A Case for Amillennialism Quotes

“Instead of trying to connect the signs of the end to current events, the church is to be about its divinely commissioned task of preaching the gospel. Jesus has not called us to speculate about his coming. Instead, he has called us to persevere to the end during the calamity of nations, the groaning of the earth, the rise of false teachers, and in the face of persecution. He has called us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“Therefore, postmillenarians are absolutely correct to be optimistic about the triumph of Christ’s kingdom and the influence of Christianity on the cultures of the world. But postmillenarians err when they attempt to locate the triumph of the kingdom in the Christianizing of the nations and the economic, cultural, and religious progress associated with an earthly millennium. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. But one day, John said, the kingdoms of this world will “become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (Rev. 11:15). That day will come when Jesus Christ returns, but not before.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“The one sign of the end Jesus gave, however, that falls into the realm of the church’s responsibility is that the gospel will be proclaimed to the nations before the Lord returns. If we truly desire the return of our Lord, then our energies should be devoted to missions and evangelism, not to undue speculation and date-setting, striving to discern the identity of the Antichrist, or claiming that specific natural disasters and wars were foretold by Jesus and the apostles.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“The meaning of this verse is that it is part of God’s eschatological purpose that before the End all nations shall have an opportunity to accept the gospel. The interval is the time of God’s patience during which men are summoned to repentance and faith; it has for its content the church’s mission to the world. That does not mean that the world will necessarily get steadily more Christian or that the End will not come till all men are converted. It is a promise that the gospel will be preached, not that it will necessarily be believed. The disciples’ witness is another characteristic of the last times.[35]”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“The presence of famine and natural disasters, including earthquakes, and the reality of continuing warfare among the nations after the coming of the Messiah should serve “not to curb enthusiasm for the Lord’s return but to warn against false claimants and an expectation of a premature return based upon misconstrued signs.”[26] The Messiah has come and inaugurated his kingdom. But the Messiah must return at the end of the age to consummate that kingdom! The presence of war, famine, and earthquakes throughout the entire interadvental period tells us that the consummation is still yet to come.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“We long not for an earthly utopia in which the city of man becomes the city of God. The harlot Babylon cannot be fumigated and remodeled. We do not long for an earthly millennium in which a fallen world is whitewashed for a time, with sinful human nature still present beneath the serene veneer while Jesus temporarily rules the nations from his earthly throne in Jerusalem. No, we long for the same thing Abraham did—a heavenly country and a heavenly city (Heb. 11:16). As God promised Abraham, even now he is preparing this very thing for his people. When Jesus Christ returns, a new heaven and a new earth will become a glorious reality, but not before.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“Why did Paul warn us about heresy and false teaching if he saw a golden age ahead for the church in which the peril of false teaching is eliminated until a brief period of apostasy? He gave us this warning because he expected heresy and false teaching to plague Christ’s church until the end of the age. We must be on our guard until the day of Christ Jesus.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“Scottish theologian John Dick wrote, “However improbable it may seem that the whole world should be Christianized, we know that God is able to perform what he has promised. . . . A future generation will witness the rapidity of its progress; and long before the end of time.”[30] This is a point well taken, since amillenarians believe much the same thing about the present age, namely, that the gospel will spread to the ends of the earth before Christ returns. What separates amillenarians from postmillenarians is the fact that amillenarians do not necessarily believe that things will get better for God’s people on a global scale. In fact, things may get worse.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“Although there was no definitive messianic consensus in Israel, several messianic expectations were widely held throughout Palestine in the days of Jesus. First, when the Messiah appeared, he would bring salvation and blessing to his people and judgment on the wicked nations that had oppressed Israel. Second, God would return this long-promised messianic king to David’s royal throne. Third, this messianic king would liberate Palestine from Israel’s Gentile oppressors, especially the Romans.[22] When Jesus announced that the kingdom of God was at hand, these were the expectations his hearers used to interpret his words. But this would have been a thoroughly secularized and politicized kingdom. In many ways, it is the kingdom envisioned by dispensationalists and postmillenarians. Jesus spoke of a different kingdom, where God would bring deliverance from humanity’s true enemy, the guilt and power of sin. Because Jesus did not offer the economic, political, and nationalistic kingdom so many in Israel longed for, he was put to death.