Ten Proofs For Postmillennialism in Paul
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INTRODUCTION
Welcome back to another episode in our series, "A Practical Postmillennialism," where we have explored the scriptural foundations of a hopeful and victorious eschatology called Postmillennialism. If you have been with us over the last several episodes, you will know the Bible is one unified story, from beginning to end, on how God will fill the world with His worshippers so that His glory will fill the Earth as the waters cover the seas. If you have not been here, or if today is the first time you are joining us, we have been able to demonstrate this throughout the entire Old Testament, covering Genesis, The Torah and The Story of Israel, The Psalms, The Prophets, in the New Testament Gospels, and in the book of Acts, so I would encourage you to go back and listen to those episodes, along with the excellent interviews we have done with men like Douglas Wilson, Gary Demar, James White, Michael Foster, C.R. Wiley, and others so that you can see how this is a glorious theme works itself out in all of Scripture. Today, we continue through the New Testament writings, finding ourselves at one of the most towering figures in the New Testament, the apostle Paul, showing how his writings also prove this magnificent theme of a world transformed by the Gospel and filled with humans who love and give glory to Yahweh.
Now, Paul barely needs an introduction. His thirteen letters are a treasure trove of theological insights, exhortations, and eschatological hope that will never be exhausted. I believe we will still be digging around and discovering treasures in Paul's epistles for as long as the church exists on Earth and maybe twice on Sunday, our first day in heaven. But for today, I only have one goal. Instead of trying to exhaust all of the riches that could be found in Paul, I want to give you ten undeniable proofs that Postmillennialism is the correct eschatology. I want to look at ten specific verses throughout Paul's writings that prove this wonderful and optimistic view we have been covering.
So, with that saddle-up partner, it is time for us to dig in!
PROOF 1: THE VICTORY OF CHRIST
If you want to know how Paul thought about the Kingdom of God and what He believed the end of the world would look like, then there is no better verse to begin with than 1 Corinthians 15:24-25. And, just so we are clear if this is the only verse we had, we could overwhelmingly concur that Paul was a postmillennialist. That is how clear and how potent this verse really is.
Paul says: "Then comes the end, when He hands over the Kingdom to the God and Father when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet." - 1 Corinthians 15:24-25
Did you catch that? Paul says that the end of the world, the climax of human history, will occur when Jesus hands the Kingdom back to God. Why does Jesus hand the Kingdom back over to God? Well… According to Paul, Jesus is reigning now. He is on His throne, sitting at the right hand of God, ruling with a plan and a purpose. Until that plan and purpose are accomplished, Paul says He will continue to rule. What is that plan and its purpose? The text says: It is to abolish all rule, all authority, and all power that does not belong to Him. Jesus is reigning in order to put away all rebellion. He reigns until every country, community, and individual curmudgeon submits themselves under His rule. He will keep on reining until pornography is obliterated, abortion is abolished, gays and lesbians repent or get destroyed, and no more children have their genitals mutilated by adults who are so sick and twisted that they think they are doing good. He must reign until sex trafficking is eradicated. He must reign until the dunderheads in Washington are run out and put down and until the whole world is Christian!
Think about it. If Jesus is going to reign until ALL of His enemies are under His feet, then no enemies will be left! There will be no rebellion, no thorns, no thistles, no democrats, no RINOs, no atheism, no Scientology, only a world filled with things that are pleasing to Jesus. If He puts away all rebellion and crushes it underneath His feet, then what you have is nothing less than a Christian world filled with Christian people and Christian churches, worshiping Christ and living for the honor and glory of His name. Paul tells us that Jesus must reign until He has put all of His enemies underneath His feet, which simply means He must reign until He has made a wholly Christian world. That is the end for which Christ is reigning, and His reign will not be finished until He is finished with that task! If that ain't postmil, it will hairlip the pope.
PROOF 2: THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM
One of the most important rules concerning Biblical interpretation is understanding what the original author attempted to communicate to the original audience. Our opinions about the text don't really matter. Our presuppositions must be damned if they contradict original authorial intent. If we cannot establish a doctrine based on what the first author was clearly attempting to communicate to his contemporaries, then our doctrine has as much value as used toilet paper and must be promptly discarded.
