contain a calendar of when things will happen, nor does it give us clues and puzzle pieces for us to figure it out ourselves, but it does speak of the future, and it’s important for the mission of the Church to properly understand what it means.

The biggest debate in eschatology has to do with the “millenium,” or “thousand years” which is something mentioned in Revelation chapter 20. “And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.  He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.” – Revelation 20:1-3

The question is, when will Jesus come back in relation to this “thousand year” reign. Premillennialism states that Jesus will come back before the millennium, (hence pre–millennial) and this millennium will be a thousand-year physical reign of Christ on earth before the final judgment and the New Heavens and New Earth. Postmillennialism states that Jesus will come back after the millennium, (post-millennial) and so the millennium will be a golden age where the whole world is Christian. Amillennialism says that the millennium is not a literal thousand years, but a symbolic image of the “Church” age, the time we live in now between Jesus’s first and second coming. 

Since Revelation is the hardest book of the Bible to interpret, we must not do so carelessly. One of the most important methods for interpreting scripture is to interpret the less clear passages in light of the more clear ones. Another is to recognize the genre of scripture, lest we take poetic language as literal, or we take literal history as mere metaphor. The genre of Revelation is called “apocalyptic literature” which was an ancient genre that relied heavily on vivid symbolism and imagery. Revelation is the most symbolic book in all scripture, being completely filled with symbolic numbers, images, and allusions. Additionally, the New Testament repeatedly speaks of “this age” and “the age to come” without ever mentioning a third age in between. The plain reading of the New Testament is that when Jesus comes back, that is the end. Keeping both of these things in mind, the Amillennial interpretation is the Biblical one. 

In addition, the Reformed tradition completely rejects the idea of “the rapture”. We believe in the second coming of Christ, which is the same event as the final judgement and resurrection. There is no “secret rapture” beforehand. The rapture has been popularized in American Evangelicalism so much that many simply assume it to be true without questioning it, but it is completely alien to Church history. Before the 19th century, there was no concept of a rapture, even though there were a few “Historic Premillennial” theologians who did not believe in the rapture.

Amillennialism has been by far the most common interpretation throughout Church history. Every traditional denomination (Lutheran, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, etc) defaults to an Amillennial view. Of course, as Protestants, we don’t believe that Church tradition has authority in and of itself, but we do believe that it’s necessary for responsibly interpreting scripture, since it acts as a minister to us, expositing the Scriptures for us. Therefore, the more strongly an interpretation is supported by Church tradition, the more likely it is to be the correct one. 

Eschatology also defines the mission of the Church. Premillennialism generally sees this world as a sinking ship, meaning our main goal is to save individual souls and help them escape this world. This leads prominent Premillennial preaches like John MacArthur to say that we should exploit the environment for our own benefit, since this earth will be completely destroyed anyway. Amillennialism, on the other hand, says that the Kingdom of God is a present reality, not just a future one. We believe that the New Heavens and New Earth are a purified version of the world we live in, and that we are called right now to participate in God’s work of reconciling the world back to himself. Therefore we don’t just care about saving individual souls, but about helping the world as a whole. Historically, the Church has had more of a positive impact on society than any other institution because of this view. 

Amillennialism is also the majority view in the Reformed tradition. John Calvin was Amillennial along with nearly all of his fellow Reformers. The Reformed tradition does have room for Postmillennial views, which arise mostly in the Puritan movements and during the First Great Awakening, because Postmillennialism agrees with Amillennialism about the fact that the Church should care about helping the culture until Jesus comes back. The Reformed tradition has a rich history of improving society wherever it went. Calvin has been called a “Christian socialist” by historians, not because he was, but because he improved the living conditions and social services of Geneva so dramatically. 

There are some Premillennialists like John MacArthur who would identify as Reformed, but they are not Reformed in any historical sense. For many today, “Reformed” just means holding to the 5 points of Calvinism, but historically, it meant a whole tradition and system of theology, which Amillennialism is a part of. N.T. Wright is a contemporary Reformed Anglican who has done great work on Eschatology. He is a Bishop and historian who teaches that the main theme of the gospel is about the Kingdom of God which started with Jesus and will continue into eternity. Therefore, the main mission of Christians isn’t simply “how to go to heaven”, but how to spread the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. Of course, we do believe that Christians go to “heaven” when they die, but that’s only the “intermediate state,” since our physical bodies will be resurrected when Jesus returns. Our final hope is a restored and redeemed version of this physical world, where Heaven and Earth will become one and we will live in resurrected bodies with Christ forever.