Most Christians don’t really understand the differences between pre, post and amillennialist positions. In fact it is easier to consider pre-tribulation vs post-tribulation as parameters for understanding. Perhaps many Christians haven’t even encountered the three basic opinions on when, what or if the thousand year reign of Christ mentioned in Revelation 20:2-7 and somewhat indirectly in Isaiah 2:4 occurs.
Postmillennialists and amillennialists believe the 1000 year reign is symbolic rather than literal, as pre-millennialists do. Even so, millennialism is representational more so than symbolic. It represents a time when God will develop part of his plan for the world. Scripture does use some time numbers in a representational rather than literal way.
Pre-millennialists take the Bible more literally and with less representational values. When they see a phrase like a month of Sundays they would calculate an exact number rather than taking it as to represent an indefinite, lengthy period of time. Some pre-millennialists are also dispensationalists. That term means historical periods for them; and that there are future historical periods described in Bible prophecy that will occur. One is seven years of tribulation and another a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth.
The viewpoints can be quite contentious with some partisans utilizing polemical language to reinforce their belief. On a practical basis the question of millennialism should not divide Christians as some theological schisms have in the past. Christians need to get along and not attack other Christians for that is the role of Satan. When Christians busy themselves with living in accord with precepts of the gospel as they should every day of their lives until they pass or the Lord returns in the second coming, that eschatological questions disappear as a socially divisive issue.
I would like to digress here a little to mention a couple of terms I like. One is the eschaton. It is defined by Gemini as; "the final event in the divine plan; the end of the world". All Christians look forward to this. It is what life is about. Christians not not bring it about though; instead they act within it. Like the term inflaton regarding a theoretical hyper-inflation of the Universe faster-than-light, the eschaton has somewhat unknown, representational parameters. One might mean it to apply to a particular event or it could simply mean the final event in an instant rather than as a process regarded as the eschaton. It is incidentally, mildly paradoxical to give the theoretical inflaton a time value based within a relativistic, slower-than-light material Universe.
The second term; theonomy, was given an almost mystical definition to describe perhaps characteristics of the Kingdom of God developing in-the-world amidst the secular world. It is comparable in a way to the idea of a City of God existing simultaneously in the world with the City of Man preponderantly in the same space as if it were a different dimension. Gemini described Paul Tilich's theonomy this way; "the ideal state where reason and norms are integrated with the divine ground of being, leading to a culture where the unconditional presence of the divine guides and permeates all aspects of life. It is not about external, imposed religious law (heteronomy) or the independent self-rule of reason (autonomy), but a higher form of "divine rule" where individual freedom and spiritual depth are united through obedience to the deep, inexhaustible structural laws that originate in God. "
There is a different, modern definition for theonomy, and it indicates the difficulties in using the same word from different eras that have preponderantly different meanings. Gemini describes theonomy today this way; "Theonomy is a Christian theological and political movement, also known as Christian reconstructionism and dominion theology, that holds that Old Testament Mosaic law, particularly the civil laws given to ancient Israel, should guide modern civil and criminal laws in all societies. Theonomists believe that God's moral and judicial laws remain applicable and authoritative for believers and societies today, though usually not the ceremonial laws associated with the Old Testament sacrificial system. The movement, championed by figures like R.J. Rushdoony and Greg Bahnsen, seeks to establish a Christian society guided by divine law. "
Plainly some would be concerned about those seeking to literally establish a theocracy in the United States if theonomy were to be taken to extremes. The Lord said that His Kingdom was not of this world though, so some Christians would seek to establish the laws of God on their hearts and minds rather than in secular laws. The prophet Jeremiah related that God said he would do so in time.
There can be secular consequences of belief that an imminent return of Christ preceded by a rapture and tribulation may occur on a schedule soon. And there are periodically people calculating the date of those end time events deriving formulae from interpreting scripture. The next date predicted by some for the return of Christ is the recurrent popular day of 23 September.
Consider that if a doctor were to say that a fellow had exactly two months to live before a tumor I his brain kills him (and yet later the tumor turned out to be some sort of benign thing), some people in that circumstance would feel free to max out all of their credit cards in good living since they believe they won’t need to pay off the debt being gone from this world. Multiply that phenomenon by millions of people with the same belief that they will be gone and one can imagine a large debt compiling that actually will need to be repaid if they don’t disappear on schedule.
I am not suggesting that is a primary cause for the accumulation of the U.S. public debt of 34.5 trillion dollars, yet it could be a contributing factor. I have heard some say that since God is going to create a new heaven and Earth there is no harm in exploiting all of the environmental resources of this planet to exhaustion. There isn’t much of a limit other than existential limits to the willingness of people to exploit resources and finances they believe they won’t need to repay or that will be lost offshore in the mists of time.
Postmillennialists and partial preterists tend toward an opinion that the tribulation mentioned in scripture is the one that Jesus prophesied about occurring within his generation. The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and persecution of Christians partly fulfilled prophesies about end times. The millennium of a thousand years is regarded as a period when the great commission would be fulfilled and Christians would build up in terms to the fullest potential as they could on Earth. Fundamentally that prophecy is being fulfilled still with more than a billion Christians today. The tribulation continues too; it isn’t a perfect world for Christians when some are even executed in various nations or when one like Charlie Kirk is assassinated in Utah.
A physical rapture is thought by pre-millennialists to happen for Christians secretly just before a seven year period of tribulation on Earth. This is the most popular interpretation of Bible eschatology in Hollywood films. Amillennialism and pre-millennialism don’t have near the action as a concluding battle of Armageddon that even Muslim Shia 12ers believe in.
I mentioned there isn’t really a cause for Christians to not have good relationships with those with different end times ideas. Regardless of when a tribulation occurred or occurs-in the past or the future, or if or when a millennium occurs (amillennialists believe it is occurring now with Christ presiding in Heaven as a kind of parallel to post-millennialist beliefs that it is occurring now on Earth), Christians live their lives as Christians until Christ returns- and no one knows the day as the Lord said. They just need to always live as if it is now and to be ready.
Even the rapture should not be an issue. Will the rapture occur 50 feet in the air? Will the entire world dissolve and Christians just find themselves in space for a moment in free fall as a new world or Universe appears around or under them? An omnipotent God who can create a Universe with a thought is not likely to be parsimonious about reconditioning the world as a project to remove pesticides, eliminate thermodynamics so people don’t age and the environment won’t change, fix global warming, clean out pollution and so forth. He probably won’t hire grave diggers to go exhume all of the debt bodies or filter the sea water and seafloor to find atoms those buried at sea had. Instead he perhaps remembers their information and wills them to again exist
In all three schools of thought there is a last judgment.
