God And His Word - A Question And Answer Approach To Understanding The Bible

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Postmillennialism is that view of the last things which holds that the kingdom of God is now being extended in the world through the preaching of the gospel and the saving work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of individuals, that the world eventually is to be Chris tianized and that the return of Christ is to occur at the close of a long period of righteousness and peace commonly called the mil lennium. It should be added that on postmillennial principles the Second Coming of Christ will be followed immediately by the gen eral resurrection, the general judgment, and the introduction of heaven and hell in their fullness. 29 The Puritan scholars of the seventeenth century were strong postmillennialism advocates. Those preachers, their sermons and their writings fanned amazing revival in Scotland, England and America. It has generally been overlooked that the main features of this movement are all the effects of revival. They believed firmly in revivals of religion as the great means by which the Church ad vances in the world and by which she will ultimately triumph. 30 R. C. Sproul, in his recent book The Last Days according to Jesus, summarized postmillennialism by listing seven of the key features as advocated by Kenneth L. Gentry Jr.: • The messianic Kingdom was founded on earth during the earthly ministry of Christ in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The Church became the "Israel of God." • The Kingdom is redemptive and spiritual rather than politi cal and physical. • The Kingdom will exercise a transformational sociocultural influence in history. • The Kingdom of Christ will gradually expand in time and on earth through Christ's royal power but without His physical presence on earth. • The Great Commission will succeed-the virtual Christian ization of the nations. • There will be an application of biblical law in society. Pietis tic believers deny the total transformation of culture while theonomic believers affirm total transformation.

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