What Are the Four Views of the End Times? (Revelation 20:1-8)

The four end-times approaches discussed here are postmillennialism, amillennialism, premillennialism, and preterism. The first three differ over the thousand years in Revelation 20:1–8 and the timing of Christ’s return. Preterism asks which prophecies have already been fulfilled, so it can overlap with a millennial view.

For example, a Christian can be both an amillennialist and a partial preterist. These are not four mutually exclusive positions. The comparison below explains the distinctions before I present my reasons for holding premillennialism.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Follow the podcast: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | RSS

If you have heard Christians describe themselves as amill, postmill, or premill, they are referring to their understanding of the millennium. Some studies count four millennial views by separating historic and dispensational premillennialism. Here I cover the three main millennial positions and then distinguish full from partial preterism.

I’m a premillennialist, but I will do my best to present the opposing views respectfully and share the names of respected people who hold each view.

What Is the Millennium?

The suffix mill in each view is short for millennium. The most explicit passage describing the millennium is in Revelation 20. Look at verse one:

Revelation 20:1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit (or abyss) and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,

The pit, or abyss, is the temporary prison for demons who sinned by possessing people in Noah’s day and throughout history. You might remember when Jesus cast the demons out of the man in the country of the Gerasenes in Luke 8:31. They begged Jesus not to cast them into the abyss. Demons are locked up here until released as part of the 5th Trumpet Judgment in Revelation 9. The abyss also ends up being the prison for the devil during the millennium.

The millennium is named from the repeated use of the phrase “thousand years” six times in verses 2 through 7.

Revelation 20:3 and threw him into the pit (or abyss), and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

The devil is imprisoned in the abyss for one thousand years and then released. As we’ll see, he isn’t cast straight into hell because God has one more task for him. There’s a real emphasis on the devil deceiving the world because it’s mentioned four times in Revelation 19:20, 20:3, 8, 10. It’s interesting that of all the devil’s evils, this is the reason he’s locked up. Revelation 12:9 says he’s the deceiver of the world. He shows up on the pages of Scripture deceiving Eve, and his final actions before being cast into hell also involve deceiving people.

I’m convinced the world will be dramatically different when the devil is locked up and cannot deceive anyone. Please keep that in mind when we discuss each view.

Revelation 20:7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.

After the millennium, the devil is released and returns to deceiving people. His 1,000-year imprisonment didn’t change him at all. Notice that it says he’s released rather than escaped, showing God’s sovereignty in letting him out. It’s all part of God’s plan. The devil deceives all unbelievers into rebelling against God so they can be destroyed after the Millennium in the Battle of Gog and Magog and prevented from entering eternity.

The Four Views of the End Times

Now, we have a basic understanding of the millennium to discuss the end times.

Postmillennialism’s View of the End Times: Christ Returns After the Millennium and Rules in Believers’ Hearts

The prefix post means after, so postmillennialists believe Jesus’s Second Coming occurs after the millennium. Many postmillennialists understand the thousand years symbolically. The following summarizes that form of the view:

1. Christ reigns from heaven and extends His kingdom through the gospel, rather than physically ruling an earthly kingdom after His return.
2. They don’t view Satan literally imprisoned during the Millennium. Instead, they believe Jesus’s death and resurrection hindered Satan’s work so that the gospel could spread.
3. They don’t view the millennium as a literal thousand years. Instead, it symbolizes a golden age of righteousness and spiritual prosperity brought about by the spread of the Gospel during the Church Age.

Postmillennialists see the world getting better, and they believe the millennium is established by Jesus’s followers, the church, in His physical absence. This leads postmillennialists to emphasize the church’s role in transforming society and often believe this transformation happens through evangelism, social justice, and cultural engagement. I think this is one area where premillennialists can be weak. Christians should be politically active.

Postmillennialists believe the Millennium ends when Christ returns to finalize history, judge the living and the dead, and establish God’s eternal kingdom.

