Amillennialism Ambassador of God. A missionary’s task is to Shared Perspectives. Dominating those com- represent God and his message to an alien world. mon features has been a confidence in the per- This shows the special relationship between the sonal, visible, and glorious return of Jesus Christ Creator and the messenger, who is dispatched as to consummate his work of redemption and resto- an envoy, an ambassador of God. An ambassador ration begun with his life, death, and resurrection. is an official diplomatic agent of high rank who Also shared, with varieties of interpretation, is sent out by a ruler or government as a public has been the neo-Augustinian perception of this representative. A missionary is one who is sent age stretching between the first and the second out to work as a citizen of the KINGDOM OF GOD, coming of Christ as a day of divine grace offered representing truth and light in a world of deceit to the sinner. and darkness. In the years following the sixteenth century, In the Old Testament there are numerous ex- that understanding combined especially with the amples of God’s ambassadors. Noah represented colonialist expansion of Europe. An expanded God’s righteousness to unbelievers. Moses pro- knowledge of the world called for an expanded claimed God’s power and justice in pharaoh’s effort to announce that divine word of grace and court. Joshua showed the might and strength of forgiveness in Christ. And sadly, in that expan- the Lord before the Canaanites. Both Gideon sion, Western ethnocentrism often had difficulty and Deborah were mediators between God and in extracting “Christianizing” from “civilizing.” the rebellious and defeated Israelites. God’s spe- Eschatology as Christ-centered hope too often cial agents, called to proclaim and to direct peo- began to look strangely like Western-centered ple to obedience, lived lives that were testimo- progress. nies of faith and commitment. Daniel and Esther Restraining this tendency toward the national- served in alien governments as ambassadors of ization of eschatology were other beliefs shared God through their words and actions. in common by the three millennial viewpoints. In the New Testament, Christ tells a parable of The expectation of a full exhibition of the glori- a ruler sending an emissary, a select delegation ous reign of God on earth with Christ’s appear- to negotiate peace (Luke 13:32). God’s ambassa- ance, of the physical resurrection from death, of dors are a select, chosen few who challenge the the gathering in of “the fullness of the Gentiles” enemy and seek to negotiate eternal peace in the (Rom. 11:25), and the salvation of “all Israel” hearts of humanity. The apostle Paul wrote to the (Rom. 9:26) have had long standing in the church at Corinth stating that “we are ambassa- church. These shared perspectives often create dors for Christ, as though God were making his difficulties in too sharply dividing pre-nine- appeal through us” (2 Cor. 5:20). To the church teenth-century ‘millenarianism’ into specific schools (Murray, 1971, 48–49). at Ephesus he wrote, “I am an ambassador in Missiological Trajectories. What are those chains” (Eph. 6:20). This refers to his imprison- particular features of amillennialism (sometimes ment for openly proclaiming the good news of called realized or inaugurated millennialism) Jesus Christ. Paul measures himself as person- that nurture the accomplishment of the mission- ally commissioned by Christ to present the gos- ary task? pel to the entire world. The Greek word presbeuo m First, the movement remains relatively unen- literally means a senior, one who is aged. How- cumbered by the elaborate chronological details ever, Paul brings new meaning to the term. He is needed to insert a literal 1000-year period into an elder statesperson representing the kingdom an eschatological sequence. Its understanding of of God before the rulers and their subjects on the millennium as the gospel age separating the this earth. first and second coming concentrates more on Missionaries serve as ambassadors of God. Christ as the center of history and Christ’s return They are believers in Jesus Christ to whom God as the ultimate outcome of history. Its eschato- imparts certain spiritual gifts, and calls and logical center thus tends to orbit more around sends out to make disciples and preach the good Christology than around specific details immedi- news (Matt. 20:18–20; Rom. 10:15). As citizens of ately surrounding the second coming of the the kingdom of God, they are subject to God’s Lord. laws and are under the authority of the Lord Second, amillennialism, with postmillennial- they represent before the rest of the world. ism, traces many of its theological roots to Puri- JOHN EASTERLING tanism’s earlier emphasis on the sovereign rule of God in history. Missions, particularly in its Amillennialism. As a term, amillennialism, like Reformed expression, is