The subject is Christian Eschatology. Eschatology is about the future of Humanity. There are 4 different major views of Christian Eschatology {listed below}. Postmillennialism is the only one of the 4 that predicts a bright cheerful future here on this Earth before human history ends. So the question is raised: What does the future hold for the Christian Church and the Human Race here on planet Earth? The answer is the Human Race has a magnificent optimistic bright cheerful future. The world will eventually become a Christian world. This will require many millenniums yet to come as human history rolls forward. This does not mean that every single person on Earth will become a Christian, rather it means that the human race, as a race, will be saved and the vast overwhelming majority of human beings will, in the far off future, become Christian. The Lord Jesus' Great Commission To His Christian Church is about His Church Christianizing the world: The Lord Jesus told His disciples at the end of Matthew's gospel chapter 28 to go and make disciples of all the nations. His disciples needed power to accomplish this great task. The Lord Jesus told them what this power was. He said "all authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations . . . teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you." Matthew 28:18-20 The Lord Jesus was serious when He gave His Christian Church her Great Commission. His Great Commission is a command and not a suggestion. Therefore His Great Commission to go and make disciples of all the nations will be successfully accomplished before He returns to Earth to end human history -- the world will eventually become Christian. "He must reign until He has put all his enemies under His feet." 1 Cor. 15:25 "For He (God) has put everything under His feet." 1 Cor. 15:27 The Lord Jesus right NOW is reigning as King over this entire world and He is gradually incrementally Christianizing the entire world. Again, how long will this take? It will take many many millenniums yet to unfold, but He will be victorious. We must be patient. This is going to take very long time. Meanwhile . . Unfortunately there is a lot of Doom and Gloom and Defeatism out there inside 21st century Christendom . Christendom holds and presents 4 major views of the future of the Christian Church and the Human Race. These 4 views are: (1) Postmillennialism (2) Amillennialism (3) Premillennialism (4) Dispensationalism Of the 4 views only Postmillennialism presents an optimistic bright cheerful victorious future for the Christian Church and the Human Race. The other 3 views are saturated with Doom and Gloom and Defeatism for both the Christian Church and the Human race. This Post is presenting some general thoughts on Postmillennialism and Postmillennialism's optimistic view of the future. Long live Christian optimism. Large swaths of the Christian Church today are awash in Gloom and Doom and in Defeatism passed off as being spiritual, when in fact the Bible teaches that the Christian Church will be victorious. I will build my Church, said the Lord Jesus, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. Go and make disciples of all the nations, said the Lord Jesus, because I have now been given all authority both in Heaven and on Earth. It is sad indeed that Amillennialism, Premillennialism, and Dispensationalism repudiates the gospel victory theme of the Bible in their modern eschatological speculations and replaces this victory theme with a defeatist scheme of the future of the Christian Church and Human race. This paralyzes Christian cultural efforts and eliminates the practical significance from the Christian worldview, and gives Christians a sinful comfort in lethargy because all this Defeatism and Doom and Gloom tends to justify social and cultural irresponsibility. "Why polish brass on a sinking ship", ask many misinformed Christians. Here is an excellent definition of Postmillennialism: "Postmillennialism holds that the Lord Jesus Christ established His kingdom on earth through His preaching and redemptive work in the first century and that He equips His church with the gospel, empowers her by the Holy Spirit, and charges her with the Great Commission to disciple all nations. Postmillennialism expects that eventually the vast majority of men living will be saved. Increasing gospel success will gradually produce a time in history prior to Christ's return in which faith, righteousness, peace, and prosperity will prevail in the affairs of men and nations. After an extensive era of such conditions the Lord will return visibly, bodily, and gloriously, to end history with the general resurrection and the final Judgment after which the eternal order follows." ___ Dr. Kenneth L. Gentry. Christianity is slowly Christianizing the world. Christianity started small in numbers. There was a time in the 1st century at the very beginning of Christianity when the number of Christians in the world was less than 12. Today, some 2000 years later, there