Jonathan Edwards, BB Warfield, Charles Hodge, Gary DeMar, Kenneth Gentry, and Douglas Wilson are prominent postmillennialists.

Amillennialism’s View of the End Times: The Church Age Is the Millennium, and Christ Rules Through the Church

The prefix “a” can mean “without,” but amillennialists do not discard Revelation’s millennium. They understand the thousand years symbolically as the present age between Christ’s First and Second Comings. Christ reigns now from heaven, and His return brings the resurrection, final judgment, and eternal state rather than a separate earthly thousand-year kingdom.

Amillennialists understand Satan’s binding as a real restriction on his activity, particularly his ability to deceive the nations as described in Revelation 20:3. They do not think it means all satanic activity has stopped. Postmillennialists commonly share this understanding, while differing over the extent of the gospel’s success in history.

RC Sproul, Voddie Baucham, and Sam Storms are prominent amillennialists.

Why Postmillennialists and Amillennialists Read the Millennium Symbolically

These views take the passage seriously but understand several images differently from premillennialists. Here are the main distinctions I have in mind:

1. They don’t believe the millennium is literally 1000 years. Instead, it is symbolic of a long period.
2. They understand Christ’s millennial reign as His present reign from heaven, with its effects in His people, rather than a future bodily reign on earth after His return.
3. They understand Satan’s binding as a restriction serving God’s purposes during this age, rather than his complete confinement in a future millennium.

Why would they think this? In my effort to best represent postmillennial and amillennial positions, I believe the three primary reasons they don’t take the thousand years literally are:

First, Revelation contains symbolism. For example:

• Revelation 1 and 19 describe Jesus with a sharp sword coming out of His mouth, and we know this symbolizes the Word of God.
• Revelation 9 discusses locusts coming out of the abyss, or bottomless pit, and they represent demons.
• Revelation 12 describes the woman and the Dragon, and the woman is Israel versus a literal woman.

Postmillennialists and amillennialists believe the thousand years are symbolic, too.

Second, they don’t see the millennium as a literal thousand years because “thousand years” is used symbolically elsewhere in Scripture:

• 1 Chronicles 16:15 Remember [God’s] covenant forever…for a thousand generations.
• Psalm 50:10 Every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
• Psalm 84:10 A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
• Job 9:3 If one wished to contend with [God], one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
• 2 Peter 3:8 With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Third, even as a premillennialist, I generally agree with postmillennial and amillennial beliefs to an extent. For example:

• If an amillennialist asked, “Is Christ ruling and reigning through the church,” I would say, “Yes, He is the head of the church.”
• If a postmillennialist asked, “Is Christ ruling and reigning in believers’ hearts?” I would say, “Yes. Colossians 3:15 says, ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.’”
• If a postmillennialist or amillennialist asked, “Is Satan a defeated foe?” I would say, “Yes. He was defeated at the cross.” I have probably said that in sermons before. Jake said as much in a recent communion devo when he quoted Colossians 2:15: “[Jesus] disarmed the rulers and authorities (referring to the demonic realm) and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them [at the cross].”

Satan Is Not Imprisoned

Yes, Satan was defeated at the cross. But I take this to mean his power over sin and eternal death was defeated. Christ’s death on the cross gives us victory over sin and death, but it doesn’t mean Satan is no longer active:

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

So he doesn’t sound imprisoned now.

And after the cross, Paul wrote…

Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Why would we have to stand against his schemes if he was imprisoned and unable to deceive?

Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Again, this refers to the devil and his demons not sounding imprisoned.

Ephesians 6:16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

Paul saw the devil as an enemy that’s still active against us. Dr. James Gray said, “If Satan is bound today, it must be with a terribly long chain.”

