Eschatology & Apocalypse

-It is the belief that Christ will rule the earth for a period of 1,000 years ( the millennium), and that this will be a good time when people accept Christ as king. 

- At the end of this time Christ will judge the living and the dead. 

- Modern millennialists are not dedicated toa period of 1000 years.They belive that there will be a period during which God's will is actually carried out on earth. 

- It suggests that the world will be turned upside down and be taken over by the meek- or at least be the good and the righteous- and that this will be a time of peace and justice. 

- it also implies a solution to the problem of evil ( i.e. why does an all- godd, all- powerful God allow evil to flourish unpunsihed or corrected0 by showing that at the end of time there will be justice for everyone. 

Evildoers will be punished for their behaviour on earth and the good rewarded, as God balances the scales of justice at the end of time. 

- Its is a doctrine particularly popular among Evangelical Protestants. 

- The Premillennialists are often branded as saying " The end of the world is nigh"

-they believe that things are getting steadily worse on earth and will go on deteriorating until God had enough .

- They beliv that the Second Coming of christ will happen at the start of the Millennium. this is much sooner than other Christain beliefs such as post - Millennialists who belive that second coming will occur at the end of the millennium. 

-Many people in the modern day believe that this is currently happening right now.Pre-millennialists use the example of people dying of starvation in LEDC's such as Africa to show that the signs of the end are becoming apparent so Christ's second coming is to be expected in the near future. 

-premillennialists belive that it will be a time of destruction,war and disaster on earth, called the tribulation, which will be ended by God defeating evil at the battle of Armageddon. 

- they belive that the important thing for christains to do is to prepare themselves for the end- time and to convert as many people as possible into righteous believers ready for the day of judgement. 

they don't see much point in christains trying to improve the world, since god is about to clean the world of its faults by destroying much of it and then remaking it.