Such is the case with the loser theology and victim spirituality that is being peddled in modern evangelicalism these days. Where did we find this attitude akin to Chicken Little, living in perpetual dread that the sky is ever falling? Did we get it from Scripture? Is this what Paul believed? It most certainly was not.
Far from expecting failure, Paul believed that the Gospel could do nothing but win and keep on winning. He even says as much in the opening of his letter to the church of Collosa, commenting:
"We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth" - Colossians 1:3-6
In typical Pauline fashion, he thanks God for the saints who worshiped at the Colossian church, having heard about their faith and love for one another in Christ. This was exciting to Paul. Apparently, instead of a church filled with belly acres, malcontents, and morbid pouters, He praises them because they are clinging to the hope laid up for them like a treasure in heaven. The church in Colossae was not addicted to pessimism like the rank-and-file evangelical church of today. Paul does not praise them for how ardently they believed the world would crash and burn. Instead, He praises them for their hope and optimism in the Gospel, which tells us that the church of Colossae was the exact opposite of defeatist or dispensational. But there is more.
Paul goes on to celebrate that the Gospel is constantly bearing fruit and ever-increasing. Beyond a church with a greatsun-shiny attitude, Paul is thrilled that his expectation of the Gospel, that it wins, was coming true before his very eyes and that it was continuing to take back more and more territory from the enemy. What you do not have in Paul's greeting is an expectation for failure. You do not have a man thinking that the church will collapse at any moment. And frankly, if Paul were alive today and heard all of the end-times prognostications, blood moons, red heifers, and dispensational vomit being passed around as eschatological wisdom, the American church would get a letter, too. But not a letter like the Colossians or the Philippians received. We would get the kind of rebuke that Paul reserved for churches like the Galatians and Corinthians, saying something along the lines of: "You foolish Americans, who or what has bewitched you?"
Paul had an expectation of hope, an expectation that the church would keep on growing, and since He was one of the men God inspired to write the Bible, it might be a good idea to put away our silly opinions and simply believe Him and trust the Holy Spirit who inspired it. Maybe, just maybe.
PROOF 3: THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL
In today's church, you might think the Gospel is on life support, given how some Christians act—timid, retreating, and expecting defeat. It's almost as if they believe the Gospel has lost its power. But Paul, in Romans 1:16, shatters this pitiful mindset, saying:
""For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. - Romans 1:16
While modern evangelicalism often cowers in the face of cultural challenges, treating the Gospel like a frail relic, Paul declares it to be the very dynamite of God. This isn't a message that needs coddling; it's an unstoppable force destined to transform lives and nations. Paul's words mock contemporary defeatism, asserting with unflinching certainty that the Gospel's power will lead to a world overflowing with believers. The Gospel, according to Paul, isn't just surviving—it's conquering.
This is an important point because if we have a powerful Gospel that can and will save, by the decree and will of God, everyone that God intends to save, the question you must wrestle with is how many people God intends to save? If He can save everyone He wants to, then how many does He want to? While we cannot know that number (Dt. 29:29), we can ask some questions. Did God intend to send His beloved Son to save just a few stragglers? Did God allow His only child to suffer and bleed, dying in the purest kind of agony, just to rescue a scant minority of souls from the everlasting flames?Or, as God told Abraham, wasn't He about the business of winning the entire world to Himself through His own Son (Genesis 12:1-3)? Now that the powerful God-breathed Gospel had arrived upon the shores of Earth, Jesus could get on with that Abrahamic mission and blessing promised all those years ago by saving both the Jews and the Gentiles through one glorious Gospel.
PROOF 4: THE RECONCILIATION OF EVERYTHING
If you want to interpret the Bible literally, you must interpret it according to its literature. This is one of the most basic rules of language. If I said, 'My cousin is the size of a doublewide trailer,' you would be more than a little thick of head to think he needs his own mailbox. I am only saying that he is a large, overweight, or obese man. That is the literal meaning of what I said. To assume my cousin has double-pained windows as a part of his belt buckle would not only be patently absurd but the most unintelligent way to interpret my language that I could imagine. And yet, this is precisely what the dispys do when they arrive in Revelation.
