premillennial

• pre-millennial

pre- +‎ millennial

premillennial (not comparable)

1. (Christianity) Pertaining to the belief that the Second Coming will take place before the millennium.

   Antonym: postmillennial

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

     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.

2. Occurring before, or in anticipation of, a new millennium.

   Antonym: postmillennial

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

     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.

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

     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.

premillennial (plural premillennials)

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

• premillennialism