Why Paul is a Postmillennialist

In my recent essay (March, 1996), “Paul the Postmillennialist,” I spoke of Paul’s inaugurated-eschatological and realized millennial view of the present age, arguing that such features warrant our regarding Paul to be an “optimillennialist.” This thesis obviously will not sit well with some amillennialists, who believe that it is in fact amillennialism—not postmillennialism—which does justice to these features of Pauline eschatology.’ At the very least, it will be argued by the amillennial objector, I ought to have recognized that amillennialists of a biblico-theological orientation (e.g., Geerhardus Vos, Herman Ridderbos, Richard Gaffin) have been in the forefront in calling attention to the “inaugurated eschatology”—the already—of Paul (and the eschatological cast of his theology), and it was an amillennialist—Jay Adams—who coined the term “realized millennialism” to denote this interadvental time of Christ’s Kingdom. Only the constraints limiting the length of my all-too-short essay prevented me from doing this in that article, and I shall now attempt to remedy the shortcoming by herein giving amillennialists their due.

Christ, the “firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:18), is the “firstfruits” of the eschatological resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20, 23). His resurrection is that token first portion that is representative of the whole. As such, it signals the actual beginning (the inauguration or commencement) of the resurrection as an integrally singular event (the resurrection of the dead) and serves as an earnest-seal in confident hope and expectancy of the consummate fullness of the harvest, anticipating its complete fulfillment, it is both an actual foretaste of the resurrection and a promise of what is to come, it signifies that the resurrection is both already and not yet. Christ the firstfruits has been raised, and afterwards, at his coming, they who are Christ’s will be raised (1 Cor.15:23), but both are inextricably bound up together as part of the same eschatological resurrection-event which is even now underway and which will be completed in the fullness of the harvest. We are presently situated in the interim period which is that time between these two poles of the one, indivisible resurrection-event.

Christ’s resurrection is God’s appointing of him as Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness (Rom.1:4), his exaltation to the eschatological office of Lord and Christ in glory at the right hand of God to rule over the Kingdom of God (Acts 2:3 2,36) as life-giving Spirit (1 Cor.15:45). The. Risen Christ sits enthroned at the right hand of God until God makes all enemies his footstool (Ps. 110:1 and its numerous NT citations or allusions—esp. Acts 2:34 and 1 Cor. 15:25-28). After he comes and raises those who are his, he shall then deliver the Kingdom over to the Father, having defeated the last enemy—death (1 Cor.15:26)—by our being made alive and clothed with immortality for entrance into the eternal state (1 Cor.15:22, 51-57).

It is therefore this interim period, the time between the two advents, that is the time of Christ’s mediatorial rule, the period when he is in the process of subjugating all enemies under his feet (progressing toward the defeat of death as the ultimate triumph of his messianic Kingdom). This present, interadvental period is thus the reign of Christ, the “realized millennium” in which Christ applies inaugurated-eschatological power to the world unto its subjection to his vice-gerential dominion. Presently seated upon the throne of David (Acts 2:30-31), the Risen Christ sends forth his Spirit as the agency through which his dominical sway is exercised and his will is effectively accomplished. While we may not be given to know the times and seasons exclusively reserved to the Father’s authority, the Kingdom will be extended by the Spirit-baptized witnesses in their global mission of evangelization during this interregnum (Acts 1:6-8).

Formally, postmillennialists and amillennialists agree on this point.2 They would even agree that it is by the gospel that the power of Christ over the nations is applied, that his dominion is effected, it is the gospel that brings to bear resurrection-power, Kingdom-power, the eschatological Spirit within history to create an obedient, messianic people, a people who acknowledge Jesus as Lord. Yet, oddly, amillennialists believe that this inaugurated eschatology, this realized millennium, does not manifest a progressive victory wherein the extent of Christ’s reign is visibly increased over time to become the dominant force in history, claiming to its allegiance the vast majority of the peoples. If Christ, on the day of his resurrection-begetting as Son (Acts 13:32-33), has been given the nations as his inheritance (Psalm 2) and has all authority in heaven and on earth (Mt. 28:18), a pessimillennial vision of Christ’s present Kingdom is incomprehensible, interpreting the meaning and significance of this Kingdom in terms of the glorious prophecies of Isaiah (e.g., 2:2-4; 11:1-10; 42:1-7; 49:11, 12) makes far more sense.

Prospects of Pessimism

Pessimillennialists believe that the present power of inaugurated eschatology, the power of the Spirit sent by Christ, is not sufficient to effect such lofty eschatological visions. They believe that such results require Christ’s revelation in glory at the Second Advent. Amillennialists—despite their formal agreement with postmillennialists—lapse into such pessimiliennialism when it comes to their lack of confidence in the gospel’s prospects for such glorious victory. They tend to affirm a continuance of the status quo, with even a gradual degeneration into worsening conditions; their view of the millennium is of an invisible and secret Kingdom.

This is by no means to deny that this present time must be classified as the time of messianic woes. These present woes are, however, birth pangs of a new order and the death throes of the old. The Kingdom of God indeed suffers violence at this time, but it does so in the tumultuous times of the great shaking of the foundations in which the kingdoms of this world fall and become the Kingdom of our LORD and his Christ. Now is a time of warfare, and the battle may indeed be fierce (like the last desperate attempt of Germany in the Battle of the Bulge), but the decisive turn in the war has occurred; the D-Day beachhead is won, and the inexorable momentum toward victorious advance is ours, despite the struggles and hardships ahead in the continuing battles. That victory on earth and in history is assured does not detract from the hard-fought way to victory through much tribulation and amid great resistance from the enemy forces which may result in occasional setbacks.

