I was going through the list of personal details and when it ask the question about what I believed about the end times or end of the world I realized I had no idea what the different concepts were;
Historic Preterist Futurist Amillennialism Premillennialism Postmillennialism Pretribulation Midtribulation Posttribulation
Could some one explain the difference?
You've already been given some good definitions, but I thought I'd give it a try too.
Preterism - There are actually two forms of Preterism, known usually as Partial Preterism and Full Preterism. Partial Preterism understands Jesus' statements in the Olivet Discourse to be primarily about the destruction of the Temple that happened in 70 AD, however Jesus also mentions His coming at the end of the age, that hasn't happened yet and is still yet to happen. Full Preterism asserts everything has already happened, Jesus' Parousia (return), the Judgment, the resurrection of the dead, there's nothing left to happen. Partial Preterism is regarded as an orthodox position, and in fact is often called Orthodox Preterism; whereas Full Preterism--also called Hyper-Preterism--is considered explicitly heretical. Preterists also generally understand that the Apocalypse (also called the book of the Revelation) describes events from the first century, and isn't about the end of the world.
Futurism - Futurism is, in a sense, the opposite of Preterism (Partial and Full), in that it asserts much, most, even all of what Jesus talks about in the Olivet Discourse is still yet future. Futurism also interprets the Apocalypse as primarily to be about a period known as "the end times".
Historicism - Historicists believe that events have been unfolding throughout the course of history. So for example a Preterist would see the "the Beast" of the Apocalypse as referring to the Roman Emperor Nero and/or Domitian, a Futurist would see "the Beast" as referring to a final end times Antichrist, the Historicist sees "the Beast" as something present throughout history. Most famously many of the Protestant Reformers, such as Martin Luther, came to believe the office of the Papacy to be the Beast, not an individual pope, but rather the papal office itself (in fact from this perspective the individual pope can be a believing Christian, but the office he resides in still be antichrist).
Premillennialism - Known in antiquity as Chiliasm (Greek for Millennialism). Adherents interpret the Millennium mentioned in the Apocalypse as being literal, a literal thousand years that will begin with Christ's return in the future. Generally there are two kinds of Premillennialism, the first is often called Historic Premillennialism. Historic Premillennialism was the view of a number of ancient Church Fathers such as St. Justin Martyr, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, and St. Hippolytus of Rome, this is the view that was known as Chiliasm and it agrees with what I already mentioned. The second is a more recent view known as Dispensational Premillennialism, or just Dispensationalism for short. This is the view that introduced the idea of Pretribulationism which will be addressed shortly.
Amillennialism - This view interprets the Millennium to be an indeterminate amount of time between Christ's ascension and His coming again. The Millennium is therefore understood figuratively to be about the reign of Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, right now. This is the majority view of most Christians both historically and at present. Lutherans, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox (etc) are all historically and classically Amillennial.
Postmillennialism - In this view the Millennium refers to a period of time in which the Church, in a sense, spreads throughout the world and ushers in the Millennium by converting the whole world to Christianity. After Christians have taken over the positions of political, moral, and cultural power throughout the entire world, Christ will return and take things from there. This view is most notorious as being the view of R. J. Rushdoony and his idea of Christian Reconstructionism and Theonomy, and is advocated by a minority of Neo-Calvinist theologians (of which Rushdoony was one). It needs to be said that this view is a minority view only by some non-standard Calvinists, it isn't a normative idea for Calvinists by any stretch of the imagination.
Pretribulationism - With the advent of Dispensationalism by John Nelson Darby in the 19th century the idea of the Rapture began. Specifically the idea that before a period of massive tribulation God would remove His faithful from the world. This idea of Christians being "raptured" out of the world before a period of major tribulation is the view of Dispensationalists and is known as Pretribulationism so as to differentiate it from other tribulational views that came about, namely:
Midtribulationism - Midtribulationists, like Pretribulationists, accept the Dispensationalist idea that there will be a seven year period of tribulation, the first 3.5 years being relatively mild, with the latter 3.5 years being known as the Great Tribulation and is when things really hit the fan. Midtribulationists believe that Christians will be "raptured" out of the world before the Great Tribulation, that is, midway through the Tribulation. There is another kind of Midtribulationism known as Pre-Wrath, though it's been a while so I don't really recall how it differs exactly from Midtribulationism.
Posttribulationism - Like the above two, the Dispensationalist idea of a seven year tribulation is accepted, but Posttribulationists reject the idea that Christians will be "raptured" away from the tribulation, but will go through it until the end. And will then share in the resurrection at Christ's return.
As a bonus:
Idealism - Idealism is compared/contrasted with Preterism, Futurism, and Historicism, and largely is a way of interpreting the Apocalypse. Rather than trying to find specific events or persons that correspond to the things mentioned in the Apocalypse, Idealists interpret the Apocalypse to be describing the continued struggle between Christians and the powers of this world.
-CryptoLutheran
