Journal: Journal of Dispensational Theology
Volume: JODT 23:66 (Spring 2019)
Article: Millennial Hope Through The Centuries
Author: Robert C. Gresser

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Millennial Hope Through The Centuries

Robert C. Gresser

* Robert C. Gresser, Ph.D. student, Dallas Theological Seminary; pastoral associate, All Saints Anglican Church, Weatherford, Texas

Twenty and twenty-first century society leaves little room for hope, any tangible hope that is. Wars and rumors of wars, genocide, nuclear proliferation, ecological disasters not to mention a general dissatisfaction and discontent have led many to despair. In contrast, these modern day “tribulations” have led to resurgence in the idea of a biblical hope, a hope that includes a future kingdom of God on earth. Modern theologians such as Jürgen Moltmann recognize the danger of spiritualizing away the physical nature of the coming kingdom.1 For Moltmann, the Jewish hope is the Christian hope and vice versa. This hope is the hope of the world.2 Granted, Moltmann is not an evangelical, and he is certainly not a dispensationalist. What he means by the term, kingdom, is much different from a dispensational thousand year kingdom. As a liberation theologian his concerns are socially motivated, the righting of wrongs, justice for the poor, etc. Nonetheless, because of, not in spite of, his social concerns, Moltmann can be interpreted as advocating a literal, that is, physical kingdom.

When it comes right down to it, Moltmann is not saying anything new. He is simply reiterating the hope the church has held since the very beginning. Trials and tribulations, discontentment and disappointment, wars and rumors of wars have often called the church to look to the future coming kingdom of God for hope. In times of uncertainty, disillusionment, and persecution, the church has found its hope in millennial expectations. These expectations, at times, involved a literal interpretation of the millennial kingdom. Again, one must exercise caution when using terms such as the millennial kingdom. The millennial expectations produced by these periods of uncertainty, disillusionment, and persecution did not usually take the form of a dispensational premillennialism, or any type of premillennialism. These periods did raise interest in matters of

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eschatology and the coming of some type of kingdom, one that sharply contrasted with the current Sitz im Leben. In order to substantiate this thesis, the present article will examine three periods of history: the Ante-Nicene period, the turn of the first millennium, and the twentieth/twenty-first century.

During a period of persistent persecution and heretical opposition prior to the legalization and institutionalization of Christianity, t...