We walk now with the risen Lord as members of his kingdom.

As his disciples, we believe that Jesus as the Christ, the crucified, risen, exalted Lord, will return personally in glory. This is an amazing, thrilling, prospect and is our affirmation of faith in the promise of our Lord. As John writes, “When he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Our belief in the coming return of our Lord is an affirmation of our faith in the factuality of his resurrection. When this faith in the victory of our risen Lord is taken seriously, it has meaning enough to correct problems in our materialism, our secularism, our nationalism, our liberalism, our conservatism, our individualism, all our isms, asms and spasms. But do we take seriously the dynamic aspects of this faith?

In our being disciples of Christ we need to recognize that we are walking now with the risen Lord as members of his kingdom. We are not just copying a hero from yesterday but are sharing his life as our Lord (Philippians 3:9-11).

On the one hand, this profession of faith is not a legalism but a spirituality of discipleship in the “obedience of faith.” On the other hand, intimacy with the risen Christ is not simply an inner, mystical experience but an actual relationship through the Spirit. We find concrete guidance for this faith as we recognize that this risen Lord to whom we relate is the same Jesus who walked the shores of Galilee and taught us the will of God. His messages, whether found in John 12-17 on intimacy with him or found in the Sermon on the Mount in Luke 6 and in Matthew 5-7 as a manifesto of the kingdom into which we are born of the Spirit, these and other passages serve as our guide in discipleship.

Some may ask why Jesus needs to return, why he doesn’t just take us to heaven when we die as believers? We believe in the resurrection of our Lord and his victory over all evil, over the powers, the realms of evil and the final enemy, which is death. His return is an expression of his ultimate victory, a message for all humanity and celebrated also before the hosts of heaven and the legions of hell. The millennium is to give an extended expression of that celebration before the final ordering of salvation history.

In this article I am appealing for a renewed emphasis on eschatology, the belief that history is linear and not simply a cycle repeating itself, that history is going somewhere. Saying that history is linear is to recognize that God has a purpose being worked out in time. This is seen throughout the Old Testament as “Heilsgeschichte,” that is, salvation history, a linear movement that came to fulfillment in Jesus as the Christ. With the victory of our Lord we rest in his finished work of redemption (1 John 3:1-3, and Hebrews 4:3, 9-10), at rest from our efforts to relate in the intimacy of faith.

When I was younger, we talked much more about eschatology, we argued and debated whether we were amillennial, premillennial or postmillennial, but these debates were also enlightening. We did this with the recognition of mystery beyond what we can fully perceive. Once a man in his audience asked Bible scholar J. Edwin Orr, “What is all of this a, pre and post emphasis?” Orr quipped, “That is a-pre-post-erous question.” The Christian church has emphasized the millennium as one aspect of Jesus’ return, but we now ask, How are we to understand this? How does this perspective of faith shape our lives?

In discussing our differences, we were at least giving attention to this mystery. Today we have become too silent on our eschatological hope. On the one side, we back off, as we should, from being caught up in a Tim LaHaye (extremely dispensationalist) approach. On the other, we reject the view of those who deny any future beyond this life as we know it. But even with these cautions, we are too silent about affirming our belief that we live in the “eschaton,” each day pointing us to our Lord’s return.

I am appealing for a renewed emphasis on the scriptural teaching about “the second coming” of Jesus, our risen Lord. Such a renewal of perspective will help us live more selectively in this world and be “in the world but not of the world.” Paul emphasized such a lifestyle of selectivity. For example, in each of the five chapters his first letter to the Thessalonians there is a reference to the Lord’s coming, a motivation for holy living.

To stimulate discussion and focus on Christ and his kingdom rather than on details of the conclusion of history as we know it, let me mention a concept different from those mentioned. I suggest we think of a “paracosmic millennium.” Often I have used the term transmillennial, as appears in Paul Erb’s book on eschatology, to keep us from being so earthy. A better term may be paracosmic, and I’m using “para” as meaning over and beyond this earth, universal, pointing to something greater than an earth-happening. This concept extends to life beyond this globe, engaging what Paul called “the Third Heaven.” To believe that our Lord is at God’s right hand, at his throne in heaven, we can interpret the millennial celebration as a victory that includes but extends beyond the earth as we know it.

