Millennium

The majority Reformed position on eschatology has historically been amillennial: the millennium of Revelation 20 is understood symbolically as the present age in which Christ reigns at the Father's right hand and the Gospel advances, not as a future literal thousand-year earthly kingdom. Calvin himself did not develop a detailed millennial theology but was broadly amillennial in orientation. The Westminster Standards and the Three Forms of Unity do not specify a millennial position, leaving room for variation.

Significantly, Puritan and early Reformed theologians developed postmillennialism — the view that the Gospel will progressively triumph throughout the world, ushering in a golden age of Christian civilization, before Christ's return. Theologians such as Jonathan Edwards and later B. B. Warfield held this view. Premillennialism, particularly of the dispensationalist variety, has been much less common in confessional Reformed circles and is considered by many to be inconsistent with covenant theology's reading of Scripture. The position is designated nuanced due to this historically significant diversity between amillennial and postmillennial readings within the tradition.