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relevant passages in any other way, if Rev. 20:1-6 had not been set up by some as the standard
by which all the rest of the New Testament must be interpreted. According to Premillenarians
the second coming of Christ will primarily serve the purpose of establishing the visible reign of
Christ and His Saints on earth, and of inaugurating the real day of salvation for the world. This
will involve the rapture, the resurrection of the righteous, the wedding of the Lamb, and
judgments upon the enemies of God. But other resurrections and judgments will follow at
various intervals, and the last resurrection and final judgment will be separated from the
second coming by a thousand years. The objections to this view have partly been given in the
preceding and will partly be mentioned in the following chapters.
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY:
Why cannot the term parousia simply be rendered
‘presence’ wherever it is found? In what different senses does the Bible speak of the coming of
Christ? How should Matt. 16:28; 24:34 be interpreted? Does the discourse of Jesus in Matt. 24
speak of a single coming? Does the doctrine of the national restoration of the Jews necessarily
involve the doctrine of the millennium? Do the following passages teach such a restoration:
Matt. 23:39; Luke 13:35; 21:24; Acts 3:6,7? Does Daniel refer to Antiochus Epiphanes as a type
of Antichrist in Dan. 11:36 ff.? How are the beasts of Rev. 13 related to Antichrist? Should the
man of sin, of which Paul speaks, be identified with Antichrist? What is the restraining power
which is mentioned in II Thess. 2:6,7? Did the apostles teach that the Lord might return during
their lifetime? Does the New Testament warrant the idea that the phrase “the end” or “the end
of the world” simply means ‘the end of the age’?
LITERATURE:
Bavinck, Dogm. IV, pp. 712-753; Kuyper, Dict. Dogm., De Consummatione Saeculi,
pp. 117-245; Vos. Geref. Dogm. V, Eschatologie, pp. 22-23; id., Pauline Eschatology, pp. 72-135;
Hodge, Syst. Theol. III, pp. 790-836; Pieper, Christl. Dogm. III, pp. 579-584; Valentine, Chr.
Theol. II, pp. 407-411; Schmid, Doct. Theol. of the Ev. Luth. Church, pp. 645-657; Strong, Syst.
Theol., pp. 1003-1015; Pope, Chr. Theol. III, pp. 387-397; Hovey, Eschatology, pp. 23-78;
Kliefoth, Eschatologie, pp. 126-147, 191-225; Mackintosh. Immortality and the Future, pp. 130-
148; Kennedy, St. Paul’s Conceptions of the Last Things, pp. 158-193; Salmond, The Chr. Doct.
of Immortality, pp. 241-251; Snowden, The Coming of the Lord, pp. 123-171.