Premillennialism’s View of the End Times: Christ Returns Before the Millennium and Physically Rules on the Earth

Because the prefix pre means before, premillennialism sees Christ returning before the millennium, just as postmillennialism sees Christ returning after the millennium. One of the significant differences between postmillennialists and premillennialists relates to what they see the church doing versus Christ doing. Let me say it like this: postmillennialists see the church doing during the millennium what premillennialists see Christ doing when He returns:

• Postmillennialists see the church defeating evil and establishing Christ’s kingdom on the earth.
• Premillennialists see Christ defeating evil and establishing His kingdom on the earth when He returns.

Premillennialism is set apart by a more literal view in three ways:

1. The millennial kingdom, or thousand years, is a literal thousand years.
2. During the millennium Satan is literally imprisoned for one thousand years.
3. During the millennium Jesus literally, or physically, rules and reigns on the earth.

I understand Revelation 19–20 to present these events in sequence: Christ’s return, the defeat of His enemies, Satan’s imprisonment, the millennium, Satan’s release and final rebellion, and the great white throne judgment. Premillennialism follows that sequence chronologically. Amillennialists read Revelation 20 as returning to describe the present age from another perspective. This difference in how we read the sequence is central to the disagreement.

I acknowledged earlier that Revelation contains symbolic elements. So I suspect my postmillennial or amillennial friends would ask why I take the millennium literally when I don’t take every part of Revelation literally, and that’s a good question. The answer is that I don’t hold to my literal interpretation primarily because of the Book of Revelation. I do so primarily because of two other reasons: the covenants and prophecies.

First, the covenants deal with physical realities and require physical fulfillment for God to keep them. For example:

• The Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 12:1-3 promised Abraham a physical land and physical descendants.
• The Palestinian covenant in Deuteronomy 30:1-10 promised Israel a physical restoration to the land.
• The Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7:10-13 promised Israel a physical king from David’s line who would physically rule forever and give the nation rest from their physical enemies.

Think of what Gabriel said to Mary about Jesus:

Luke 1:32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Does this sound like it’s describing something physical and literal or spiritual and symbolic? I think physical and literal. Just as David sat on a physical throne, so will his descendent, Jesus, the true and greater Son of David, sit on a physical throne.

Second, the Old Testament prophesied the Messiah would rule over an earthly physical kingdom. I could give you many verses, but let me share one passage from Isaiah 11. As you listen, consider whether it sounds like Jesus is physically ruling and reigning or spiritually ruling and reigning:

Isaiah 11:1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

Jesse is David’s father. This refers to Jesus!

Isaiah 11:3b He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

This sounds like physical ruling and reigning to me. Now listen to the description of the millennium, and tell me if it sounds spiritual or physical:

Isaiah 11:6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

During the millennium, the earth returns to the peaceful state experienced before the fall. If that isn’t the case, I have no idea why Isaiah would prophesy all this.

Charles Spurgeon, Charles C. Ryrie, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, Wayne Grudem, David Jeremiah, and John MacArthur are prominent premillennialists.

Preterism

Preterism concerns the fulfillment of prophecy and can be combined with other millennial positions. It can be divided into two very different categories: full preterism and partial preterism. Let’s look at each.

Full Preterism: Christ Returned in 70 A.D., and all Prophecy Is Fulfilled

Preterism comes from the Latin word praeter, which means “Past.” Full preterists don’t believe the “end times” occur at the end of time. Instead, they believe the end times have already occurred. They believe the verses about “the last days” are about the Old Covenant’s last days and not the earth itself.

Full preterists believe prophecy was fulfilled in 70 A.D. when Rome attacked Jerusalem, slaughtered thousands of Jews, and destroyed the temple. This includes the Great Tribulation, the second coming of Christ, the final judgment, Satan and the Antichrist being thrown into the lake of fire, the resurrection of the dead, and the arrival of the kingdom of God. Full preterists believe many prophecies were fulfilled spiritually rather than physically. Let me give you two examples.

