The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Eschatology q

If you can tolerate a very, very basic eschatology question:

I've been trying to catch up on those "-millenialisms". I know that basically postmillenialism teaches the the world will get better and better and then Christ will come back. What confuses me about this is that it seems that there is some minor disagreement, or maybe it's my own confusion, about just how good the world gets.

People seem to agree that the world is going to pretty much get to a globally Christian environment (and that this will certainly not occur overnight even by our own standards), and because of that, things will be pretty good; for example, Isaiah 65:20:

"Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. . "

But some things I've read make it sound almost like we return to an outright Eden-like condition. Somewhere I was reading that Romans 8:22 here:

18 "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that[9] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. "

speaks of this restored earth that comes about because of Christianity. But I always thought that this passage referred to the new heavens and the new earth which is the "remake" or "resurrection" of the earth we have now, after Christ comes back and the world has been judged?

Needing straightening out...
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This should get you started in the right direction: A Defense of "Reformed" Amillennialism. There are several sections which deal with the nature of the "millennium" and particularly the interpretation of Isaiah 65. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

In His Grace,

OK, that sounds an interesting title, as is the first sentence. One of my pastors happened to mention that he is amillennial, so I will pursue that article. Thanks.

Dwight Pentecost quotes William Moorehead:

"In xi:19 we read: "And the temple (sanctuary) of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of the covenant." This is strictly Jewish ground; the temple, the ark, the covenant belong to Israel, represent Hebrew relations with God and Hebrew privileges. The Spirit now takes up Jewish things, Jewish standing, covenant, hopes, dangers, tribulations and triumph."
Pentecost himself concludes: "The woman can be none other than Israel, with whom God has His covenants, and to whom those covenants will be fulfilled."

The woman of Rev. chapter 12 is most definantly Israel. However, the woman of chapter 17 is Babylon, which speaks first of the entire world religious and political system in rebellion against God, which began at the Tower of babel, but chapters 17 and 18 also contain revelations of specific entities (the Catholic Church, Literal Babylon, etc).

http://www.mychristiansite.com/personal/shilohcomes/index.html