What is postmillennialism?
Question 10052
Postmillennialism is the belief that Jesus will return after (post-) the millennium. Unlike premillennialism, which sees the millennium as a future earthly reign following Christ’s return, postmillennialism teaches that the millennium is a golden age of Christian influence and prosperity that occurs before the second coming. During this period, the gospel gradually conquers the world, society is transformed, and righteousness prevails. Only after this long period of kingdom expansion does Jesus return to judge the living and the dead and inaugurate the eternal state.
The Postmillennial Vision
Postmillennialists hold an optimistic view of history. They believe the Great Commission will be successful beyond our wildest imagination. Jesus said: “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Postmillennialists take this as a promise of inevitable victory. The church is not retreating but advancing, and nothing can stop the kingdom’s growth.
They point to Jesus’ parables about the kingdom. The parable of the mustard seed describes a tiny seed growing into a great tree where birds nest in its branches (Matthew 13:31-32). The parable of the leaven shows how a small amount of yeast works through the entire batch of dough (Matthew 13:33). These parables, postmillennialists argue, teach that the kingdom starts small but eventually pervades and transforms the whole world.
The millennium, in this view, is not a literal thousand years but an extended period during which Christian values dominate culture, wars cease, justice prevails, and the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth. The prophet Habakkuk wrote: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). Postmillennialists expect this to happen gradually through gospel preaching and Christian influence, not suddenly through Christ’s visible return.
The Role of the Church
In postmillennial thinking, the church has a mandate to transform society. This goes beyond individual evangelism to include reforming social structures, establishing Christian laws, and bringing all areas of life under Christ’s lordship. Some postmillennialists speak of “Christianising” the nations, meaning not just converting individuals but reshaping entire cultures according to biblical principles.
This emphasis on cultural transformation appeals to those who see Christianity as comprehensive worldview affecting politics, economics, education, arts, and every sphere of life. The Great Commission tells us to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Postmillennialists argue this means more than just saving souls; it means discipling entire nations to obey everything Jesus commanded.
The church’s success in spreading the gospel and influencing society is guaranteed by God’s sovereign purposes. Just as God promised Abraham that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3), so the gospel will eventually bless every nation. The tide of history moves toward increasing gospel penetration and Christian influence, even if there are temporary setbacks along the way.
Historical Development
Postmillennialism became prominent during the Puritan era and reached its peak in the 18th and 19th centuries. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), one of America’s greatest theologians, held postmillennial views. He believed the Great Awakening was the beginning of the kingdom’s triumph. Charles Hodge and B.B. Warfield at Princeton Seminary were postmillennialists, as were many other influential Reformed theologians.
The view seemed vindicated by the progress of Western civilisation, the expansion of missions, the abolition of slavery, and increasing social reforms. Christians saw the world improving and assumed this trajectory would continue until the whole world embraced Christianity. The optimism of the Victorian era fuelled postmillennial expectations.
However, the 20th century dealt postmillennialism severe blows. Two world wars, the Holocaust, the rise of atheistic communism, and increasing secularisation in the West shattered the optimistic vision. How could anyone look at the carnage of the trenches or the gas chambers and maintain that the world was getting better? Postmillennialism largely collapsed, though it has seen a modest resurgence in recent decades, particularly among some Reformed groups.
Biblical Difficulties
Whilst postmillennialism offers an attractive vision of gospel success, it faces substantial biblical challenges. First, Jesus’ own words suggest the world will not be converted before His return. He asked: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). The rhetorical force of this question implies widespread unbelief, not universal Christianity.
Similarly, Paul describes the end times not as a golden age but as difficult times: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy” (2 Timothy 3:1-2). This hardly sounds like a Christianised world. The list continues with “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5), suggesting religious hypocrisy rather than genuine gospel transformation.
Jesus’ parable of the wheat and tares also challenges postmillennialism. He describes the kingdom as a field where wheat and weeds grow together until harvest. The servants ask whether they should pull up the weeds, but the master says: “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn'” (Matthew 13:30). This parable suggests that good and evil coexist throughout the age until Christ returns in judgement. It is not a picture of gradual triumph but of simultaneous growth of both wheat and tares.
The Question of Progress
Postmillennialism assumes inevitable progress toward a Christianised world, but the biblical pattern is more cyclical than linear. Think of Israel’s history. Periods of revival and obedience were followed by apostasy and judgement. The book of Judges shows this cycle repeatedly: “And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD” (Judges 2:11), then God raised up a deliverer, then they fell away again.
The church age shows a similar pattern. The early church experienced explosive growth, but Jesus’ letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 reveal widespread problems within a few decades. Church history is not a steady upward trajectory but includes periods of darkness (the medieval period), reformation (16th century), decline (18th century rationalism), revival (19th century missions), and increasing secularisation (20th-21st centuries in the West).
Moreover, the Bible describes a final great apostasy before Christ returns. Paul warns: “Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). The “rebellion” (apostasia in Greek) suggests widespread falling away from faith, not increasing Christian dominance. The Antichrist’s rise presupposes a world ready to follow him, not one thoroughly converted to Christ.
The Nature of Christ’s Kingdom
Jesus explicitly told Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting” (John 18:36). This statement challenges postmillennialism’s emphasis on transforming earthly kingdoms. Jesus’ kingdom operates on different principles than earthly kingdoms. It advances through suffering and service, not political power and cultural dominance.
The apostles never attempted to Christianise the Roman Empire. They preached the gospel, planted churches, and taught believers how to live as strangers and exiles in a hostile world. Peter writes: “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11). The New Testament mindset is that believers are temporary residents in this world, not transformers of it into the kingdom of God.
This does not mean Christians should withdraw from culture or ignore social issues. We should absolutely work for justice, care for the poor, and be salt and light in society. But we recognise that ultimate transformation comes only when Jesus returns and makes all things new, not through gradual Christianisation of existing structures.
The Danger of Earthly Focus
Postmillennialism can subtly shift believers’ focus from heavenly hope to earthly success. When we expect to build the kingdom through cultural influence, disappointment and disillusionment easily follow when the culture resists or regresses. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us: “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).
Paul describes believers as those who “have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:5). We have foretastes of the coming kingdom but not its fullness. We experience the Spirit’s firstfruits but groan inwardly as we wait for full redemption (Romans 8:23). This “already but not yet” tension cannot be resolved through gradual improvement but only through Christ’s return and the resurrection.
Conclusion
Postmillennialism offers an attractive vision of gospel triumph and cultural transformation. It takes seriously the Great Commission and God’s sovereign purposes. However, it struggles with biblical passages describing end-time apostasy, the coexistence of good and evil until judgement, and the nature of Christ’s kingdom as “not of this world.” History has not validated postmillennial optimism; if anything, secularisation has increased in formerly Christian lands.
Rather than expecting gradual improvement, we should maintain biblical realism about human sin whilst holding unshakeable hope in Christ’s return. We preach the gospel knowing some will believe and many will reject it. We work for justice knowing perfect justice awaits Christ’s reign. We long for His appearing, not because we believe the church will fail, but because we know only His personal presence can bring the kingdom in its fullness.
The gospel certainly has transformative power. Where it goes, lives change, cultures shift, and good results. But ultimate transformation awaits the day when “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). That day comes not through gradual progress but through divine intervention when Jesus returns in glory.
“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
