Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope

by Keith A. Mathison

The promises of the gospel offer hope of a brighter future for the families and nations of the earth. Mathison's optimistic eschatology is supported by biblical, historical, and theological considerations.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Nonfiction, Christianity, Cultural

287 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

About the author

Dr. Keith A. Mathison is associate editor of Tabletalk magazine. He is also academic dean and professor of systematic theology at Reformation Bible College in Sanford, Fla., and author of From Age to Age: The Unfolding of Biblical Eschatology.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keith Mathison's "Postmillenialism" is a short, accessible survey of the essentials of postmillenialism. It is not as comprehensive as some books, nor does it spend a great deal of time in any one text--instead, it covers most every area of the doctrine and points the reader to additional resources to learn more.

He begins systematically considering "Hermeneutical Considerations" where he lays out some basic Christian doctrines and begins to show how the storyline of the Bible itself points toward an eschatology of hope. Next he reviews historical theology to understand what the church fathers have believed and taught. Next, Mathison moves on to survey the Old and New Testaments to highlight Scriptures that teach on eschatological questions.

After the biblical survey, Mathison then offers his "Theological Considerations." He begins by arguing "that postmillenialism is the system of eschatology that is most consistent with the generally agreed upon doctrines of Reformed theology." p. 163 He then shows the inadequacies of premillenialism and amillenialism. He concludes this section with "The Answer of Postmillenialism." Here he lays out first, what postmillenialism is not. There have been, and are many critiques of postmillenialism that fail to understand what it is, and instead, use straw man arugments. He then articulates what postmillenialism is.

He concludes with theological and biblical objections, a short conclusion, and many pages of appendices. The main strength of this book is that it is a broad introduction covering virtually every area of the doctrine. This is an outstanding introduction to postmillenialism. For those that have already studied the doctrine in depth will likely find themselves skimming much of it, for it will all be very familiar. This is the book I will recommend to those that want to learn about postmillenialism, as many of the older books are out of print and hard to find. This one, however, is easily available and well written. Highly recommended!

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite good.

[Rebekah Albano · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this comprehensive book, Keith Mathison exposits Scripture passages from Genesis to Revelation, showing the victorious plan of God and the definite and progressive growth of His kingdom. God used this book to show me that His Word is not confusing or impossible to understand; that striving for accurate interpretation is important; and that my view of eschatology DOES affect my everyday life. I now know that I can do the work of His kingdom in this world with the hopeful expectation that He will reign "until He has put all His enemies under His feet" (1 Cor. 15:25).

[Caryn Block · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearly written and easy to understand. Utilizes a great amount of Scripture to prove his arguments. Provides answers to the most common objections to postmillenialism; as well as, challenges to both Amillenialism and Dispensationalism. Overall, an interesting and compelling read if you're interested in the topic of eschatology.

[Mark E. Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure I agree with everything or where I stand but there is definitely some validity to the Postmill argument.

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great intro to Postmillennial Eschatology.

[Bob O'Bannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It must be acknowledged that I want to be a postmillennialist. It’s just such a more hopeful and optimistic way to look at the world, and if it’s true, it would necessitate a refreshing paradigm shift in the way one assesses world history and the future.

But of course the essential question is not whether I want it to be true, but whether it is true to the teaching of Scripture. And I would say that Keith Mathison makes a strong case that it is. Without lending any support to concerns about full preterism (outside the bounds orthodoxy, p.244) or theonomy (not mentioned by name but clearly disputed on p.203), Mathison considers church history, reformed theology, and of course Scripture from both testaments to conclude that the kingdom of Christ is actually increasing throughout the world, and that things are actually getting better, not worse. “Postmillennialism asserts that Christ has been enthroned as king over the heavens and the earth, that he is presently fulfilling the promises made to Abraham and to David, and that he will continue to reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” (p.78).

To those brought up on a dispensational framework, this kind of optimistic eschatology might seem strange and novel, but actually it has been held by some of the most highly respected reformed theologians, such as Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hodge, J. Gresham Machen and R.C. Sproul. And no, it does not imply liberalism, social gospel or universalism (p.187-189).

