Theology

2

“The Events of the Last Days”[footnoteRef:1] [1: This essay was taken from John M. Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006), 300–313. Logos.]

By John Frame

In this chapter we shall consider the great events of future world history, those events surrounding the return of Jesus … [We will be] considering some events that will take place in the future, events that take place objectively, outside ourselves, but of vital importance to each of us.

The chief event is, of course, the return of Christ, his second coming. In this discussion, theologians have often focused on the relation of Jesus’ return to the millennium, the thousand-year period mentioned in Revelation 20. In my judgment, this is somewhat unfortunate. Scripture mentions the millennium specifically only in Revelation 20. And when it speaks about the return of Christ, it is more interested p 301 in the impact of that hope upon our lives today than on the scheduling of the events. Nevertheless, since this discussion has been a frequent topic of theological debate, we shall have to spend some time on it here.

Revelation 20:1–8 says:

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.

Theologians differ, first, on whether or not the thousand years represent a literal period of time. Since the numbers in Revelation are highly symbolic, it is unlikely that the author expects us to take the number as a literal thousand years. “Thousand” in Scripture is proverbial for a very long time. In Psalm 50:10 the Lord says, “For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.” Psalm 84:10 says, “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere”; similarly, Psalm 90:4: “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.”

The discussion has focused, second, on whether the return of Christ precedes, follows, or divides this period. Premillennialism p 302 teaches that Christ will return before the millennium. Postmillennialism means that Christ will return after the millennium. Amillennialists believe that there will be no literal millennium; a is a negative prefix in Greek, so the word amillennial means “no millennium.” But that is not to say that amillennialists deny the authority of Revelation 20; rather, they interpret the thousand years there as the period of time between the resurrection of Jesus and his return. I shall also discuss a position called preterism, which states that in some respects, at least, the return of Christ has already happened. Preterism comes from the Latin word meaning “past,” and so a preterist believes that some of the passages referring to the return of Christ have been fulfilled in the past.

Amillennialism

First, let’s look at the amillennial position, which we’ll abbreviate as amil (and similarly the others). The amil person believes that the millennium is now, the whole period from Jesus’ ascension to his return. He emphasizes that the resurrection and ascension of Jesus ushered in a new era of world history. Jesus now has achieved a great victory over Satan, sin, and death. Although we don’t see all the effects of that victory now, it is certainly real. It is, perhaps, hard for us to imagine that right now Satan is “bound” (Rev. 20:2), sealed in a bottomless pit (v. 3), but it certainly is the case that his power is weakened. The amil says that Satan no longer deceives the nations (v. 3) as he did before the coming of Christ. Before Jesus came, believers in the true God existed mainly in Israel. The other nations were deceived by Satan into worshiping idols. But after the resurrection, the Christian church received power to reach people of all nations with the message of the gospel. And God will continue to empower this mission until the last day, until there are believers from every kingdom, tongue, tribe, and nation.

The amil, however, emphasizes that this period is also a period of suffering and persecution for the church. God’s triumph at this time is spiritual, not material. We should not expect to have wealth or possessions. We should not expect to dominate the cultures in which we live—in politics, the arts, education, and so on. God will take from p 303 various cultures those he chooses to save. But culture itself will not be redeemed. Indeed, some amils believe that the cultures of the world will get worse and worse until Jesus returns.

Amils affirm that toward the end of this era Satan will be released briefly, as Revelation 20:3 indicates (also vv. 7–8). He will then deceive the nations again, presumably achieving some measure of his old power. But he will be frustrated and defeated by the return of Christ and the judgment that will result in his final destruction.

Amils hesitate to draw up timetables of the events preceding Jesus’ return, beyond what we have already described. They do confess that when Jesus returns, there will be a general resurrection, a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked, both believers and unbelievers. All people, then, will be gathered for the final judgment, and they will pass from what we earlier called the intermediate state into the eternal state. That eternal state is the new heavens and new earth in which dwells righteousness.

The “first resurrection” of Revelation 20:5 is, on the amil view, what we called in the previous chapter the intermediate state. In that state, martyrs and other deceased believers reign with Christ through the thousand years, that is, the present age. The second resurrection is the physical resurrection of all the dead preceding the final judgment. Similarly, the first death is the physical death of human beings; the second death is the condemnation of the wicked, a death that believers do not experience.