is some 2.3 billion Christians in the world. We have a name for this. We call it progress. America today has over 1300 Evangelical mega-churches with weekly attendance of over 2000. The Roman Catholics have over 3000 churches with a weekly attendance of over 2000. This is Christian progress in the world. Christianity is growing like wildfire in the Global South for example in Africa. There is a huge Christian Church in China. House Church. .Christianity is huge in South Korea and in South America and Central America. The American Christian Church is still a vibrant force in the World. All this is Christian progress in the world. ■ The Lord Jesus "shall have dominion from sea to sea" Psalm 72:8 ■ "The whole Earth will be filled with His glory." Psalm 72:19 ■ "All the nations will call Him blessed." Psalm 72:17 ■ The Lord Jesus really meant it, when He commanded His Christian Church to "go and make disciples of all the nations." Matthew 28:19 "As of the year 2015, Christianity has more than 2.3 billion adherents, out of about 7.5 billion people. The faith represents one-third of the world's population and is the largest religion in the world, with the three largest groups being the Catholic Church, Protestantism, and the Eastern Orthodox Church."__wikipedia At the end of human history , , , The Book Of Revelation says that there is a great multitude of the saved from every nation, tribe, people and language and they are so numerous that no one can count them. "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes . . .and they cried out . . . Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb." Revelation 7:9-10 JAG ``
Here is an excellent definition of Postmillennialism: "Postmillennialism holds that the Lord Jesus Christ established His kingdom on earth through His preaching and redemptive work in the first century and that He equips His church with the gospel, empowers her by the Holy Spirit, and charges her with the Great Commission to disciple all nations. Postmillennialism expects that eventually the vast majority of men living will be saved. Increasing gospel success will gradually produce a time in history prior to Christ's return in which faith, righteousness, peace, and prosperity will prevail in the affairs of men and nations. After an extensive era of such conditions the Lord will return visibly, bodily, and gloriously, to end history with the general resurrection and the final Judgment after which the eternal order follows." ___ Dr. Kenneth L. Gentry. Postmillennialism. Here below is a list of distinguished Postmillennialists: Origen Eusebius Athanasius Augustine Daniel Whitby Isaac Watts The Wesley Brothers Jonathan Edwards William Carey Robert Haldane Archibald Alexander A.A. Hodge Charles Hodge Albert Barnes David Brown Patrick Fairbairn Richard C. Trench J.A. Alexander J.H. Thornwell Robert L. Dabney William G.T. Shedd Augustus H. Strong H.C.G. Moule B.B. Warfield O.T. Allis J. Gresham Machen John Murray Loraine Boettner J. Marcellus Kik Greg L. Bahnsen David Chilton Rousas J. Rushdoony _____________ Contemporary Postmillennialist Writers: Reuben Alvarado Curtis Crenshaw John Jefferson Davis Gary DeMar J. Ligon Duncan lll John R. deWitt Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. George Grant Grover E. Gunn Stephen J. Hayhow Erroll Hulse Douglas Kelly Francis Nigel Lee Peter J. Leithart Donald Macleod Keith A. Mathison Iain Murray Gary North Stephen C. Perks Willard Ramsey Andrew Sandlin Steve Schlissel Norman Shepherd R.C. Sproul Ray R. Sutton Kenneth G. Talbot Jack Van Deventer James West Douglas Wilson Colin Wright Source: He Shall Have Dominion by Dr. Kenneth L. Gentry Jr, pages 106-107 ``
Who Was The Beast Of the Book Of Revelation? _________________ {The following was taken from He Shall Have Dominion. by Dr. Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. It is not a word for word quote but the substance of this below is Dr. Gentry's. I typed it in. It is not on the web. Footnote at the bottom} _________________ Who Was The Beast Of Revelation? The Beast is a well known Christian Eschatological character. Premillennialists incorrectly believe that the Beast is to appear in the future. This is false. The Beast was a 1st Century character that appeared in the 1st Century and will never appear again in human history. The Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation. The Time Of The Beast. John clearly expects his prophesied events to take place in his day, the 1st Century. John writes: "The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place." Revelation 1:1 "Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near" Revelation 22:10 "must soon take place" "the time is near" In light of Revelation's significance to its first-century audience, the Beast must be someone relevant to that first-century audience. "The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near." Revelation 1:1-4 “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.” Rev. 1:11 {these were churches