There are many ideas about future things (eschatology) in the church today. All of these ideas are based on the “one thousand years” mentioned in Revelation 20:2-7. The three main views are premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism.
The first two mentioned above, premillennialism and postmillennialism, take the one thousand years literally. The premillennialists hold that a future kingdom of God will exist AFTER the coming of Jesus to earth. However, the postmillennialists believe the thousand years will come after the church age and BEFORE the coming of Jesus to earth. But since Revelation, which is primarily a symbolic book of the Bible, the Greek word chilioi (pron. KHEE-lee-oy), meaning a thousand, is translated into English as a or the thousand. So, the two views mentioned above take the thousand literally, even though this book is written primarily in a figurative way. In the author’s opinion, these two positions aren’t supported by the Bible, no matter how these views’ supporters misinterpret and ignore parts of Scripture.
In fact, the Bible tells us that certain things will happen on the Last Day: the second and only coming, or second advent, of Christ; the general resurrection; the final judgment of the wicked; and the salvation of the saints (Matt. 25:31-46). Supporters of premillennialism and postmillennialism separate these events, contrary to God’s Word. Also, the supporters of premillennialism claim that the Bible teaches of a third but secret coming of Christ, but this is contrary to Scripture, too. The author of this article has published an article on this blog entitled “The End of the World,” which he recommends that you read.
The third primary view of eschatology is amillennialism. This view takes the thousand translation symbolically and considers the thousand mentioned here to be an indeterminate or unknown (except by God) period of time in the current church age we’re living in. In keeping with the symbolic nature of these verses, the Koine Greek word translated as “one thousand” means “a fullness of time.” This position, in many Christians’ opinion, is in accordance with Holy Scripture.
If the passage of scripture mentioned before is properly interpreted symbolically, then amillennialism is the correct view of biblical eschatology for Christians.
However, the term used for this view, amillennialism, is inaccurate. The a- prefix in English means not or without. So, in this case, the word amillennialism means “without a millennium,” and that is wrong. Amillennialists believe in a millennium; they believe it is an unknown time frame (except by God) within the period between the two advents of Jesus.
Consequently, the author of this article believes that the symbolic period discussed in Revelation 20:2-7 should be referred to as the inter-advental period. Thus, amillennialism ought to be renamed Inter-advental Millennialism.
