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Prophecy Made Simple

Introduction to Biblical Doctrines
concerning the end times

by Larry Harriman

Most members of IFB churches have only been exposed to one school of thought when it comes to doctrines dealing with the end times.

Most probably wouldn't even know the name of the system they have been taught their whole lives. A select few would know that they are "Dispensationalists".

They are taught each week that while there may be other schools of thought when it comes to Biblical Prophecy, theirs is the only one which takes the Bible literally. All of the other systems Spiritualize the Bible and most Christians who are not Dispensationalists are liberal and do not have a high view of Scripture.

There are however, some Dispensationalists, like Charles Ryrie, who do not question the high views of Scripture that many non-dispensationalists have. In fact, in many of Charles Ryrie's books he goes out of his way to make it clear to his readers that there are good, conservative, Bible believing Christians who disagree with the Dispensationalists approach to the scriptures.

We will get more into what a Dispensationalist is throughout this article. For now, we will start at the beginning. What is the study of the end times? What are the main schools of thought? What are some of the subdivisions within those schools of thought? I will seek to answer some of these questions for you (and myself for that matter) throughout this introductory article.

The purpose of this article is not really to debate the merits of the various schools of thought, but simply to clearly, and fairly present what they believe.

I do not have a formal education from a Christian Bible College. I did however, attend a Baptist Christian school for Junior High and High School. Sometimes it is intimidating to write on topics like Prophecy because they are so vast and you don't know where to begin or where to end.

I have also found it strange that as I read various books on Prophecy, I see that even men who have studied prophecy for 40 or 50 years still come to oppposite conclusions many times. These men that I have read are all conservative, Bible-believing Christians who hold to a high view of scripture. So I figure if the experts disagree, so can we who are not experts.

So while I don't claim to have all the answers, I hope that you will come out of this with more answers than you had before you came to this article. If you do, then it has served its purpose. This is only the beginning of a series of articles I will be writing on the subject of prophecy. While I do hold to specific school (generally speaking) I do not expect you to agree with all my conclusions. I just hope it will encourage you to be like the Bereans and test everything you are taught by the Word of God.

Well here we go, into the abyss called Prophecy...

Biblically speaking, Prophecy can refer to two different things. In one case it refers to Men who preached and continue today to preach the Word of God. When a Pastor stands in his pulpit on Sunday morning and preaches the Word he is in effect prophesying.

The other way Prophecy can be understood is that of proclaiming new Revelation from God. Sometimes this was current and sometimes it was foretelling events that would happen in the future. Very few men were given this privilege from God since the time of Creation.

The study of Prophecy as it pertains to the Bible is called Eschatology. The word Eschatology is derived from two Greek words - eskhatos which means 'last' and logy which means 'the study of'.

Views of the Millennium

When it comes to the study of Biblical prophecy, there are three main schools of thought amongst Bible believing, conservative Christians. There are several variations and subdivisions within these schools but most Christians would roughly fit into one of three categories. These categories are Premillennialist, Postmillennialist, and Amillennialist.

When we speak of the millennium in reference to Biblical Prophecy, we are referring to Revelation chapter 20.

"4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ 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 are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years." - Revelation 20:4-6(NIV)

This passage, and what the thousand year reign of Christ is has been the source of much contention since the early days of the church.

We won't get into a detailed history of prophetic interpretation in this article as that is a whole article in itself. Here is a brief glimpse of prophetic history in a nutshell:

The early church seemed to be Premillennialist in its thinking and then shifted around the time of Augustine to Amillennialism. Postmillennialism developed around the time of the Reformers and was embraced by many of the Reformers. Premillennialism did not come back into popular acceptance until the early 1800's. There are some rare instances of it reappearing amongst some of the Radical Reformers in Europe before the 1800's.

The Premillennialist holds to a literal view of Revelation chapter 20. The Premillennialist believes that at the Second Advent of Christ, Christ will return bodily to reign on the earth for a literal one thousand year period.

Most Premillennialists are Futurists, in that they hold the Olivet Discourse(Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21) to be speaking of a future Great Tribulation which will befall the world. Generally Premillennialists believe the world will get worse and worse (especially because of the Ant-Christ) culminating in the great battle of Armageddon at the end of the Great Tribulation. Satan and the Anti-Christ are bound for the one thousand year reign of Christ and then released at the end of that period to deceive the nations one last time before they are eternally thrown into the Lake of Fire.

The Premillennialists, while disagreeing on how many resurrections and judgments there are, agree that there is not just one general resurrection as Postmillennialist and Amillennialist believe. Some Premillennialists, such as myself, believe in two resurections and one general judgment.

The Postmillennialist, holding a less literal view of Revelation 20 then the Premillennialist, believes the Second Advent of Christ will happen after the millennium spoken of in Revelation 20. They believe the world will eventually be dominated by Christianity and its morals and teaching, ushering in a long period (not necessarily 1000 years) of peace and prosperity after which Christ will return and the general resurrection and judgment (righteous and unrighteous) will occur. Then God will bring about the new heaven and earth and the eternal state will be ushered in.

