Chapter 2: The Purpose of This Treatise

Postmillennialist Iain Murray writes: “In the light of history we can hardly say that matters prophetic are too secondary to warrant our attention. The fact is that what we believe or do not believe upon this subject will have continual influence upon the way in which we live. The greatest spiritual endeavors and achievements in the past have been those energized by faith and hope.”[1] R. J. Rushdoony has provided an excellent brief study of the impact of a positive, optimistic eschatology on Christian endeavor. In that study, he notes: “A study of hospital patients in relationship to their life expectancy reportedly came to the conclusion that there was a strong correlation between life expectancy and future oriented thinking. A man whose mind looked ahead to activities a year hence was more likely to live than one whose thinking was only in terms of the daily hospital routine. Those without a future in mind had no future, as a rule.”[2] His historical analysis following this statement demonstrates the same truth on the cultural level regarding society’s future orientation. For such a reason, Milne has admitted: “There is one aspect of postmillennialism however which is worth retaining. That is its optimism concerning the work of the gospel.”[3] His problem is the problem of all amillennialists and all premillennialists: How to retain this optimism, which is contrary to the implications of their eschatological systems?

Conclusion

Christianity, and only Christianity, is the world’s legitimate hope. Postmillennialism sets forth a vibrant, biblically based, life-changing, culture-transforming Christianity. My concern with the advancement of the postmillennial eschatology is not merely academic; it is intensely practical. When there is ignorance and confusion regarding the optimistic hope of Scripture, there is a consequent ebbing of the power and vitality from the Christian faith itself. I am convinced that there is a relationship between the rise and acceptance of dispensationalism in the nineteenth century and the decline of Christian influence in American society in the twentieth. It is my heartfelt desire to encourage the adoption of the biblical eschatology: postmillennialism.

[1] Murray, Puritan Hope, p. xxii.

[2] Rushdoony, God’s Plan for Victory, p. 17.

[3] Bruce Milne, What the Bible Teaches About the End of the World (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1979), p. 81.