I made a misleading statement in my book, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days: “That the inmillennial prophetic model does not show a visible coming of Christ may surprise some readers.” This sentence not only surprised some readers, but it also caused them to assume I do not believe in our Lord’s future bodily return.
I tried to prevent that conclusion, as the paragraph containing the above quote shows:
That the inmillennial prophetic model does not show a visible coming of Christ may surprise some readers. I ask them to consider that the physical resurrection at the end of the messianic age requires a visible coming and/or going by Christ or his people. In the eternal state, they will, in their glorified bodies, enjoy visible and personal fellowship. Inmillennialism just says that most, perhaps all, of the passages that describe the Lord’s coming are referring to something he did in the apostles’ generation.1
So, I affirmed “a visible coming” in our future, but I did not show it on the diagrams in the book. My affirmations did not effectively explain the opening sentence.
I also attempted to state my belief in a future coming when discussing the final judgment in Matthew 25:31–46. In opposition to unorthodox hyper-preterism, which places this passage entirely in our past, I wrote,
I have an intense interest in showing that this passage is consistent with the rest of the Olivet Discourse and that the historic Christian faith is right when it teaches us to confess, “I believe … he shall come to judge the quick and the dead” and “I believe … in … the resurrection of the body.”2
I supported this position by saying, “In his final exhortation in the Olivet Discourse [i.e., Matt 25:31f], Jesus describes the end of his messianic age reign.”3 I explained how Jesus used protensive language in this passage to connect events in His generation to those at the end of history.4
In my discussion of First Corinthians 15, I argued for the physical resurrection at the end of the messianic age in opposition to views proposed by hyper-preterists. I said that this victory over death will occur after Christ subdues all other enemies, as stated in Psalm 110:1, which the Apostle Paul quotes.5 Sadly, I did not explicitly mention a physical reuniting of the Lord Jesus with His saints after their resurrection.
So, I failed to convince some readers that I believe in a final coming of the Lord. One even said that 90% of the people who read my book will conclude that I hold heretical views. I suspect this estimate is several orders of magnitude too high, as the book’s endorsements by pastors, elders, administrators, and seminary professors suggest. Even so, if I produce a second edition of the book, I will make the final coming of the Lord more explicit.
In the meantime, I would like to address this issue here. In doing so, I will also be responding to readers who have asked for a list of Scriptures that I believe teach the final coming of the Lord. Let’s begin.
Inmillennialism rests on the Jewish division of history into two ages: the age before Christ’s first coming, and the one after it. I refer to them most often as the Mosaic and the messianic ages. Christ’s coming to judge Israel ended the first, as Jesus taught in His Olivet Discourse (Matt 24–25; Mark 13; Luke 21:5–38). Likewise, He will come to terminate the second in the final judgment:
Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the one about to come.… I am saying to you, Every word which men shall speak which has no legitimate work, which is inoperative and thus morally useless and unprofitable, they shall give account of at the day of judgment. (Matt 12:32, 36–37)6
Christ’s coming to end the Mosaic age and fully inaugurate the messianic age was near when He spoke these words. His coming to judge “every word” at the end of the messianic age will occur in our future.
My understanding of Matthew 16:27–28 has changed slightly since I wrote Inmillennialism. I now also view this passage as protensive: the Lord placed His coming to judge Jerusalem side-by-side with His coming to judge the works of all men at the end of the messianic age. This is similar to what He did in Matthew 12:32, 36–37, as I mentioned above. I explain protensive language and provide other examples (including Matthew 25:31–46) here.
Jesus spoke to Caiaphas, the high priest, the night before His crucifixion.7 He said, “From now on you will see the Son of Man … coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matt 26:64 ESV). This “coming” would be a permanent fixture in the messianic age. The Son of Man would “come” to judge Israel and destroy the temple in Jesus’ generation (e.g., Matt 24:1–3, 34). He would also “come” to judge people and nations throughout the messianic age (e.g., Isa 42:1; Luke 22:29–30). And, He would “come” to conduct the final judgment at the end of history (e.g., Rev 20:2–14; see below).
In many ways, this age-long coming of the Lord equates to his age-long working: “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17 ESV). The bodily resurrection will complete this coming/working activity: “The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28–29; cf. John 6:39–40, 44, 54; 12:48). Thus, this passage is about the final coming of the Lord at the end of history.
Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many mansions.… I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself” (John 14:1–3). The Lord’s reception of the elect is multifaceted. When they die, each one’s soul goes to be with Him (2 Cor 5:8). The Lord will come a final time to “give life to [their] mortal bodies” in the resurrection (Rom 8:11). So shall they be forever with the Lord (1 Thess 4:17).
The numerous New Testament passages that refer to Psalm 1108 imply the Lord’s final coming at the end of history. Then, He will raise the dead and execute the final judgment. Paul makes this clear:
As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming (Gk. parousia). Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. (1 Cor 15:22–26)
This is a classic example of protensive language. Paul places the resurrection of Christ side-by-side with the resurrection of the saints, even though the messianic age intervenes.
Here, Paul places both resurrections in Christ’s parousia. I discuss the meaning of this word in a separate post (here)9 and in other posts discussing various passages (here). This word signifies Christ’s spiritual presence with His people during the messianic age. At the end of that age, He will come to dwell with them bodily.
Paul makes similar statements in his first letter to the Thessalonians:
This we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming (Gk. parousia) of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thess 4:15–17)
In a series of four blog posts (beginning here), I argued that the Apostle is again using protensive language. The Lord’s coming in His generation would simultaneously end the Mosaic age and fully inaugurate the messianic age. During that period, His spiritual presence (Gk. parousia) would be with His churches. At the end of that time, He will descend bodily to raise the dead.
In Revelation 20, John describes the end of the messianic (kingdom) age. Jesus had bound Satan during His incarnation at the start of that age (Matt 12:29; Mark 3:27). Now, Jesus casts Satan “into the lake of fire and brimstone” (Rev 20:10). Then a scene unfolds that resembles what Jesus said in Matthew 25:31–46:
I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (Rev 20:11–15)
The Lord, in His glorified body, will then dwell with His saints, now in their resurrection bodies, forever.
Conclusion
Most of the New Testament “coming” passages refer to Jesus coming to judge Israel in the period leading up to the temple’s fall in AD 70. Inmillennialism teaches that this event fully initiated the messianic (kingdom) age. That age will culminate with the physical coming of the Lord to raise the dead in the resurrection, conduct the final judgment, and usher in the eternal state.
I have not been exhaustive, but I hope I’ve discussed enough passages to convince my readers that I joyfully and truthfully affirm, with the Apostles’ Creed, that Christ “is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.”
Footnotes
- Michael A. Rogers, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days (Tullahoma, TN: McGahan Publishing House, 2020), 283. Emphasis added.
- Rogers, Inmillennialism, 217–18. Emphasis added.
- Rogers, Inmillennialism, 222. Emphasis in original.
- Rogers, Inmillennialism, 229–32.
- Rogers, Inmillennialism, 237–63.
- Kenneth S. Wuest, The New Testament: An Expanded Translation (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1961), Mt 12:22–37.
- See Rogers, Inmillennialism, 159–61.
- These include Matt 22:42–46; Mark 12:35–37; Luke 20:41–42; Acts 2:34; 1 Cor 15:23–28; Eph 1:20–22; Heb 1:3, 13; 10:12–13.
- See Rogers, Inmillennialism, 73–88.
