Lutherans and the millenium

[PeterVonVerkannt]

Do you believe in a litteral thousand year reign of Jesus Christ until the Final Judgement or is it purely symbolic ?

Revelation 20

The Thousand Years

1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit[a] and a great chain.

2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,

3 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.

4 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 those 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.

5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.

6 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.

Matthew 24:27-30
English Standard Version (ESV)


27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

The Coming of the Son of Man

29 "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

 

[cajunhillbilly]

I am not Lutheran myself, but Lutherans tend to be amillenilists.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

I am not Lutheran myself, but Lutherans tend to be amillenilists.

You are correct; we are indeed.

 

[BenB]

No, we are amillenialists, which means we believe the millenium is symbolic and happeneing now.

 

[cajunhillbilly]

No, we are amillenialists, which means we believe the millenium is symbolic and happeneing now.

As do most Anglicans and also those of the Reformed persuasion.

 

[PeterVonVerkannt]

Then do you believe that ALL Revelation is purely symbolic too ?

 

[CryptoLutheran]

Then do you believe that ALL Revelation is purely symbolic too ?

The general, if not official, stance in regard to the Revelation is the Historicist position (though I'm more Preterist in this regard personally).

The Revelation is apocalyptic literature, thus by definition it is symbolic and not strictly "literal"--even many if not most Futurists would probably agree with this statement.

The Augustana puts it this way as far as Eschatology is concerned:

"They [Lutherans] condemn also others who are now spreading certain Jewish opinions, that before the resurrection of the dead the godly shall take possession of the kingdom of the world, the ungodly being everywhere suppressed." - Augsburg Confession, Article XVIII.5

-CryptoLutheran

 

[cajunhillbilly]

I know of no one who takes Revelations "literally", not even futurists. By its very nature it is full of symbolism. That is the nature of apocalyptic literature. We need to understand those symbols in light of the rest of Scripture, esp I believe how those symbols are used in previous prophetic books of Scripture. I tend to see The Book of Revelation as starting in the first century and picturing the course of the church until the Second Coming. A picture "behind the scenes" of history. I used to be a dispensationalist but the system was not based on the progression of revelation in general and I abandoned it long ago.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

The Revelation is apocalyptic literature, thus by definition it is symbolic and not strictly "literal"--even many if not most Futurists would probably agree with this statement.

The Augustana puts it this way as far as Eschatology is concerned:

"They [Lutherans] condemn also others who are now spreading certain Jewish opinions, that before the resurrection of the dead the godly shall take possession of the kingdom of the world, the ungodly being everywhere suppressed." - Augsburg Confession, Article XVIII.5

-CryptoLutheran

Our Confessions always say so much, so well, with so few words (there are some exceptions to the few words thing) so they leave little question as to what the writers are saying.

 

[PeterVonVerkannt]

The general, if not official, stance in regard to the Revelation is the Historicist position (though I'm more Preterist in this regard personally).

The Revelation is apocalyptic literature, thus by definition it is symbolic and not strictly "literal"--even many if not most Futurists would probably agree with this statement.

The Augustana puts it this way as far as Eschatology is concerned:

"They [Lutherans] condemn also others who are now spreading certain Jewish opinions, that before the resurrection of the dead the godly shall take possession of the kingdom of the world, the ungodly being everywhere suppressed." - Augsburg Confession, Article XVIII.5

-CryptoLutheran

Any scruptural references ?

 

[Tangible]

Any scruptural references ?

Lutherans use the principle that scripture interprets scripture. If one scripture seems unclear or confusing, read it in light of other scriptures that speak to the same issue.

In regards to a literal, earthly kingdom, this must be read in the light of the following verse -

John 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

 

[EzioAuditore]

And also, just as a rule of thumb, when scripture interprets scripture, since we must start somewhere we also would start the gospels (specifically the Words of Jesus), read them through the Pauline corpus, and understand the NT Antilegomena books through them (2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelations).