Premillennialism
Encyclopedia
Premillennialism in Christian
end-times theology
is the belief that Jesus will literally and physically be on the earth for his millennial reign
, at his 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. Premillennialism is largely based upon a literal
interpretation of in the New Testament
which describes Jesus’s coming to the earth and subsequent reign at the end of an apocalyptic period of tribulation
. It views this future age as a time of fulfillment for the prophetic hope of God’s people as given in the Old Testament
. Others such as the Eastern Orthodox claim that this passage of Revelation describes the present time, when Christ reigns in Heaven
with the departed saints; such an interpretation views the symbolism of Revelation as referring to an invisible spiritual battle rather than a visible battle on earth. This mode of allegorizing
Biblical prophecies is also popular among the proponents of Amillennialism
, which is another millennial theory that interprets the Millennium as being a symbolic period of time, occasionally representing God's absolute rulership over his creation or the Church
. Premillennialism is often used to refer specifically to those who adhere to the beliefs in an earthly millennial reign of Christ as well as a rapture
of the faithful coming before (dispensational) or after (historic) the tribulation preceding the millennium. Post-millennialism, for example, agrees with premillennialism about the future earthly reign of Christ, but disagrees on the concept of a rapture and tribulation before the Millennium begins. Postmillennialists hold to the view that the second coming will happen after the Millennium.
term "premillennialism" did not come into general use until the mid-19th century, the modern period in which premillennialism was revived. Coining the word was "almost entirely the work of British
and American
Protestants
and was prompted by their belief that the French and American Revolution
s (the French, especially) realized prophecies
made in the books of Daniel
and Revelation
."
's coming was not an invention of Christianity. Instead it was a theological interpretation developed within the apocalyptic literature of early Judaism
. In Judaism during the Christian intertestamental period
, there was a basic distinction between the current age and the “age to come”. The “age to come” was commonly viewed as a nationalistic Golden Age
in which the hopes of the prophets would become a reality for the nation of Israel. On the surface, the Biblical Prophets revealed an “age to come” which was monolithic. Seemingly the prophets did not write of a two-phase eschaton
consisting of a temporary messianic age followed by an eternal state. However, that was the concept that some Jewish interpreters did derive from their exegesis. Their conclusions are found in some of the literature and theology of early Judaism within the centuries both before and during the development of the Christian New Testament
. R. H. Charles in his commentary on Book of Revelation concluded that Jewish eschatology
must have developed the concept of an earthly temporary messianic reign prior to the eternal state at the latest by 100 BC
, weeks 1-7 (93:1-10) retell the biblical history from the creation of humanity to the author’s time of writing (possibly during the Maccabean
crisis). However, after the seventh "week", the temporary earthly messianic age begins and occurs for a period of three more “weeks” (93:12-15). After the temporary messianic kingdom, the creation of the new heavens and the new earth
occurs (93:16).
in AD 70. The apocryphal book was apparently an attempt to explain the difficulties associated with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple to the Jewish people. During one of the visions in the book, Ezra
receives a revelation from the angel Uriel
. The angel explains that prior to the last judgment
, the Messiah will come and establish a temporary kingdom lasting 400 years after which all of creation will be obliterated including the Messiah (7:28). Seven days after this cataclysmic event, the resurrection
and the judgment
will occur followed by the eternal state (7:36).
24:1-4; 30:1-5; 39:3-8; 40:1-4; Jubilees
1:4-29; 23:14-31. The Jewish belief in an earthly temporary messianic age continued during and beyond the time of the writing of the Book of Revelation
. A sample of the rabbi
nical contributions to the concept are listed as follows:
through the 2nd and 3rd centuries was chiliastic. Many early Christian
interpreters applied the earlier Jewish apocalyptic idea of a temporary Messianic kingdom to their interpretation of chapter 20 of John's apocalypse. Justin Martyr
, Irenaeus
, and Tertullian
all made explicit references to the concept of a thousand year earthly kingdom at Christ’s coming.
in the 2nd century was one of the first Christian writers to clearly describe himself as continuing in the “Jewish” belief of a temporary messianic kingdom prior to the eternal state. According to Johannes Quasten, “In his eschatological ideas Justin shares the views of the Chiliasts concerning the millennium.” He maintains a premillennial distinctive, namely that there would be two resurrections, one of believers before Jesus
' reign and then a general resurrection afterwards. Justin wrote in chapter 80 of his work Dialogue with Trypho, “I and others who are right-minded Christians on all points are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead
, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built… For Isaiah
spoke in that manner concerning this period of a thousand years.” Though he conceded earlier in the same chapter that his view was not universal by saying that he “and many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise.”
Irenaeus
, the late 2nd century bishop of Lyon was an outspoken premillennialist. He is best known for his voluminous tome written against the 2nd century Gnostic
threat, commonly called Against Heresies
. In the fifth book of Against Heresies, Irenaeus concentrates primarily on eschatology
. In one passage he defends premillennialism by arguing that a future earthly kingdom is necessary because of God's promise to Abraham, he wrote “The promise remains steadfast… God promised him the inheritance of the land. Yet, Abraham did not receive it during all the time of his journey there. Accordingly, it must be that Abraham, together with his seed (that is, those who fear God and believe in Him), will receive it at the resurrection of the just.” In another place Irenaeus also explained that the blessing to Jacob
“belongs unquestionably to the times of the kingdom when the righteous will bear rule, after their rising from the dead. It is also the time when the creation will bear fruit with an abundance of all kinds of food, having been renovated and set free… And all of the animals will feed on the vegetation of the earth… and they will be in perfect submission to man. And these things are borne witness to in the fourth book of the writings of Papias, the hearer of John
, and a companion of Polycarp
.” (5.33.3) Apparently Irenaeus also held to the sexta-/septamillennial scheme writing that the end of human history will occur after the 6,000th year. (5.28.3)
, Papias, Methodius
, Lactantius
, Commodianus
Theophilus
, Tertullian
, Melito, Hippolytus of Rome, Victorinus of Pettau and various Gnostics groups and the Montanists. Many of these theologians and others in the early church expressed their belief in premillennialism through their acceptance of the sexta-septamillennial tradition. This belief claims that human history will continue for 6,000 years and then will enjoy Sabbath
for 1,000 years (the millennial kingdom), thus all of human history will have a total of 7,000 years prior to the new creation
.
Throughout the Patristic
period—particularly in the 3rd century—there had been rising opposition to premillennialism. Origen
was the first to challenge the doctrine openly. Through allegorical
interpretation, he had been a proponent of amillennialism (of course, the sexta-septamillennial tradition was itself based upon similar means of allegorical interpretation). Although Origen was not always wholly "orthodox" in his theology
, he had at one point completely spiritualized Christ’s second coming prophesied in the New Testament. Origen did this in his Commentary on Matthew when he taught that “Christ’s return signifies His disclosure of Himself and His deity to all humanity in such a way that all might partake of His glory to the degree that each individual’s actions warrant (Commentary on Matthew 12.30).” Even Origen’s milder forms of this teaching left no room for a literal millennium and it was so extreme that few actually followed it. But his influence did gain wider acceptance especially in the period following Constantine
.
Dionysius of Alexandria
stood against premillennialism when the chiliastic work, The Refutation of the Allegorizers
written by Nepos, a bishop
in Egypt
became popular in Alexandria
. Dionysius argued against Nepos's influence and convinced the churches of the region of amillennialism. The church historian, Eusebius, reports this in his Ecclesiastical History
. Eusebius also had low regard for the chiliast, Papias, and he let it be known that in his opinion Papias was "a man of small mental capacity" because he had taken the Apocalypse
literally.
Alister McGrath
has noted that "all medieval theology is ‘Augustinian’
to a greater or lesser extent." Augustine’s (354-430) influence shaped not only the Middle Ages
, but it also influenced the Reformers
, who constantly referred to his teaching in their own debates. His teaching is “still one of the most potent elements in Western religious thought.” Therefore, to analyze what happened to premillennialism in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, it is necessary to observe the Augustinian foundation.