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“Though the kingdom of God spreads to the ends of the earth throughout the course of this present evil age, it spreads through Word and sacrament and is a spiritual kingdom “which is not of this world.” When men say “here it is” or “there it is,” we must say that “the kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation” (Luke 17:20). But when the last trumpet sounds, the kingdom of the world will at long last become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ (Rev. 11:15). It is then, and only then, that our blessed Lord Jesus will hand his kingdom over to his Father (1 Cor. 15:24–25). Our last and greatest enemy, death, will finally be destroyed.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“the debate between amillenarians and postmillenarians is a more carefully nuanced difference of opinion about the essential character of the millennial age, the precise nature of the victory of the kingdom of God, and the way in which “this present evil age” comes to an end.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“A word of explanation is in order. The apostle John spoke of the new Jerusalem as though it were yet future (Rev. 21:2). When we look more closely at the text, however, we see that this heavenly city is even now coming down from heaven. The new creation, which will be consummated with the coming of Christ in judgment on the last day, has already been inaugurated and is a present reality for the people of God.[13] But how can the new Jerusalem be said to be both present and future? To understand this, we need to distinguish between the earthly copy and the heavenly reality. The author of Hebrews distinguished between earthly and heavenly things: “It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence” (9:23–24). When we speak of the premessianic prophetic expectations regarding the city of Jerusalem and the mountain of the Lord as fulfilled in Christ but awaiting a final consummation at the end of the age, we are speaking of the earthly Jerusalem serving as a type or a copy of the heavenly reality, which now is realized in principle. If true, this strikes a serious blow to the root of dispensational and premillennial expectations about Jesus reigning over an earthly kingdom from a new Jerusalem. The earthly Jerusalem was intended to point us to Jesus Christ and to serve as a shadow of the realities to come when God makes all things new.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“The story of redemption is nothing less than the story of Jesus Christ and his kingdom, which is manifest in the covenant of works, the covenant of grace,[4] and finally the new creation. God’s kingdom is the consummate manifestation of his covenant with his elect, originally made with Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“The pattern of promise and fulfillment runs throughout the pages of Holy Scripture. Jesus Christ and his humble entrance into human history lie at the center of biblical eschatology, the last things, and the millennial age. This explains in part why Reformed theologians see the Old Testament in terms of promises about the Redeemer and the New Testament in terms of their fulfillment. This view preserves the redemptive-historical unity between the testaments. The Bible does not have two divergent testaments bound under one cover. Rather, the Bible is one book with one ultimate author and one central character who appears in two testaments, the Old of promise and the New of fulfillment.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“When people are uncertain about the future and afraid of what might come to pass, dispensationalists assure them that when things go from bad to worse, the church will be raptured from the earth and Christians will not be around to experience the great tribulation or the wrath of the Antichrist. In this way, dispensationalists offer comforting answers to painful questions.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“There is no proper way to discuss what God will do in the future unless we have our feet firmly planted in biblical teaching about what God has done in the past.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“In the Old Testament, the tabernacle was that place where heaven and earth intersected, for there God chose to be present with his people and revealed his divine glory (Exod. 40). Because of Christ’s redemptive work, however, the two peoples are not only made into one but also knit together into the one body of Jesus Christ. The church is now that place where God’s glory resides and where God dwells with his people.[22] In this temple, there is neither Jew nor Greek, as all are living stones in Christ Jesus. A”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“Indeed, the binding of Satan is a continuous activity through the preaching of the gospel in which Christ’s followers make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19). It”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“Christ’s return is not the inauguration of a halfway step on the road to consummation called a millennium. Christ’s return is the consummation.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“Jesus linked the consummation of the kingdom with the parousia and the resurrection, for this age ends on the day of God’s wrath.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times

“Because of God’s saving work, which culminates in the resurrection, sinners will inherit the very kingdom that flesh and blood cannot.”
― Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times