Postmillennialism

Now let’s look at the postmillennial view. Most recent postmils agree with the amils that the millennium is now, the period from Jesus’ ascension to his return. Some postmils, however, especially in the older literature, have said that the millennium is a portion of that period, toward the end of it, before the return of Christ. The postmil agrees that this is the time in which the gospel is preached throughout the world. He agrees with the amil as to the meaning of Satan’s binding and Satan’s brief release before Jesus’ return. He also agrees with the amil on the general course of events in the end times: Jesus p 304 comes, then the general physical resurrection of the righteous and the wicked, then the final judgment, then the new heavens and new earth.

So, someone will ask, how does the postmil differ from the amil? Well, although the postmil agrees with the amil that our age is a time of persecution for the church, he also thinks that during this time Christians will come to have more and more influence in the general culture. Believers will indeed gain wealth, influence, and even dominance.

Premillennialism

There are two forms of premillennialism, one usually called classical or historic and the other called dispensational. Both view the millennium as yet future, beginning after the Lord returns to earth.

The classical form of premillennialism is a very ancient view that goes back to some of the earliest church fathers. They taught that at the end of the present age Jesus will come and raise believers to be with him. Then he will reign upon the earth for a thousand years or some other long period of time. During this time (and not until then) Satan is bound in the bottomless pit. At the end of this time, God will release Satan, and at his instigation some on earth will rebel against Jesus (Rev. 20:3, 7, 8). But the Lord will put down the revolt and raise all the dead for final judgment. Then come the new heavens and new earth.

The dispensational form of premillennialism is more recent (nineteenth century) and more complicated. The key to understanding the dispensational view is the idea that Jesus actually returns twice, which makes a total of three times that Jesus comes to earth. His first coming was, of course, his conception in the womb of Mary two thousand years ago. At his second coming, at the end of this age, he comes secretly and raptures believers to be with him. The rapture is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, where Paul says, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (v. 16). The rapture is the Lord’s taking his people to be with him in the air. All Christians p 305 believe in the rapture. What is unique to dispensationalism is the view that the rapture is invisible and secret. This is the picture presented in the Left Behind novels and movies: believers mysteriously disappear from offices, streets, airplanes, and so on, with nobody knowing where they are.[footnoteRef:2]1 [2: 1 Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, Left Behind (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1996), and many sequel volumes. I’m trying to avoid editorializing in this section, but given the shout and the trumpet of 1 Thess. 4:16, the rapture does not seem to be very secret.]

Then, according to the dispensational premil, comes a seven-year period of satanic dominance, which gets much worse in the last three and one-half years (these figures come from Dan. 7:25; 9:27; 12:7, Rev. 12:14). The seven-year period is called the great tribulation. Most dispensationalists believe that Jesus’ secret coming to rapture his saints takes place before the great tribulation. So, their view of Jesus’ return is not only premillennial but also pretribulational, “pretrib,” as we say. There are some dispensationalists, however, who hold that the rapture is midtribulational (that is, three and one-half years into the great tribulation, before the worst part of it) or posttribulational. On the majority pretribulational view, of course, believers do not have to endure the great tribulation at all. Jesus rescues them from it.

After the great tribulation, Jesus returns again—his second, second coming, or his third coming. In the earlier (secret) coming, Jesus comes for his saints; in the visible third coming, he comes with his saints. This coming is public. He then reigns on earth for one thousand years, which may or may not be a literal number. This is the millennium described in Revelation 20:1–6. At the end of this time, there is another apostasy, a period in which Satan is loosed. Then comes the final judgment and the new heavens and new earth.

For the dispensational premil, the millennium is a time in which God fulfills promises he made specifically to the Jews. In the dispensational view, there are two distinct people of God, the Jews and the church of Christ (which contains both Jews and Gentiles). God has promised that the Jews will rule in an expanded land of Palestine, which will literally take place in the millennium. Nondispensationalists believe that the promise of land to Israel is fulfilled in the promise to all Christian believers of a new heaven and new earth. For the nondispensationalist, there is only one people of God: that olive tree of Romans 11 from which some branches have been removed (unbelieving Jews) and others (believing Gentiles) have been grafted in.

