Tuesday, November 12, 2019

W.J. Grier on the Problem of Postmillennial Eschatology


In his defence of amillennialism (what he calls “non-millennialism”), W.J. Grier, an Irish Presbyterian theologian, wrote the following about the problems with postmillennial views:

It may be objected to this view, and we feel there is some force in the objection, that the Bible does not hold forth the prospect of a converted world before the Lord comes; are not the wheat and the tares to grow together till the harvest at the end of the world Moreover, it does not quite seem to harmonise with the idea of a millennium of prevailing righteousness that, at its close, Satan will be found leading a host to  battle from the four quarters of the earth, whose number is as the sand of the sea (Rev. 20:8). Where are they to come from, if righteousness prevails in a converted world (Cp. Luke 18:8; II Thes. 2:1-12)? (W.J. Grier, The Momentous Event: A Discussion of Scripture Teaching on the Second Advent [Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1970], 13)