End times are good times
I’m sure that many of us have exchanged pleasantries with eschatology over the last few years. I remember many blog posts, YouTube videos, and comment sections that were inundated with a conversation surrounding whether or not the Covid-19 vaccine was the mark of the beast, OR if we were beginning to enter the 7 year tribulation, OR if we were experiencing Christian persecution and approaching the mid-trib rapture.
Clearly those topics aren’t the end of the world
In this blog, I’m not gonna spend time attempting to shift your end-times thinking/position. What I hope this accomplishes is an appreciation for the eschatological framework known as “postmillennialism”.
What you might be thinking is that postmillennialism is a weird prosperity gospel eschatology that dictates the easy life of Christians, or that Jesus is waiting for us to create his perfect kingdom here on earth in order to have him return.
Maybe your exposure to postmillennialism has been limited because of the popular brand of eschatology such as premillennialism. The arguments usually circle around “who is reading the Bible literally”.
We should be comfortable with acknowledging the strengths of each position
However, I want to attack the pessimism towards the eschaton propagated by the Christian church since the 1800s (since premillennialism dispensationalism emerged around that time). Whether your theology lands in a postmillennial framework or not,
If we don’t approach the world with the conviction that the world should be like the kingdom of God we are failing in the Great Commission
With the postmillennial mindset, there is a recognition that Christ is King over all right now. Although every eschatology affirms this, no other system goes into the world pursuing gospel transformation like the postmillennialist. Recognizing that Christ is King allows for his subjects (the Church) to enter the public square with the knowledge that we are only reclaiming that which Christ reigns over. We are following the original plan of God for Adam and Eve in subduing all creation and multiplying reconciled image bearers to God.
Being Postmillenial means trusting in the power of God that Christ gave us to make disciples of all nations through the power of his baptism, Word, and the Holy Spirit
Are you as optimistic as the postmillennial?
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
~ Matthew 28:18-20
-Gavin Schaefer