You will not miss the day for no one can miss the day, not even the dead. The dead will be rising from the ground and from the depths of the sea. At that day dear friend, and at that moment, look up and see the salvation of our God! Jesus Christ Himself will be descending with all power and glory to judge the living and the dead for He has been given a dominion which is everlasting and a kingdom that shall never be destroyed!

And at midnight there was a cry made…Matthew 25:6
Few errors in the last 150 years have distracted the church and the world from the primacy of the Triune God and Salvation through Jesus Christ alone than the teaching of the secret rapture.
While not as widespread as it was 50 years ago, in some areas of the evangelical world, belief in the secret rapture seems to be the litmus test for a Christian profession. It is discussed as if when the Philippian jailor asked Paul and Silas what he must do to be saved in Acts 16:30 that Paul and Silas responded, “believe in the secret pre-tribulation rapture of the church and you shall be saved.”
Of course Paul and Silas said something quite different. Nevertheless in our day it is a very common, perhaps even a majority evangelical position, that ascension into heaven by God’s people will take place in secret. If you have read the “Left Behind” series or seen any number of movies based on those books, it is portrayed with planes falling out of the sky and cars crashing because their Christian pilots and drivers have been secretly raptured.
The cry described in Matthew 25 is not a cry that only the wise virgins hear or experience. It is a cry that goes out to all. It is a public cry. The public cry is the testimony not only of Matthew 25 but of the whole Scripture. In chapter 24, the Lord told us that like in the days of Noah when all men saw the flood coming and it was too late for it was upon them, so when the Lord returns all men will see His coming and it will be too late to obtain salvation.
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Postmillennialism misconstrues the primary purpose of God for the Era of Gospel Proclamation, which is not to Christianize the Domain of Darkness, but rather to rescue a chosen people out of it, and to transfer them into the Kingdom of his beloved Son…[and] distorts the believer’s Blessed Hope, focusing it upon an illusory stage of Church history, rather than upon the true signs of the times and the Consummation at Christ’s return (Titus 2:13; 1 Peter 1:13).