then seen as still deeply premillennialism and postmillennialism, was not MISSIO DEI. coined until the 1840s. But, in fact, all three In common with evangelical thought, views are represented through the long history of late-nineteenth-century mission thinking has im- the church. And they have shared much in com- pacted this motivation with an additional focus mon. on obedience to the GREAT COMMISSION (Beaver, 1 Annihilationism 1968, 141–142). But the movement still clings to common with other millennial viewpoints, it can the union, formulated by Jonathan Edwards become so lost in chronological debates with (1703–1758), of the themes of the divine reign of those alternatives that it falls into eschatological God and of the demand for regeneration, per- paralysis. sonal faith, and revival (Beaver, 1959, 67). HARVIE M. CONN Third, this focus on the mission of God has made it somewhat easy for the movement to in- Bibliography. R. P. Beaver, Basileia, pp. 60–75; idem, Reinterpretation in American Church History, pp. corporate the current growing consensus in 113–51; J. DeJong, As the Waters Cover the Sea: Millen- evangelical circles between missions and the nial Expectations in the Rise of Anglo-American Mis- KINGDOM OF GOD. In that consensus the kingdom sions, 1640–1810; A. Hoekema, The Bible and the Fu- is seen as the saving reign of God initiated by ture; I. Murray, The Puritan Hope; B. Nicholls, In Word Christ’s coming (the ‘already’) and to be consum- and Deed: Evangelism and Social Responsibility. mated by his coming again (the ‘not yet’). And for the amillennialist the missionary Annihilationism. Proponents of annihilationism preaching of the kingdom’s good news to all be- maintain that God’s JUDGMENT utterly obliterates comes a divine requirement given to the Chris- the wicked. Recently annihilationism has made tian community on its way to eschatological ful- inroads among evangelicals. These annihilation- fillment (1 Cor. 9:16). Empowered by the Holy ists dispute the extent of punishment due the Spirit (Acts 1:8), the church is “under obligation” sinner. They affirm God’s punishment in HELL is (Rom. 1:14) to announce that Christ has come to eternal in its effects, but not in its length. Some- inaugurate the kingdom through his redemptive times this position is linked with an anthropo- work (Mark 1:14–15; Luke 4:18–21). logical view called conditional immortality, Fourth, amillenialism sees eschatology (“the which holds that humans have only potential im- last days”) as initiated by the redeeming work of mortality. The issue of annihilationism and hell’s Christ (1 Cor. 10:11; Heb. 1:2). This pleads for a extent has occasioned much debate in recent strong element of continuity between our life in scholarship. Four major points are in conten- the Spirit in “the present age” and “in the age to tion. come” (Eph. 1:21). A Punishment with Eternal Results. Some This continuity becomes a powerful incentive annihilationists argue that when the Greek ad- for a holistic understanding of missions as both jective for eternal, aionios, is used with nouns of word and deed, evangelism and socio-cultural in- m action, it refers to an occurrence with eternal re- volvement (Matt. 25:31–46). Because perfect righteousness and peace will characterize the sults, not an eternal process (Fudge). So “eternal kingdom’s future we seek also their beginnings punishment” denotes a punishment that occurs in the kingdom’s present, yet imperfect, manifes- once with everlasting results. But this argument tation (2 Peter 3:11–14; Matt. 6:10). is weak. For “everlasting salvation” (Heb. 5:9) re- Fifth, and finally, this same perception of amil- fers not simply to Christ’s work long ago. Scrip- lennialism as missions “between the times” also ture describes believers, even in the age to come, underlines a sense of discontinuity. There is still as existing “in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17; Col. 2:6, 7; the reality of sin to bar missionary enthusiasm 2 Tim. 2:10). So aiomnios somteria refers to a salva- and promote the nations’ obstinate refusal of tion that is everlasting in action and its result. Christ. Over-optimism concerning the course of Similarly, “everlasting punishment” should be human history toward the gospel’s consumma- interpreted as everlasting in process and result. tion is restrained by the reality that “many are Confirming this meaning, Jesus uses the same called but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14). adjective (aiomnios) for eternal life and eternal History’s Modifications. Amillennialism, like punishment, indicating that in his mind the ex- its counterparts, has not escaped reshaping in tent of each future is identical (Matt. 25:46). the history of the church. And that reshaping has Destruction. Some annihilationists insist that not always strengthened its missionary dimen- the biblical imagery of destruction and a con- sions.