There are still questions in my mind (were all the predictions of apostasy and lawlessness in the “last days” really fulfilled in AD 70? Doesn’t postmillennialism discourage a watchfulness for Christ’s second coming?), but at this point in my investigation I must admit that postmillennialism makes better sense of the entire thrust of redemptive history. If Jesus is risen from the dead, and the Holy Spirit has been poured out on his people, and he has promised to be with us to the end of the age, and there will be no end to the increase of his government, and he will reign until he puts all of his enemies under his feet, and the very ends of the earth will certainly be his possession, how can we hold to anything else but an eschatology of hope and an expectation of kingdom success?

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this book questioning everything. I had my skeptic glasses on as I questioned many of Mathison’s interpretations of Scripture, namely Isaiah 65 & 66 being pre-second coming. At the end of it, I felt myself agreeing more and more, and after reading an additional document written by my pastor, I’ve come to agree (mostly) with postmillennial eschatology.

That said, Mathison is quick to shut down the other views’ arguments. My lingering desire is to read a similarly styled breakdown of the other two millennial views. I am more interested in learning more deeply about amillennism than pre, because I can’t see Revelation 20 being a literal 1000 year period.

Mathison’s strongest points are made because of his point of reading difficult Scripture in light of clear Scripture. This made his analysis of NT passages so much easier to understand, because he approached the texts with all of Scripture in mind. Mathison does a good job with providing biblical grounds for strengths and weaknesses of all three millennial views in parts five and six the book, though they felt rushed and poorly elaborated.

Ultimately, what I’ve taken away, is to trust fully in the promises of God; that His Word will come to pass, and that Jesus Christ will be victorious through His Church — just as He was wholly victorious in the event of His first advent. Trust God’s Word, get going for the mission of the Kingdom, make disciples, and stay faithful in this work. Whether the postmill view is right or wrong, Christ will return to judge the quick and the dead, and as long as I live, I’ve got work to do — and it won’t hurt to pray all the more earnestly, “your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

[Jacob Twaddell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good intro for the Postmillennial view but unconvincing. Mathison assumes and relies on the creeds and general reformed theological assumptions too much instead of exegesis. There is exegesis throughout, but if there’s a discrepancy he just resorts to “Dispensational bad, reformed good.” Good if you want an intro to Postmillennial eschatology, but I’ll stick with my Amillennialism.

[Travis Robnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good introduction and broad overview. More focused on the spread of the gospel than politics/culture wars.

[Deborah Laajanen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introductory to Postmillennial eschatology

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mathison does an excellent job at presenting a concise case for the postmillennial hope. Highly recommend as a great introduction to the position, for a larger treatise on the subject, I would commend Kenneth Gentry’s “He Shall Have Dominion”

[Chase Cohee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mathison provides a succinct and yet comprehensive treatment of how the postmillennial vision of history is the best framework in which to understand the fulfillment of God’s covenantal promises and the rich pictures of messianic triumph given in the Psalms and Prophets. He provides a conclusive argument that postmillennialism is the logical eschatology for those who love covenant theology. Only critique to offer is that those who are not already familiar with the mechanics of the preterist interpretation of the Olivet Discourse may be left with unanswered questions of how Matt. 24:29-31 could find a first century fulfillment.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much to think about in this book. Postmillennialism is a very different way to think about Christ's return compared to what I learned mostly through osmosis growing up. But it helps me understand passages where Jesus tells the Jews that a sign or something will occur "before this generation passes away." It also helps me think through several Psalms which talk about the nations worshipping God. I see definitely need to think through all of this further.

[Alexander Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well reasoned book. I think the claims for future victory is overbalanced in modern postmillennial thought, and I also not buy the partial preterism that goes along with it. I think it’s the most sensible and historic view to see Revelation 6-19 as a symbolic picture of the church, and to be cautiously optimistic in the face of the good and evil of this present age. Nonetheless, Mathithson makes good points, especially against premillennialism.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10

A good primer on Postmillenialism. I needed to remind myself of that because it doesn’t go into deep detail on questions and objections that I was thinking about. But it answers the common objections. He takes a particularly partial-preterist position on many prophetic passages that I don’t think is necessary in proving the point, but I suppose he’s allowed to have his opinion. I wish the last section had actually been the first section—I think the book would have flowed better.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful.

