Definition

The second coming is the personal, visible, bodily, and glorious return of Jesus Christ at the end of the present age to raise the dead, judge the world, and consummate his kingdom in the new heavens and new earth. It is a single, climactic event, not divided into secret and public phases. The millennium (Latin mille annum, “thousand years”) refers to the “thousand years” of Revelation 20, during which Satan is bound and the saints reign with Christ. The Reformed tradition has chiefly understood this period amillennially: the millennium is the present gospel age, throughout which the exalted Christ reigns and the souls of the departed saints live and reign with him, to be ended by his single return, the general resurrection, and the final judgment.

Why It Matters

The return of Christ is the church’s “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), the goal toward which all history moves and the comfort that sustains the suffering people of God. How one understands the millennium shapes one’s reading of much of Scripture, one’s expectations for history, and one’s relation to Israel and the nations. The differences among Christians here are real but, on the whole, belong among brethren who together confess that Christ will personally return to judge and to reign. The Reformed seek a sober, Christ-centered eschatology that avoids both the date-setting sensationalism that has often attended dispensationalism and the over-realized optimism that mistakes cultural progress for the kingdom of God.

Biblical Foundation

The Personal, Visible Return

Christ will return as truly and bodily as he ascended:

This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11)

His coming will be visible to all (Rev. 1:7; Matt. 24:30), with power and great glory, attended by the angels (Matt. 25:31), with a cry of command and the trumpet of God (1 Thess. 4:16). It is sudden and unexpected, like a thief in the night (1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10), so that the church must watch.

One Coming, One Resurrection, One Judgment

Scripture ties the return of Christ, the resurrection of the just and unjust, and the final judgment together at “the last day” (John 6:39–40; 11:24). At his coming the dead are raised and the living transformed in a moment (1 Cor. 15:51–52); the sheep and goats are separated at once (Matt. 25:31–46). There is no biblical warrant for a coming divided into a secret rapture and a later public appearing separated by years.

The Millennium of Revelation 20

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed… They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)

In this much-disputed text Satan is bound so that he can no longer deceive the nations as before, and the souls of the faithful reign with Christ. The “first resurrection” is the believer’s passage at death into life with Christ (or the new birth); the “second death” has no power over them. The binding of Satan corresponds to Christ’s victory in his first coming (Matt. 12:29; Luke 10:18; John 12:31).

Key Components & Distinctions

Amillennialism

The Reformed amillennial view holds that the “thousand years” is not a literal future earthly reign but a symbol of the entire present age between Christ’s two comings. During this age the resurrected and ascended Christ reigns from heaven, the gospel goes to the nations because Satan is bound from deceiving them wholesale, and the souls of the departed saints live and reign with Christ in glory. The age ends with a brief loosing of Satan and final apostasy, then the single return of Christ, the general resurrection of just and unjust, the final judgment, and the eternal state. “Amillennial” is something of a misnomer; the view affirms a present, spiritual millennium rather than no millennium at all.

Postmillennialism

Postmillennialism, held by many Puritans and later Reformed theologians, expects the gospel so to triumph through the present age that the nations will be largely Christianized and a long era of righteousness and peace will precede Christ’s return. Christ then returns after (“post”) the millennium. The Reformed who hold this view share the amillennialist’s single return and general resurrection but differ in their expectation of a golden age within history. The amillennialist replies that Scripture leads the church to expect tribulation and apostasy alongside gospel advance until the end (Matt. 24; 2 Tim. 3).

Historic Premillennialism

Historic (or covenantal) premillennialism holds that Christ returns before (“pre”) a literal thousand-year reign on earth, after which come the final rebellion, resurrection of the wicked, and judgment. It has had respected Reformed adherents. It differs from dispensationalism in maintaining the unity of God’s people and rejecting a separate program for ethnic Israel and a pretribulational rapture. The amillennialist replies that Revelation 20 does not require a future earthly reign and that two bodily resurrections separated by a thousand years conflicts with the single, general resurrection taught elsewhere.

Dispensational Premillennialism

Dispensationalism, arising in the nineteenth century, distinguishes sharply between Israel and the church as two peoples with two programs, expects a secret pretribulational rapture, a seven-year tribulation, and a future earthly Jewish kingdom centered on a rebuilt temple and restored sacrifices. The Reformed reject this as resting on an over-literal hermeneutic, a faulty Israel/church dualism, and a divided second coming foreign to Scripture, which knows one people of God in Christ and one climactic return.

