What Is Amillennialism and How Does It Compare to Other Views of the End Times?

Amillennialism was the dominant view of the end times for most of church history (400-1800 AD). It takes an unusual view of Christ’s millennial reign, described in Revelation 20:1-6. At least, this view may seem unusual since it’s not very popular among American millennial Christians or their parents (Baby Boomers/Generation Xers).

While it may not be a highly popular view in America today, it is still popular in many parts of the world and growing more popular in many churches. So, what does amillennialism teach?

What Is Amillennialism?

Many discussions about the end times revolve around whether Jesus will return and establish a millennial kingdom on earth.

Amillennialism argues that the millennial is symbolic and Christ’s reign began at Pentecost. Therefore, there is no coming millennial reign (a- meaning no, like in atonal or amoral). In this view, Revelation 20:1-6 refers to the present age rather than a specified time in the future. They hold to the idea that God’s kingdom has come already with Jesus’ resurrection and is coming again with his final return in judgment. Everything between these two events is the church age.

Many amillennialists see the book of Revelation as describing events that run in parallel. They view events in Revelation 4-7 as taking place simultaneously with chapters 8-11, 12-14, 15-16, 17-19, and 20-22, emphasizing different details of the same events. Therefore, no continuous timeline, which would allow for a futurist end times view (like premillennialism or postmillennialism).

Alan S. Bandy explains that a key point in amillennialism is emphasizing the tension of “already/not yet.” Jesus said that the kingdom of God had come when he arrived on earth. Yet the kingdom hasn’t fully arrived; if it had, Jesus would be ruling the earth today. So, as Bandy puts it, “Christians presently live in the inaugurated kingdom, as Christ reigns from heaven; yet they await the kingdom’s full realization when Christ will reign on earth eternally.” Amillienialism’s emphasis on Jesus’ millennial reign starting at Pentecost highlights the “already” part of the “already/not-yet” tension. We don’t have to wait for a coming millennial kingdom: we’re waiting for Jesus to return, but the kingdom started with Jesus’ ascension and continues today.

What Are Amillennialism’s counterparts?

There are three main views on eschatology or the end times: premillennialism (with one view, dispensationalism being so popular it’s sometimes treated as a separate view), postmillennialism, and amillennialism.

• Premillennialism believes that Christ’s second coming and thousand-year reign will come after the great tribulation described in Revelation 20:1-7. Dispensationalism, American evangelicals’ dominant view during the twentieth century, is a type of premillennialism with a distinct emphasis: believers will be raptured away before the great tribulation on earth. You may know dispensationalism from popular Christian book series like Left Behind.
• Postmillennialism believes that Christ’s return will come after the millennial reign. It emphasizes God’s sovereignty over this world, asserting that Christian culture will dominate secular culture and usher in the millennial kingdom. Postmillennialism influenced many Calvinist thinkers, particularly the Puritan movement.

What Do Amillennialists Believe about the Rapture?

The rapture is the belief that Christians will be taken up into heaven to escape the horrors of the tribulation described in Revelation. Most views of the end times don’t believe in a rapture of believers before the tribulation.

Amillennialists don’t believe that Christians will be raptured at all. They believe the church will continue to face tribulation until Christ returns. Believers will be carried through this difficulty through their faith in Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.

In contrast, historic premillennialism teaches that Christians will endure through the tribulation. Then, Christ will return and establish his kingdom afterward. Dispensationalism teaches that the rapture will take away Christians before the tribulation starts.

Postmillennialists believe that the Church will continue to grow. There will be no need for a rapture because Christ will bring more and more people to himself as the Gospel goes into the world, and more people get saved. The world will become increasingly Christian.

What Is the History of Amillennialism?

Many of the earliest Christians argued for a different kind of premillennialism. In this view, believers endure the great tribulation. After this persecution period, Christ would return to establish a physical earthly kingdom. This idea was particularly popular among Jewish converts to the faith. A key theme in all the early eschatologies was the hope they gave believers amid suffering. John makes it clear that he wrote Revelation at least partly to provide hope for believers experiencing persecution.

However, since postmillennialism features an optimistic view of the future, it implies that societies improve as we progress to a culminating point when Jesus returns. When Rome fell in 410 AD, the optimism about human progress disappeared, and postmillenialism became much less popular.

The shift led various fourth-century church leaders to explore amillennialism. Some saw it as vital. Others, such as Augustine and Jerome, explored amillennialism without vigorously promoting it because they saw end times interpretations as a secondary issue. Even so, the fact that Jerome and Augustine, two of the most important church fathers, held to amillennialism gives an idea of how popular it became. Amillennialism remains the dominant view of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians.

Protestants began moving away from amillennialism in the 1600s when Puritan theologians began applying teachings about God’s sovereignty to end times discussions. Puritan and later ideas about how God’s power over creation applies to history since God is working toward a good future became highly popular through the Reformed tradition and spread across America.

