Might a Dispensational Premillennial Gospel Be Dangerous?

http://users.bible.org/articles/might_dispensational_premillennial_gospel_be_dangerous

6_09_2012

Dispensational premillennialism teaches a second chance for nonbelievers after the proposed rapture…If dispensational premillennialism is wrong, there will be no space of time for conversions after the coming of Christ for His bride. Only judgment will await the nonbeliever.

Might a Dispensational Premillennial Gospel Be Dangerous?

By Christina Wilson

June 9, 2012

Is there a right/wrong eschatology? Yes, there is. Because the various eschatological views differ widely and describe a very different sequence of events, they cannot all be correct.

Can a dispensational premillennial gospel message be dangerous? Yes, it can be. Even if there is the slightest possible hint that the dispensational premillennial scenario might not be correct, then a gospel based on that possibly false scenario might not be safe for some nonbelievers. I will explain this point of view as this article progresses.

Following is a typical chronological sequence of eschatology for the dispensational premillennial view.¹

·       Rapture: Part I of a dualistic, split return of Christ for the purpose of removing His church from earth (this proposed event is distinct from Christ’s Second Coming, and presentation of the glory of Christ to the world is not a factor).

·       Resurrection and glorification of the church: believers in Christ will receive their resurrected and glorified bodies at the rapture.

·       Tribulation: after the rapture will follow a seven year period when God will pour out judgmental wrath on nonbelievers left on earth.

·       Conversion: of ethnic Israelites en masse.

·       Christ’s Second Coming: at the closing climax of the tribulation Christ will return to earth (Part II) in a glorified body with His church that has been raptured up to heaven before the tribulation.

·       Resurrection: also at the closing climax of the tribulation Old Testament saints and deceased tribulation saints will be resurrected.

·       Judgment: living nonbelievers will be judged and removed from earth at the Second Coming of Christ.

·       Binding of Satan (Revelation 20:1-3).

·       Millennial kingdom: Christ in His glory will reign with the church in their glorified bodies, along with Old Testament saints in their glorified bodies. These will reign over living believers who survived the tribulation and who were converted during that seven year time frame, including both Gentiles and those of ethnic Israelite descent.

All these will enter the millennial kingdom together. No unbelievers will enter the kingdom, nor be alive on earth.

The millennial kingdom is said to be the fulfillment of Old Testament promises to Israel to return them to the land they lost through their disobedience. The following scriptures are sometimes cited: (Isaiah 65:17-25; Ezekiel 37:21-28; Zechariah 8:1-17).

·       Rebellion: after the 1,000 years, Satan will be released from his confinement in prison to deceive the nations to rebel. The number of the rebels, who are children of believers born during the millennium, is as numerous as the sand in the sea—Revelation 20:8. The rebellion will be quickly quashed.

·       Resurrection: of all nonbelievers.

·       Great White Throne Judgment: of all nonbelievers not previously judged.

·       Eternal state: all the saved will enter the eternal state of glory (that would be those who were fully human during the millennial kingdom, as the previously raptured church has already been glorified.)

·       Earth dissolved: the earth will be melted down (2 Peter 3:10f).

·       New heaven and a new earth.

·       Christ will deliver the kingdom to God the Father.

·       The triune God will reign forever and ever.

Notice that the sequence above begins with the rapture of the church. The church is defined as all who have believed in Christ after His incarnation and up until the moment of the rapture, both those who are still alive and those who have died.

Ethnic Israelites who have believed in Christ after His incarnation and up until the rapture are considered to be part of the church. Their role in the millennial kingdom will be different than that of ethnic Israelites who do not believe until after the rapture and during the tribulation. The prior group of ethnic Israelites will have resurrected, glorified bodies, while the latter group of ethnic Israelites will have corruptible, carnal bodies (albeit someone may live for hundreds of years, as proposed by those who hold to this view). The prior group of ethnic Israelites will reign with Christ (as proposed), while the latter group will be subjects of the kingdom, recipients of the land promises (as interpreted).

Old Testament believers are not considered to be part of the church and do not take part in the rapture. Old Testament saints will be resurrected after the tribulation and before the millennial kingdom.

Notice that there are several categories of believers and differing time frames of events for the different categories.

In comparison, following is a presentation of a typical non-dispensational, non-premillennialist sequence.²

·       Christ’s Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension

·       Binding of Satan and the gospel age (Luke 10:17-20 in context and Revelation 20:1-3)

·       Release of Satan (Revelation 20:7-8) and last rebellion

·       Christ’s return in glory at His Second Coming and the end of historical time as we now know it (Revelation 20:9)

·       As a feature of the Second Coming, the gathering by Christ of all believers to Himself (1Co 15:50-52; 1Th 4:13-17), those believers of all ages, Old Testament and New, both the living and the dead (there is only one category: believer).