In a book that categorizes itself as symbolic (Revelation 1:1) and is filled with a myriad of symbols and apocalyptic images (Revelation 1:20) that will take a mind of wisdom to interpret (Revelation 13:18), the hyper-literalists bumble their way through the text with the fluidity of Scranton Joe standing behind a blurry teleprompter. It is even more hilarious and pitiful when they happen upon a clear text without ambiguity and fail to understand its literature.
For instance, Paul says in Colossians 1:19-20
"For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven." - Colossians 1:19-20
Notice that Paul does not discuss Jesus reconciling everything to Himself in the millennial Kingdom. He does not discuss this reconciliation being put on a seven-year hiatus during a siesta for tribulation. He simply tells us that it was the Father's pleasure to reconcile everything broken in this world through the ministry of His Son. This means that God is delighted to work through His Son and to continue working through His Son's reign until everything in heaven and Earth has been restored to His divine intention. Far from being a pessimist, Paul is saying that everything will be restored on this side of heaven. No breaks. No excursus. No asterisk periods. Just one uninterrupted reign of Jesus that will restore and redeem all things.
PROOF 5: THE OBEDIENCE OF THE NATIONS
If you are just joining us, perhaps you were unaware that God originally promised, back in the book of Genesis, that there would come a day when all of the Earth would obey Jesus. And by all of the world, I mean every nation, every king, every community, every tribe, and every people. If you are confused and looking at me cross-eyed right now, do not fret. Relax your eyes just long enough to look up Genesis 49:10 and then write down what you see. You can go ahead and pause the video and come back when you are finished. What you will have found is a prophecy from Jacob concerning the tribe of Judah. Judah is the tribe that is promised to be the ruling clan among the tribes of Israel, and they hold onto the power until the true and perfect Ruler comes to whom all dominion, authority, and power belong. This Shiloh figure, known almost ubiquitously as the coming Christ, will reign and keep reigning until He has brought the entire world under the dominion and obedience of God. According to Genesis 49, one of the consequences of Jesus' coming will be the eventual submission of all of Earth's people unto God. Before this world is finished, the world will bow in allegiance and obedience to King Jesus.
Paul alludes to this passage in the benedictory ending of the book of Romans, saying the following:
"Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the Revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen." - Romans 16:25-27
Paul reminds the Roman church, who expected to be stomping on the head of Satan and pushing back his pathetic Kingdom (Romans 16:20) that the mystery had now been solved. The one who would make the Gospel known to all the nations was, Himself, now known. It was Jesus. Through the ministry of Jesus, nations will become obedient to the faith, giving Christ insurmountable glory! Again, far from a world filled with democrats and other slimeballs, Jesus is in the process of purifying the world, bringing it into conformity with His vision, and improving it bit by bit.
The texts I am citing for you are clear and easy to comprehend. Will you have the courage to believe them and put away your pessimism?
PROOF 6: THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST
The Reformation principle of 'Analogia Fidei,' or the analogy of faith, tells us that our doctrine should be established from the clearest and easiest passages instead of the most convoluted and difficult ones. The basic premise is that if you can prove a doctrine from clear passages, then the opaque ones must also agree with the clear ones since the Word of God cannot contradict itself. The likelihood of misinterpreting a passage is much lower in the clearer Scriptures than in books like Revelation, Daniel, and Zechariah. Therefore, one should always attempt to build their theology on a foundation of clear passages before attempting to interpret the meaning of more complicated or less clear ones.
With this in mind, the introduction to the book of Romans has some of the most straightforward language in the Bible. Paul says about Jesus:
"...Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;" - Romans 1:4-6
Paul leaves no room for guesswork. He tells us that Jesus is the one who gave him the right, by sheer grace, to become an apostle and serve the people of God. How does Paul serve? By laboring in such a way that all of the Gentiles would come to the obedience of the faith. How can Paul do this? Because Christ has given him, and all Church leaders who descend from him, the authority to serve the body, labor and work in Jesus' world, until the entire world is obedient to Jesus. This means that Jesus gave the church the authority to win, not a license to lose.
