Models of Premillennialism

by Sung Wook Chung, David L. Mathewson, Craig Blomberg (Foreword)

The meaning of “the millennium”—the thousand-year reign of Christ spoken of in Revelation 20—has been controversial for much of the church’s history, and even the main perspectives on the matter turn out to be more variegated than is often realized. This book takes the oldest of those options, premillennialism, and offers an excellent introduction to a variety of models of premillennialism currently available, including classical dispensationalism, progressive dispensationalism, historic premillennialism, thematic premillennialism, and historic premillennialism in Asian context. The product of collaboration between a systematic theologian and a New Testament scholar, this book provides a fascinating reference tool for anyone interested in what Scripture teaches about the last things of redemptive history, the Parousia, and the millennial kingdom.

152 pages, Paperback

Published August 27, 2018

About the author

Dr. Chung earned a DPhil from the University of Oxford and an MDiv from Harvard University. He has been on the faculty of Denver Seminary since 2005 and serves as Professor of Christian Theology, Director of the Asian Initiative, and Chair of Korean Studies Program.

He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, Evangelical Theological Society, Calvin Studies Society, Society of Biblical Literature, and the Karl Barth Society of North America. He served Kurios International, a global missional organization as founder and president from 2012 to 2019. He currently serves C-Connection, a global missional organization as founding chair of the board, Marked Men for Christ as a member of its global board, JD Kim Ministries as a member of the board and Korean American Scholarship Foundation’s Mountain States Regional Chapter as founding president and a board member.

Reviews

[Casey Blackbird · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was in middle school, I tried to make pancakes with funfetti cake mix rather than regular pancake mix. The result was similar to this book: It was fine, but the form didn’t always fit the content.

Significant portions served more as a “Who’s Who” of Premillennialism (which was interesting but not always compelling). I felt a tension between the authors’ calls to put the ultimate weight of argument with exegesis and their disposition to list theologians and their credentials behind specific views. The two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, but felt awkward.

There’s a fair bit of inside baseball here—you likely need to have a moderate grasp of the different systems in order to fully appreciate the analyses given. That’s fine, but, again, the form/structure of the essays often seemed to obfuscate rather than clarify the arguments.

Thematic Premillennialism, which is often neglected, was developed but, again, it wasn’t until toward the end of the chapter that it was more clearly defined.

Overall, I found the work helpful. It helps to build out a bibliography for premillennialism and to clarify the diversities of premillennialisms. If you’ve read the chapters in a major systematic theology on the Millennium and you’re curious, this would be a fine book to engage with.

[Alan Rathbun · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book serves a very specific purpose of providing an overview of various pre-millennial positions. It accomplishes this purpose while also providing a tracing of the historical development of pre-millennial views. I gave it five stars because the authors had a very clear purpose for the book and clearly accomplished their purpose.

The book is a great starting point for understanding pre-millennial positions and the various hermeneutical challenges that come with each position that can really help the reader prepare for a deeper study of specific premillennial views. The authors demonstrate a strong understanding of the various pre-millennial positions and while holding to a historic pre-millennial position themselves, they are gracious in representing other pre-millennial positions.

[Micah Sharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent book. The first three chapters were hardly worth reading if you’re already familiar with the views, except for good lists of historic proponents. The chapter on thematic millennialism was most interesting. The view is compelling but it’s uncertain if it really holds up to all the textual details. It’s simplicity and literary responsibility is commendable. The chapter on Korean Historic Premillennialism was also interesting.

[Joshua Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 Stars. Would have worked much better as "five views on Premillennialism" with authors from the other perspectives brought in to defend their views and offer critiques of the other viewpoints. as it stands it is heavily bias towards modern historical Premillennialism of the George E. Ladd variety.

[Taylor Stamps · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short book recapping the different strands of premillennial eschatology. Matthewson’s chapter on “Thematic Premillennialism” is worth a read for those not fully decided between premillennialism and amillennialism.