Corporate eschatology considers the future of the church as the people of God and the progress of Christ’s kingdom through history. It asks how the gospel will fare among the nations, how Revelation 20 and its “thousand years” should be understood, what Scripture teaches concerning Israel and the conversion of the Jews, and how Christians should understand the relationship between gospel advance, persecution, and Christ’s eventual return.
Faithful Christians have answered some of these questions differently. The Free Presbyterian Church of North America therefore maintains firm unity concerning the essential truths of biblical eschatology while allowing liberty among amillennial, postmillennial, and premillennial interpretations.
This makes an important distinction necessary. Christians should hold firmly what Scripture clearly requires while exercising charity and care in matters where orthodox interpreters disagree about prophetic chronology.
The Church Lives in the Last Days
The New Testament does not reserve the expression last days exclusively for a brief period immediately before Christ’s return.
Peter explains Pentecost by quoting Joel’s prophecy concerning “the last days” (Acts 2:17), while Hebrews says that God has spoken to us by His Son “in these last days” (Hebrews 1:2).
The last days therefore began with the accomplishment of redemption and the coming of Christ’s kingdom in its New Testament fullness.
The church lives between Christ’s first and second advents. The kingdom has already come in Christ, yet its consummation remains future. Satan has suffered decisive defeat through Christ’s death and resurrection, yet he remains active. Eternal life already belongs to believers, yet they still die. Christ already reigns, but every enemy has not yet been visibly placed beneath His feet.
This tension between what has already been accomplished and what remains to be consummated is fundamental to New Testament eschatology.
Christ Will Preserve His Church
Whatever happens before Christ returns, His church will not disappear.
Jesus promised:
“I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” — Matthew 16:18
WCF 25.5 similarly teaches that although particular churches may decline grievously or even cease to be true churches, there will always be a church on earth worshiping God according to His will.
That promise should not be transferred uncritically to every denomination, institution, congregation, or historically Christian nation. Churches may apostatize, and regions once marked by strong Christian influence may become spiritually barren.
Christ’s promise concerns His church as a whole. In every age He will preserve a people for Himself and continue His saving work through the gospel.
The Gospel and the Nations
The Great Commission gives the church a worldwide horizon:
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” — Matthew 28:19
Christ has redeemed people “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Revelation 5:9), and Revelation 7 shows the fulfillment of that purpose in an innumerable multitude before God’s throne.
Christians of differing millennial views agree that Christ will gather His people from throughout the world. They differ partly over the extent and historical form of gospel prosperity before His return.
Some expect an extended period in which Christian faith becomes remarkably widespread among the nations. Others expect continuing gospel advance alongside persistent unbelief, persecution, and apostasy until the end.
These differences do not alter the church’s commission. Christ sends His people to preach the gospel to the nations, and His promise to gather the redeemed gives reason for confident missionary labor.
What Is the Millennium?
Revelation 20 describes a period of “a thousand years” during which Satan is bound in a particular respect and the saints reign with Christ.
The interpretation of this passage has produced the three principal millennial positions known as amillennialism, postmillennialism, and premillennialism.
The disagreement involves more than whether one thousand should be interpreted literally. It concerns how Revelation 20 relates chronologically to Revelation 19, the nature of Satan’s binding, the character of Christ’s present reign, the historical prospects of the gospel, and the relation of the millennium to Christ’s Second Coming.
All three views permitted within the FPCNA affirm Christ’s bodily return, the authority of Scripture, the final triumph of His kingdom, the resurrection of the dead, final judgment, and everlasting glory. The disagreement concerns the interpretation and sequencing of certain events leading to that consummation.
What Is Amillennialism?
Amillennialism understands the thousand years of Revelation 20 as a symbolic description of the present period between Christ’s first and second comings rather than as a future earthly millennium beginning after His return.
The name can therefore be misleading if it suggests that amillennialists believe in no millennium. They understand the millennium as a present reality viewed from the perspective of Christ’s heavenly reign and the reign of His saints.
On this interpretation, Satan is presently bound in a particular sense so that he cannot prevent the gospel from going to the nations as before Christ’s redemptive victory. He remains active and dangerous, but his activity occurs under the sovereign limits established by Christ.
Amillennialists generally expect the church age to contain both gospel advance and serious opposition, culminating in a final crisis before Christ returns to raise the dead, judge the world, and consummate His kingdom.
