Premillennialism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Premillennialism
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This article is about Premillennialism in Christian eschatology. For other uses, see
Millenarianism.
Premillennialism in
Christian eschatology is the belief that
Jesus Christ will literally and physically be on the earth for his
millennial reign at his
second coming. The doctrine is called premillennialism because it holds that Jesus' physical return to earth will occur prior to the inauguration of the millennium.
It is
distinct from the other forms of
Christian eschatology such as
postmillennialism or
amillennialism, which view the millennial rule as occurring either before the second coming, or as being figurative and non-temporal..
Historically Christian premillennialism has also been referred as "
chiliasm" or "millenarianism". The
theological term "
premillennialism"
did not come into general use until the mid-19th century, the modern period in which premillennialism was revived.
Coining the word was "almost entirely the work of
British and
American Protestants and was prompted by their belief that the
French and
American Revolutions (the French, especially) realized
prophecies made in
the books of Daniel and Revelation."
[1]
The proponents of
Amillennialism interpret the Millennium as being a symbolic period of time, consistent with the highly symbolic nature of the apocalyptic genre of the book of Revelation, sometimes indicating that the thousand years represent God's rule over his creation or the
Church.
Premillennialism is often used to refer specifically to those who adhere to the beliefs in an earthly millennial reign of Christ as well as a
rapture of the faithful coming before (dispensational) or after (historic) the tribulation preceding the millennium.
Post-millennialism, for example, agrees with premillennialism about the future earthly reign of Christ, but disagrees on the concept of a rapture and tribulation before the Millennium begins. Postmillennialists hold to the view that the second coming will happen after the Millennium.
.