Historical

This position was first posited by Augustine (354-430).  He believed that Christ would return and the judgements and resurrection would occur at the year 1000 A.D.  After this year passed into history, the view was changed to mean an indefinite period of time between Christ's comings.  Martin Luther and John Calvin were also amillennialists.

Doctrinal Characteristics¹

There are two views within amillennialism.  The fulfillment of the millennial scripture comes either through the church that exists on earth now, or the saints that are already in heaven.

The church fulfills spiritually all of the covenants and promises made to Israel in the Old Testament.  These include the Abrahamic, Davidic, and New Covenants.  God is finished with his program for Israel, and is solely concerned with the church, although Jews can enter back into the promises through faith in Christ.

Amillennialists use a combination of literal and figurative hermeneutics.  They tend to interpret much of prophecy figuratively.  They believe that a prophecy cannot be fully understood until its fulfillment, which is why we should not be quick to affirm a literal 1000 year earthly kingdom.

Scriptural Interpretations¹

1. The land promises of the Abrahamic Covenant were fulfilled either by Joshua (Joshua 21:43-45), Solomon (1 Kings 4:21), currently by the church, or by the heavenly Jerusalem.
2. The mystery of Ephesians 3:5 is that the church was actually in the Old Testament and thus fulfills those promises and covenants.
3. They believe that Daniel's Seventy Weeks Daniel 9:24-27 began in 536 B.C. under Cyrus, not in 445 B.C. under Artaxerxes.  The seventy sevens are then imprecise in their exact duration.  The seventieth week therefore is the entire church age, not the 7 year period of tribulation in Revelation.