What Is Postmillennialism?
Postmillennialism teaches that Christ will return after an extended period of extraordinary gospel prosperity in which Christian faith and obedience become widespread among the nations.
Like amillennialists, postmillennialists ordinarily understand Christ as reigning presently from heaven. The principal difference lies in their expectation concerning the historical effects of that reign before the Second Coming.
Postmillennial interpretation gives particular attention to biblical promises concerning the nations coming to Christ, the growth of God’s kingdom, and the success of the gospel.
This does not necessarily imply uninterrupted progress or a world without opposition and persecution. Postmillennialists have generally allowed for periods of severe conflict while maintaining that Scripture gives reason to expect a broad and enduring triumph of the gospel within history before Christ returns.
What Is Premillennialism?
Premillennialism teaches that Christ will return before the millennium described in Revelation 20.
Premillennialists therefore understand the millennium as a future era following Christ’s appearing and arrange the resurrection and other eschatological events accordingly.
The view places a greater chronological distinction between the present church age and the millennial era to follow. Premillennialists also differ among themselves concerning the relation between Christ’s coming and a period of final tribulation.
The FPCNA allows such differences among premillennialists, including pre-, mid-, and post-tribulational views. It does not require one of these sequences as a condition of confessional fellowship.
Does the FPCNA Have an Official Millennial Position?
No single millennial position is required by the FPCNA.
The denomination maintains liberty regarding whether Christ’s return is understood as premillennial, postmillennial, or amillennial. It likewise allows differing tribulational views among premillennialists.
This liberty has limits. The FPCNA does not extend it to prophetic systems that weaken or contradict the plan of salvation confessed in the Westminster Standards.
Eschatology cannot therefore be isolated from the rest of Christian doctrine. A prophetic system that effectively introduces separate methods of salvation, undermines justification by faith, compromises the unity of redemption in Christ, or conflicts with other fundamental biblical doctrines cannot be defended merely as an allowable “end-times view.”
The chronology may be debated within confessional boundaries. The gospel may not.
Israel and the Future Conversion of the Jews
Romans 11 has generated considerable discussion concerning the future of ethnic Israel.
Christians differ over some details of Paul’s argument, but the Westminster Larger Catechism contains a notable expectation. In explaining the petition “Thy kingdom come,” WLC 191 says Christians pray that “the Jews [be] called” and “the fulness of the Gentiles brought in.”
The Standards therefore give Christians good reason to pray for and expect the saving conversion of Jewish people without requiring one particular millennial scheme concerning the details of that blessing.
Any acceptable interpretation must nevertheless preserve the New Testament’s insistence that there is only one Savior and one way of salvation. Jew and Gentile alike are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.
No eschatological promise creates a second saving covenant apart from Him.
Will the Church Triumph or Suffer?
Scripture gives strong language for both gospel triumph and Christian suffering.
Christ promises to build His church and sends His gospel among all nations. He also warns His disciples that they will be hated and persecuted.
These truths do not need to be forced into opposition. Christ’s ultimate saving purpose cannot fail, but triumph in Scripture does not always mean cultural dominance, ease, or freedom from persecution.
Revelation portrays martyrs as conquerors precisely through their faithfulness to Christ:
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” — Revelation 12:11
Different millennial views reach different conclusions about the amount and historical pattern of gospel prosperity before the end. All should agree that the church’s calling remains unchanged under prosperity or persecution: proclaim Christ, worship faithfully, pursue holiness, endure suffering, and trust the King whose kingdom cannot fail.
“Thy Kingdom Come”
WLC 191 provides an especially helpful Reformed framework for corporate eschatology.
When Christians pray, “Thy kingdom come,” they ask God to destroy the kingdom of sin and Satan, propagate the gospel throughout the world, call the Jews, bring in the fulness of the Gentiles, purify and strengthen the church, make Christ’s ordinances effective, convert sinners, build up believers, rule in our hearts, and hasten Christ’s Second Coming.
This places eschatological hope within the ordinary prayer and mission of the church.
It encourages confidence concerning the advance of Christ’s kingdom without making speculative chronology the center of Christian expectation. Whatever millennial position a believer holds, he should be able to pray earnestly for the spread of the gospel, the conversion of sinners, the health of Christ’s church, and the return of the King.
Westminster references: WCF 25.2–5, 32.2–3, 33.1–3; WLC 87–90, 191.