Amillennial view

Strengths:    

• Idealist interpretation of the book of Revelation.
• Emphasis on the literal/unseen realities behind symbolic fulfillment.
• Recognition that the “last days” existed in the 1st century.
• The present reality of the kingdom of Christ.
• Rejection of the idea of a future kingdom.
• Attempts to honor both literal and figurative language.

Weaknesses:            

• Positing the time of Christ’s “Second Coming” and “Return” as being unknowable.
• Advocating ambiguity and uncertainty re: the understanding of eschatological prophecies.
• Insistence that the time of fulfillment cannot be known.
• Little interest in end-time prophecy.
• Reliance on delay theory.
• Adherence to an unscriptural “end-of-time” paradigm.
• Use of a dichotomizing hermeneutic based upon that paradigm.
• Bifurcating passages of Scripture, including the book of Revelation.
• Advocating a final return, final consummation (how many are there?).
• Incomplete salvation and resurrection reality.
• Numerous partial-preterist inconsistencies from failure to fully honor the time statements.
• Belief that the Jewish age, the Old Covenant order, and the law were completely fulfilled and removed, and that all Old Testament promises/prophecies were fulfilled, accomplished, and completed at the Cross.
• The New Covenant began and was fully in force at Pentecost—i.e. the full establishment of the kingdom/Church/New Covenant order was given, perfected, and fulfilled.
• The Church as the replacement of Israel.
• Claim that eschatology pertains to the end of the Christian age, or to a split fulfillment in time and disposition (Jewish age/Christian age) with a gap of thousands of years in between.
• Advocating a current intermediate state of disembodied existence in heaven.
• Advocating a future evil-less, utopian, and eternal state on earth for believers and not in heaven.
• Equating the “age to come” to being heaven or yet-future.
• A mixed positive-negative worldview.