[Will_J3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction to the topic of Postmil. He lays out the basics, goes through exegesis, answers common objections, and more. Well worth the read.

[Rick Davis]

I remember that I read this years ago when I was in college, but I don't remember exactly when. I'm marking it here as to-read, and trusting that I'll circle back around to it again someday.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was the straight-forward basics of postmillennialism. Well written, but I read it too late after I already knew most of what was in it. Still a good read!

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly good defense of postmillennialism. Keith (since we've emailed back and forth quite a few times over the years, and on more issues that eschatology, I can call him that!) defends the more modern postmillennialism of a Bahnsen or a Gentry, not that of some of the puritans or Old Princeton (though he would agree with some of their exegesis on certain passages). This means that Jesus will return after the millennium (hence the "post"), and this millennium will be characterized by tremendous social, political, and ecclesiastical advances that come from submitting to the Lordship of Christ, and a change wraught by the gospel. Some have called it a "golden age." It's important to note the role of the gospel in all of this. If most men are converted, then we should expect changes in the world. So, these changes are not brought about by some sort of modern Christian crusade. Hearts are changed by the preaching of the word, not by the sword. So though the timing of the second advent stands shoulder to shoulder with amillennialism, but the nature of the millennialism stands more in line (but has some differences) with premillennialism.

Keith also takes the same hermeneutical route as many of the "new" postmillennialists - partial preterism. This position is fairly universal among "new" postmillennialists (except for Rushdoony, who was more of an idealist (biblical hermenutically, not philosophically or psychologically!)) and serves as a sword to defeat various non-postmillennial hermenutical views, viz., futurism, historicism, idealism, etc. he also uses some of the standard postmillanialist proof texts, e.g., Psalm 2, Psalm 22:27-28, Psalm 110:1; Isaiah 2:2-4; Habakkuk 2:14; Matt. 13; Rom. 11; 1 Corinthians 15:24-26. Much of this is prophecy and poetry, always hard to base of case of prophecy though (which I think is one of the problems of the (or some of the)credobaptist position). Romans 11 has to many viable interpretations to be used as authoritatively as some postmillennialists do, and the nature of kingdom growth is what is disputed by the amillennialists, not the fact of it.

Possibly to his credit, Keith doesn't employ the other weapon of "new" postmillennialists: the ethical position known as theonomy. So that is something missing from this book that is not in other contemporary defences of postmillennialism.

I am not a postmillennialist, but when I was, this was one of my favorite books. So to those who want a good introduction to postmillennial eschatology, I would recommend Keith's book without reservation.

[Peter Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book introducing and optimistic eschatology. Anything by Mathison is worth getting

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introduction to post-millenial eschatology. I appreciated the exegetical studies in support of post-millenialism throughout the Bible, proceeding from Genesis to Revelation.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book. Every amillennialist and premillennialist should read this!

[Dominic Foo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit, I know virtually nothing about eschatology and I tend to avoid Revelations and other "apocalyptic" parts of the Bible like the plague. But give my interest in history, it is inevitable that I should eventually have to form a "theological" interpretation of history, and so I decided to start here.

Now to comment on the book itself before talking about its contents, it is written from a conservative Reformed perspective. Thus there is a serious and careful engagement with the Bible, the Reformed tradition and the broader tradition and fathers of the church. It is clear, systematic, and somewhat rigorous, although for such a small book (about 250 pages), one should not expect too in depth analysis. But because of the fact that it is such easy reading and broadly comprehensive of the whole field of eschatology, I could not have asked for a better introduction to the topic and I highly recommend it.

Now, you might be surprised that I choose a *postmillennial* perspective to begin my foray into eschatology. I am after all, that horrible nihilistic and realist to the point of cynical.

But for most of my Christian life I've always been a sort of simplistic and naive postmillenialist. I knew, even as an atheist/agnostic, that if I were to believe in God, it would be Christianity, for the simple reason that to my mind, Christianity has always been entangled with (1) the scientific revolution and (2) Western imperialism. And unlike most "postcolonialist", I DID believe in the wonders and superiority of the Western science, and I did believe in the superiority of Western imperialism, especially the British empire, which brought the glories of Western science and rationality to us primitive, pre-modern and unscientific Asian barbarians. And so since the wonders of Western science, rationality and imperial civilisation arose out of Christendom, Christianity must obviously be the superior religion and the one to adopt.