PROOF 7: THE SUCCESS OF THE MISSION
If you have not been convinced yet, I do not know what will convince you? Will Paul's infectious optimism? Will the apostle's belief that the Gospel would triumph wherever it went be enough to crack the nut of defeatism? Look at what Paul says:
"For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything." - 1 Thessalonians 1:8
Look at the wisdom and intelligence of the apostle. Instead of doing what I am doing right now, presenting line after line, argument upon argument about the validity of the postmillennial position, Paul simply says, "I need not say anything." Paul does not say this because the evidence for Postmillennialism is scant and hard to find. He considers it so plentiful that He does not want to insult your intelligence by assuming you have not understood it. O, how I long for the days when the demonic doctrine of dispensationalism has climbed back into the corrosive hole from whence it came, and common sense returns to Biblical studies again!
PROOF 8: THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS
Paul tells us that the key to understanding the Bible is that the eyes of our hearts may be opened. Apparently, our hearts possess spiritual cardiac lenses that need the light of the Spirit's Revelation to see and understand truth. Not only that, but also so we can discern the inestimable riches, beauty, and glory of the truth, which is optimistic, victorious, and magnifies Jesus' dominion. Paul says in Ephesians 1:18-23:
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." - Ephesians 1:18-23
Do you see what Paul is getting at? It takes a work of the Spirit to see the fullness of truth. And when the Spirit has awakened you, the result will not be pessimism, defeatism, cataclysms, and eschatological tragedies. When the Spirit has awakened the eyes of your heart, you will see that God is infinitely strong, that He executes His might in the ministry of Jesus Christ by not only raising Him from the dead but elevating Him above all rule, power, authority, and dominion, so that Jesus Christ is the most powerful sovereign of all.
When the eyes of your heart are opened, you will not only see Jesus as maximally powerful but also know that His power will manifest in this age of the church and in the eternal state to come. By manifesting His power on Earth, you will know that Jesus is subjecting everything under Him. And, in addition to defeating His enemies, He is leading His body, as its faithful head, to fill the world with His "all in all," which means that Jesus will not only defeat all foes, but he will raise all of His covenant friends to life.
While this is the plainest reading of this text, Paul tells us that many will not see because the eyes of their heart are closed. In this, we should pray for them to see the glory and honor of our triumphant Lord who always leads us into victory (2 Corinthians 2:14)
PROOF 9: TRIUMPHING OVER POWERS
In addition to the kings of men being converted or conquered at some point in the future, Jesus will also take dominion over the spiritual realms (Colossians 2:15). Like men who were apportioned geographical territories after Babel (Deuteronomy 4:19-20), Paul reminds us God also apportioned fallen angels various territories that they would rule over as well (Deuteronomy 32:8-9). Examples of this are the prince who is in charge of Persia (Daniel 10:13), showing that a demonic prince was assigned to the land of Persia as a kind of guarding demon. We also see how the ancient peoples worshiped in all kinds of demonic ways, not as a testimony of their creativity, but through the direct influence of principalities and powers (1 Corinthians 10:20). Not surprisingly, when Jesus came, He cast out demons (Mark 1:34), bound the strong man (Mark 3:27), and disarmed the rulers and authorities below (Colossians 2:15).
Paul also tells us that He will use His Church to continue the ministry of crushing the serpent's head, as well as telling us in Ephesians 3:10:
"So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." - Ephesians 3:10
Paul tells us that the fallen angels will learn about their doom through the ministry of the advancing church. As Jesus taught us, the gates of hell will not prevail against us as we advance (Matthew 16:18). Now, Paul is reminding us that as we advance and displace demonic powers in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will help the rebellious spirits come to terms with their paralyzing defeat. Far from evil growing or triumphing over the church, we are to put them to flight and triumph over them. Instead of a weak-kneed, wet-your-pants Christianity that we have all grown accustomed to, it is time for a great, glorious, and masculine church to rise up with boldness and confidence and put the devils to flight again!
