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Amillennialism Today

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Although I still have a few questions concerning amillenialism, I feel that I am coming to accept it. I had always been taught that amillenialists and all other non-dispensationalists 'spiritualized' Scripture. Cox shows that our understandings of eschatology, the second advent, the resurrection, the judgement, and the final state should be determined by the entirety of Scripture (not just Revelation 20). This book is helpful and very interesting.

Also recommended: Dispensationalism : Rightly Dividing the People of God? by Keith A. Mathison (a polemic against dispensationalism)

In the Introduction, Cox writes, "Amillennialists have been accused of expending most of their energies criticizing other millennial theories, while they themselves have no positive system of theological beliefs. Even though these charges come from those who hold postmillennial or premillenial views, they still set forth a need for a statement of those things most surely believed among amillennialists. In our examination of amillennialism we shall deal somewhat with the history of this movement, some of its outstanding leaders, and its cardinal beliefs."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"How ... can anyone look about him at all the evil workings of Satan and yet say that Satan is bound!... The correct answer depends on just what is depicted by the binding of Satan... If ... Satan's binding refers (in figurative language) to the limiting of his power, then he could well be bound already."
"Amillenarians feel that the alleged earthly millennium ... is arrived at only through a hyperliteral interpretation of obscure passages of Scripture. They feel that far too much is based on the one passage in Revelation twenty (20:1-6) ... this is the only mention in the entire Bible of a one thousand year reign, and this one passage is couched in a book of the Bible which is known to be written in figurative or symbolical language."
"There are no literalists! Even those groups who claim to be literalists are known to spiritualize many passages of Scripture whenever a literal interpretation would disprove their presuppositions... The question, then, is not whether or not Scripture is to be spiritualized, but which passages."
"(T)wo ages are set forth in the Bible. These are the present age and the age to come, or the final state. The Scriptures neither teach nor allow an interregnum between these two ages. The first advent ushered in the last days. Jesus set eschatology in motion. He bound Satan."
"The second coming will not be extended over a long period of time. It will be a singular, cataclysmic event. Christ HIMSELF will come in a literal, visible, bodily manner... All the saved, both in and out of the grave, will be given resurrected bodies. They then will be raptured (caught up) to meet the Lord in the air---for the purpose of escorting him to the earth, where the judgment will immediately take place."

Cox is also the author of Biblical Studies in Final Things.