In his early period, Augustine held to the sexta-/septamillennial view common in early Christianity (see above section on Patristic Age). In accordance with this view, Augustine divided history into two separate dispensations, first the church age (the current age of 6,000 years), and then the millennial kingdom (Sermon 259.2). Nevertheless, early in his career Augustine converted from premillennialism to amillennialism. Anderson locates three reasons that may account for Augustine’s theological shift:
After moving away from premillennialism to amillennialism, Augustine viewed Sabbath rest in the sexta-/septamillennial scheme as “symbolically representative of Eternity.” Moreover, the millennium of Revelation 20 became for him “symbolically representative of Christ’s present reign with the saints.” Richard Landes
observed the 4th century as a time of major shift for Christian eschatology by noting that it "marked a crucial moment in the history of millenarianism, since during this period Augustine repudiated even the allegorizing variety he himself had previously accepted. From this point on he dedicated much of his energy to ridding the church of this belief
."
(642-690) summarizes the medieval doctrine of the millennium by referring to it as “the church of God
which, by the diffusion of its faith and works, is spread out as a kingdom of faith from the time of the incarnation until the time of the coming judgment.”
A notable exception to normative medieval eschatology is found in Joachim of Fiore
(c. 1135-1202), a Cistercian monk, who to an extent, stressed premillennial themes. Joachim divided earth's history into three periods. He assigned each age to a particular person of the Trinity
as the guiding principle of that era. The first era was the Old Testament history and was accordingly the age of the Father
; the current age of the church was the age of the Son
; and still in Joachim's future was the age of the Spirit
. For Joachim, year 1260 was to mark the end of the second and the beginning of the third and final golden age of earth's history.
During the Reformation period, amillennialism continued to be the popular view of the Reformers. The Lutherans formally rejected chiliasm in The Augsburg Confession. “Art. XVII., condemns the Anabaptists and others ’who now scatter Jewish opinions that, before the resurrection of the dead, the godly shall occupy the kingdom of the world, the wicked being everywhere suppressed.’" Likewise, the Swiss Reformer
, Heinrich Bullinger
wrote up the Second Helvetic Confession
which reads "We also reject the Jewish dream of a millennium, or golden age on earth, before the last judgment
." Furthermore, John Calvin
wrote in Institutes that millennialism is a "fiction" that is "too childish either to need or to be worth a refutation." The Anglican Church originally formalized a statement against millennarianism in the Anglican Articles
. This is observed in the 41st of the Anglican Articles, drawn up by Thomas Cranmer
(1553), described the millennium as a 'fable of Jewish dotage.' but it was omitted at a later time in the revision under Elizabeth
(1563).
Contrarily, certain Anabaptists, Huguenots, and Bohemian Brethren were premillennial. Michael Servetus
taught a chiliastic view, though he was denounced by the Reformers as a heretic
and executed in Geneva
under Calvin's authority. A few in the mainstream accepted it, such as Joseph Mede
(1586–1638). and possibly Hugh Latimer
(d. 1555), but it was never a conventional belief throughout the period.
millenarianism gained a surprising acceptance among the Pietists of Germany
during the 17th and 18th century. Although they were not premillennial, the English
theologian Daniel Whitby
(1688–1726), the German
Johann Albrecht Bengel
(1687–1752), and the American Jonathan Edwards (1703–58) “fueled millennial ideas with new influence in the nineteenth century.” It was authors such as these who concluded that the decline of the Roman Catholic Church
would make way for the conversion and restoration of the nation of Israel
. Edwards taught that a type of Millennium would occur “1260 years after A.D. 606 when Rome was recognized as having universal authority.” His Puritan
contemporaries, Increase Mather
and Cotton Mather
, openly proclaimed a belief in a literal millennium. Increase Mather wrote “That which presseth me so, as that I cannot gainsay the Chiliastical opinion, is that I take these things for Principles, and no way doubt but that they are demonstrable. 1. That the thousand apocalyptical years are not passed but future. 2. That the coming of Christ to raise the dead and to judge the earth will be within much less than this thousand years. 3. That the conversion of the Jews will not be till this present state of the world is near unto its end. 4. That, after the Jews’ conversion there will be a glorious day for the elect upon earth, and that this day shall be a very long continuance.”
Throughout the 19th century, premillennialism continued to gain wider acceptance in both the US and in Britain, particularly among the Irvingites, Plymouth Brethren
, Christadelphians
, Church of God
, Christian Israelite Church
,and Seventh-day Adventists
. Premillenialism continues to be popular among Evangelical, Fundamentalist Christian
, and Living Church of God
communities in the 20th and 21st centuries, expanding further into the churches of Asia
, Africa
and South America
.
