The Church, being the body of Christ, patterns her corporate existence after the life of Christ himself. Christ’s incarnate life had two distinct phases: 1) a life of servitude (priestly), and 2) exaltation to the right hand of God as judge (kingly). The Church should likewise expect to constantly typologically model the priestly and kingly portrait of Christ in the world. This is her very nature.
For example, in the apostolic period, we see this pattern quite clearly. The apostles, given the indwelling spirit, go into all the world as servants (priests) of Christ, proclaiming his Gospel and administering his sacraments. Like Christ, they guard what is sacred and proclaim it to the people as life from the dead. In fact, given that offering sacrifice is one of the prime duties of a priest, it should be said that the Gospel message is ultimately one that calls upon every individual to die with Christ in baptism—literally, a call to become yourself a sacrifice. This is a priestly service.
This sacrificial vocation is lived out literalistically too. Though the Gospel is met with great conversion among the nations, it is also met with tremendous persecution—primarily from apostate Jerusalem. This persecution is so great that Christ says, “And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short” (ESV, Mt 24:22). By the end of the first century, nearly all of the apostles had been martyred, and all of them without exception had faced great persecution. Yet, despite their death appearing as the final humiliation to their enemies, it proved—like Christ’s!—to be their exaltation (kingship). And this exaltation is always corporately extended to the Church as well—for she lives on, always resurrecting from the dead, indefectible and immortal. Thus, St. Peter calls the Church “a royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9).
It is with this pattern in mind that the Church must, in every age, assume a posture of a servant (priest) in the world, accepting the violence and death that come with the proclamation that Christ is Lord. This death will mean exultation for the individual and exultation for the Church (kingship).
The postmillennial hope is thus not a hope rooted in a shallow message that the world will keep getting better and better—as though the pattern of Christ’s life is one of linear upward progression. Instead, the Church proclaims the death, resurrection, and glorification of Christ with a sure hope that she will live that very same pattern, always being resurrected and glorified in death. Like Christ, the Church is unbeatable for she is a partaker of divinity, and like Christ, she will always emerge from the grave more glorious than she was before. And as the world beholds her glory (a mere reflection of the glory of Christ himself), the world will be unable to escape her light. Darkness will be vanquished and Christ will be all in all.
Works Cited:
The Holy Bible. English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles, 2016.
How does the Postmillennial view compare to the Eschatology inn the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church and or Orthodox perspectives ?