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Arguments for Amillennialism

I have described for you the chief millennial views. Let us now consider the arguments that are offered for each, beginning with amillennialism.

The idea that Satan is bound during the present age is, perhaps, hard to swallow at first. It seems more likely, at first glance at least, that, as Hal Lindsey said, “Satan is alive and well on planet earth.” However, we should always ask if the biblical writers saw things in the same perspective. Remarkably, Jesus, even in his earthly ministry, reports that he saw Satan fall from heaven (Luke 10:18). The binding of Satan, to the early church, probably did not mean that Satan has no power at all but that he can no longer prevent the Great Commission from happening. The Great Commission mandate, the worldwide mission of the church, is the most important event of our present age. The important thing, to the early Christians, is that people from all nations are being saved, despite Satan’s best efforts. Revelation 20:3 gives us precisely that interpretation. Satan is not yet deprived of all his power, but he is no longer able to deceive the nations.

Over against premillennialism, Scripture never suggests that there is more than one coming of Christ in the future, preceding one general resurrection (Dan. 12:2; John 5:28–29; Acts 24:15). The return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment all occur together (Matt. 24:29–31).

And it certainly is the case, as the amil says, that the age in which we live, even though it is a time when the nations come to Christ, is also an age of persecution, lawlessness, and evil (Matt. 24:21–30; 2 Tim. 3:1–5, 12–13; 4:3–4).

Arguments for Postmillennialism

The postmil replies that in this age the kingdom of God is going to be triumphant. Not all at once—it is a gradual thing, certainly—but in time it will fill the earth (Matt. 13:31–33). The Great Commission will be entirely successful. Furthermore, it will triumph over all opposition to God’s purposes. Postmils understand in this way the great number of Bible passages that speak of God’s p 307 victory over all his opponents (Pss. 22:27; 37:9–11; 46:8–10; 47:1–3; 66:4; 72:8–11; 86:9; 138:4–5; 149:5–9; Isa. 9:2–; 11:1–10; 32:15–17; 40:4–11; 42:1–12; 49:1–26; 56:3–8; 60:1–22; 61:1–11; 62:1–12; 65:1–25; 66:1–24; cf. 1 John 5:4). Amils and premils will protest that these refer to the new heavens and the new earth, but it is hard to avoid the impression that God’s people, even his Old Testament people, looked forward to this kind of victory before the final judgment.

Furthermore, it is not as easy as premils and amils think to distinguish spiritual from cultural success. When people embrace the spiritual benefits of the gospel, it changes their lives comprehensively. It gives them new values and a new power to emulate God’s holiness. God charges them to bring that new holiness into every sphere of life: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). So, Christians throughout history have indeed transformed many spheres of human life: science, the arts, politics, education, the care of the poor and sick. This is almost inevitable: regenerate people renew the institutions and practices of the world. Of course, this process has its ups and downs. On the whole, the gospel had more cultural influence in America three hundred years ago than it does today. But that is because there is a smaller proportion today of people who profess Christ as Savior and Lord.

We see this process in Scripture. Joseph, Esther, and Daniel lived in pagan countries, but they were faithful to the true God. Their faithfulness led them into conflict with the values of the society around them. Nevertheless, God blessed their faithfulness, and that faithfulness brought benefit to the unbelieving societies of which they were part.

In the early centuries of the church, believers patiently endured much persecution for the sake of Christ. But the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church, and it grew despite all Satan could do. By the fourth century the Roman Empire was officially Christian. We may disagree as to whether Constantine’s conversion did more harm than good for the church. But we cannot doubt that it gave the church a great deal of cultural power, which lasted through the medieval period and later.