This article is an extract from my book, The Great End Time Debate: Issues, Options and Amillennial Answers. Because a number of contemporary postmillennarians also embrace Partial Preterism, you may also wish to read my article on Preterism, available here.
Here is a key to some of the abbreviations you will encounter as you read:
GETD = Great End Time DebateDNT = Didactic New Testament (i.e., the teaching portions of the gospels, the book of Acts, and the epistles)OTKP = OT Kingdom Prophecy (OT prophecies of the coming Kingdom of God)NCH = New Covenant Hermeneutic (the NT method for interpreting the OT in general, and OTKP in particular)
Exposition
(To view a timeline for Postmillennialism, please click here)
The word postmillennialism means after the millennium. Thus, like Amillennialism, Postmillennialism teaches that Christ will come again after the “1000 years” of Revelation 20. Nevertheless, the two schools differ, primarily because postmillennarians are highly optimistic about the progress and societal impact of the Gospel during the Era of Proclamation. The seeds of this persuasion were first planted by Augustine, who was quite confident about the redemptive power and future growth of the City of God (i.e., the Church). In Reformation times certain Dutch theologians modified his view, asserting that the thousand years symbolize a later portion of the Era of Proclamation, during which time large numbers of Jews will be converted and the world will become largely Christian.
Though hardly the majority report of the Church, Postmillennialism has had some astute defenders. Most of the American Puritans were postmillennarians. They believed that God would use the American experiment in a special way to advance his universal Kingdom. More recent postmillennarians include Charles Hodge, Benjamin Warfield, Lorraine Boettner, John Jefferson Davis, Jeff Durbin, Marcellus Kik, Keith Mathison, James White, and Doug Wilson. The disciples of Rousas Rushdoony—the founder of a theological school called Christian Reconstructionism—are also postmillennial. They include Greg Bahnsen, Ken Gentry, Gary North, and Martin Selbrede.
Very briefly, here is the postmillennarian position on the four underlying issues of the GETD.
The Kingdom of God
Postmillennarians agree with their amillennarian brothers that the Kingdom of God is a direct spiritual reign of the triune God, and that it enters history in two fundamental stages: the purely spiritual Kingdom of the Son, followed by the spiritual and physical Kingdom of the Father. But again, some postmillennarians think of the Millennium as a distinct phase of the Kingdom of Son, in which Christ suddenly binds Satan and then triumphantly extends his spiritual reign over the face of the whole earth. Thus, for these interpreters, postmillennialism is not really a species of present-millennialism, since here the Millennium is present with some, but not all, Christians who live in the Era of Proclamation.
The Interpretation of OTKP
Once again postmillennarians agree with their amillennarian brethren in interpreting OTKPs typologically and figuratively, as being fulfilled under the New Covenant and among its people, the Church. There is, however, a crucial difference: In OT texts where amillennarians find the prophets speaking of the World to Come, most postmillennarians find them speaking of the triumphs of the Era of Gospel Proclamation. More on this in a moment.
The Meaning of the Millennium
On this issue postmillennarians differ among themselves. Some identify the 1000 years of Revelation 20 with the entire Era of Proclamation, others with its final thousand years, still others with a season of indeterminate length situated towards the end of the present evil age. In the latter case, this season is held to commence with a special, latter-day binding of Satan, possibly leading to the conversion of ethnic Israel at large (the view I have pictured in the time-line above). All agree, however, that the basic trajectory of Church history, despite occasional setbacks, is one of Gospel triumph.
The Consummation
Regarding the Consummation, postmillennarians concede that Revelation 20:7-10 does indeed anticipate a final, global rebellion against Christ and his faithful people (i.e., the Last Battle). This painful interlude—so out of character with the preceding years of triumph and blessing—will quickly lead to the Parousia, the several other elements of the Consummation, and the advent of the World to Come.
We find, then, that for most postmillennarians the true locus of Christ’s victory over the powers of evil is the Era of Proclamation itself, with Christ’s Second Coming serving largely as a glorious capstone upon all that he was able previously to accomplish through the faithful preaching of his Church and the activism of Christian citizens.
Does Scripture justify this optimistic scenario? Does the course of Church History to date confirm it? In the following critique we will seek to answer these important questions.
Critique
With the help of the time line above, let us critically examine the postmillennarian understanding of Salvation History, paying special attention to the four underlying issues we have just identified and discussed.
View of the Kingdom
Amillennarians divide the Kingdom of God into two simple stages: the temporary Kingdom of the Son, followed by the perfect and eternal Kingdom of the Father (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43; Col. 1:13). But as we have seen, most postmillennarians go on to divide the Kingdom of the Son into two sub-stages: an initial stage of real, difficult, and partial Gospel progress, followed by a millennial stage of enormous Gospel progress. Postmillennarian Ken Gentry speaks for many when he says of the Millennium: “The Kingdom will grow and develop until eventually it exercises a dominant and universal gracious influence in a long era of righteousness, peace, and prosperity on the earth and in history.”
But this view of the Kingdom of the Son is not supported in Scripture. Nowhere in the DNT do we find any suggestion that it is divided into two stages, or that it includes a long, future Golden Era. Quite to the contrary, we find both Christ and the apostles repeatedly girding the loins of the saints for constant opposition and persecution, though also for a real measure of success as God gathers together his little flock through the faithful preaching of the Gospel (Matt. 24:9-14; John 10:16; Rom. 8:30; 1 Thess. 2:2; Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 4:12; 1 John 3:13, 5:19).
On this score, the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares is paradigmatic (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43). Here the Lord clearly assumes that throughout the entire Era of Proclamation the tares will grow up alongside the wheat. Indeed, so abundant are the tares that the angels regard them as a threat to the safety of God’s crop (Matt. 13:27-28). This is the template of all NT eschatology. Believers ever live and serve in the present evil age (Gal. 1:4). They constantly struggle against the world-forces of this present darkness (Eph. 6:12). To the very end, the world-system lies in the grip of the evil one (1 John 5:19). Always and everywhere the Church is a light shining in the deepening darkness of the world-system (Matt. 5:14; John 1:5; Phil. 2:15). Her ongoing experience is one of Great Tribulation (Rev. 7:14). She is constantly making a hard pilgrimage through the wilderness of a hostile world (Rev. 12:6, 13-17). The Last Battle is simply the final and most extreme engagement of this perennial war. Where, in all of this, is there room for a Golden Era of peace, righteousness, and prosperity?
View of OTKP
Postmillennarians argue that many OTKP’s predict a global triumph of the Gospel in the Era of Proclamation (see Psalms 72, 110; Is. 2:1-4, 45:2-3, 65:17-25; Mic. 4:1-3; Zech. 9:10, etc.). But here we encounter some serious confusion. Yes, postmillennarians are correct when they assert that these prophecies are fulfilled under the New Covenant, and that we must therefore interpret them typologically and figuratively. But they err when they assert that the prophecies are largely fulfilled in the Era of Proclamation, and not at all in the World to Come.
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Christian relationships bound in truth are expressed in the way we pray for one another, the burdens we share with one another, and the sympathy we have for one another. Let us be faithful to pray that all is well with body and soul of our brothers and sisters in Christ!

One of the books of the Bible that I have come to appreciate over the years is the letter of Third John. This short letter from John the Apostle to his beloved brother Gaius is packed with timeless, practical principles for members of Christ’s church. But there is one verse that is specifically helpful when we consider how we as brothers and sisters in Christ should pray for one another. I believe if God’s people would consider the ways John prays for Gaius in this letter and begin to pray for one another in this way, not only would our prayer lives grow stronger, but relationships in the church would also grow deeper, and the souls of men and women would be strengthened.
In the second verse of this letter John writes,
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.
This prayer of John lays out three clear ways in which we can and should pray for one another as those who are walking in the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ:
Wellness in Circumstances (v. 2a)
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you…
Think for a moment what “all may go well with you” could include. Consider how it would change our prayer and our relationships within the church if we committed to praying that all may go well with specific members of the body. First of all, we would need to know more about the different areas of their everyday lives. We would need to spend time talking to them getting to know them on a deeper level. This in itself would strengthen the relationships we have as we walk in truth together.
Praying for the general well-being of the church family would mean we are praying for their life within the church, their family life, their vocation, their ministry, and their financial well-being.
Wellness in Body (v. 2b)
Beloved, I pray…that you may be in good health…
This is one we are usually devoted to. Our prayer meetings, personal prayers, and family prayers are often filled with prayers for those who are sick, those who have been injured, and those who may be facing death. This is good and right for the church to do. When people are going through times of physical suffering and affliction, they need not only the comfort of God to persevere, but the wisdom of God to understand what he is seeking to teach them during this season of life.
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