The following will occur after the Second Coming of Christ.

·       Final judgment of all the wicked, both angelic beings and human

·       Destruction of the earth (2 Peter 3:10-13)

·       Recreation of a new heaven and a new earth

·       Eternity

Comparative charts of the above timelines are available in Footnote 2 below.

So Where Is the Danger in Dispensational Premillennialism?

The danger lies in what I call the “second chance” nature of dispensational premillennialism. Dispensational premillennialism presents a second chance for nonbelievers.

Dispensational premillennialism teaches a period of time for nonbelievers on earth when life will continue after the proposed rapture. ² If premillennialism is wrong, then life on earth as we now know it will end simultaneously with the coming of Christ for His bride,³ who is the church, and judgment of all nonbelievers will quickly follow. In other words, the rapture, as it is called, and the Second Coming of Christ will be one and the same event. Life as we know it will end for everyone at the coming again of Christ; nonbelievers will not remain alive on earth after that momentous event. The Great White Throne Judgment will soon follow.

If dispensational premillennialism is wrong, there will be no space of time for conversions after the coming of Christ for His bride. Only judgment will await the nonbeliever.

I have been in evangelical churches for a number of years, and always, the presentations of the gospel messages I have heard include an element of urgency. Second chances are not included in a typical evangelical gospel message.

The dispensational premillennial gospel provides for a “second chance”, a provision which I believe is not scriptural. One “second chance” would be immediately after the rapture, and another chance would be during the tribulation.

Consider: Dispensational premillennialism teaches that believers, who are the church, will be secretly raptured away from earth all at once at a given moment in time. Nonbelievers will be left behind, and for them it will be life as usual, at least until the dispensational premillennial seven years of tribulation begin.

Nonbelievers will not see or hear the actual rapture occurring (it is said to be a “secret”), according to dispensational premillennialism. Rather, they will suddenly become aware that a large number of people, at least some of whom they knew personally to be believers in Christ, are missing, disappeared, vanished into thin air. Such a rapture, though “secret”, would constitute a rather large change on earth, a remarkable world-wide event that would catch everyone’s direct and immediate attention, even the attention of those who didn’t watch the news.

Let’s ask ourselves: Is it conceivable that we might currently know a skeptic, or even a seeker, who, after having heard about the proposed secret rapture, might decide to just wait until such an event occurs before committing to Christ? It is well publicized by dispensational premillennialists that not everyone on earth is slated to die during a literalistic seven years of tribulation. Many, they say, will be converted during that time. Otherwise, there would be no one to enter the proposed millennial kingdom. So, why not wait for the definite proof of the rapture before committing to conversion?

Not all nonbelievers will die in the moments, weeks, months, or even first several years after the proposed rapture. Do we find it a wild stretch of the imagination to conceive of many current nonbelievers who might decide to adopt a “wait and see” policy? And that would by no means imply that a post-proposed-rapture conversion wouldn’t be “real”. Some, at least, and according to dispensational premillennialists, hundreds of thousands of national ethnic Israelites, will convert post-proposed-rapture.

Haven’t we all heard pastors say that they believe we are in the end times? Don’t pastors say things such as, “…unless the rapture comes first”? Do we think that seekers, nonbelievers, and possibly even nonbelieving ethnic descendants of Israel have never heard these things as well? Have you never heard a pastor say that he has gone to preach the millennial kingdom to a group of non-Christian ethnic Israelites?

How difficult is it to envision at least one, possibly a few, or even many nonbelievers saying to themselves something like the following? “I just don’t want to commit to Christ at this time. What if the gospel is all malarkey? You know, my friend so-and-so tells me that the rapture is just around the corner. If I wake up one morning to find that my friend and all her Christian friends have suddenly disappeared overnight for no reason, then I will immediately believe and be saved. That will allow me to enter the millennial kingdom.”

Consider the following carefully:

1) Dispensational premillennialism teaches that ethnic Israelites as a whole, the nation of Israel, will have a massive conversion at some point after the rapture and during the tribulation.⁴  

2) Dispensational premillennialism says that Israel and the church are separate,⁵ and that all believers in Christ during this present age (the church) will be raptured out before the tribulation and millennial kingdom. All believers in Christ include Messianic Christians as well as Gentiles.⁶

3) Dispensational premillennialism then says that after a national repentance and conversion at some point during the tribulation (point 1 above), ethnic Israelites will be returned to their own biblically geographic land for the millennial kingdom reign.

