A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

by Kim Riddlebarger

This occurs when Jesus Christ secretly returns to earth at the beginning of the seven-year tribulation period, the so-called seventieth week of Daniel, which dispensationalists do not see as a fulfilled messianic prophecy but as a future event (cf. Dan. 9:24–27).

According to dispensationalists, the millennium is marked by a return to Old Testament temple worship and animal sacrifices to commemorate the redemptive work of Christ.[5] At the end of the millennium, the nations revolt against Christ, resulting in the great white throne judgment, after which Satan and all unbelievers are cast into the lake of fire.

The irony is that dispensationalists’ practice of interpreting all prophetic texts in a literalistic fashion amounts to a repudiation of the historic Protestant hermeneutic and the principle of the analogy of faith.

The dispensationalists’ literalistic reading of prophetic passages must not be confused with a literal reading. A literal reading—a reading that gets at the plain sense of the text—will allow the New Testament to interpret the Old.

Christians believe that God is an infinite spiritual being and remains hidden and unknowable unless he reveals himself. This he does both in nature and in the Scriptures.

The entire Bible is eschatological in its outlook. This is especially true throughout the Old Testament, which anticipates the coming of Christ, the Redeemer of Israel and the Mediator of God’s covenant.

By limiting eschatology to the rapture and the millennium and by tying Old Testament prophecies to literal future fulfillments, the proper place of eschatology is eclipsed.

Then we look ahead to the final goal. But the end is not merely paradise regained; it is paradise glorified.

This sweeping vision is set out in the opening chapters of Genesis 1 and 2, which speak of creation and paradise, while Genesis 3 speaks of the fall into sin and paradise lost.