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Arguments for Premillennialism

There is also a case to be made for premillennialism. For one thing, the evidence from the church fathers, one or two generations removed from the apostles, is impressive. Furthermore, there are some Bible passages that describe a reign of God upon the earth, which do not seem to fit either the present age or the eternal state. God reigns visibly on earth, and yet there is continuing sin and rebellion. In Isaiah 65:18–20 we read:

But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

This seems to be a prophecy of the last days, in which God reigns on earth. It might seem at first hearing to be a description of the eternal state, the new heavens and new earth. But in this image God has not finally done away with sin and death (cf. Isa. 11:6–11; Ps. 72:8–14; Zech. 14:5–17; Rev. 2:26–27). Furthermore, the most natural reading of Revelation 20 is that it describes future events rather than past ones. The binding of Satan is not normally something we would associate with the age in which we live, even granting the possibility of that meaning. Furthermore, the idea of saints coming to life is certainly compatible with a future resurrection; and although there is a sense in which we reign with Christ now, and a stronger sense in which the glorified saints and martyrs reign with Christ now, Luke 19:17 does present this as a reward for believers in the last days.

Preterism

There is another approach to the biblical teaching about the last days that is rather different from any of the positions I have described above. That is preterism, which says that many or all of the prophecies of Jesus’ coming were fulfilled by God’s judgment on Jerusalem p 309 in AD 70. That means that there was a coming of Jesus that is past, from our point of view. As noted earlier, the word preterism comes from a word that means “past.”

The arguments for preterism largely hinge on the passages that speak of the nearness of Jesus’ coming from a first-century perspective. In Luke 21, for example, where Jesus speaks extensively of the end times, he says in verses 31–32, “So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.” That suggests that the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecies is going to be near, perhaps thirty or forty years hence, not thousands of years in the future.

Others counter that passages like Luke 21 and Matthew 24 speak not just of the destruction of Jerusalem but of a cosmic destruction—the end of the world. However, that language can be figurative. It is used in other prophecies describing war, such as Isaiah 34:1–4 and verses 9–10. And when Jesus speaks in Matthew 24:3 of “the end of the world” (kjv) preterists say that he is speaking of the end of the world of the Jews—of their temple, holy land, and covenant with God.

With regard to the prophecies of the nearness of the last days, there are other possible explanations. The most common one is that the kingdom of God came in power when Jesus rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sent the Spirit upon the church. That would explain Jesus’ statement in Matthew 16:28, for example, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” But another explanation of that statement might be found in the first verses of the following chapter: the disciples witnessed Jesus’ glorification on the Mount of Transfiguration. At least, it is not necessary to explain the nearness of the kingdom by making it refer to the events of AD 70.

As for the use of language suggesting cosmic destruction and the end of the world, while that language can be used figuratively in Scripture, the figurative interpretation is not necessary.

Preterism may turn out to be right with regard to some predicted events. Certainly, the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 is at least partly about the fall of Jerusalem. But there are a number of predicted events that clearly did not take place in AD 70. Among p 310 those are the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked, the final judgment, the visible appearing of Jesus to every eye, the visible dwelling of God with men in the new heavens and the new earth, and the removal of all sin and sorrow from this world.

It is also significant that the early church fathers of the generation following the apostles never speak of a return of Christ that occurred in AD 70. If this were the momentous event preterists make it out to be, one would think that they would have made that one of the main themes of their writings. But, in fact, they don’t even mention it.

Some extreme preterists say that there is no coming of Christ that is future to us; we have no return of Christ to look forward to. On their view, all the prophecies of Jesus’ return were fulfilled in AD 70. I believe this view is quite wrong, even heretical. Scripture quite clearly teaches that Jesus will come to judge all the living and the dead. That has not happened yet. Every branch of the Christian church has maintained that and has found that to be a blessed hope, as in Titus 2:13. Extreme preterism takes away that hope.

