Millennium

One of the most significant changes in the EFCA's 2008 Statement of Faith revision was the removal of the previous requirement that all EFCA members affirm premillennialism. The earlier EFCA statement had required a premillennial position, reflecting the dispensational premillential consensus of American evangelical culture in the mid-20th century. The 2008 revision recognized that this was a secondary doctrinal matter on which genuine evangelical Christians hold varying views.

The revised statement affirms that 'Christ will return suddenly and visibly' and describes 'the bodily resurrection of the dead, the judgment of all men' but does not specify the millennial position. This makes the EFCA one of the few evangelical denominations to have explicitly moved from a required to an open stance on the millennium as part of a formal doctrinal revision.

As a result, EFCA churches and ministers now include adherents of dispensational premillennialism (still the most common view among older members and churches), historic premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism. This openness on the millennium is treated as a model of how the EFCA applies its principle of 'unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, charity in all things' (derived from the Augustinian motto).