of the 1st century that received this letter of Revelation} _____________________ Revelation 13 presents the Beast as a horrible and powerful foe attempting to destroy God's people. Sometimes Revelation presents the Beast as a kingdom and sometimes as an individua leader of that kingdom. In some places the Beast has seven heads which are seven kings collectively considered. In Revelation 13:1 John notes that he saw a Beast coming up out of the sea having 10 horns and seven heads. Revelation 17:10 specifically says that the seven heads represent seven kings. Thus the Beast is presented as a kingdom. But kingdoms have representatives. This is why John also speaks of the Beast as an individual. John urges his readers to calculate the number of the Beast which is the number of a man Revelation 13:18 The Beast's General Identity is the first-century Roman Empire and NOT a "revived Roman Empire" as imagined by Dispensationalism. According to Revelation 17:9 the Beast's seven heads represent "seven mountains." The seven mountains symbolize Rome. Rome is the one city in history distinguished and recognized by its seven mountains. ___________________ The Beast's Specific Identify. The Beast in his personal identity is Nero Caesar. He and he alone fits the bill as the personal and specific expression of the Beast. This vile character fulfills all the requirements of the text of Revelation. First the number of the Beast. In Revelation 13:18 the number of the Beast is 666. The usefulness of this number lies in the fact that in the first-century alphabets serve as both phonetic symbols and as arithmetical values. Significantly a common spelling of Nero Caesar's name is Nrwn Qsr, which provides the numerical value of 666 Second the Textual Variant. See Dr. Gentry's book for this explanation. Page 381 Third the Beastly Image. Revelation 13 both calls and portrays the one behind the 666 riddle as a "beast.". The term "beast" can easily symbolize persons with a beastly nature. Almost all scholars agree that Nero Caesar possessed a beastly nature.. Nero Caesar is even hated and feared by his own countrymen, as ancient Roman historians agree. The pagan writer Apollinius of Tyana, a contemporary of Nero Caesar, calls him a "beast." Fourth, the war with the saints. John's Beast will make war with the saints and overcome them.{Rev. 13:7} In fact Nero Caesar conducts a blasphemous war with the saints for a specific period of 42 months {Rev. 13:5} Nero begins his persecution of Christians in A.D. 64. The persecution finally ends when Nero Caesar dies on June 8, A.D.68 forty-two months later, but for a few days. {Point of interest: Nero's own end comes by the sword.} Conclusion: The Beast of Revelation was the beastly Nero Caesar of the 1st Century. End quote. Source He Shall Have Dominion by Dr. Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. pages 379 - 381
Okay, this is what I know, and it doesn't contradict the Bible. WWIII started with Syria. Turkey will take it to the Aegean - which will be either this or next year. Russia will attack Turkey, and after defeating all the nations gathered there, Russia will continue to Iran and then Jerusalem. After a few months, the allies will get together and give Russia an ultimatum which Russia will ignore. The war will turn nuclear, and it will be universal - 2/3rds of humanity will die. A miracle will end the war, and a great man will be put in charge. The gospel will then be spread throughout the world, and for over 30 years it will be a golden age. Then the Antichrist will appear. He will be the most charismatic man that ever lived, the most brilliant and a great humanitarian. Some will see him as Christ, others as the 12th Imam, and the Jews as their Messiah. He will rebuild the Temple, and be voted in as a world leader. But in reality he will be the culmination of all evil. No one will be able to buy or sell unless they have the sign of the beast. His reign of terror towards Christians will last for 3 1/2 years, and then Christ will come.
I'm only quoting the Saints who said many decades ago that the USSR will fall apart, Turkey will invade Cyprus, Greece will fall into immense debt, Yugoslavia will dissolve, the EU will dissolve and Britain will be the first to leave. The Saints also said WWIII will start with Syria and then go to the Aegean. As for the US, we will suffer an ideological war, (which is goin on now), then have geological problems. After that we will be in a world war. Right now the Turkish navy is facing the Greek navy over the territorial rights in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. Tomorrow is the day Attaturk signed the Treaty of Lausanne which to Erdogan was a humiliation. He has converted the Church of Aghia Sophia from a museum back into a mosque, and tomorrow the first Muslim prayers will be said. I don't doubt Erdogan's plans are to have their research ship search for oil in the Greek territorial waters during the Islamic prayers - which of course means war.
