Premillennialism

Premillennialism, in Christian eschatology, is the belief that Jesus will physically return to the Earth (the Second Coming) before the Millennium, heralding a literal thousand-year messianic age of peace. Premillennialism is based upon a literal interpretation of Revelation 20 (Revelation 20:1–6) in the New Testament, which describes Jesus's reign in a period of a thousand years. Premillennialism is in contrast to amillennialism and postmillennialism beliefs. Amillennialism interprets Revelation 20:1–6 as pertaining to the present time, and holds that Christ currently reigns in Heaven with the departed saints. This interpretation views the symbolism of Revelation as referring to a spiritual conflict between Heaven and Hell rather than a physical conflict on Earth. Amillennialists do not view the thousand years mentioned in Revelation as a literal thousand years, but see the number "thousand" as symbolic and numerological and see the kingdom of Christ as already present in the church beginning with the Pentecost in the book of Acts. Denominations such as Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, Calvinism and Lutheranism are generally amillennial. Postmillennialism views the millennial rule as a Golden Age in which Christian ethics prosper through preaching and redemptive work, but occurring before the second coming. Premillennialism is often used to refer specifically to those who adhere to the beliefs in an earthly millennial reign of Christ as well as a rapture of the faithful coming before (dispensational) or after (historic) the Great Tribulation preceding the Millennium. In the 20th century, the belief became common in Evangelicalism according to surveys on this topic.