I suppose orthodox political correctness would go into a fit at such a crudely triumphalistic entanglement of raw secular power with spiritual faith. But this impression has never really left me, and though of course I today would not express it in the terms I just did (except maybe when I'm feeling contrarian and trying to irritate someone! :P ), but this fundamental conviction never really left me. I've written that without the "demythologisation" and "de-spiritualisation" of nature by the Protestant's cry against the "gross superstitions and idolatry" of locating divine presence and agency in nature and in physical objects (as in medieval Catholicism) in contrast to banishing it completely to the Word and faith in the heart alone, the way to a purely mechanical view of the nature and the scientific revolution would not be possible. Without the "sacred-secular" divide of the Reformation, whereby the "rationality" of the secular diverged from the rationality of the sacred, the proper treatment and understanding of worldly affairs would not have been possible but shot through with superstitions and myths.

So, in a way, I've always been innately inclined towards postmillenialism, and that with the right combination of preaching, science, rationality and education, and of course when necessary, imperial power, Christianity's triumph over the world would be complete, and Christ's dominion established on earth.

Of course now in the wake of Christendom's collapse and the West's decay and disintegration, my thoughts seems to be rather foolish or naive. And of course, the greater one's hope, the greater the despair at the frustration of one's hopes.

But ever the contrarian, I wonder if I have not been too hasty. For as much as I despair at the current state of this world, but I still believe in science, rationality, the elimination of superstitions, "Western" virtues in general, etc. And that the West has decayed because it has abandoned what has made it great before in favour of hippie postmodern nonsense.

So I decided to re-examine my previous hopes and do some proper theology on it.

The result is this book and the thing I appreciate about this book is that it utterly rejects "newspaper exegesis". It argues for postmillenial hopes and the progressive victory and triumph of Christ's reign on this earth firmly upon a biblical basis based on God's promises of Christ's victorious reign and dominion of the all world to himself. Thus, we are not to place our hopes on empirical contingencies or historical events or newspaper reports, but firmly upon the promises of God which he articulates very well with a comprehensive presentation of evidence throughout the OT prophecies and NT declarations.

As for their exegesis, I've learnt quite a lot from this book's "preterist" reading of many texts in the New Testament. "Preterism" is simply the argument that we should read many of the apocalyptic and eschatological text with reference to *already fulfilled* historical events in the past. The key is simply Christ's saying that all these would come to past before the present generation passes away. Present, not some distance future generations. Thus Christ talking about his "coming" is not actually his "Second Coming" at the end, but refers to his coming in judgement upon the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD. The book explains very patiently that most of the predictions of all the "nasty stuff" have already been fulfilled in events leading up to the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. It also gives a broad interpretation of Revelations according to the preterist view, carefully relating a lot of the imagery and symbolism to Nero and the events surround him and the Jerusalem Temple.

At the end, I have to say, I'm pretty much sold on exegetical grounds. I shall have to read up more to have a better understanding of the interpretation of particular texts, but overall, I think it's quite sound. The author is also careful to correct many misunderstandings with regards to postmillenialism, such as for example suffering and evil will be eliminated in time, etc, whereas he maintains that suffering, death and evil will continue until Christ returns in the end, but that it would be subdued in the face of the growing triumph of Christ's victory and reign over the whole world.

Although now I would introduce some tweaking and modifications to his account of postmillenialism. First, while I believe that the Kingdom will grow on this earth through the preaching of the Gospel and the increase of faith in the hearts of more and more believers, and in this sense, I do believe and apply the promises of Christ's growing dominion throughout the world as a dominion of spreading faith and belief in Christ throughout the world, but I remain skeptical that the promises regarding this spread of the Gospel throughout the world involves the "renewal of creation" and a corresponding increase in worldly health, happiness or prosperity. In this, I maintain the Lutheran/Barthian two kingdoms split. There will be a growth in faith, but I don't think this would be followed by a growth in worldly health, prosperity or happiness or morality or virtue, etc. The most I will say is, God will maintain and preserve the Orders of Preservation (i.e. government, marriage, family, economy, work, community, etc), until the end of time, and as the Faith grows and the Gospel spreads, God will maintain and establish these orders where ever the Gospel spreads and is established. But these orders do not "perfect" or "renew" creation, they exists merely to preserve and maintain worldly fleshly life, and God does and will see to our worldly needs in aid of the preaching and growth of the Gospel and Christian faith.