Postmillennialists are generally Preterists - meaning that they view the Olivet Discourse as speaking of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Some view the Olivet Discourse as referring to the various persecutions that the church has faced throughout history. They are not expecting a literal, supernatural, Great Tribulation to come in the future. They look forward to the world getting better and better and eventually the Christianization of the world.

The Amillennialist position holds much more in common with the Postmillennialist position then the Premillenial position. Like the Postmillennialist, the Amillennialist does not view the 1000 years of Revelation 20 as literal but it only refers to a long period.(Augustine, the first great proponent of Amillinnialism did believe the thousand years were literal).Also like the Postmillenialst the Amillennialist is a Preterist, believing the Olivet Discourse was fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem of in 70 A.D.

Where Amillennialism distinguishes itself from Premillennialism and Postmillennialism is in its view of when the millenium starts and the nature of that millenium. The Amillennialist believes that the 'millenium' of Revelation 20 started at the first advent of Christ. The believe the death and resurrection of Christ ushered in the millenium and that Christ and the church are reigning spiritually over the earth now. This millenium(really just a long period) will end with the second advent of Christ which will be followed by one general resurrection and judgment of both the righteous and the wicked.

There are two main divisions within Premillennialism - Historic Premillennialists and Dispensational Premillennialists. Some have broken the division into 4 groups - Historic Premillennialists and Progressive Dispensationalists, and Classical and Revised Dispensationalists.

Classic and Revised Dispensational Premillennialism is unique from all other schools of prophetic thought in two areas - its distinction of Israel and the Church and it's dividing the Second Advent of Christ into two phases. They believe the first phase of the Second Advent will be the secret rapture of the church(New Testament Saints) followed by the Great Tribulation. After the Tribulation, the second and final phase of the Second Advent will occur with Christ coming in glory with the Saints who were raptured 7 years previously.

Classic and Revised Dispensational Premillennialism in essence sees two peoples of God - National ,Spiritual Israel and the Church. The easiest way to say it without the big terms is that the Old Testament prophesies concerning the Millennial Kingdom are strictly applicable to saved physical Jews. While the New Testament does seem to call Christians Spiritual Jews, they believe the Old Testament promises only apply to Spiritual AND physical Jews.

It also sees the coming Great Tribulation as only applicable to National Israel, as God's way of bringing them back to him. This is why for Dispensational Premillennialism the church can not and does not have any part in the coming Great Tribulation.

While there are some minor differences between the Historic Premillennialist and the Progressive Dispensationalist they are essentially the same. They both see the church as the redeemed of all ages. Unlike the Classical and Revised Dispensationalists, they see the Second Advent with the rapture and return of Christ to earth for his millennial reign as one event following the Tribulation. The Historic Premillennialist and the Progressive Dispensationalist see the Tribulation not just as God's judgment on Israel, but as God's judgment of a rebellious and sin cursed world with the Anti-Christ as its leader.

The one major thing that the Dispensational Premillennialist and the Amillennialist have in common is that they both believe in a doctrine of the imminent return of Christ. They believe it for different reasons of course, but the net result is the same. The Dispensational Premillennialist believes Christ could come back at any moment and this will start the process of the end times with the Great Tribulation followed by the Millennial Reign of Christ on the earth. The Amillenialist believes that Christ could come back at any moment as well, but that his coming will mark the end of the millenium, and bring about the eternal state.

The Historic Premillennialist and the Postmillennialist both believe that certain events must take place before the Second Advent of Christ and therefore reject the imminency doctrines of the Dispensational Premillennialist and the Amillennialist. For the Historic Premillennialist, the coming Great Tribulation will precede the Second Advent of Christ. For the Postmillennialist the coming Golden Age of Christianity brought about by the conversion of much of the world must happen before the Second Advent of Christ will occur.

The Historic Premillennialists and the Dispensational Premillennialists both believe in a literal, future, 7 year Great Tribulation followed by the physical reign of Christ on the earth for 1000 years.

The Historic Premillennialists, Amillennialists and Postmillennialists all share in common their view that the elect of all ages are the Church (congregation) of God. There are differences in how they come to that conclusion, but the result is the same.

The issues concerning the end times that all the systems agree on, is that regardless of the timing of these events they all will occur: Christ will return bodily to the earth and the saints and wicked will be resurrected and judged and God will bring about a new heaven and new earth where we will live with him for all eternity.

The purpose of this introduction was not to argue the validity of the various schools of thought or show how they come to their conclusions based on the Scriptures. The purpose was simply to state what they believe. In coming articles we will delve more into how the various schools arrive at their interpretations and I will discuss why I subscribe to the Historic Premillenial subdivision of Premillennialism.

Other articles on Prophecy:

Israel and the Church - What is the Relationship between the two?
A Historic Premillennial Timeline