Following the logical progression of what dispensational premillennialism believes, the only ethnic Israelites who will be available to occupy the Israel of the millennium will be those who are not currently “saved” believers. The only ones who will occupy the millennial kingdom as humans in unglorified bodies will be those converted and saved during the seven year tribulation period, which follows the rapture of the church.⁷

But—what if the amillennial view happens to be correct, and life on earth ends with the Second Coming of Christ for all believers and judgment of nonbelievers—one event in time, not a two-part dualistic Second Coming?³ In other words, what if the dispensational premillennial view is wrong, and there will be no “rapture” per se, but a single, unified, unique Second Coming of Christ, after which comes the final judgment?

The fact that a group of gifted amillennial scholars exists⁸ is a sure sign that dispensational premillennialism is not a 100% certain bet. If amillennialism just happens to be correct, those who do not rise to meet Christ in the air at His Second Coming (1Co 15:50-52; 1Th 4:13-17)  will immediately be up for judgment. No second chances.

But dispensational premillennialism teaches a second chance for nonbelievers after the proposed rapture.

I don’t know about you, but I have dearly loved ones who are members of ethnic Israel. Would I want to share a gospel with them that tells them a viable option is to wait until after a proposed rapture before they turn to Christ? Even if there were a 99% possibility that this teaching is correct, I wouldn’t want to take that risk. I wouldn’t want to take even a 1% risk that dispensational premillennialism might be wrong, not when my loved ones’ eternal future is at stake.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, plain and simple, is 100% sure. Now is the only 100% sure time to believe and be converted.

For some, believing in Christ now might be seen as a drawback, in that every ethnic Israelite who converts to Christ now will be part of His body, His bride, His beloved—the church. (Gentiles are in there.) Dispensational premillennialists also teach that ethnic Israelites who convert now in the gospel age are members of Christ’s church (See footnote 6).

I don’t know about you, but to me it seems at least possible to conceive that one or many nonbelieving ethnic Israelites might prefer to be in the proposed millennial kingdom of Christ as earthly Israelites rather than to be ruling with Christ as Christians in glorified bodies during that proposed kingdom. That is a dangerous way to think—if Christ’s coming for His church also marks the end of ordinary time—the end of this age—and judgment. Many fine Christians do not subscribe to dispensational premillennialism.⁸

The point I am making here and by listing the books under footnote 8 is not that, “This one is right and that one is wrong”. The point is that there are fine theologians who dispute dispensational premillennialism. The point is that dispensational premillennialism might be wrong. And, “might” is not a safe gospel for our loved ones.

If the other view is correct, that human history as we know it will end at the scripturally foretold Second Coming of Christ for His church (a single event which will include the so-named rapture and final judgment of nonbelievers), then there will be no literalistic seven year period of post-rapture tribulation and no national conversion of anyone, because the world will no longer exist in its current form.⁹

Theologically, for nonbelievers now, a unified Second Coming of Christ and a unified people of Christ is a safe gospel message. If people get saved and that view is wrong, no lives will be lost. But, for nonbelievers now, dispensational premillennialism is not a safe gospel message if that view is wrong. Dispensational premillennialism teaches that life will continue after the proposed rapture (considered as prior to and distinct from Christ’s Second Coming), and that ethnic Israelites and others can and will still be saved after the rapture. If that view is wrong, then those who decided to wait for that time frame will have lost the only chance for salvation they ever had, which is—now!—pre-proposed-rapture.

Let’s Think About It

Doesn’t it seem at least conceivable that an ethnic Israelite in today’s world (or even a Gentile), one who has heard of dispensational premillennialism,  might reason something  like this? “I really don’t want to be part of the Christian church. They tell me that during the tribulation there will be a massive conversion of ethnic Israelites to Christ as Messiah King, and that those who manage to survive the seven years of tribulation will enter the renewed land of Israel as regular human beings and live there in a super great way for 1,000 years. That sounds better to me than becoming a Christian now—I think I’ll do my repenting and turning to Messiah after this rapture business is over and the church has been removed out of the picture. My Christian friends tell me that it might be happening pretty soon, even in my own lifetime. I think I’m just going to wait and see.”

Now consider: What if the dispensational premillennial view is wrong?

What if in fact—as many extremely fine theologians⁸ have said since the beginning of Christian theology and right up until the present—what if the biblical second coming of Christ for His church is one aspect of the one and only second return of Christ promised in scripture and right after that comes the one and only judgment?

Dispensational premillennialism proposes a rapture in which millions of human beings will suddenly and dramatically be removed from the face of planet earth. Yet they say there will be millions of human beings left behind to face the tribulation. They say that some of these will become believers and be saved. These will be the ones to participate in the proposed literalistic one thousand year kingdom.