But it is always important to emphasize that postmillenial hopes are not based on "newspaper exegesis", but firmly upon the promises of God in Christ, and upon the firm conviction that Christ does reign over the whole world at the right hand of the Father. And just as we do not allow our empirical sins to deter us from trusting in the promises of grace and forgiveness in Christ to triumph over evil anew each day, neither should we allow historical events or newspapers to detract us from holding fast to the promises of Christ's dominion on earth. Thus, ever the contrarian, in the face of global decay, we must in an existential leap of faith, negate our worldly eyes and set our eyes of faith firmly upon Christ who reigns at the right hand of the Father, and exercises dominion over all the world.

Overall, a highly recommended book, easy to read, clear and a good introduction to eschatology from a postmillennial perspective.

[Chadrick Lind · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since I began to research eschatology and the different views, I have become pretty solidified in the amillennial position and open minded to the historical premil position. I have also become pretty hardened against the postmillennialism position on the basis that I think it is just not in the scriptures. I chose this book because it was, in large, an exegetical case that is made. I was genuinely hopeful and open minded that the many chapters of exegetical analysis through the OT and NT would help me to at least understand the argument and become more open minded to the validity of the position. This unfortunately did not happen. After reading the book I am more solidified than ever before that postmillennialism is not in any way coherently taught in the scriptures. Most texts really only teach post millennialism if you read them with a specific kind of literal interpretation (ironically this is something the author criticizes dispensationalists for doing). Such as “all nations will be blessed” or “make disciples of all the nations” or the mustard seed growing and becoming “exceedingly large” or the earth being filled with the glory of the Lord as the “waters cover the sea”. The author insists that these verses must be fulfilled through a world that becomes exceedingly Christian in number and I simply disagree. First of all the immediate text doesn’t require it, and secondly the Bible should be used to interpret the Bible and there are passages such as Matthew 7 (amongst others) that absolutely destroy this postmil argument. The author addresses the verses that are used as objections, but again in a thoroughly unconvincing way. Essentially Matthew 7 and the narrow gate is taught as not teaching about the number of people who are saved but the number of ways to be saved. So since Christ is the only way to be saved that is what Jesus is implying by the narrow gate. That argument is convincing as long as you don’t actually read the text that says “few (people) find” the narrow gate and “many (people) enter through” the wide gate to destruction. Secondly he justifies his argument saying it only applies to the immediate audience. Which is only an argument you need to make if you don’t actually believe your first argument. Apparently the author isn’t convinced that the narrow gate is speaking about ways to be saved or else he would not need to make the argument that it only applies to the immediate audience. Anyway, if that is the case, then the greatest sermon ever preached has now been reduced to something that doesn’t even apply to people beyond the immediate historical context. Is this how we should think about the blessings in the beatitudes at the beginning of the sermon as well as all of the moral teachings throughout the sermon? I could further speak on the implausibility of the full preterist interpretation of revelation and Matthew 24 or to the times in which the authors own interpretation of different passages contradicts himself, but I will just let you read for yourself. I respect the author and the high esteem he holds to in regard to the Westminster confession and reformed doctrine. But I think the author departs from reformed practice and understanding through interpretive gymnastics and arguments based on thoughts and feelings. These are practices I would expect from an Arminian brother, but not from someone so well versed in reformed doctrine and theology. If you want to read a book from a reformed person that argues like an Arminian, this is the book for you. I’m still open minded that there is someone out there who can make a decent case for postmil, but this book isn’t it in my opinion.

[Christopher Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could rename this book, it would be called "An Overview of the Bible". This is because Keith Mathison does an excellent job in laying out the overarching framework of God's redemptive plan for all of creation from Genesis to Revelation. After establishing the foundations of a robust biblical covenantal theology for God's redemptive purposes in history and how Christ fulfills them all perfectly, the case for a Postmillenial Eschatology becomes a piece of cake.

