“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #183
“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:26).
In the verse just prior to this one we are told that Christ must reign as He progressively puts down all opposition to His rule. All rule and authority and power is being made subject to Him, and in this verse we see His triumph over the last and greatest enemy, which is death. On a personal note, this was the verse I tripped over when I became a postmillennialist. Some might say I tripped over it and hit my head, but here was my thinking on it.
In the more common views of Christ’s reign, death is the first enemy to be destroyed. Human history goes along doing its thing until the Second Coming dramatically interrupts it. The dead are raised, and then comes the millennium (if you are premill) or the eternal state (if you are amill). But in both cases, death is the first enemy to go down. In this scenario, however, death goes down after all rule, authority, and power—with the assumption being that this is all rule, authority, and power that is opposed to Christ—has been defeated.
This means that our task, prior to the Second Coming, is through the gospel to casting down imaginations, to be casting down every high thing that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. The lion will lie down with the lamb, children will play with cobras, tornados will be diverted from their courses, and Congress will start doing good things. A man considered by his neighbors as accursed will die when he is one hundred. And after all this, with so many wonderful things accomplished, and the earth being as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, God will give the signal for the final trump, and death will be destroyed. Death and Hades will be thrown in the lake of fire.
This is fascinating stuff. I wish you had a whole separate blog explaining and expounding on these ideas on a more regular basis. Thanks for the bits you place here from time to time though.
Except that I don’t see “progressively” anywhere in vv 18-25. An a-mil dramatic completion is as consistent as a post-mil progressive completion, and vice-versa. (I think a pre-mil reading requires the insertion of a millennial pause between the coming in v23 and the end in v24).
Hi Andrew W. Speaking as a layman here I see the following progression: “First…then…then….then…” (give or take a “then”) We do not know the amount of time between each “then” as it is not stated, but when I read it, I don’t get a sense of things being rushed. If it is a significant amount of time between each “then” (and it was a very significant amount of time between “and God created the heavens then….Christ was born then….Christ was ….Then…” so a goodly amount of time seems eminently reasonable to assume) then* the progress that is happening between each… Read more »
Andrew,
I agree that it could be tough to see progression in this passage, though I do think it is there, but the reason I believe in progressive growth is from passages like the parable of the mustard seed. The church grows one converted soul at a time.
Under His Mercy,
BJ
Timothy,
Not sure you understand “progression”, as Doug, BJ and myself are using it. We all agree that A -> B -> C. The question is whether the coming of the rule of Christ is incrementally visible in this age (Daniel 2:35, Matt 13:31-32) or sudden (2 Pet 4, 10). Note that in some sense it can be both; God can be calling his elect to come under Christ’s lordship (and so grow his kingdom) without this necessarily being manifest in a systematic and global manner in the world and society at large.
Edit: 2 Pet 3:4,10
As an optimistic premillennial believer sometimes tempted to convert to post, the nagging thought in my mind runs something like this: true, death is the last enemy to be destroyed, but can’t there be mini-destructions of death along the way? A general resurrection might just be the first step in a long war against death. In other words, a premillennial believer might liken death’s destruction to tearing down a building the old school way: stripping down the parts bit by bit until you end up with a massive pile of bricks to the left, a pile of concrete over there,… Read more »
Doug — by sending amill to the corner over there, you give the impression that amill is not a subset of postmill, which it historically and theologically is.
And you give a hint that you don’t believe in an eternal state, because that’s what those amillers see in the mix.
“casting down every high thing”
Postmill definition of “every” = “well, not every every, I mean come on”
Doug,
I respect you for lightheartedly admitting in the video below that the dramatic break-in scene in 2 Thessalonians is difficult to reconcile with a postmillenial position. But I was wondering if you had made any progress on this issue yet or if we will have to wait until the eschaton :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS8T7u4TuIs
Drew — postmillennialism proper glories in II Thess 1. Postmillers like Doug, however, see a future new type church victory — one that didn’t occur as of 70Ad or 700AD or 1700AD or now. For them — there’ll be a new thing ahappenin’. This is properly called a new dispensation. So call them dispensational postmillenialists. But postmillenailism simply means that Christ will come back after (“post”) His millenial work & reign. Doug sees that reign as having future earthly increases the likes of which has not yet been experienced. But by itself, postmillennialism includes amillenialism = there is no (the… Read more »
@ Eric Stampher
Pretty much everything I have seen, read, or heard about postmill suggests that it has a very optimistic, positive view about the state of society when Christ returns – this is the problem with reconciling postmill w/ Christ returning to a really messed up world. So if you call yourself postmill, fine, but I think the problem still exists for classic postmills.