Thus, in the dispensational premillennial scenario, many currently borderline seekers and skeptics will be given a “second chance” to believe and be saved. Someone, somewhere out there, knows enough about the proposed rapture to plan to wait until right after its occurrence to repent and commit to the Lord. Someone will think they know enough about the proposed secret rapture to recognize it when it happens, and then they will believe, be saved, and enter into the proposed millennial kingdom.

Unless dispensational premillennialism is wrong.

The Danger Repeated

If dispensational premillennialism is wrong, as many think it is, there will be no second chance after the one and only return of Christ which is promised in scripture. Those not saved before the biblical second coming of Christ (the rapture) will be given no second chance afterwards to do so. After the biblical second coming of Christ for His church (the rapture)—which will be no secret—afterwards will come the end, including judgment and eternal damnation for those who have rejected Christ.

If the dispensational premillennial view is mistaken, which is at least conceivable given the debates surrounding eschatology, then there will be no opportunity after the proposed rapture for anyone to repent, convert, and be saved.

I call a second chance gospel dangerous. The only safe gospel is a gospel that says that all men must be saved now. “…Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15).  

There will be no second chances, no decisive world-wide event that all nonbelievers on earth will witness—the proposed secret rapture and instant disappearance of millions— after which nonbelievers can make up their minds to be saved in order to enter a proposed earthly millennial kingdom.

Even if there is the slightest possible hint that the dispensational premillennial scenario might not be correct,¹⁰ then a gospel based on that possibly false scenario is not safe for nonbelievers.

The nation of Israel as a whole missed the first appearance of Christ. How tragic it would be if they were also to miss the Second Coming of Christ, as believers in Him, because they forestalled belief in order to wait for a proposed millennial kingdom that might never happen in exactly the way that dispensational premillennialism has predicted.

 ^NIV  Hebrews 3:15 As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."

__________

1 For a chronology similar in its main features to what I present, see John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, New American Standard Bible Updated Edition, Thomas Nelson, Inc., © 2006, pages 2007-2008

2 For charts comparing the various interpretations, see Riddlebarger for a link to Mark Vander Pol, http://kimriddlebarger.squarespace.com/eschatology-charts/ . Listed near the bottom of the amillennial chart are the following historic theologians near in view to the amillennialist: Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.

3 To distinguish this biblical event from “the rapture”, which is proposed, I try not to call the Second Coming the rapture. This sometimes leads to grammatical awkwardness, but the distinction is important.

The “rapture” refers specifically to a proposed Part I of a two-part split event. In Part I, Christ returns secretly and invisibly to gather His church. It is comparable to an elopement. In Part II of the dispensational premillennial proposal, Christ will return visibly with His church, now resurrected, glorified, and married to Him.

Interestingly, under this proposed scenario, gospel age living believers (the church) will never witness the Second Coming of Christ to earth in power, might, and tremendous glory visible to all. The reason is that dispensational premillennialism believes that Christ will come secretly for His bride, invisibly to the world, not manifesting His glory openly to all. This is not, they believe, the scripturally foretold Second Coming. During that Coming, the church, which by that time proposedly will have been with Him in heaven for a number of years, will return with Him to earth from heaven. Therefore, one can clearly deduce that the church alive on earth will never witness the Second Coming of Christ. This, I believe, contradicts scripture, and therefore, the split coming, including the proposed Part I Rapture, must be incorrect (Acts 1:11; 1Co 15:51-52; 1Th 4:16-17; 2Pe 3:10-14; Mark 8:38). Christ will come again for His bride—scripture says so—but not in the manner devised by dispensational premillennialism.

4 “What’s going to happen is prior to the Millennial Kingdom, in the period the Bible calls the Tribulation, the salvation of Israel as a unit, as a nation will take place.”   John MacArthur, available at:  http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/90-433/connecting-the-covenantal-dots 

5 John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, New American Standard Bible Updated Edition, Thomas Nelson, Inc., © 2006, page 2006, beneath the heading “The Church”

6 Ibid.

7 That is because, as taught by dispensational premillennialism, every ethnic Israelite who receives Christ as Messiah before the proposed rapture of the church will be raptured out with the church as part of the church. Only those ethnic Israelites saved after the rapture will occupy the millennial kingdom as its subjects, proposed recipients of the Old Testament land promises.

8 The following are extremely fine amillennial authors:

William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Books, © 1940,1967, pages 142 f., 185-193.

