If you expect Jesus to return within the next forty years, does that make you an optimist or a pessimist?
The Pew Research Center recently released a survey about what events Americans believe will unfold in the next forty years. One interesting question asked about the return of Jesus Christ:
As expected, predictions about whether Jesus Christ will return to earth in the next 40 years divide along religious lines. Fully 58% of white evangelical Christians say Jesus Christ will definitely or probably return to earth in this period, by far the highest percentage in any religious group. Only about a third of Catholics (32%), and even fewer white mainline Protestants (27%) and the religiously unaffiliated (20%) predict Jesus Christ’s return to earth.
In addition, those with no college experience (59%) are much more likely than those with some college experience (35%) and college graduates (19%) to expect Jesus Christ’s return. By region, those in the South (52%) are the most likely to predict a Second Coming by 2050.
The Washington Examiner sifted through the data and discovered that 26 percent of Democrats and 19 percent of Republicans believe that the Second Coming “will definitely” happen within the next four decades. Among those who think Jesus will probably return to earth in forty years, there are more GOPers (24 percent) than Democrats (18 percent) that believe this will happen. While these results won’t surprise evangelicals in the South—who recognize that theological views cross party lines—it will probably come as a shock to many Northern secularist that Democrats can be as “Christianist” as Republicans.
But what does it mean? How does this fit into the overall views of Christians in America?
Not surprisingly, there are few areas of Christian theology more contentious or confusing than eschatology, the study of the end times. Should the Book of Revelation be interpreted literally or metphorically? Will Christ establish his Kingdom on earth or has his millenial reign already begun? While I don’t know how much overlap there is with other Christian traditions, within evangelicalism there are four general points of agreement and four general perspectives on eschatology.
The four points of agreement are:
1. Jesus Christ will physically return to earth one day.
2. There will be a bodily resurrection of all people who have ever lived.
3. Satan will be defeated and constrained forever.
4. There will be a final judgment in which believers join Christ for eternity while nonbelievers are separated from God’s presence.*
How this occurs, though, is an issue of great debate. One of the central issues involves the millennium, the thousand-year period during which Christ is said to rule the world. (Revelation 20:1-10). The four most popular views in evangelicalism are dispensational premillenialism, historical premillenialism, amillenialism, and postmillennialism.
Dispensational premillenialism is the view that Jesus will return to remove the church from the world in an event known as the rapture. Theories differ on whether the rapture will occur before, in the middle of, or after a seven year period called the tribulation (pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib). These events will culminate in a literal thousand year rulership of Christ when peace will reign, the natural world will no longer be cursed, and evil will be suppressed. A final rebellion, however, will break out which will end in God crushing evil forever, judging the resurrected, and establishing heaven and hell.
The following beliefs are features of dispensational premillenialism:
Well-known proponents of this view include: Dallas Theological Seminary, Tim LaHaye (author of the Left Behind series), and Pat Robertson.
Historical premillenialism is the belief that Christ will return “before the millennium” in order to resurrect the saints (the “first resurrection”), establish his rule from Jerusalem over the rebellious nations (the battle of Armageddon), and usher in a thousand year period of material peace and prosperity; at the end of this period the nations (still in unresurrected, natural bodies) will rebel and make war against Christ and the resurrected saints (the battle of Gog and Magog), who will be saved by fire from heaven, followed by the second resurrection—now of unbelievers—and the final judgment
The following are features of historic premillennialism:
Well-known proponents include the late theologian George Eldon Ladd, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and the early church fathers (e.g., Ireneaus, Polycarp, Justin Martyr).
Amillenialism is the belief that the millennial kingdom is indeterminate in length and fulfilled by Christ currently ruling in heaven. At the end of this reign Christ will come back to gather the church and judge the nations.
The following are features of amillennialism:
^Some amils are preterists, believing that many of the prophecies (including the one about the antichrist) have already been fulfilled (usually around a.d. 70).
Well-known proponents of this view include Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.
Postmillenialism is the belief that Christ’s second coming will follow the millennium, which will itself be ushered in by the spiritual and moral influence of Christian preaching and teaching in the world.
The following are features of postmillennialism:
At this point there are two types of postmillennialists. Pietistic postmillennialists deny that the postmillennial advance of the kingdom involves the total transformation of culture through the application of biblical law. Theonomic postmillennialists (e.g., Christian Reconstructionists) affirm this.
An extended period of great spiritual prosperity may endure for millennia, after which history will come to an end by the personal, visible, bodily return of Christ accompanied by a literal resurrection and a general judgment, which ushers in the final and eternal form of the kingdom.
Postmillennialism was popular during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and is still popular with many mainline denominations. Few evangelicals, however, hold this view of eschatology.
One last group that could be included is “panmillenialists”—folks who simply believe “whatever happens, it will all pan out in the end.”
(In case your curious about my own view: Like many Southern evangelicals, I assumed for many years that dispensational premillenialism was the historic biblical position. But now I’m an amillenialist who subscribes to partial preterism (e.g., I believe that Nero was the antichrist that St. John was referring to).)
* Boyd and Eddy, Across the Spectrum
**All points listed as features are from R.C. Sproul, The Last Days According to Jesus
[Cross-posted at First Thoughts and adapted from a previous post on Evangelical Outpost.]
July 22nd, 2010 | 11:25 am | #1
I’m a historic pan-millenialist.
It will all pan out in the end.