Many traditional denominations continue to oppose the concept of a literal millennial kingdom. The Catechism of the Catholic Church
teaches an amillennial position asserting that “Already they [the saints] reign with Christ; with him ‘they shall reign for ever and ever.” (Article, 12. II. 1029). On the Protestant side, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod explicitly states “When Christ returns, “new heavens and a new earth” will be created (2 Pet. 3:10-13).
Whalen has noted that modern premillennialism is “criticized roundly for naïve scholarship which confuses the poetic
and inspirational prose
of prophecy
with fortune telling,” though “Premillennialists retort that they merely follow the Word of God, regardless of ridicule.” He then notes that, nevertheless, “the virtual theology which surrounds premillennialism is today stronger and more widely spread than at any time in history.”
of the church will occur after a period of tribulation
. Historic premillennialism maintains chiliasm because of its view that the church will be caught up to meet Christ in the air and then escort him to the earth in order to share in his literal thousand year rule. Proponents of the view include Charles Spurgeon
http://www.spurgeon.org/eschat.htm#ans-conc and George Eldon Ladd
, and the 19th century Lutheran theologian, G.N.H. Peters.
Dispensational premillennialism generally holds that Israel and the Church are distinct entities. It also widely holds to the pretribulational return of Christ, which believes that Jesus will return to take up Christians into heaven by means of a rapture
immediately before a seven year worldwide Tribulation
. This will be followed by an additional return of Christ with his saints (though there are post tribulation dispensationalists, such as Robert Gundry).
Dispensationalism traces its roots to the 1830s and John Nelson Darby
(1800–1882), a Calvinist theologian and a founder of the Plymouth Brethren
. In the US, the dispensational form of premillennialism was propagated on the popular level largely through the Scofield Reference Bible
and on the academic level with Lewis Sperry Chafer
’s eight volume Systematic Theology. More recently dispensationalism has been popularized through Hal Lindsey
's 1970s bestseller, The Late, Great Planet Earth
and through the Left Behind
Series by Tim Lahaye
and Jerry Jenkins. Popular proponents of dispensational premillennialism have been John F. MacArthur
, Phil Johnson, Ray Comfort
, Jerry Falwell
, Todd Friel, Dwight Pentecost
, John Walvoord
(d. 2002), Tim Lahaye
, Charles Caldwell Ryrie
(in the notes for the Ryrie Study Bible) and Charles L. Feinberg
. Craig Blaising and Darrell Bock
have developed a form of dispensationalism that is growing in popularity known as progressive dispensationalism
. This view understands that an aspect of the eschatological kingdom presently exists, but must wait for the millennium to be realized fully.
John Nelson Darby was simply following the line of such persons as Edward Irving.
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
end-times theology
Christian eschatology
Christian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...
is the belief that Jesus will literally and physically be on the earth for his millennial reign
Millennialism
Millennialism , or chiliasm in Greek, is a belief held by some Christian denominations that there will be a Golden Age or Paradise on Earth in which "Christ will reign" for 1000 years prior to the final judgment and future eternal state...
, at his second coming
Second Coming
In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...
. 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
Christian eschatology
Christian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...
such as postmillennialism
Postmillennialism
In Christian end-times theology, , postmillennialism is an interpretation of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation which sees Christ's second coming as occurring after the "Millennium", a Golden Age in which Christian ethics prosper...
or amillennialism
Amillennialism
Amillennialism is a view in Christian end-times theology named for its rejection of the theory that Jesus Christ will have a thousand-year long, physical reign on the earth...
, which view the millennial rule as occurring either before the second coming, or as being figurative and non-temporal. Premillennialism is largely based upon a literal
Biblical literalism
Biblical literalism is the interpretation or translation of the explicit and primary sense of words in the Bible. A literal Biblical interpretation is associated with the fundamentalist and evangelical hermeneutical approach to Scripture, and is used almost exclusively by conservative Christians...
interpretation of in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
which describes Jesus’s coming to the earth and subsequent reign at the end of an apocalyptic period of tribulation
Tribulation
The Great Tribulation refers to tumultuous events that are described during the "signs of the times", first mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet discourse...
