Second London Baptist Confession on the millennium & Christ's return
No required position; several views held faithfully
At the last day such of the Saints as are found alive shall not sleep but be changed; and all the dead shall be raised up with the self same bodies, and none other; although with different qualities, which shall be united again to their Souls for ever.
THE POSITION
The confession requires no millennial view. Chapters 31 and 32 are its whole eschatology and neither mentions Revelation 20, a thousand years, or a reign of Christ on earth before the judgement. What they do require is one general resurrection at the last day, of the just and the unjust together, followed immediately by the last judgement — a real constraint on how a millennium could be fitted in, but not a choice among amillennial, postmillennial and premillennial readings. This is silence held open on purpose rather than a gap in the research: chapter 26.4 shows the framers were willing to make a contested eschatological identification when they wanted to, naming the Pope as Antichrist whom the Lord shall destroy 'with the brightness of his coming.'
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
4 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
The confessional standard of the Particular Baptists, first printed 1677 and adopted by the London General Assembly of 1689. It takes over the Westminster Confession chapter by chapter and rewrites it at four points that matter: the covenant (ch. 7), the gospel and the extent of its grace (ch. 20, which Westminster has no counterpart to), the church (ch. 26), and baptism (ch. 29). This entry rests on the 1677/1689 printing with its own Scripture proofs, read against the Westminster text clause by clause.
Cite this page
"Second London Baptist Confession on the millennium & Christ's return", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/lbc1689/millennium (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/lbc1689/millennium).