Postmillennialists are developing a fresh approach to one of their problem passages, Revelation 20:7–9, which predicts Satan’s end-time deception of the nations. This prophecy presents a formidable obstacle to the eschatological optimism that postmillennialism promotes:

⁷ And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. ⁹ And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them.

The Standard Postmillennial Approach to Revelation 20:7–9

Postmillennialists affirm that the satanic deception described in these verses will happen just before Jesus returns and will still be ongoing at his second coming. This passage has posed a perennial challenge to postmillennialists in that it forces them to accept a disappointing conclusion.

To address this tension, they have typically downplayed the extent of Satan’s eschatological deception by suggesting that it will result in a relatively small, insignificant falling away. For example, David Chilton calls the language in these verses “hyperbolic.” He asserts that “the Christian ‘wheat’ will be dominant” at Christ’s return, since Satan will only deceive an inconsequential number of “tares” in “some outlying areas of the world.” Chilton quotes Austin Farrer, who likewise proposes that the devil will only beguile a smattering of unbelievers “tucked away in lands remote from the centre.”^[1]

This interpretation fails to do justice to the passage, which says that Satan will “deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth” and “gather them for battle” (Rev 20:8) until “the camp of the saints” is “surrounded” by innumerable enemies (20:9). Greg Beale points out “the note of universality” in the phrase “the nations that are at the four corners of the earth” (cf. Isa 11:12; Ezek 7:2; Matt 24:31; Rev 7:1).^[2] Revelation 20:7–9 indicates, for postmillennialists, that at the end of the age, the devil will successfully deceive the same nations previously discipled (Matt 28:18–20). Accordingly, some postmillennialists see the need for a revised tactic, one which acknowledges that the last-days deception of the nations (like the previous discipling of those nations) will be widespread and significant.

An Emerging Postmillennial Approach to Revelation 20:7–9

Some postmillennialists have developed a line of thought that recognizes the monumental nature of the deception but mitigates it by emphasizing two points: (1) this Satan-led rebellion will take place only at the very end, during the final generation, and (2) righteousness and peace will prevail throughout the earth for many generations before this worldwide apostasy occurs, thus fulfilling the postmillennial vision. For example, a recent article by postmillennialist Ralph Smith concedes that there will be “a final generation that turns away from Christ and the Gospel, having been deceived by Satan,” but insists that “the apostasy of the last generation does not nullify the faith and blessing of the many generations that preceded it.”

(A potential deficiency in this new approach, which I will not explore at length here, concerns whether a regenerate world could apostatize within one generation. If we assume the Reformed view that true believers cannot fall away, it is difficult to imagine a truly Christianized world becoming de-Christianized in such a short time.)

In essence, some postmillennialists have begun to accept that things will be very bad when Jesus returns. The Lord’s question in Luke 18:8 (“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”) no longer causes these postmillennialists difficulty; they are under no theological pressure to limit this verse’s application to AD 70. They admit that Christ will come back to nations once again raging and plotting in vain (Psalm 2:1), deceived by Satan. To maintain their optimism, though, these postmillennialists stress that this downward spiral at the end will happen after the postmillennial hope has already been realized; in this way, their eschatological vision remains intact, despite an unsatisfying ending.^[3]

The Dilemma Persists, and Perhaps Deepens

This emerging method, however, keenly contradicts a key tenet of postmillennialism, namely, that “Christ will return to a truly Christianized world,” as stated by prominent postmillennialist Loraine Boettner.^[4] One of postmillennialism’s pillar prooftexts is 1 Corinthians 15:24–26, which, according to postmillennialists, indicates that Christ will subdue or destroy every rule, every authority, and every power before he comes back, so that the only enemy left at his return is death. Doug Wilson summarizes postmillennialism’s unique interpretation of these verses:

The apostle here says that it [death] is the last enemy to be destroyed. The Lord will rule from heaven, progressively subduing all His enemies through the power of the gospel, brought to the nations by His Church. And then, when it would be easy to believe that it just couldn’t get any better, the Lord will come and deliver the kingdom to His Father.^[5]

Postmillennialists continue to face an acute dilemma, perhaps more so now than ever before: At Christ’s return, will “the nations that are at the four corners of the earth” be in the grip of diabolic deception (Rev 20:7–9)? Or will these nations still be subdued by the power of the gospel, leaving death as the only remaining enemy (1 Cor 15:24–26)?

