premillennial

alternative pre-millennial

1. not comparableChristianityPertaining to the belief that the Second Coming will take place before the millennium.

   Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Dallas, said in an interview that Mr. Van Impe’s premillennial view of the end times paved the way for his own ministry and that of other popular preachers like John Hagee and David Jeremiah.

   2020 January 22, Elizabeth Dias, “Jack Van Impe, End Times Preacher on TV, Is Dead at 88”, in The New York Times

   Antonyms: postmillennial

2. not comparableOccurring before, or in anticipation of, a new millennium.

   He [David Fincher] hit his stride again with “Fight Club,” […] Still, this adrenalized jolt of designer nihilism tapped right into late-capitalist disaffection and premillennial anxiety.

   2009 January 2, Dennis Lim, “Journey of a Director, From Night Creature to Tender Time Traveler”, in New York Times

   2 more examples

   Had the aliens in “Independence Day” succeeded in their conquest of the Planet Earth and set about investigating the world they'd just destroyed, they might have come to some rather odd conclusions about our pre-millennial culture.

   1996 September 22, Michiko Kakutani, “The Trickle-Down Theory”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   [I]t is highly likely that some preachers may have called on millennial frettings for their purposes. The theologian Abbo of Fleury recalled a premillennial sermon in his youth which did precisely this.

   1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 184

   Antonyms: postmillennial

plural premillennials · alternative pre-millennial

1. One who believes in the advent of Christ before the new millennium.