First, I affirm values in the several views mentioned. I support much in classical premillennialism (in distinction from dispensationalism), for the premillennial view speaks of a glorious victory of Christ, a “telos” as a culmination of his redemptive work that was wrought on this earth.

But I must ask those who hold this view, Why do some see his reign as only in the future, failing to take the gospel of the kingdom seriously today? He is Lord now and forever. Or why interpret the millennium as tied to this little globe, even while the victory is in but also beyond this world? Or on what ground can some interpreters suggest a future with salvation for people during the millennium in a style that suggests a pre-Incarnation pattern?

Second, I affirm much in amillennialism, especially the emphasis on the reign of Christ and the reality of his kingdom as it impacts the here and now. Kingdom priorities are important. As I heard Carl F. H. Henry say, the 20th century evangelical church lost the meaning of the kingdom and its priority of discipleship in our present life.

But speaking of the dynamic of Jesus’ kingdom and its priority as shaping his church now, we should also emphasize a future telos, a coming celebratory culmination of his victory. Why should one who holds the amillennial view fail to emphasize such a telos, celebrating as well as including an expression of the victory of Christ in a final judgment of the “principalities and powers,” powers that Paul says Christ unmasked through the cross?

Third, could not the promise of a 1,000-year reign of Christ, as to the future, be far more than “a reign on earth”? Could it actually be the celebration of his victory before the hosts of heaven and the legions of hell, before the whole universe, a recognition of his being the one victorious Lord? Such a celebration does not need to be tied to this globe but may well be a celebration that is a paracosmic millennium. Such a celebration will break open heaven to us, a celebration that confronts all the powers in heavenly places, one in which Jesus victoriously turns over his completed kingdom to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24). Such celebration is not in brevity but is a millennium. This even is the culmination of salvation history and unites us forever with the Father in his glory. We will join Jesus in the hallelujah chorus, praising the Father as all in all.

But some may ask, What about Israel? Paul says we of faith are the new Israel of God, children of Abraham. Of the Jewish people, Karl Barth has said that the Jew will serve God’s purpose until the end of time, for wherever Jews are found by their very presence the people of any society are reminded of Yahweh. This sounds consistently biblical. When Paul says, “To the Jew first and also to the Greek,” he is acknowledging the privilege of the Jew in having been the channel of salvation history. But Paul, speaking for Jew and Gentile, says of Christ, “For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall … [to] create in himself one new humanity, … thus making peace” (Ephesians 2:14-16). This new community is the goal and fulfillment of salvation history and should motivate our conversation and loving witness to our Jewish neighbors.

This faith in the victory of Christ makes a radical difference in our lives now, for such awareness helps us in the family of God to live, in Paul’s words, “as citizens of heaven” now. This was the vision of the Anabaptists according to the Schleitheim Confession in 1527, that our primary citizenship is in God’s kingdom. This vision has the power to shape our lives today.

As Scripture says of Abraham, “For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). This perspective will help us hold loosely to the things of this world, practice a stewardship that ministers to the needy in fraternal relationship, look at all peoples as people of God’s love, witness salvation in a spirit of empathy and be a people who live by God’s peace and model this for many whose possessiveness leads to violence.

This idea of a paracosmic focus is intended to stimulate reflection. Even with all the mystery, this perspective is biblical in scope and focus. As believers we know Jesus’ fellowship now in confessing him as Lord (Romans 10:9-10), we live in a reconciled fellowship as his disciples, we share in his body as a covenant community, we serve him in life each according to his call and we have here no continuing city but look for his glorious appearing and his eternal fellowship.

I conclude by asking your response. Where you agree with this perspective, your insights may well broaden the interpretation for our mutual enrichment. Where you don’t agree, sharing your perspective may help us better understand the teachings of Scripture, especially Matthew 24 and 1 Corinthians 15. Perhaps these thoughts can help us get the conversation going again. “Maranatha. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”