Keep making disciples, keep baptising them, keep teaching them; in the power of the Spirit and the name of Jesus. What makes Amillennialism so exciting and encouraging is not that is introduces anything new, but that it encourages us to continue in faith with the work appointed to us. Yes, persecution may come, but Jesus is on the throne, he is ruling, and is our ultimate hope.

I recently bought myself a fountain pen. I’ve had terrible handwriting as long as I can remember—an excellent trait to have as a writer—and I thought it was time I did something about it. I decided on a fountain pen partially because a number of other writers have recommended it, and also because it seems to force one to be more careful. No one suggested it had to be yellow though.

Yellow, I thought, If I’m going to convince myself to use it, it ought to look exciting.

In sales, new recruits are often asked to “sell” a pen to a colleague to exercise their skills. Well, I marketed the pen to myself and I bought my own logic, so I guess I’m one step towards winning salesman of the year in the Ravenhill household. Today I’m facing a similar issue, should I—should we—paint a theological model “yellow” too? Would that make it more attractive? Easier to understand? Less boring?

Important: My guess is that you’re in one of two camps:

1. You’ve clicked on the name but might not make it past the next couple of paragraphs because they might seem more dense
2. You’re savvy with the terms and you just wanna get on with the article.

For those in the first camp, I’d love to encourage you that this article isn’t as dense, boring, or aimless as it might seem. There are reasons we need to discuss subjects like this and although “academic” theological terms might be an immediate barrier, getting to know the terms can open up deeper biblical and theological understanding as well as simplifying future reading.

Here are some key terms:

Eschatology is the study and theology of the end times, post-, pre-, and amillennialism are models to help understand the shape that the end times will take and although there are others, these tend to be the most common amongst protestants.
Premillennialism (Pre-M)—Things will get worse before they get better. Some time during that period the saints will be raptured—or taken away from the world—then God will judge the earth.
Postmillennialism (Post-M)—Things will get better before they get worse, followed by judgement day. The better time will begin by being ushered in by the work of the church.
Amillennialism (A-M)—The end times started at pentecost and since then things have been both good (the work of the church) and bad (the persecution of the church) and this will be followed by the coming of Christ, the final judgement, and the new heavens and new earth.

The “good” in each of these is usually referred to as “the reign of Christ”, and the bad is referred to a “tribulation.”

In a recent YouTube video Matthew Everhard, Senior Pastor of Gospel Fellowship PCA, suggested that Amillennialism might be in need of a rebrand¹. He’s not the first to suggest this, for instance, in a commentary on Revelation Beale says:

It is better to refer to [“amillennialism”] as “inaugurated millennialism,” since “amillennial” literally means “no millennium.”
G. K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary, page 420.

In researching for this article I’ve found that it’s quite a common practice for those arguing for the Amillenial position to produce or provide an alternative term, suggesting that the one we currently use is at best confusing—potentially even unfit to carry the weight of the theological implications it carries. Throughout his video, Everhard suggests a number of alternative terms such as:

• Nuncmillennial—Nunc meaning “now”
• Supramillennial—Supra meaning “over” or “above”
• Optimistic Amillennials—As opposed to the pessimistic portrait painted of us by our critics.

Beyond these possible new designations, however, Everhard doesn’t go into much detail as to what the benefits of a rebrand would be. Clarity is certainly an admirable goal, but theological terms are often difficult to understand at first. There seems to be an underlying emphasis that Everhard never quite gets to, but seems to be present throughout his video.

It’s Just So Boring

One of the main reasons, as I see it, that Everhard’s argument came about in the first place is that Amillennialism seems boring. I will come onto why that isn’t actually true, but on the face of it the Amillennial view doesn’t bring an urgency or new “mission” to the table in that same way that the Pre-M and Post-M views do.

This is part of what makes these models so exciting. They often come with particular markers to look out for, or goals to achieve. These include but are not limited to:

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