AWAITING THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM
Awaiting the Millennial Kingdom is about the coming end of this age and the dawn of the Sabbath millennium. The Church Fathers and the sages of Israel taught that the world-age would endure six millennial ‘days’ — that is, 6,000 years — from the day Adam was created. After these 6,000 years will come the Sabbath millennium, when the Messiah will reign on earth from Jerusalem for a thousand years. Yet the Bible also calculates the ages of the world in forty-nine-year jubilee cycles. If we put together these two ancient means of calculating the timetable of the ages, we arrive, with surprising clarity, at a timetable that points directly to our own days.
There’s some careful study involved in proposing this position. We trace the teaching on the millennial Sabbath from its origins in Genesis, through the Psalms and the prophets, the intertestamental texts, the New Testament and Nazarene texts, Rabbinic and Patristic literature. We deal with historic premillennialism, Roman and medieval amillennialism, postmillennialism and dispensational premillennialism to gain a proper perspective on what we should be looking for in these last days. The conclusion is that everything is happening according to plan. He is not late. (He is never late.) The seventh millennium begins on 1 Tishri 2025.
114,000 words
x+285 pp.
6 x 9 inches
HARD COVER (Oct. 2024)
ISBN: 978-1916619173
PAPERBACK (Sep. 2024)
ISBN: 978-1916619166
CHAPTERS
1. Time for the Future (Click to read)
2. Histories of Things to Come
3. Themes of the Future
4. The Millennial Week in the Old Testament
5. The Millennial Week between the Testaments
6. The Millennial Week in the New Testament
7. The Millennial Week in the Nazarene Church
8. The Millennial Week in Rabbinic Literature
9. The Millennial Week in the Ante-Nicene Fathers
10. The Rise of Amillennialism
11. The Decline of Amillennialism
12. Dispensational Pretribulationism
13. The Rapture
14. When is the Rapture?
15. A Pretribulation Rapture in Church History?
16. Jewish and Gentile Dispensations?
17. Apostasy and Antichrist
18. Judgement of Fire
19. The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats
20. Sabbatic and Jubilee Cycles
21. The Pre-Exilic Jubilee Cycle
22. The Post-Exilic Jubilee Cycle
23. 6,000 years, 123 Jubilees
24. Final Words
Glossary, Abbreviations
Bibliography
REVIEWS
★★★★★ I’ve read many but none like this . . . the very best, balanced, historical, and coherent!!!
I have every one of Dr Mitchell’s books and I recommend them all. This book is different and ties all of his writings together. He is a Hebrew scholar and theologian and musician and yet his writing is accessible to non-scholars. His work with the Psalter and Joseph is a wonder to me that you simply have to read and study to truly see the majesty of our Bible and its Author.
I have studied “last things” since my conversion as a boy. (I’m now in my 8th decade.) I have listened to countless teachers, preachers and experts on eschatology. I read all of the latest “must reads” that were recommended and at the risk of sounding frivolous, my conclusion while not intellectually satisfying on all of the confusing, contradicting opinions was simply ‘we aren’t getting away with anything’ and I have therefore sought to simply live a godly life and witness in the lost world, but always with a longing to “understand” better. This book I feel, has truly helped me to understand my Bible better and for that I am most grateful.
Mark (US)
★★★★★ Read anything by David C Mitchell!
Reading a book by Mitchell is always an unpredictable adventure. Here he dives deep into the ancient and widespread tradition of the entire world history being six thousand years followed by a sabbatical millennium. He also traces the development of amillennialism, post-millennialism, and dispensationalism, arguing for a historic pre-millennialism.
But this is far from your typical book on “eschatology”—expect to encounter rabbinic writings on the rapture, church fathers’ calculations on the age of the earth, and an attempt to calculate all of human history as Jubilee cycles. Mitchell is ever entertaining, idiosyncratic, and masterful.
Lindsay (US)
Interested in the genealogies of Jesus? Then you should read Jesus: The Incarnation of the Word (2021).
★★★★★ Great book!
Excellent book on the End times/ Messiah. This is the 4th volume on David’s Messiah series, I know he doesn’t call it that, but that’s basically what it is. This is an excellent book, as are the other 3. Highly recommended. A +++++.
Bill Dotson (US)
★★★★★ This really opens up Christian eschatology
This book deals with millenarianism, the ancient teaching that this age will last 6,000 years until the coming of the Messianic kingdom in the millennial Sabbath. Mitchell introduces the subject from the beginning, showing how this teaching unfolds naturally from the creation narrative of Genesis. Then he shows how it is taken up and developed by the early Church Fathers and by the Rabbis. He argues that this premillennial teaching is the true biblical eschatology, and that everything else that followed – amillennialism, postmillennialism, preterism, pretribulational premillennialism, and idealism – is a corruption of it.
He then calculates the times of the age, working from the six millennia of creation and the dates of the jubilee cycle as found in Ezekiel. He shows that the Sabbath millennium begins on 1 Tishri, Autumn 2025.
A great book, well worth reading not only for its well-argued case for millenarianism and its dating of the times of the ages, but also as an excellent general overview of the history of biblical eschatology.
Amazon reviewer (UK)