Arturo Azurdia III, Sermons, Revelation, available at  http://www.spiritempoweredpreaching.com/sermons.htm 

Robert B. Strimple, in Three Views on the millennium and Beyond, Darrell L. Bock, General Editor, Grand Rapids, MI, © 1999 by Zondervan, pages 81-129

Samuel E. Waldron, MacArthur’s Millennial Manifesto: A Friendly Response, Owensboro, KY, RBAP; © 2008 by Sam Waldron

Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times, Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Books, © 2003 by Kim Riddlebarger

Listed near the bottom of the amillennial chart in the citation just above are the following historic theologians near in view to the amillennialist: Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and John Calvin. Amillennial chart available at: http://kimriddlebarger.squarespace.com/eschatology-charts/

9 This view also says that the tribulation is now. To understand this view, think of all the Christians who have ever lost their lives as martyrs for Christ and the Word, those who have ever been tortured, beaten, excommunicated, or financially ruined for their faith in Christ. Those people know what tribulation is.

10 The presentation of this article and the fact that fine, biblical, orthodox, mainline Christian scholars contest that scenario constitute a “slightest possible hint”.

Why the Millennium Can't Be the Millennium

 http://users.bible.org/articles/why_millennium_cant_be_millennium

May 31, 2012

The proposed dispensational premillennialist millennium has a major flaw: it’s not heaven. It is finite, proposed to last for exactly one thousand years. Its end is predetermined and known by all: massive rebellion and destruction...If I were a gambler, the only safe bet would be to trust Christ now, because the proposed dispensational premillennialist millennial kingdom is one of the largest bones of contention in current evangelical circles, and if that peculiar interpretation of scripture happens to be mistaken, then anyone waiting until after the proposed “secret rapture” to cast in with Christ will be eternally lost.

Why the Millennium Can’t Be the Millennium

By Christina Wilson

^NET  Revelation 20:7 Now when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to bring them together for the battle. They are as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea. ⁹ They went up on the broad plain of the earth and encircled the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and devoured them completely.

The proposed dispensational premillennialist millennium has a major flaw: it’s not heaven. It is finite, proposed to last for exactly one thousand years. Its end is predetermined and known by all: massive rebellion and destruction.

What features of a proposed millennial kingdom do dispensational premillennialists paint?

I. The church has been raptured out.

According to dispensational premillennialists,¹ the church will be raptured away before a seven year tribulation on earth. These saints will receive glorified bodies, similar to Christ’s body on earth after His resurrection. The wedding feast will occur in heaven, and Christ, accompanied by the glorified saints, will return to earth for the battle of Armageddon and the proposed, subsequent millennial kingdom.

The rapture is sometimes called a “secret”, because no one on earth will actually witness its occurrence except Christians.² It is tantamount to an elopement, which is defined as running away secretly to get married.

Scripture calls the church Christ’s “beloved”.³ Jesus Christ, the wholly divine Son of God died an agonizing death upon the cross to redeem His bride from sin, in order to make her white, white as snow. Why would Christ return for His bride in order to elope with her? Would elopement befit a King of kings and the bride whose purchase price was His own blood?

Why is the proposed premillennialist rapture a secret? Why an elopement?

1) The secret rapture is termed such because the coming of Christ for His bride is considered a “partial coming”, or part one of a split coming.⁴ According to premillennialist reasoning, the coming of Christ for His bride is not permitted to be the Second Coming. They have reserved the Second Coming of Christ as a separate occasion for a certain stage of judgment, and they place it towards the end of Revelation 19. The rapture, however, they place near the beginning of Revelation, even in the white space between chapters 3 and 4.⁵

Continuing the premillennialist thought, the Second Coming of Christ scripturally cannot be a secret; all men will know He has come. Further, scripturally there can be but one visible, mighty, glorious Second Coming of Christ. Therefore, if Christ’s coming for His bride is not to be considered the Second Coming, it must be a secret. If it were known by all, it would constitute the Second Coming, which dispensational premillennialists do not want to have happen at that particular time.

2) Dispensational premillennialists have planned a proposed millennial kingdom in which the fulfillment of kingdom promises will be specific to ethnic Israel. The Old Testament promises, according to their thought, do not include the church. Since their proposed millennial kingdom is an earthly, physical kingdom, the church, Christ’s beloved for whom He died, must be removed. (How could one exclude them if they were still present on earth?) Therefore, dispensational premillennialists have proposed a rapture which precedes the proposed millennial kingdom. Since this proposed rapture is not permitted to be the Second Coming, it therefore must be a "secret", "partial" coming. For those who may find this line of thought confusing, please consider.

^ESV  1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace…

II. The proposed dispensational premillennialist millennial kingdom will be a mixture of fully human subjects and resurrected saints in glorified bodies, whose role will be to help Christ reign.

In the above scenario, the church has been raptured out, given resurrected and glorified bodies, been wed to Christ (secretly) and will return with Him in His Second Coming to reign on earth for one thousand years. Because they will proposedly have been given their glorified bodies, they will be able to come and go from earth as they please. Part of their role will be to witness and win nonbelievers to Christ. Nonbelievers will consist of children of ethnic Israelite believers and children of the believing nations.⁶

III. Jesus Christ will be physically present on earth during the proposed dispensational premillennialist millennial kingdom.

