Premillennialism, in
Christian eschatology, is the belief that
Jesus will physically return to the earth before the
Millennium, a literal thousand-year
golden age of peace. This return is referred to as the
Second Coming. The doctrine is called "premillennialism" because it holds that Jesus' physical return to earth will occur prior to the inauguration of the Millennium. It is distinct from the other forms of Christian eschatology such as
postmillennialism or
amillennialism, which view the millennial rule as occurring either before the second coming, or as being figurative and non-temporal. For the last century, the belief has been common in
Evangelicalism according to surveys on this topic.