“Postmills, all of us, say Jesus has reigned since He made the world.
But Doug seems to say He’ll do a more “successful” job of later in time.”
I don’t know if you’re suggesting an implied contradiction here, but there’s nothing contradictory about a competent King who reigns over an entire Kingdom, but takes time to bring everyone in it under proper subjection.
@ Eric Stampher
You may need to demonstrate more clearly how amill is a subset of postmill as you mentioned above.
Hi Jane! He “takes time to bring everyone in it under proper subjection“? Well, yes — if by that you mean equally under subjection. And that would have to include Hitler & Cain & Judas Iscariot & Stalin — and not future antichrists only. The problem with dispensational postmillennialist (d-p’s) positions like Doug’s is that it is decidedly pessimistic about past heretics and infidels: “Well yes, Cain did his damage successfully against the church, but by God in the future — in the next dispensation — future Cains will not get the upper hand! The King will extend His kingdom… Read more »
Whereas, as Piper points out in Hebrews, Abel’s martyrdom was a victory for the kingdom, not a defeat that Doug hopes to see mitigated here on earth later on, when the Spirit finally starts to kick it in gear.
Drew, I’m not sure how to further clarify the Amill / Postmill line. The “mil” in both = no set mil = thousand as a literary category not necessarily approximating earth years but rule by Christ. The “mil” in both = here, on earth, before the eschaton, then end. The “mil” in both = Christ reigning now. “Post”mil prior to Jonathan Edwards (the first major dispensational postmillennialist) was the term most all folks used for Amill belief. All Amillers identified themselves as Postmillenial. Doug stands in the belief tradition as Edwards, and have co-opted the term (or Amillers have distanced… Read more »
The fact that death is the last enemy to be destroyed is not the same thing as saying that a general resurrection must be the very last thing to appear on the Clarence Larkin timeline. I think we can file that argument somewhere under “affirming the consequent.” If the millennial reign of Christ is an actual thing (as opposed to a magnificent allegory of uncertain fulfillment), then there will be a battle of Gog and Magog following the first resurrection, a battle in which people will die. Death ain’t dead while people are still dying. At the judgment of the… Read more »
“Even B. B. Warfield, usually portrayed as postmillennial in his eschatology, remarked to his friend Samuel G. Craig, that amillennialism of the type held by his esteemed Dutch colleagues Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper “is the historic Protestant view, as expressed in the creeds of the Reformation period including the Westminster Standards.”
From a great study by Kim Riddlebarger: http://www.mountainretreatorg.net/eschatology/princetonmill.html
Bro Steve —
“If the millennial reign of Christ is an actual thing” — you mean, will be an actual thing.
We postmillers say it is an actual thing now.
And it is progressing lineally.
And Jesus was victorious over death.
And so was & is my grandpa — in the spirit now, and in the flesh soon.
I Cor 15:
ye are saved — not will be
he rose again — not will be
by man came also the resurrection of the dead — came, not just will come = we sleep now, we are not dead
in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming = a fait accompli vs postmillenian fate to be accomplished by future fighting Jesus needs to get into and have some setbacks with.
@ Eric Stampher
You may be correct about how Amill today was actually called Postmill before Edwards, but when people hear “Postmill” today they think of Doug’s position. That’s why I referred to his position as “Postmill.”
Doug’s is correctly called postmill, and postmill with a kicker
All this talk and not a single mention of biblical sacred architecture: Abe offering Isaac > David’s threshing floor = 1000 years of tent worship (skins – Garden) Solomon’s Temple > AD70 = 1000 years of house worship (stones – Land) “1000 years” of this New Covenant house (waters – World), where death is destroyed in three phases: – Adam (Christ – Head/Word) – Cain (Abel avenged in AD70 – Hands/Sacrament) – Noah (all creation – Feet on the Sea/Government) Garden: Jesus’ resurrection (end of Adamic Covenant) Land: AD66? OT saints and NT martyrs resurrection (“first” resurrection – end of… Read more »
Mike
Is that LAND @ His coming a preterist 70 AD dispensational coming that requires further processing of some sort before He can deliver WORLD to Father?
Yep. AD30 put a Man in government in heaven. AD70 gave Him a cabinet – human elders seated on thrones. Those guys are ruling now.
Jesus: “Hey, sons of thunder, I need a cyclone about … here.”
But if you pray to them rather than Him I will kick you.