Eschatology According to 4 millennial Views:
Premillennial – Postmillennial – Amillennial – Retromillennial
Premillennialism – Jesus returns in the future before the millennium. Some in this camp think His return will also be before the 7 year tribulation. At which time the saints will be raptured to heaven. They will be protected for those 7 years of great tribulation before returning with Christ to rule on earth for 1000 years. Then comes eternal life.
The church and Israel have two different redemptive plans that lead to eternal life. Eternal life is when the body of God’s people reaches the never-ending age. In this view, the one body of God’s people can’t be only a heavenly realm creation that is joined together in the spiritual realm. It must be physically visible on earth. It must come down from heaven in a physical a form and bring God’s people together on common dirt. The heavenly city of God must become an earthly material city again. Heavenly material is not enough for the eternal city of Jerusalem.
In this eschatology everything is taken concretely and typically if possible, which means the church is the church, the city is the city, the bride is the bride and the nation is the nation. The city can’t be portrayed as the eternal bride of Christ spiritually extending downward from heaven. It is a real physical city on earth that is only preliminarily created in the spiritual realm of heaven. The heaven made city will one day cross the realms (maybe with God’s people in it) in order to materialize on earth. Either God’s people will have hybrid bodies fit for heaven and earth or their heavenly bodies will take on earthly bodies like the angels did, but somehow they will be permanent physical bodies that can appear in the heavenly realm too. Either that or we never live in heaven with real heavenly bodies.
Keeping with this form of concrete interpretation, the actual animals on this planet will not harm each other anymore, after the spiritual city materializes out of heaven. Obviously neither the enormous cube shaped city, that is pictured 35 times bigger than the typical promised land, nor total animal vegetarianism has happened yet, which only adds credence to this scientific model of interpretation. As does the scientific method itself, since we can easily test this view. Just put a wolf and a lamb in a cage together and you will see that the millennium is still future.
Prophetic idioms are of course rejected by this scientific paradigm. In the second exodus, the redemptive release of the old covenant bride from the Jewish old covenant man on the cross, must have created a new covenant Gentile bride. But the Bible says the Gentiles were simply adopted into to the Jewish body. Another new body wasn’t created. If their are two gospels, the present day church is evidently in a never-to-be-married betrothal. What’s to become of the one body of Christ when God remarries the Jews in her new marriage covenant? Will there be two separate human creations or will we be adopted in again and become one body again after the Jews are born again again?
After all of the nations are added to the now “Gentile” body of the Jewish Christ, He will return to take a Jewish bride after all. The world is presently being evangelized through hearing this good news? Evidently two brides were released from the side of eschaton Adam on the cross. But if it is the widow who was released from the law of the old marriage then how was the “Gentile” bride released or redeemed? And since their never was an animal bride for Adam, the nations had to likewise become human to join the body of God’s people. The Jews proselytized them. Not all people were in a body that contained God’s likeness. To be born into the old covenant Jewish land was to be born into the national body that carried the image of Yahweh, but it became a dead body that needed spiritual life.
Not all people could be part of the spiritually living bride of Christ. In the first exodus, they had to be betrothed at Sinai then humanized on the way to the promised land of temporary marriage. In the second exodus the new bride was betrothed and then made fit for marriage by the betrothing agent, who was the eternal-life-giving Holy Spirit.
Jesus acquired the Holy Spirit under law among the Jews. He then granted it to the Jews after His ascension. It was their guarantee that this betrothal would lead to the never ending marriage. The Holy Spirit made the widow worthy to marry Christ as the new man. Of course that was not in the flesh because a priest could only marry a virgin. The spiritually reborn Jews became the one and only body of God’s people at the consummation. Because of the nature of the newly betrothed Hebrews, they were already considered the one body of God’s people even before AD 70. In AD 70 the old covenant hold outs were considered the harlot bride rather than the bride made pure by the Holy Spirit regeneration, because they were still in the flesh. They claimed to be in the still-married-to-law status rather than the released-from-law and married by the Holy Spirit status.
James 3:6-9 (Jacob was Jesus’ half-brother who wrote to the 12 tribes in transition to their new covenant.)
Postmillennialism – Jesus returns in the future after the millennium, which may or may not be 1000 actual years. It is either an ongoing ushering in of the kingdom or the current and gradual millennial reign by the spread of the gospel. After the gospel of the kingdom goes to all the nations, the Messiah will return.
Either way, the present era of evangelism is required first. Christ reigns on earth through his disciples before His returning. After this present day millennial reign or kingdom reign is complete, eternal life will either be immediate or 1000 years later. The age of 1000 is what ushers in eternity.
Like premillennialism, the postmillennial delay can practically go on forever. The first century corporate bride who was caused to stand in betrothal can just keep standing there. Of course in the first exodus the national body was caused to stand again by way of a bodily re-generation that only lasted 40 years. The new nation stood after one generation and crossed the river with Joshua.
Amillennialism – The thousand years is both symbolic and numerological. Some suggest this view should be called now-millennialism or fulfilled millennialism. The millennium is either fulfilled or ongoing. Eternal life will be brought to earth when Jesus returns sometime in the future. The church is the fulfillment of the promises to Israel. But she is still being stood up and is not living in heaven with Christ yet.
Retromillennialism – The millennial fulfillment is what lead to eternal life which was already given to His bride/the church. The eternal place for humans is now in heaven.
The thousand years is symbolic, numerological and actual years. The thousand years fulfillment for Adam and for Israel occurred already. Adam needed 70 years to complete his 930 years. In the most famous resurrection chapter of the bible Jesus is called the eschaton Adam because He fulfilled the age of Adam.
The nation also needed their second 70 years for not keeping sabbaticals. But this 70 years was needed to redeem God’s people prior to the second land death. Nobody is redeemed from second death. Judgement/redemption day was AD70. Second death was the eternal judgement.
Believing Jews were betrothed on Pentecost. They married the eternal Jerusalem in AD 70. Of course we are talking about the corporate betrothal of the nation on Pentecost. Moses didn’t come down the mountain and take a single virgin wife. On Pentecost the Jews were celebrating that day when Moses brought the law down the mountain. They agreed to keep the law of God that day which started their 40 year engagement with Yahweh en route to marry His promised land. So did they marry Moses, God, the land, Joshua or the law itself?
After entering the land they were allowed to miss 490 sabbaticals before being removed from the land. This corresponds with Jesus’ statement to Peter. Peter was to forgive his Jewish brethren seventy times seven before the 490 year grace period ended again. Seventy missed sabbaticals also led to the second typical death of the nation and put the types to rest permanently. This was the second death. Those in the first (spiritual) resurrection were not harmed at all by the second death. Because it happened in the spirit realm. The temple in Jerusalem was a copy of the real one in heaven. Our eternal high priest without genealogy is in the real one.