Amillennialism regained some support in the nineteenth century when the Restorationist movements aimed to restore early church practices. Then, after World War II, many who had supported postmillennialism shifted to amillennialism. It was difficult to see how God was increasing the church’s influence or that humanity was improving as time went on, with such horrific things happening in the world.

Amillennialism also became popular as an alternative to dispensationalism. Dispensationalist ideas in the commentary of the highly popular Scofield Reference Bible made its ideas famous among nineteenth-century Protestants. The fundamentalist movement that started in the 1910s made dispensationalism still more popular. Meanwhile, liberal theologians racting to fundamentalism adopted amillennialism.

Today, premillennialism has lost some popularity, but many American Christians tend to favor either amillennialism or dispensationalism.

What Are Some Arguments for Amillennialism?

Amillennialists point to the tension between Satan being bound and the pain felt in this life. Pierce Taylor Hibbs summarizes the arguments for amillennialism in four key points.

1. Jesus won, and he rules now. Since Jesus’ resurrection defeated Satan by defeating death, Christians can rest in that victory.
2. We are victorious in Christ, for as Romans 8 says, “We are more than conquerors in Christ.”
3. Suffering identifies Christians from those around them. A key point of the New Testament is that early Christians found identity in their mutual suffering.
4. The church engages with rather than tries to redeem culture (as postmillennialism promotes).

Another argument favoring amillennialism is that it better captures John’s goal in writing Revelation. Consider the challenges the early Christians were going through when Revelation was written. The Roman Empire was telling them at swordpoint to worship Caesar instead of Christ. They were blamed for Rome’s burning. Revelation was written to encourage and remind them of God’s victory. Amillennialism captures this idea through what theologians call a realized eschatology. Challenges are real, and Christ is victorious.

All of these arguments are scriptural, but that doesn’t mean Christians don’t argue about whether amillennialism is valid.

What Are Some Arguments Against Amillennialism?

There are various arguments against amillennialism from different views. Dr. Thomas Ice sees amillennialism as an unscriptural doctrine. He argues that premillennial theology can be derived solely from scripture. Because of the apparent lack of support for the other positions, he asserts that premillennialism is the easiest to argue from scripture and, therefore, the most correct framework.

In contrast, Ice argues that no biblical text supports amillennialism, so it is imposed on the text. He asserts that amillennialism became the dominant view because of Jerome and Augustine, not from the apostles themselves or the scriptures. For example, he says, “Augustine adopted Tyconius’ interpretation of Revelation 20 and produced the earliest form of amillennial theology. Thus, Augustine, in Book XX of The City of God, was the first to actually spell-out a positive statement of amillennialism, which at the same time produced some incipient principles upon which postmillennialism would later arise.” Ice attributes the fall of historic premillennialism to Greek philosophy, specifically Platonism, intruding into the church fathers’ thinking.

Postmillennialists, meanwhile, see amillennialism as simply pessimistic postmillennialism. Dr. Kenneth Gentry states, “amillennialism dissuades the Church from anticipating and laboring for wide-scale success in influencing the world for Christ during this age. It affirms the duty for churches to disciple converts, but it does not believe there will be enough converts to affect the direction of history. Otherwise, it would actually be postmillennialism. Regarding the question of so-called ‘optimistic amillennialists,’ it seems to me that the verses an amillennialist would use to underscore his optimism are those that endorse a postmillennial perspective. Unless, of course, he is optimistic on grounds other than direct biblical revelation. Therefore, he should come out of the closet and be a postmillennialist.”

Dr. Gentry also asserts that the Great Commission is being fulfilled exclusively from a postmillennial viewpoint. He views Christians’ impact on the culture as more critical to fulfilling God’s promises. Most amillennialists view the church’s impact in a more diffuse way. They still want to see the world reached with the Gospel, but they believe the Great Commission’s fulfillment will look different than what postmillennialism imagines.

What Can We Learn From Amillennialism?

Whether or not we agree with amillennialism, we can appreciate some lessons it teaches us.

First, amillennialism shows us the importance of reading scripture well in its context.

Second, amillennialism teaches us to be okay with tension or uncertainty in how things play out. It asserts that Jesus still controls this world despite the chaos around us.

Amillennial theologians helped set the church’s tone for more than 1000 years, and it can be helpful to see their perspectives and compare them to our own. It’s important to understand why amillennialists believe what they do, and it’s also important to understand why other groups believe what they do.

Photo Credit:©GettyImages/Kevin Brine

Ben Reichert works with college students in New Zealand. He graduated from Iowa State in 2019 with degrees in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, and agronomy. He is passionate about church history, theology, and having people walk with Jesus. When not working or writing you can find him running or hiking in the beautiful New Zealand Bush.

This article is part of our larger End Times Resource Library. Learn more about the rapture, the anti-christ, bible prophecy and the tribulation with articles that explain Biblical truths. You do not need to fear or worry about the future!

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