July 22nd, 2010 | 12:49 pm | #2
This post is bringing back memories of the movie we were shown in Sunday school about the rapture–I had nightmares for years. Our church library was stocked with books about the rapture and the Tribulation and what happens to those who refuse to take the mark of the beast. We frequently sang the song “Wish we’d all been ready” (there’s no time to change your mind, the Son is come and you’ve been left behind). Now that I’m older (and in a church w/out this particular preoccupation), I wonder what the purpose was behind the focus on the Tribulation/Rapture. Other than trying to terrify kids into “accepting Jesus” into their hearts, of course.
July 22nd, 2010 | 2:06 pm | #3
Not an amillennialist? Not a Calvinist. Now that is interesting. Someone has some ‘splaining to do
July 22nd, 2010 | 4:51 pm | #4
nshapland,
While scaring people to convert may be a motive, I think that a lot of the pre-millenialist stuff was as a consequence of the foundation of the state of Israel. There was a view that the world would only last a generation following from the return of the Jews to Palestine. I think that this is also why the pre-mil side has declined in popularity in recent years, as the predictions all seemed to be leading to the second coming in the 1970s or 1980s and they become very strained the further in time we go.
BTW I still think that I wish we’d all been ready is a cool song…
July 22nd, 2010 | 8:21 pm | #5
I really think evangelicalism in particular, and American Christianity in general, would be in much better and stronger condition today had dispensational premillenialism never arisen.
July 22nd, 2010 | 10:05 pm | #6
Thanks for the overview and forgive me for nitpicking a wee bit. Partial preterism seems to be more prevalent among postmils than amils – i.e. Sproul, Gentry, and DeMar. However, I am like you in that I am an amil with partial preterist leanings. Probably the standard amil partial preterist work is Jay Adams – “The Time is At Hand.”
Also, while premillennialism was present in the early church, the question of it’s prevalence is highly debated – see here – http://jollyblogger.typepad.com/jollyblogger/2007/03/premillennialis.html
July 23rd, 2010 | 9:14 am | #7
NShapland: “This post is bringing back memories of the movie we were shown in Sunday school about the rapture–I had nightmares for years.”
It’s one of the perplexing things about a faith that does offer some profound insights into what is beautiful and true.
It’s also frightful. You can’t get around the ugliness of the doctrines of the wrath of God on Judgment Day against those He didn’t elect (or save, depending on your Calvinist sympathies). Some early Christians reveled in the imagery (like Tertullian who imagined one of the joys of Heaven to be watching the bodies of sinners snapping and crackling in the flames).
Most Christians today have difficulty with it, however.
July 25th, 2010 | 8:09 am | #8
My firm views:
1. Jesus is coming back
2. He is not going to be early, or late.
3. He is coming for me.
I toss around all the other stuff, lean one way or another depending; but strive to live my life as if He is coming back NOW while preparing and planning as if He is not coming back for years. And…if He comes back while I’m alive…I hope I’m not debating “end times” but rather bragging on Jesus.
July 25th, 2010 | 12:29 pm | #9
I think point 4 is probably a bridge too far in your lowest common denominator considering
1) the orthodox view of God is He is Omnipresent and;
2) there are text in the Bible that suggest God is not absent from Hell, but rather is present and delivering the punishment.
More than a nominal number of fundamentalists believe that God is present in Hell and personally delivers the punishment.
July 25th, 2010 | 10:06 pm | #10
how do we determine which eschatology is correct, and which is false?
Is there a test that we can do?
July 26th, 2010 | 8:55 am | #11
Reading elaborate speculation like this makes me more secure in my atheism — it’s cleaner, simpler, and doesn’t require me to waste my limited brainpower in flights of angel/needle futility i.e. dispensational premillenialism, historical premillenialism, amillenialism, postmillennialism.
I see no reason why a god would drop down a text so ambiguous and open to radically different interpretations.
July 26th, 2010 | 10:04 am | #12
Didn’t Jesus say that even He-Himself does not know the time, but only the Father knows? And Jesus sits at the Father’s right hand!!
My viEw on the “end times” is, who cares?
July 26th, 2010 | 1:01 pm | #13
An interesting article, Mr Carver, and one that surprised me, because I didn’t realize I was in such a minority. I’m a Christian, and consider myself to be “evangelistic” but I’m unsure if I meet the cultural definition of the word. None of the categories you cited seem to match what my friends and I believe. We believe that the world will get continually worse, as it did before Noah’s flood, until it gets so corrupt and violent that Jesus has to return to save His people. His visible return then resurrects His deceased people and saves the living ones who face persecution, and they all meet Him in the skies and return to heaven with Him, while the unrepentant wicked are slain over the entire world. Jesus is with His people for 1000 years in heaven (actually, in the physical city of New Jerusalem that is temporarily located there), while only animals and plants grow on earth. At the end of that millenium, the city with Jesus and His people return to earth, the wicked dead are all raised, a final judgment is rendered, and the wicked are all destroyed in fire as the earth is melted with fervent heat and made new again. Then the home of Jesus and His people is forever on the new earth. (I can’t figure out what’s supposed to happen to the Voyager space probes now sailing out well past Pluto, however.)
Can you find a fifth category for us, please?
July 28th, 2010 | 10:45 am | #14
[...] found this to be exactly what it claims to be: “A crash course in evangelical views of [...]
July 29th, 2010 | 9:34 am | #15
That dispensational-premillennialist category is just really off. You list that they believe in a pre/mid/post trib rapture (but in all honesty, non-dispensational premillennialists believe that) then go on to say that they (we) believe that Christ will return secretly to rapture his saints before the great tribulation totally ignores the whole pre/mid/post divisor.
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