Conclusion: Choosing a Horn to Fall On

Postmillennialists have long faced challenges in defending their view, supported by their idiosyncratic interpretation of 1 Corinthians 15:24–26, that “Christ will return to a truly Christianized world” in which every nation is subdued by the gospel and every enemy, except death, is destroyed. Even the standard postmillennial approach, which seeks to minimize the devil’s end-time deception described in Revelation 20:7–9, unavoidably necessitates the de-Christianization of “the nations that are at the four corners of the earth” before Jesus returns. This text relentlessly prophesies the resurgence of countless enemies (“their number is like the sand of the sea”) at the end.

Some postmillennialists, seeking to account for Revelation 20:7–9 honestly, and unable to deny that “the nations that are at the four corners of the earth” refers to all the nations, have come to embrace a future in which the truly Christianized world ultimately apostatizes and Jesus returns to an earth full of hostile, scheming enemies. While this shift is exegetically honest, it raises questions of whether these postmillennialists have abandoned a fundamental tenet of their belief system.

Postscript: Attempts to Resolve the Dilemma

A few postmillennialists have tried to cut the Gordian knot by fundamentally reinterpreting Revelation 20:7–9.

B.B. Warfield, followed by Martin Selbrede, attempted to impose an idealist (atemporal) framework onto this passage, so that the deception at the conclusion of the millennium actually occurs throughout the interadvental era, not at the end.^[6] Idealist or atemporal interpretations of this text, in addition to being complicated and counterintuitive, make one wonder how John could have included a futurist perspective in the Apocalypse if we do not allow him to have done so in 20:7–9.

Phillip Kayser recently offered a peculiar take on this prophecy that, in his words, “challenges the establishment view.” He posits that at the return of Christ, unbelievers will receive their resurrection bodies first, one hour before believers rise from the dead. During this hour, Satan will deceive the resurrected rebels, gathering them for battle against the Christianized world, and God will intervene to consume these unbelievers with fire from heaven.

These unconventional readings have understandably gained little-to-no traction among modern postmillennialists. Defending these efforts to resolve the dilemma proves just as problematic as living between its two horns.

Jeremy Sexton resides in southwest Missouri with his wife, Brandy. They have nine children—seven boys and two girls—whose ages range from 22 to 3 years old  

Other Articles on Postmillennialism by the Author

• “Postmillennialism: A Biblical Critique” (Themelios)
• “Postmillennialism: A Reply to Doug Wilson” (The Aquila Report)
• “Is Modern Postmillennialism Confessional?” (Ad Fontes)
• “The Success of the Great Commission: Probing a Postmillennial Presupposition” (Ad Fontes)
• “Hope Misplaced: Postmillennialism’s Rejection of Eschatological Imminence—How It Happens and Why It Matters” (forthcoming)
  

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1. David Chilton, The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the Book of Revelation (Horn Lake, MS: Dominion Press, 2006), 519–24. ↑

2. G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 1022. All interpreters, including postmillennialists, attribute worldwide comprehensiveness to the phrase “the four winds” in Matt 24:31. And in Rev 7:1, “the four winds of the earth” map onto “the four corners of the earth.” ↑

3. Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. (He Shall Have Dominion: A Postmillennial Eschatology, 3rd ed. [Chesnee, SC: Victorious Hope, 2021], 514–15) proffers both the standard approach to Rev 20:7–9 and the emerging one. ↑

4. Loraine Boettner, The Millennium (Philadelphia: P&R Publishing, 1958), 14. ↑

5. Douglas Wilson, Heaven Misplaced: Christ’s Kingdom on Earth (Moscow, ID: Canon, 2008), 15. ↑

6. Martin Selbrede, “Reconstructing Postmillennialism,” The Journal of Christian Reconstruction 15 (1998): 148–225. ↑