(Transcript of the video above, edited for readability)
Evangelicals have been divided over... I don't mean they've divided over it, but there's differences amongst them as to how they view the Millennium. There's of course the premillennial view, the amillennial, and the postmillennial view are the most common views of the Millennium. And of the three, premillennialism would be the most popular. And I would say amillennialism would be second and postmillennium would be a distant third. It's not common among most evangelicals today, although it was popular among postmillennialist, Jonathan Edwards would be a good example.
Iain Murray, a contemporary writer who's a fond admirer of Puritans would hold to the postmillennial view. But the premillennial view has been a historic view that's been held from the Early Church Fathers. And amillennialism too has been also weaved in amongst the millennial views. Historically, it's been the most common view held by the reformers. But let me maybe break out quickly those views if I can.
The premillennial view sees Christ coming before a 1000-year period of time. And, of course, among the premillennialist there are pre-tribulationalist and post-tribulationalist. But either way, they both believe that Christ is coming at a time that will precede an earthly period called amillennium, 1000 years where Christ will reign. And there's different ways in which premillennialist look at how that will play itself out.
Christ, will they believe be here upon earth in some of those views. Christ will literally be sitting on the throne of David that the Ezekielian temple will be rebuilt. Sacrificial system will be reinaugurated, and first covenant practices will be again reinstituted. You'll have a Levitical priesthood, and you'll have a lot of resemblance to way things were done in the Old Testament, but with a different nuance because of the new covenant period and how that has changed things.
At the end of that millennial period, Christ will come, and He will establish the new heavens and the new earth called the eternal state. The amillennial view sees also a millennium, but it's a spiritual millennium. That's why it's called amil because it's not a millennium in the way the millennium is commonly understood. That is that Christ is not going to reign on earth and not reign for a literal 1000 years.
They would say that Christ is reigning right now, and that this time period between the first and the second comings of Christ is the millennium, which is used again in a symbolical way. The word thousand only appears six times, and that's all in the Book of Revelation Chapter 20. So Christ is reigning now, and at the end of that reign is going to be the time when Christ will come, and then He will set up Matthew 25. He will set up his eternal kingdom.
So rather than a temporal 1000-year period of time, He will set up a kingdom that will be forever. The postmillennials believe that in the evolution of church history, there's going to come a point in time where a millennial period will begin literally, and there will be 1000-year period of time where things are going to be changed in a way that's going to be dramatic. The nations are going to be converted or at least give lip service to Christianity, and the world will be Christianized. And that will go on for a period of 1000 years.
And at the end of that time, Christ will literally return then and set up his eternal kingdom. And all of these views, all of them believe that Christ will come again visibly, individually, and that He will come to set up a kingdom. The premillennialist, it'll be 1000-year period and then the eternal state. The amillennials believe that Christ is reigning on the throne of David. Now, for a spiritual 1000-year period of time, that is between the first and the second comings. And then when He comes, He'll set up His eternal kingdom. The postmillennials, again believe there'll be 1000-year period of time before Christ comes and then sets up His eternal kingdom. Those are in a snapshot what are the three millennial views.