. It views this future age as a time of fulfillment for the prophetic hope of God’s people as given in the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
. Others such as the Eastern Orthodox claim that this passage of Revelation describes the present time, when Christ reigns in Heaven
Heaven (Christianity)
Traditionally, Christianity has taught Heaven as a place of eternal life and the dwelling place of Angels and the Throne of God, and a kingdom to which all the elect will be admitted...
with the departed saints; such an interpretation views the symbolism of Revelation as referring to an invisible spiritual battle rather than a visible battle on earth. This mode of allegorizing
Allegorical interpretation
In a biblical context, allegorical interpretation is an approach assuming that the authors of a text intended something other than what is literally expressed....
Biblical prophecies is also popular among the proponents of Amillennialism
Amillennialism
Amillennialism is a view in Christian end-times theology named for its rejection of the theory that Jesus Christ will have a thousand-year long, physical reign on the earth...
, which is another millennial theory that interprets the Millennium as being a symbolic period of time, occasionally representing God's absolute rulership over his creation or the Church
Christian Church
The Christian Church is the assembly or association of followers of Jesus Christ. The Greek term ἐκκλησία that in its appearances in the New Testament is usually translated as "church" basically means "assembly"...
. Premillennialism is often used to refer specifically to those who adhere to the beliefs in an earthly millennial reign of Christ as well as a rapture
Rapture
The rapture is a reference to the "being caught up" referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet "the Lord"....
of the faithful coming before (dispensational) or after (historic) the tribulation preceding the millennium. Post-millennialism, for example, agrees with premillennialism about the future earthly reign of Christ, but disagrees on the concept of a rapture and tribulation before the Millennium begins. Postmillennialists hold to the view that the second coming will happen after the Millennium.
Terminology
Historically Christian premillennialism has also been referred as "chiliasm" or "millenarianism". The theologicalTheology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
term "premillennialism" did not come into general use until the mid-19th century, the modern period in which premillennialism was revived. Coining the word was "almost entirely the work of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Protestants
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
and was prompted by their belief that the French and American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
s (the French, especially) realized prophecies
Prophecy
Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
made in the books of Daniel
Daniel
Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...
and Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
."
Jewish antecedents
The concept of a temporary earthly messianic kingdom at the MessiahMessiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
's coming was not an invention of Christianity. Instead it was a theological interpretation developed within the apocalyptic literature of early Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
. In Judaism during the Christian intertestamental period
Intertestamental period
The intertestamental period is a term used to refer to a period of time between the writings of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament texts. Traditionally, it is considered to be a roughly four hundred year period, spanning the ministry of Malachi The intertestamental period is a term...
, there was a basic distinction between the current age and the “age to come”. The “age to come” was commonly viewed as a nationalistic Golden Age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
in which the hopes of the prophets would become a reality for the nation of Israel. On the surface, the Biblical Prophets revealed an “age to come” which was monolithic. Seemingly the prophets did not write of a two-phase eschaton
Eschaton
The term Eschaton refers to the end of the present world and is addressed in the study of eschatology.Eschaton may also refer to:*Eschaton , a 2006 black metal album by Anaal Nathrakh* Eschaton, a weblog written by Dr. Duncan B...
consisting of a temporary messianic age followed by an eternal state. However, that was the concept that some Jewish interpreters did derive from their exegesis. Their conclusions are found in some of the literature and theology of early Judaism within the centuries both before and during the development of the Christian New Testament
Development of the New Testament canon
The Canon of the New Testament is the set of books Christians regard as divinely inspired and constituting the New Testament of the Christian Bible. For most, it is an agreed-upon list of twenty-seven books that includes the Canonical Gospels, Acts, letters of the Apostles, and Revelation...
. R. H. Charles in his commentary on Book of Revelation concluded that Jewish eschatology
Jewish eschatology
Jewish eschatology is concerned with the Jewish Messiah, afterlife, and the revival of the dead. Eschatology, generically, is the area of theology and philosophy concerned with the final events in the history of the world, the ultimate destiny of humanity, and related concepts.-The Messiah:The...
must have developed the concept of an earthly temporary messianic reign prior to the eternal state at the latest by 100 BC
Enoch
The earliest instance in Jewish literature that teaches an earthly temporary messianic age prior to an eternal state began with “The Apocalypse of Weeks” contained in 1 Enoch 91-107. This work likely dates to the early 2nd century and shows a schematization of the divine history divided into ten ambiguous periods of time called “weeks.” In the apocalypseApocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
, weeks 1-7 (93:1-10) retell the biblical history from the creation of humanity to the author’s time of writing (possibly during the Maccabean
Maccabees
The Maccabees were a Jewish rebel army who took control of Judea, which had been a client state of the Seleucid Empire. They founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 164 BCE to 63 BCE, reasserting the Jewish religion, expanding the boundaries of the Land of Israel and reducing the influence...
