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Tuesday, February 18, 2003
Leithart on Millennial Views
This began as a comment to Wayne's post, but I decided to put it on my blog instead.
I have been immensely helped by Peter Leithart's take on millennial views in The Kingdom and the Power, chapter 8, "The People of the Kingdom" - especially his footnote 19 (pp 240-1). Here's a quote:
I believe that the Millennium is the age of the new covenant, during which the saints are enthroned in heavenly places in Christ (Rev 20:2-6; Eph 2:5). This identifies me as an amillennialist. At the same time, in a sense the premillennialist is correct to say that Jesus returned in judgement at the beginning of the Millennium; He did return at the beginning of the Millennium to judge apostate Judaism and to destroy the remnants of the typological kingdom order. I also believe that postmillenialists are correct in saying that Christ will return after the Millennium, at the resurrection, when the entire creation will be transfigured, and I concur with the postmillenial emphasis on the growth of the kingdom.
A few months ago, I emailed Dr Leithart a question precipitated by this footnote. I asked, "Just to clarify: Are you saying that we are already in the Millennium (at least in some important sense)?" He replied, in part:
Yes, that's right, and I wouldn't even add the qualifier in the parentheses. I think we're in the millennium, full stop. I don't agree with some traditional postmils that consider the millennium a separate stage of redemptive history. That view underestimates the eschatological character of the present age; also, it's strange to think that we could somehow enter a new stage of redemptive history without some big redemptive events. I don't see any examples in Scripture of the church just "slipping into" a new phase of covenant history.
All of this makes me wonder if perhaps we need some new categories other than traditional pre-, post-, or amillennialism and all the connotations that go along with these positions, at least as they are popularly (mis)understood.
jon :: link :: comment ::
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