While the topic of Eschatology (the study of last things/end times) may be indeed a foreign and intimidating subject to most contemporary Christians today (tragically so), this book plainly shows that it really shouldn't be the case! Like all other aspects of our Christian theology, we should believe that God makes a clear enough explanation for what He wants us Christians to understand about the end of all things, and what to expect in the lead up to it (and He does!)

Bad Eschatology is widely prevalent and has immensely infected the church today, and the fruit of it shows. From baseless needless pessimism about the state of the world to endless speculations about some "Rapture", to thinking that Bill Gates will invent the mark of the beast, it's no wonder the church has gotten the bad rep it has received in the past century or so with all these wonky views of the future and the end. We honestly deserve it. Keith Mathison rightfully reminds us to get our theology less from the newspapers and more from God's infallible Word - The Bible.

With the help of Keith Mathison in this book however, he helps to point out the abundantly clear overarching narrative of Scripture, which actually to the surprise of most Christians today, paints a vastly optimistic view of the future! Christians have loads of biblical grounds to be optimistic that the Great Commission will be successful, that Christ's reign will be visible on the earth as entire nations are transformed by the Gospel, and that Christ who reigns in Heaven now, will surely subdue all His enemies under His feet. This very hope and certainty should be the very basis for Christians to partake in the Great Commission with complete boldness.

Mathison also helpfully points out the flaws of the other common Eschatological views of today (Dispensational Premillennialism, Historic Premillenialism, Amillenialism) by addressing their theological, historical and practical problems, and how it is truly the Postmillenial view that is the most consistent with the teaching of Scripture. Mathison also rightly points out that one of the most important hermeneutical approaches to Scripture that tends to be largely neglected today is the Reformed Principle of Hermeneutics (interpet Scripture with Scripture). He convincingly showcases how a Partial-Preterist approach, accompanied by a dilligent study of Old Testament Language, when applied to many texts both in the Old and New Testaments help to make much sense and clarity of commonly misinterpreted biblical texts of prophecy or other apocalyptic literature. On the flipside, he also highlights the pitfalls of the rabbit hole known as Full-Preterism.

All in all, this book is a masterful, comphrehensive introduction to the topic of Eschatology, and particularly, a Postmillenial Eschatology. It, like all our other aspects of systematic/biblical theology ought to transform the way we approach the Christian life and all I can say is, this book, along with this Eschatological view, changes absolutely everything.

Easily a 5 out of 5.

[Caleb Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book defends Postmillennialism, the eschatological theory that the world will become more and more Christian and then Christ will return. Pros:

1. He does a better job presenting his case than Storms, because he is more balanced using texts that actually support his thesis.
2. He is more concise than the long-winded Storms, which I find a great benefit.
3. I found many of the points he emphasized, I also agree with, even though I am Premill., especially in the earlier chapters.

Cons:
1. He leaned too much on church history. For example, his only real response to full Preterism was that the historic church councils disagreed with it. That is way too Catholic sounding for a Bible believing Christian.
2. Try as he might, he failed to create a persuasive argument for either Thessalonians or Revelation, which are always the killer texts for Post mills.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it confirmed in my mind that the only two real options are Premill. and Postmill.

[Alex Kearney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not ready to say for certain that I affirm postmillennialism, but I sure have caught myself speaking “postmillennially” the last year or so.

"Postmillennialism maintains consistency between the application of redemption on an individual scale and the application of redemption on a cosmic scale. In both cases, God has already accomplished a definitive work. In both cases, this work will be perfected and consummated on the Last Day. And, in both cases, there is a progressive growth in holiness as the remaining corruption is overcome through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit."

[Ben Nash · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading reading this mostly convinced of the Postmil position but wanted to firm up convictions and answer some questions. It was a choppy read, repetitive, and some of the arguments weren't laid out well. It may have put more questions and doubts in my mind.

I'm still optimistic of the future especially with Christ's kingdom, rule, and rein. That will grow and never end.

I'm hoping to read another optimistic amil position and see which ones arguments are stronger.