IV. What would the proposed kingdom be like for nonbelievers?

Nonbelievers in the proposed millennial kingdom will have every conceivable advantage to help them believe in Christ, especially when compared with the present age.

·       Christ will be physically present with them in a resurrected, glorified body.

·       Resurrected, glorified saints will be physically present with them, witnessing to them for the purpose of salvation.⁷

What room would there be for faith in such a kingdom when all would be clearly and readily seen with the physical eyes? Faith would seemingly amount to assent only to that which would be openly visible and concrete all around them.

^NET  Romans 8:24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?

Most of the New Testament, written as it is for comfort and encouragement for perseverance in faith and for hope during trial and distress, would be obsolete. Nonbelievers in the proposed millennial kingdom would be, as it were, spoon-fed from a silver platter. Biblical history would have all but been accomplished. A risen Christ would be physically present. Physical testings and tribulation as everyday occurrences on earth, as all of us now live life here, would be non-existent. Everything would be beautiful and wonderful, morally pure and correct.

V. Except…the disjunction.

It would all be veneer. It would be surface assent to Christ only. Hearts would not be converted. Acquiescence would be insincere and shallow. Sin, though perhaps not outwardly present, would rule the hearts. Why do I say this?

^NET  Revelation 20:7 Now when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to bring them together for the battle. They are as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea. ⁹ They went up on the broad plain of the earth and encircled the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and devoured them completely.

Let’s imagine. Choose any of the roles in the proposed millennial kingdom and try it on for size. Christ would be ruling a kingdom of which He knew that countless numbers would perish in hell at its termination. Glorified saints, having seen and tasted the heavenlies, would know that the supposed paradise on earth was false, shallow, insincere, finite, about to be tragically ended at the close of exactly one thousand years. Believing Israelites within the kingdom and believing Gentiles living outside the kingdom proper would not know which of their progeny would be saved and which would be destroyed in one thousand years’ time and go to everlasting torment. The progeny themselves would see it, hear it, live it, know it, but countless numbers of them would remain dead in their hearts, unchanged, prone to sin, and about to be deceived into rebellion at the end of exactly one thousand years.

Is this glorious? Is this what the entire Bible, in dispensational premillennialist thinking, has been leading up to? Is this the touted kingdom? Really, except for the presence of Christ and numerous glorified saints present on earth, how would that kingdom be different from what we have now?

The difference would be concrete and physical. Most physical suffering would have ended. But what about men’s souls? Would that have changed? The Bible says no. That would not be changed.

^NET  Revelation 20:7 Now when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to bring them together for the battle. They are as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea.

Remember, according to dispensational premillennialists, these accursed rebels are all children of believers, all having been born after the inauguration of the proposed millennial kingdom. Only believers enter the kingdom or the nations surrounding it. All these rebels “as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea” would have been born during the proposed millennium.⁸

What advantages would such a proposed kingdom give to anyone?

The advantages would be concrete, physical, literalistic, temporal, and finite (physical blessings for all), and they would end in eternal tragedy for numbers of people as countless and “numerous as the grains of sand in the sea.”

What is missing in this picture? That which is missing is “Christ IN you, the hope of glory”—inward, spiritual fellowship through the Holy Spirit with a risen, eternal, ever-present Lord.

^NET  Colossians 1:27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

^NET  John 17:23 I in them and you in me– that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.

NET  John 6:47 I tell you the solemn truth, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life.

NET  John 17:3 Now this is eternal life– that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

Yes, the glorified, previously raptured saints would have Christ in them; the proposed believers saved during the proposed post-rapture tribulation would presumably have Christ in them, but what about all the nonbelievers born during the millennium? Numbers of them as countless as the “grains of sand in the sea” would know nothing of the risen, eternal Lord and King dwelling within them. How would that be any different than the situation which exists today?

VI. What would the role of a Christian in a glorified, resurrected body during the proposed dispensational premillennial kingdom be?

The most wonderful Christians I know, those such as my current pastor, grieve and mourn daily, even minute by minute, laboring ceaselessly for the salvation of the lost. What joy would a raptured Christian experience as a member of the bride of Christ, having been returned to a non-redeemed earth of which scripture foretold that in exactly one thousand years souls as numerous as the sand in the sea would be judged and condemned to eternal damnation? What would be the one desire of such Christians?

Evangelism. Knowing that the time was short (exactly one thousand years on an eternal scale is very short), they would want to go out and evangelize the lost, who would be indistinguishable in an earthly near-paradise among all the children of believers, those lost who would be giving lip service only to the King of kings. Knowing that their efforts would be futile for countless people as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea would fill their hearts with grief and despair. Would this be joy or misery for the bride of Christ?