Historical Development

The early church held varied views; some fathers (Papias, Irenaeus, Justin) were premillennial, while an amillennial reading grew. Augustine’s City of God gave classic expression to amillennialism by identifying the millennium with the church age, and this became the dominant view of the medieval and Reformation church. The Reformers — Luther, Calvin, and the framers of the confessions — were amillennial, and the Westminster Standards assume this framework without elaborating millennial details. Postmillennialism flourished in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Protestantism. Dispensational premillennialism originated with J. N. Darby and the Plymouth Brethren and spread widely through the Scofield Reference Bible in the twentieth century, largely outside confessional Reformed churches.

The Reformed & Confessional Position

The Westminster Confession affirms the certainty and suddenness of Christ’s return without committing to millennial particulars:

As Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin, and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity: so will he have that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all carnal security, and be always watchful, because they know not at what hour the Lord will come; and may be ever prepared to say, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen. (WCF 33.3)

The Larger Catechism describes Christ’s exaltation in his second coming to judge the world (WLC Q. 56), and teaches that at the last day the righteous shall be received into heaven and the wicked sentenced to hell (WLC Q. 89–90). The Standards thus confess one personal, visible, glorious return issuing in resurrection and judgment, consistent with the amillennial reading dominant in the tradition.

Contrasting Views

The four positions surveyed above (amillennial, postmillennial, historic premillennial, dispensational premillennial) are weighed in the Key Components section. The Reformed regard the first three as held within the bounds of orthodoxy by godly brethren, while judging amillennialism most faithful to the whole of Scripture. Dispensationalism’s distinctive features — the Israel/church dualism, the pretribulational rapture, and the divided coming — the Reformed regard as serious departures from the biblical unity of redemptive history, though many who hold it are true believers. All Reformed views unite in confessing that Christ will personally, visibly, and gloriously return to judge the living and the dead.

Connections to Other Loci

This doctrine rests on Christology, especially the ascension and session of Christ, who reigns now and will return; and on covenant theology, which unites Israel and the church as one people of God, undercutting dispensational dualism. It leads directly to the resurrection and final judgment, which attend Christ’s coming, and to the eternal state, which his return inaugurates. It draws on the kingdom of God, already inaugurated and not yet consummated.

Christ & the Gospel at the Center

The second coming is the open triumph of the crucified and risen Lord. He who came once in humility to bear sin will appear a second time, “not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb. 9:28). The millennium debate, rightly framed, concerns the present and future reign of Christ over his redeemed people. Whatever the scheme, the church’s hope is fixed on him: that the King will come, that every eye will see him, that he will gather his own, and that his kingdom will have no end. The cry of the waiting church is “Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).

Pastoral & Practical Significance

The certainty and suddenness of Christ’s return summon believers to watchfulness, holiness, and faithful labor. Because we know not the hour, we are to shake off carnal security, live in readiness, and persevere in our callings (WCF 33.3). The blessed hope comforts the suffering and persecuted church, assuring her that her vindication and her Lord are near. It restrains both the despair that sees only the world’s evil and the false optimism that expects heaven on earth by human effort. Above all it fixes the heart on Christ himself, teaching the church to long for his appearing and to pray, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”

Key Terms

• Second coming (parousia) — the personal, visible, glorious return of Christ.
• Millennium — the “thousand years” of Revelation 20.
• Amillennialism — the millennium as the present gospel age.
• Postmillennialism — Christ returns after a gospel-age golden era.
• Premillennialism — Christ returns before a literal earthly reign.
• Dispensationalism — premillennialism with an Israel/church distinction and pretribulational rapture.

Key Scripture References

• Acts 1:11 — Christ will return as he ascended.
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 — the coming of the Lord and the resurrection.
• Matthew 24:30–31 — the visible, glorious return.
• Revelation 20:1–6 — the binding of Satan and the reign of the saints.
• Hebrews 9:28 — Christ will appear a second time to save.

Further Study

• Anthony Hoekema, The Bible and the Future.
• Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism.
• Sam Storms, Kingdom Come: The Amillennial Alternative.
• Geerhardus Vos, The Pauline Eschatology.
• Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 33.