Excerpt:
Many years ago there was a dispute among Christians between pre-Millennialists and post-Millennialists, thankfully resolved in favor of the pre-Millennialists.
In Christian theology, the Millennium is the thousand-year reign of Christ on Earth before the final judgment (Revelation 20: 1-10). Pre-Millennialists believed the Second Coming of Christ would usher in the Millennium. But post-Millennialists thought it was up to believers to establish the conditions for Christ's return through a religious dictatorship.
So if you lived in, say, the north German town of Munster in 1534, it mattered very much if your neighbor was a pre-Millenialist or a post-Millenialist. The pre-Millenialist might annoy you by handing you a pamphlet. But the post-Millenialist would kill you if you didn't believe exactly what he believed.