How the Lord’s enemies are made His footstool
I don’t like to debate eschatology.
I’m historic premillennial, but I’m not militant about it. Many sound and Godly Christians disagree with me on that. Eschatology is a second-order issue that should not divide the church.
But it can become divisive when Christians make it an all-consuming emphasis that distorts their approach to the gospel.
This is something I’ve observed among some (not all) who adhere to a postmillennial eschatology. Since they believe that the church will defeat our enemies and bring about the “millennial” kingdom on earth before Christ returns, for some of them, their public emphasis is on attaining and wielding political power in government and culture.
This isn’t going to be a comprehensive debate about postmillennialism per se. (No charts!) Rather, this will focus narrowly on a passage that postmillennials often quote: Psalm 110. Particularly, they zoom in on the first verse:
The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
Their interpretation of this verse, as well as the several times it’s quoted or alluded to in the New Testament, is that Jesus will remain seated at the right hand of God in heaven until His enemies are conquered by the church, and then return after that. It’s a verse that’s quoted often in the debate over Christian nationalism.
The key questions
Christians of all eschatologies can say amen to that verse and that psalm. The questions at issue here are, who will put the Lord’s enemies under His feet, how, and when?
The “who” is answered in that very verse. The LORD says “I.” The LORD (Yahweh, referring to the Father) will make the Lord’s (Adonai’s, referring to Christ’s) enemies His footstool. We also see the “who” in 1 Corinthians 15:25 — “For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.”
The “who,” obviously, is God. Postmillennials would not dispute this but would say, He does it through the church.
But Psalm 110 also answers the “how” and the “when.” Look at verses 5 and 6:
5 The Lord is at Your right hand;
He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath.
6 He shall judge among the nations,
He shall fill the places with dead bodies,
He shall execute the heads of many countries.
Like verse 1, the Lord (Adonai) in verse 5 refers to Christ, God the Son. Verse 5 says Christ “shall execute kings in the day of His wrath.” There’s the how and the when.
Violent judgment
The “how” is righteous violence. Execution. Verse 6 elaborates in graphic detail: “He shall fill the places with dead bodies.” This is the wrath and judgment of God, and it’s consistent with other Scriptures that describe what Christ will do to the nations:
In Psalm 2, which also depicts conversation between the Father and Son, verses 8 and 9 say,
“Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.”In 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8, Paul writes, “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The most prominent depiction of Christ’s return, in Revelation 19, says, “Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (verse 15).
This is not what the church does.
Many postmillennialists would agree that the church’s conquest of the world happens through successful evangelism, not violence. That’s the great commission — to disciple the nations (Matthew 28:19), preach the gospel (Mark 16:15), and preach repentance and remission of sins (Luke 24:47).
We do not execute kings; we do not fill places with dead bodies; we do not dash anyone to pieces; we do not take vengeance with flaming fire; we do not tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of God.
It’s the Lord Himself who personally does all that, and therefore it’s the Lord Himself who makes His enemies His footstool. Just as Psalm 110:1 says.
Some may respond with Hebrews 10:12-13, one of the many references to that verse in the New Testament: “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.” They’ll emphasize the passive verbs to show that Jesus is waiting while His enemies are put under His feet; therefore He doesn’t do it Himself, and therefore it’s the church who does it.
But it makes perfect sense that Jesus waits while His Father does it. This is described in much of the book of Revelation, where God pours out His wrath on the earth before Jesus comes to finish the job. The end-times wrath of God makes Jesus’ enemies His footstool.
That’s the “how,” and it’s also the “when.”
The Day of the Lord
Again, Psalm 110 tells us when, in verse 5: “in the day of His wrath.”
The process of making the Lord’s enemies His footstool is not something that takes place gradually over generations. It happens suddenly, swiftly, and violently. The “day” is not necessarily a literal 24-hour day, but it is a short, specific period of time. This is what the Bible refers to repeatedly as the Day of the Lord, the time of His judgment and wrath on the whole world.
One such prophecy is in Zechariah 14. Verse 3 says this will happen on the Day of the Lord:
Then the Lord will go forth
And fight against those nations,
As He fights in the day of battle.
Perfectly consistent with all the other verses we’ve looked at.
A couple of other clear points to take from these Scriptures:
This isn’t the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, as some postmillennialists claim; God’s wrath is poured out on all nations. The entire planet.
All this takes place against a hostile world, not one that has been Christianized.
Again, if someone disagrees with this eschatology, I’m not going to put up a fight. I have no problem with believing otherwise. But when it’s used to justify emphasizing politics above souls and fuel culture wars, that’s when I’ll whip this out and kick their take on one of their foundational verses out from under their feet.
As the church, it’s not our place to bring about the Lord’s manifest conquest of the earth; our part is to warn about it so that our enemies can be saved from it. This is seen in 2 Corinthians 5:11 — “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” We leave the terror, the wrath, the judgment to the Lord Himself; our job is to lovingly persuade, plead, call and invite.
