As we begin our journey into a deeper understanding of end time prophecy, we will be looking at many different viewpoints. With such a conglomeration of different Christian theologies, it is no wonder why so many believers are perplexed with apocalyptic scriptures. I do not claim to have all the answers to these passages, but I do believe that through extensive research, I do have a good grasp on God’s plan for the end of the World as we know it.
Before we can examine the different viewpoints we need to understand the language of the end time debate. First is the term eschatology, which simply means the study of end time beliefs. This term is associated with other religions besides Christianity. Islam, for instance, has their separate eschatological beliefs. I do believe the different religions' beliefs do cross paths, but we will investigate this in a future post.
The next set of theological terms to look at is based on the various interpretations of Revelation 20, the thousand year reign of Christ. This period of time is called the millennium and is divided into three major beliefs: pre-millennialism, amillennialism, or post-millennialism. The pre-millennialists believe that Christ's 1000 year reign is going to happen sometime in the future, amillennialists believe that it is happening right now, and post-millennialists believe that it has already happened. We will look at the history behind each belief in the future, but now you have a general understanding of the tough eschatological terms.