The Already but Not Yet

In all of this talk of the return of Christ and the millennium, we have missed one of the most fundamental biblical emphases: that is, we ourselves live in the last days. Hebrews 1:2 says, “In these last days he [God] has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” The “last days” in this passage is the period following Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. The term “last days” is used in similar ways in Acts 2:17, 2 Timothy 3:1, and 2 Peter 3:3. As the amils, postmils, and preterists emphasize, there is a sense in which the kingdom of God has come.[footnoteRef:3]2 It was established by Christ’s atonement, and we all have entered it (Col. 1:13). Yet, in another sense, the kingdom remains future, as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come.” So, the kingdom is here, but yet to come. The last days are here, but yet to come. The fulfillment of history has occurred already in Christ, but it is also not yet, for there is more to come. This is the tension that theologians refer to as the already but not yet. [3: 2 Premils sometimes admit that the kingdom has come “in one sense.”]

p 311 In his atonement Jesus destroyed the power of sin, yet sin will cling to us until his return. He has destroyed Satan in principle, but this victory will not be consummated until the Lord’s return. Oscar Cullmann compares this to the distinction between D-day and V-day in World War II. On D-day Allied troops entered France, in principle dooming the Third Reich. But it took many months of bitter fighting before the Nazis surrendered on V-day, victory day. The cross was like D-day, and Jesus’ return will be like V-day. We live between the times, always in the tension of the already but not yet; and during that time there are many battles to be fought.

Postmils, amils, and preterists emphasize the already, premils the not yet. A balanced eschatology will recognize the importance of both.

Eschatology and the Christian Life

This discussion suggests that biblical eschatology has important practical consequences. I confess my disappointment that so much teaching about the last days is focused on the order of events. I suppose I’m more of a postmil than anything else, but I honestly don’t believe that the Bible is perfectly clear on the order of events. In my view, when Scripture tells us about the return of Christ, it doesn’t give us this information so that we can put it on a chart and watch the events pass by. That would be catering to our intellectual pride, among other things. Why, then, does Scripture have so much to say about the last days? So that we can reorder our lives in the light of Jesus’ coming.

As far as I can see, every Bible passage about the return of Christ is written for a practical purpose, not to help us to develop a theory of history but to motivate our obedience. These doctrines motivate our obedience in several ways.

First, the coming of Christ should reorder our priorities. In 2 Peter 3:11–12 the apostle says, “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!” (cf. 1 Cor. 7:26). Since God is going to destroy the present earth and replace it with a new heavens and a new earth, what sort of people p 312 should we be? The implicit answer: not people who care a lot about material things or the pleasures of this life, but people who are passionate about the kingdom of God, which will remain for all eternity. That is not to say that there is something evil about material things—only that we should be using them for God’s purposes, not just our own.

Second, if we are eager for Christ to return, we should be purifying ourselves (2 Peter 3:12). Every Christian should not only believe in the return of Christ but also be eager for it to come. At the end of the book of Revelation, the church prays, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (kjv). But if we are really so eager for Jesus to return, so eager for the new heaven and earth, we should be seeking to be as pure as we will one day be in God’s presence. First John 3:2–3 says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

Another ethical implication of the return of Christ is its encouragement. It shows us that our labors for him today are not in vain. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” That is a great comfort in the midst of difficulty. The things of this world are going to be burned up, but our labor for the Lord will bear fruit for eternity.

Fourth, our very ignorance of the time of Jesus’ return has ethical implications; for that ignorance implies that we must be ready at any time for his return (Matt. 24:44; 1 Thess. 5:1–10; 1 Peter 1:7; 2 Peter 3:14). When he comes, we want him to find us busy in our callings, in the work of the Great Commission.

Finally, when Jesus comes, we shall receive a reward, and we should look forward to that reward in our labors here. That reward should motivate us to good works here and now. In chapter 22, I mentioned that biblical emphasis on rewards, and there are many Scripture texts that emphasize this (Matt. 5:12, 46; 6:1–4; 10:41–42; Rom. 14:10; 1 Cor. 3:8–15; 9:17–18, 25; 2 Cor. 5:10; Eph. 6:7–8; Col. 3:23–25; 2 Tim. 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Peter 5:4; p 313 2 John 8; Rev. 11:18). Again, God doesn’t expect us to do our duty merely for duty’s sake but with full understanding that our Father rewards his children not only in this life (Mark 10:29–30) but in eternity as well.

From the biblical emphasis, I would conclude that the main reason God speaks in Scripture so much about the return of Jesus is that this doctrine purifies the hearts of his people. May he use it to purify you and me, as we continue on our journey to glory.[footnoteRef:4] [4: John M. Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006), 300–313. Logos.]