Historic premillennialism holds that Christ will return to establish a thousand year kingdom on earth. Christians who have died will be raised, Christians who are still alive will be transformed, and they all will reign with Christ during this thousand years. This view is called "historic" because many of the first Christians held such a view, and it is called "pre-millennialism" because it holds that Christ will return before this millennium.

Postmillennialism holds that Christ will return after the millennium. Unlike historic premillennialists do not believe that the millennium of Revelation 20 should be taken literally. They do, however, regard the millennium as a recognizable and hoped-for "golden age" in which there will be peace, order, and prosperity and where the gospel of Jesus Christ is widely believed and where the Christian influence is pervasive.

Amillennialism, despite the name, also holds that Christ will return after the millennium (for this reason, it might be named less misleadingly as "realized millennialism"). In this regard those who hold this position are identical to postmillennialists (and, infact, "amillennialism" is sometimes called "postmillennialism"). Unlike postmillennialists, however, amillennialists do not expect that a "golden age" will precede and signal the return of Christ. Amillennialists regard the entire New Testament age, extending from Christ's first coming until his second coming, as the millennium.

Dispensational premillennialism holds that Christ will return to establish a thousand year kingdom on earth before the general resurrection, final judgment, and new creation. In this way dispensationalists are premillennialists. Unlike the premillennialists, the eschatology of dispensational premillennialism emerges from and is only a part of a complete theological system. The theological system understands that God has dealt with human creatures in different ways during different periods of human history, These different ways are called "dispensations," and the most common number of dispensations is seven.

Tomorrow we will look at what the Bible has to say about Christ's second coming.

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