Postmillennial Worldview

PMT 2014-099 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

You have suffered long enough: this is my last article in a series on the question of suffering, the church, and postmillennialism. I have been dealing with the charge that God has called the church to suffer in this age, which would seem to undermine the postmillennial expectation. But postmillennialists affirm the reality of suffering — and even in the time of Christianity’s highest advance before Christ returns! How can this be?

We must recognize that even the very height of earthly, postmillennial glory pales in comparison to the “weight of glory” that is ours, and that stirs our deepest longings as sons of God (cf. Php 1:23). As recipients of the mysteries of the kingdom of God, Christians experience “the heightened form which our desire for this future [resurrection] state assumes. For it is not mere desire to obtain a new body, but specifically to obtain it as soon as possible” (cf. 2Co 5:1–10) (G. Vos, Redemptive History, 46). Continue reading →