He Shall Have Dominion

Ch. 3: The Pessimistic Millennial Views
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Amillennialism
Before beginning I must note that amillennialists generally do not like
the term “amillennial,” in that it suggests “a negatively oriented
28 29
eschatology.” Thomas C. Oden calls it a “misnomer.” Jay E. Adams and
Anthony A. Hoekema call it “an unhappy term” (i.e., an unhappy choice
of terms); Morton H. Smith “an unfortunate term”; Louis A. Brighton a
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“misnomer”; J. Webb Mealy “misleading.” Some prefer something more
31
like “realized millennialism.” But in that this is too cumbersome and out
of keeping with the other prefix names, Gordon Spykman prefers
“promillennialism,” whereas Vern S. Poythress suggests
“preconsummationist” and Venema “nowmillennialism.” 32
14.
28. Grenz, Millennial Maze, 151. Pieters even complains that “the word is not
well compounded, as it uses a Greek prefix for a Latin word” (Studies in the
Revelation, 310). Perhaps this was the beginning of multi-culturalism.
29. Oden, Life in the Spirit, 423. He leans toward “realized millennialism,” i.e.,
amillennialism, 429.
30. Adams, The Time Is At Hand , 7. Hoekema, Bible and the Future, 173. Smith,
Systematic Theology, 2:799. Brighton, Revelation (CC), 534 n. Mealy, After the
Thousand Years, 19. See also: Hughes, Interpreting Prophecy, 99–100 and Hamilton,
Basis of the Millennial Faith, 35.
31. Adams, The Time Is at Hand, ch. 4. Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism,
31. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb, 281–82, n 22.
32. Spykman, Reformational Theology, 540–43. Venema, Promise of the Future,
235. Poythress, Understanding Dispensationalists, 36.