A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

by Kim Riddlebarger

Even as staunch a premillenarian as George Ladd is forced to admit regarding this passage, “If this is the final judgment, what do we do about the millennium? There seems to be no room for it. The author is frank to admit that if we had to follow this passage as our program of prophecy, there would be no room for a millennium. I would have to be an amillennialist.”[8] How does Ladd escape this dilemma? He does so by denying that this text has anything whatsoever to do with a “program of prophecy.” According to Ladd, Matthew 25:31–46 is a parable instructing Jesus’s disciples about their responsibilities under the Great Commission.[9] Ladd’s comments stand in contrast to those he makes elsewhere when he says that the entire premillennial system of interpretation hinges on not avoiding clear and unambiguous