The Foretaste of Glory

The whole creation presently groans and travails in longing for that liberation from distress which will only come at the glory-manifestation of the sons of God at the Second Coming of Christ (Rom. 8:18-25).The curse will only be lifted when Jesus returns, and until then sin and death will remain in the world. The victory of righteousness can only be partial in this age; it is but an earnest, a firstfruits foretaste, of the ultimate glory yet to come. But just because it is a foretaste, an intrusion of the powers of the age to come given in firstfruits as an earnest in anticipation of the ultimate triumph, the manifestation of the reign of righteousness in this present age must be real and apparent as an anticipatory sign, witnessing to the establishment of the Kingdom that has come in Christ. The Spirit presently operates as the principle of inaugurated eschatology to effect, on an earnest-level, the presence of the Kingdom of God in power, progressively applying that which was realized in Christ’s enthronement. Christ’s Kingdom even now leavens the world, expanding to displace rival dominions.

Dominion Strategy

The manifestation of eschatological power in the present is the concealed revelation of the glory of the Cross as that hidden wisdom and power of God which appears to the world as foolishness and weakness. Accordingly, our cruciform strategy is to exercise dominion by way of self-sacrificial service, to overturn the might of this world with spiritual weaponry, for our Kingdom is not from this world and does not operate in terms of worldly ideas and structures of power and conquest. The defeat of the hostile powers who have arrayed themselves against the LORD and his Christ will not be by revolutionary force of arms, nor by legislation and political salvation (statist power); it will come through the foolishness of preaching which brings regeneration. Victory will come to those who humble themselves and suffer for the sake of the Kingdom in long-term investment. The victory of righteousness will not be perfect in this age (no more than our sanctification), but it will substantially reveal the triumph of grace over sin to an extent appropriate to its heralding the consummation and signally the triumph of the cause of God in history. The direction of events unto the final revelation of the Kingdom will become increasingly clearer as the Spirit progressively applies redemption to the world that Godin- Christ has reconciled unto himself.

The gospel of the Kingdom is to be preached throughout all the world as a witness before the end, and only then comes the end. This is the only sign of the end of the age that Christ gives (Mt. 24:4, 14), and there is an intentional indefiniteness about it which prevents us from setting dates (Mt. 24:36). Yet, it is probably this Jesus-saying that Paul had in mind in speaking about the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel and the obedience of faith among the nations the gospel-power of God was effecting. No doubt, Paul saw the success of his missionary work as hastening that day, bringing us nearer to the final salvation (Rom. 13-11) that comes only when the fullness is at last in-gathered. His own evangelization both gathered a consecrated firstfruits to offer up to God as representative of the fullness (Rom. 15:16) and laid the groundwork of church-planting out of which the fullness of the Gentiles would come (cf. Rom. 11:25 and 15:18-19). The eschatological situation was in the process of being realized which would herald the end, according to the sign Christ gave—the sign of gospel victory.

Prospects of Optimism

Some would see this sign of the end in Mt. 24:14 as merely involving a bare witness throughout the world, one which we could say has already been fulfilled because nothing is said about the results. Even if the world remains unconverted, it has heard; missionary preaching has extended to all corners of the earth, even if comparatively few have received the word in faith to become disciples. This, however, ignores the connection between this sign in Mt. 24:14 and the Great Commission of Mt. 28:18-20 (cf. Lk. 24:47;Acts 1:8).The commission is to disciple and baptize the nations, not simply to preach ineffectually in bare witness. To make disciples and to baptize means that the gospel is received in faith unto actual conversions—manifestly positive results. The gospel will bear this fruit by the promise of the Risen Christ, who has all authority in heaven and in earth, who has received the nations as his inheritance, who is present with us until the end of the age in this worldwide evangelistic mission of securing the obedience of faith among all nations to the name of Christ. He will apply his Lordship by laying effective claim to the nations which, by right, belong to him. Great and marvelous things have indeed occurred throughout the Church’s history, but the work is not yet near completion, and the plantings of the past will yet yield even greater fruit before the eschatological harvest. We are yet in the early stages, having but begun. We cannot rest on our laurels or past glories while waiting for his coming.

Such militant discipling-activity is the church’s mission until the end of the age, and this means that the sign of the end is gospel-victory resulting in the obedience of the discipled nations when the knowledge of the LORD covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. Any talk of inaugurated eschatology or realized millennialism that does not do justice to this sign renders such terminology meaningless. The righteousness of God revealed in the gospel now means that we are seeing unfold the eschatological prophecies of Isaiah, prophecies of God’s victory and the salvation of the world, and only when this is accomplished, when all the ends of the earth look unto the LORD to be saved, will the end come. This is an optimillennial prospect for the pre-advental victory of the City of God in history. Therefore, let us not doubt the power of God nor forget that he is able to do above all that we ask or think. Let us therefore not be of little faith and small imagination. Let us instead think big and expect great things. Let us also occupy until he comes in that sacred task he has committed to us, proving ourselves faithful witnesses.

1. Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., “Theonomy and Eschatology: Reflections on Postmillennialism,” in William S. Barker and W. Robert Godfrey, eds., Theonomy: A Reformed Critique (Grand Rapids, 1990), 197-224.

2. Postmillennialists do not posit the millennium as a future age of glory that is discontinuous with the present. It is by present processes—Word and Spirit, the gifts Christ gave to his church for the whole New-Covenant age—and the labors of the whole church over the whole interadvental period that the Great Commission is fulfilled. We do not despise the day of small beginnings (the mustard seed) as we hope in the magnitude of the long-term results. We must read all of Christian history in terms of the many victories that are building to the crescendo of a world won to Christ.