For evangelists at heart, would the proposed millennial kingdom be any different than the situation today? The greatest temptation, I believe, for Christians today is the temptation to sit back and do nothing. How great a temptation might that be for believers in a world of peace and prosperity, one where very little physical suffering remained?

But, because we are speaking of a raptured church ruling with Christ in the proposed kingdom, resurrected saints in glorified bodies would be beyond temptation and sin. What would it be like for those millions of previously raptured believers to be living on an unredeemed earth, albeit one having perhaps received a partial makeover, knowing that countless millions of mortal people in front of them were still going to be judged and sent to hell? The best Christians I know would be suffering, grieving, mourning, and working incessantly to save the lost. That’s the millennium?

Unless, of course, everyone would be content to sit idly by enjoying the material blessings and benefits. Where is the weight of focus now in dispensational premillennialist thought? Isn’t it on the “fulfillment” of Old Testament promises, interpreted as coming in the form of concrete, literalistic, physical, and material blessings? Would the focus during the proposed millennium remain there?

Ah, but someone will object, Christ will rule with a rod of iron, and there will be a standard of goodness, peace, and morality higher than any since the fall. But Revelation 20:7-9 puts the lie to that scenario. According to that passage, any such goodness and morality will not spring from a genuinely reborn nature. When temptation and deception would again be permitted by the unbinding of Satan (Revelation 20:7), mankind would once again express their rebelliousness to the extent of numbers “as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea”.

VII. Blending

Some dispensational premillennialists believe that the millennial reign of Christ is the first installment of His eternal reign, and that the proposed millennial kingdom will fall into a “blending” into the eternal state.⁹ But is this what scripture teaches? Is Peter in the following verses describing a “blending”?

^NET  2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, the heavens will disappear with a horrific noise, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze, and the earth and every deed done on it will be laid bare. ¹¹ Since all these things are to melt away in this manner, what sort of people must we be, conducting our lives in holiness and godliness, ¹² while waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God? Because of this day, the heavens will be burned up and dissolve, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze! ¹³ But, according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness truly resides.

Yet, the timing of the above verses must precede the eternal state and follow any proposed earthly, millennial kingdom. Do you see a “blending”?

Further, why would Peter in those verses be exhorting today’s unraptured church on earth to live holy and godly lives in waiting for the “day of God”, if by the time that day were to come, the proposed rapture, the tribulation, and the proposed millennial kingdom would have already occurred?

My premillennialist study Bible notes on this passage posit two such days of God—one at the time of the tribulation on earth and a second “1,000 years later at the end of the millennial kingdom”.¹⁰

According to the premillennial view, the tribulation will follow the rapture and be exactly seven years in duration. Yet the biblical text says that the “day of the Lord will come like a thief”. Could a thief surprise someone who knew he’d be coming in a definite period of only seven years? Do you see a contradiction?

Further, everyone who might be alive at the time would know that the literalistic millennium proposed by dispensational premillennialists would last exactly one thousand years after a second coming of Christ. Counting alone would give a fairly accurate knowledge of the exact year of the second “day of God” proposed by dispensational premillennialists as an interpretation of 2 Peter 3:10-13. Yet, the biblical text says that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief”. Another contradiction?

One last contradiction between the biblical text and the dispensational premillennialist interpretation of dual “days” of the Lord is that the construction in Greek is singular. Surely Peter knew enough Greek to use a plural construction if he had intended to imply two distinctly separate days of the Lord? Or, perhaps the dispensational premillennialists have a greater revelation than the Apostle Peter?

Does the dispensational premillennial view add up to coherence?

A Personal Note on What I  Believe

Preparing this article has convicted my heart that I am not currently doing even the smallest iota of what I should be doing in terms of evangelism to reach the lost. What I described above as the evangelistic needs of the proposed premillennialist millennial kingdom are just as true today as I described they would be then. Selah.

……….

Now is the time which scripture calls “today”.

^NET  Hebrews 3:15 As it says, "Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

^NET  Hebrews 4:7 So God again ordains a certain day, "Today," speaking through David after so long a time, as in the words quoted before, "O, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts."

Now is the only moment in time when salvation is certain for those who would accept Jesus Christ as their Lord.

I do not personally believe that after Christ comes for His beloved bride for whom He died—which is His church and includes believers of all ethnicities of all ages and all times— that there will be life on earth as we know it today. I believe that Christ will come once very openly and visibly to all the earth simultaneously. He will come with the recompense of reward in His hand for those who love Him and with judgment in His hand for those who do not. (Matthew 24:27; Matthew 25:31-46; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-10;  Hebrews 9:24-28; Hebrews 10:32-39; Jude 1:14-15). His one coming will embrace both the gathering of His beloved to be with Him forever as His bride and the gathering of all for judgment.