First, they believe we live in the new heavens and new earth of Revelation 21 and 22. Instead of being physically new, the new heavens and new earth are simply the world under the New Covenant.

2 Corinthians 5:17 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Preterists apply this not just to Christians’ lives but to the physical world.

Jesus’s Second Coming Is Physical and Bodily

Second, full preterists don’t believe Jesus’s Second Coming is bodily and physical. Instead, they spiritualize it as a manifestation of His judgment. But Jesus clearly described His Second Coming as physical.

Luke 17:22 And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.

The disciples never thought Jesus would leave them, and He’s describing when He will. They would long to see Him, but they would not be able to.

Luke 17:23 And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them.

False prophets would claim Jesus returned, and He didn’t want His disciples misled into thinking He returned in some secret or mysterious way that was concealed from the world. Instead, there will be no mistaking when He returns:

Luke 17:24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.

The disciples should not believe anyone who said, “Look, there!” or “Look, here!” because the Second Coming will be as visible as lightning that lights up the sky. Jesus’s return will be universally visible. After Jesus ascended to heaven, two angels spoke to the people waiting for His return:

Acts 1:11 [they said], “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Because Jesus ascended to heaven bodily, as attested by the angels, we can expect a bodily return.

Full Preterism Is Heresy

You might have noticed that all three views, postmillennialism, amillennialism, and premillennialism, look forward to the Second Coming of Christ. As I said at the beginning, mature Christians are free to disagree on their views of the end times. However, full preterism differs from the other views because it denies a future Second Coming, a core belief of orthodox Christianity, which renders full preterism’s view of the end times heretical.

Not surprisingly, I couldn’t find any recognizable, respected full preterists.

Partial Preterism: Christ Will Return and Some Prophecy Is Fulfilled

Even though partial preterists and full preterists may seem similar because they are both preterists, there is a significant difference between them. Partial preterists, like other views, look forward to a physical, bodily Second Coming of Christ, a future resurrection, and final judgment.

As the name implies, partial preterists believe some prophecies were fulfilled in AD 70. I follow the late dating of Revelation to the closing decade of the first century. Those who interpret much of Revelation as predicting Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70 argue for a date before that event. The dating is debated. I also do not believe everything Jesus described in the following passage occurred in AD 70. He said:

Matthew 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. 22 And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

These verses cannot describe the events of A.D. 70 because there have been worse human times in history since then. Jesus also said:

Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Prominent partial preterists are R. C. Sproul, Kenneth L. Gentry, Gary DeMar, and Hank Hanegraaff (the Bible Answer Man). You might recognize some of these names from earlier, and that’s because postmillennialism often goes hand in hand with partial preterism. In other words, most postmillennialists are also partial preterists.

How Preterists Arrive at Their Interpretation

Much of their beliefs hang on these verses in the parable of the fig tree in Jesus’s Olivet discourse:

Luke 21:29 [Jesus] told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.

Preterists interpret “This generation” as the people listening to Jesus’s sermon. They wouldn’t die or “Pass away” before everything Jesus talked about “[took] place” or was fulfilled. Therefore, all of this must have happened in their lifetimes. Fast-forward 40 years, the typical generation length, and you reach 70 A.D. when preterists believe these events were fulfilled.

If Jesus was not referring to the generation in His day, then what generation was He referring to? He referred to the generation that sees the events described in Luke 21. That generation would not pass away until everything Jesus described took place. In other words, everything Jesus prophesied would occur within one generation. The people alive when the end-time events in Luke 21 began would still be alive when the events concluded.

Are We Ready for Jesus’s Second Coming?

Titus 2:13 [says we should be] waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Our view of the end times and Jesus’s Second Coming is important, but it pales compared to the truth that He is returning. Whether He returns next week, next century, or next millennium, we should live like we are going to meet Him because we will. It could be when He returns during our lifetimes or on the day of our deaths, but we will stand before Him. Living like we can meet Him anytime is the only way to be ready.