PROOF 10: CREATION AND FUTURE GLORY
As we draw to a conclusion in our too-brief survey of the eschatology of Paul, choosing not to dive into the totality of Paul's eschatology but instead to look at ten specific passages, it is important to remember that Jesus, in His Kingdom rule, not only puts down all rebellion among men and devils but also rips out every evidence of the curse found within creation, all before this old world is finished. Paul says in Romans 8:18-21:
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." - Romans 8:18-21
Paul begins by asserting that the sufferings we endure now are insignificant compared to the glory awaiting believers. This perspective aligns perfectly with the postmillennial expectation that temporary setbacks and challenges are minor in the grand scheme of God's redemptive plan. The ultimate outcome is overwhelmingly positive and glorious.
Paul anthropomorphizes creation, depicting it as eagerly awaiting the full manifestation of the sons of God. This imagery underscores the interconnectedness of human redemption and cosmic renewal. The transformation believers experience is a precursor to the comprehensive renewal of all creation.
Paul explains that creation was subjected to futility due to human sin but does so with an underlying hope—God's purpose in this subjection is ultimately redemptive. Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the same glorious freedom enjoyed by the children of God. This points to a future where the effects of the fall are entirely reversed.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul speaks of all enemies being put under Jesus' feet, culminating in the defeat of death itself. This progressive subjugation includes not only spiritual and human enemies but also the physical and environmental consequences of the curse. Until the final enemy (death) is defeated, we can expect tangible signs of restoration: deserts transforming into rainforests, wildernesses becoming gardens, and wastelands turning into fertile fields. As foreseen in the Old Testament, the prophetic visions of a renewed creation align with Paul's postmillennial assertions of a creation freed from the devastating effects of Adam's sin and misery.
CONCLUSION
For some, the evidence I have presented in this episode will not be enough to move the needle. No matter how clear it is or how unassailable the arguments are, you will not believe it. And it is not because of the strength of the argument or the rhetoric with which I am speaking; it is because you are hard of heart and stiff of neck, like the people of old who would not believe even when very plain truths were told to them. The eyes of your heart are either dimmed or darkened, and you will remain in your cynicism and critical Spirit.
For those in this position, who will litter my comments with "what aboutisms," "half-baked rebuttals," and a refusal to account for the verses I have mentioned, this show is not for you. I care about teaching people who are open to learning and who want to honor the Lord through understanding the text. Let me be perfectly honest: I have no desire to kick a stubborn mule into submission. I will pray the Holy Spirit will awaken your mind, heart, and eyes to understand the text. In the meantime, I will pray that your pessimism for the Kingdom and the rule of its King will not pollute your joy and willingness to serve Him.
But for those who want to learn and take these things seriously, this show is most definitely for you! My goal is to equip you with rock-solid truth that is frankly delivered, and I am so thankful for all the love and support that you have given as this show is taking off and growing. I wanted to tell you that this show has now been fully monetized by YouTube, and I am eager to see what the Lord will do with it as we continue to reach more people with the glorious and optimistic news of Jesus' ever-growing victory!
To all of you who have made this show possible, shared it, subscribed with notifications, commented, or shown your support in other ways, thank you so much! Jesus will have the victory. He shall have dominion! And He will use His Church to spread His dominion until no more rebellion is found.
Now is the time for action! We are called to be bold, courageous, and unyielding in our faith. We are not to retreat in fear but to advance with the confidence that Christ is reigning and will continue to reign until every enemy is under His feet. Stand firm, proclaim the Gospel, live righteously, and engage in every sphere of life knowing that you are part of a victorious Kingdom.
Join the ranks of those who believe in the unstoppable power of the Gospel, who see the world not as a place of inevitable decay but as a field ripe for harvest. Let's be the generation that turns the tide, pushes back the darkness, and lives with the expectation of victory. Christ's Kingdom is advancing, and we have the incredible privilege of participating in that glorious movement.
So rise up, brothers and sisters! Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. The victory is ours through Jesus Christ. Let's go forth with joy, confidence, and unwavering faith, knowing that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will indeed cover the Earth as the waters cover the sea. Amen and amen!