I believe that the millennium is right now, today.^{11, 12}  I believe that God in His infinite wisdom  today uses the suffering and misery of this fallen world as a tool to draw His people home to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28). Think: if effective evangelism is as difficult today as it now is, how much more difficult would it be in a world in which there would be no outward motivations for any unsaved person to search her own heart? No outward circumstances of trial and tribulation to cause an unsaved soul to squirm and question her place in the universe? Scripture tells us that evangelism in the millennial kingdom will have an extremely high failure rate at its close: rebels as “as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea.” These countless rebels will all be children of the proposed millennial kingdom, under that proposed scenario.¹³ Is that a song for hallelujia?

I believe that the millennium is right now, today, that Christ the King is reigning right now on His throne in heaven and in the hearts of all saved believers present on earth in the church militant (Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:5; John 12:15). Many Christian theologians have taken this view (See footnotes 11 and 12 for two examples). Therefore…

If I were a gambler, the only safe bet would be to trust Christ now, because the proposed dispensational premillennialist millennial kingdom is one of the largest bones of contention in current evangelical circles, and if that peculiar interpretation of scripture happens to be mistaken, then anyone waiting until after the proposed “secret rapture” to cast in with Christ will be eternally lost.

Today is the only safe moment in eternity to consider the claims of Christ and turn to Him for salvation. Anyone who teaches a day of salvation that follows “today” may be sorely mistaken, not to their eternal damnation, but if they are mistaken, then it might be to the damnation of any unbelievers who may have believed their teaching and decided to wait and see what might happen after the proposed rapture.¹⁴

^NET  Hebrews 3:15 As it says, "Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

^NET  Hebrews 4:7 So God again ordains a certain day, "Today," speaking through David after so long a time, as in the words quoted before, "O, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts."

Please place your trust in Jesus Christ, not in a proposed millennial kingdom.

__________

1 Such as John MacArthur, Because the Time Is Near; Chicago, Moody Publishers, © 2007

2 Beth Moore, DanielLives of Integrity Words of Prophecy, Nashville, Tennessee, Lifeway Press, © 2006, Eighth printing March 2011, page 169.

3 ^ESV  Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved; and numerous other citations.

^ESV  2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

^ESV  1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

4 NET (New English Translation) Bible version notes on Zechariah 9:9; also found in John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, New American Standard Bible Updated Edition, Thomas Nelson, Inc., © 2006, page 1319, note on Zechariah 9:9,10.

5 John MacArthur, “A Jet Tour Through Revelation”,  December 05, 1982, available at http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/1290/A-Jet-Tour-Through-Revelation .

6 John MacArthur; Because the Time Is Near; Chicago, Moody Publishers, © 2007, pages 298, 299.

7 Ibid., page 299

8 Ibid., pages 301-303.

9 “The day will come when the church is raptured out and God will mediate His will on the earth in a direct way as He pours out judgment on the earth, takes the earth back, and the mediates His rule on the millennial kingdom for a thousand years with Christ reigning on the throne until the eternal state in which everything falls into the blending of God's sovereignty in the final form of our existence. So I would be a very historic dispensationalist.” John MacArthur, I.F.C.A. Meeting (6-26-89), Part 1; available at http://www.gty.org/resources/Print/Sermons/90-36

10 John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, New American Standard Bible Updated Edition, Thomas Nelson, Inc., © 2006, page 1929, note on 2 Peter 3:10.

11 William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Books, © 1940,1967, pages 142 f., 185-193.

12 Arturo Azurdia III, Sermons, Revelation, available at  http://www.spiritempoweredpreaching.com/sermons.htm

13 John MacArthur; Because the Time Is Near; Chicago, Moody Publishers, © 2007, pages 301-303.

14 Some dispensational premillennialists do teach that the mass conversion of ethnic Israelites is scheduled to follow the rapture of the church. However, if as many biblical scholars believe, the rapture of the church and the second coming of Christ are aspects of one and the same event, and if judgment follows immediately after the second coming, then there will be no conversions after any of those eternally simultaneous events, not of ethnic Israelites nor of anyone else, in that history as we know it today will have been completed.

For a proposed period of salvation after the rapture, see:

John MacArthur, Because the Time Is Near; Chicago, Moody Publishers, © 2007, pages 16, 187, 312.

John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, New American Standard Bible Updated Edition, Thomas Nelson, Inc., © 2006, page 1683, note on Romans 11:26.

For opportunity to appropriate salvation by grace alone today, see footnotes 11 and 12 above.