Millennium

Definition and Meaning

The millennium (Korean cheonnyeon wangguk, "thousand-year kingdom") refers to the subject of Revelation 20:1–6. This passage records that Satan is bound and that the saints reign with Christ for "a thousand years." Interpreters differ on when this thousand years takes place and what kind of period it is, and the question is a major point of debate in eschatology (the doctrine of the last things).

• Premillennialism: Holds that the second coming of Christ occurs before (pre-) the millennium and that after his return an actual kingdom will be established on earth. It is divided into historic premillennialism and dispensational premillennialism. The dispensational view often emphasizes the rapture, in which the saints are caught up before the Great Tribulation.
• Postmillennialism: Holds that as the gospel spreads widely, the world will gradually improve, and that the second coming will occur after (post-) the millennial age has come.
• Amillennialism: Regards the "thousand years" as symbolic and understands it to refer to the entire church age, from Christ's ascension to his second coming. The name reflects the view that there is no (a-) literal earthly kingdom.

Biblical and Historical Background

In the early church, Papias, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus, among others, are known to have anticipated an earthly millennial kingdom. After Augustine interpreted the thousand years as the church age in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, this understanding long remained dominant in the Western church, and the Reformers generally followed it. Postmillennialism spread widely through the revival and missionary movements of the English-speaking world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Dispensational premillennialism originated with John Nelson Darby in the nineteenth century and was popularized through the Scofield Reference Bible.

In the Korean Church

Many of the early missionaries to Korea are known to have held premillennial views. Through influences such as the end-times preaching of Kil Sun-ju, belief in the second coming became deeply rooted in the Korean church.

• Presbyterian Church: Owing to the influence of conservative theologians such as Park Hyung-nong, historic premillennialism long remained strong. Nevertheless, many Reformed theologians hold to amillennialism.
• Holiness Church: Has emphasized the second coming as one of the four elements of the Fourfold Gospel (regeneration, sanctification, divine healing, and the second coming) and has traditionally held a strongly premillennial understanding of Christ's return.
• Pentecostal churches: Dispensational premillennialism and belief in the rapture are known to be influential in churches such as the Full Gospel churches.
• Methodist and Baptist churches, among others, hold a variety of views that differ by church and by theologian.

These views coexist within many denominations, and all three affirm the second coming of Christ and the final judgment. In 1992 the Dami Mission and other groups claimed that the rapture would occur on October 28 of that year, causing a major public controversy. Since then, many denominations have warned against date-setting eschatology, which fixes a date for the second coming.