crisis). However, after the seventh "week", the temporary earthly messianic age begins and occurs for a period of three more “weeks” (93:12-15). After the temporary messianic kingdom, the creation of the new heavens and the new earth
The New Earth
The New Earth is an expression used in the Book of Isaiah , 2 Peter , and Book of Revelation in the Bible to describe the final state of redeemed humanity...
occurs (93:16).
2 Esdras
Second Esdras likely dates from soon after the destruction of JerusalemFirst Jewish-Roman War
The First Jewish–Roman War , sometimes called The Great Revolt , was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews of Judaea Province , against the Roman Empire...
in AD 70. The apocryphal book was apparently an attempt to explain the difficulties associated with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple to the Jewish people. During one of the visions in the book, Ezra
Ezra
Ezra , also called Ezra the Scribe and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible he returned from the Babylonian exile and reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem...
receives a revelation from the angel Uriel
Uriel
Uriel is one of the archangels of post-Exilic Rabbinic tradition, and also of certain Christian traditions...
. The angel explains that prior to the last judgment
Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of the Lord in Christian theology, is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. It will purportedly take place after the...
, the Messiah will come and establish a temporary kingdom lasting 400 years after which all of creation will be obliterated including the Messiah (7:28). Seven days after this cataclysmic event, the resurrection
Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
and the judgment
Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of the Lord in Christian theology, is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. It will purportedly take place after the...
will occur followed by the eternal state (7:36).
Other early Jewish contributions
Additional early Jewish literature that refers to a temporary messianic kingdom prior to the eternal state may be found in 4 Ezra 12:34; 2 Baruch2 Baruch
2 Baruch is a Jewish pseudepigraphical text thought to have been written in the late 1st century CE or early 2nd century CE, after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. It is attributed to the Biblical Baruch and so is associated with the Old Testament, but not regarded as scripture by Jews or by...
24:1-4; 30:1-5; 39:3-8; 40:1-4; Jubilees
Jubilees
The Book of Jubilees , sometimes called Lesser Genesis , is an ancient Jewish religious work, considered one of the pseudepigrapha by Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Churches...
1:4-29; 23:14-31. The Jewish belief in an earthly temporary messianic age continued during and beyond the time of the writing of the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
. A sample of the rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
nical contributions to the concept are listed as follows:
- Circa AD 90 Eleazar ben Hurcanus claimed that the messianic reign would last 100 years based on ;
- Circa AD 100 Eleazar ben Azariah claimed that the messianic reign would last 70 years based upon ;
- Circa AD 110 Joseph ben Galilee claimed that the messianic reign would last 60 years based upon ;
- Circa AD 150 Eliezer ben Joseph of Galilee claimed that the messianic reign would last 400 years based upon and ;
- Various rabbis around the close of the 1st century CE have claimed that the messianic reign would last 2,000 years based upon 4 Ezra 7:28;
- Some contemplated that there may be no messianic reign at all.
Patristic age
For the larger part, Christian eschatologyChristian eschatology
Christian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...
through the 2nd and 3rd centuries was chiliastic. Many early Christian
Early Christianity
Early Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....
interpreters applied the earlier Jewish apocalyptic idea of a temporary Messianic kingdom to their interpretation of chapter 20 of John's apocalypse. Justin Martyr
Justin Martyr
Justin Martyr, also known as just Saint Justin , was an early Christian apologist. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue survive. He is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church....
, Irenaeus
Irenaeus
Saint Irenaeus , was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire . He was an early church father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology...
, and Tertullian
Tertullian
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
all made explicit references to the concept of a thousand year earthly kingdom at Christ’s coming.
Justin Martyr and Irenaeus
Justin MartyrJustin Martyr
Justin Martyr, also known as just Saint Justin , was an early Christian apologist. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue survive. He is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church....
in the 2nd century was one of the first Christian writers to clearly describe himself as continuing in the “Jewish” belief of a temporary messianic kingdom prior to the eternal state. According to Johannes Quasten, “In his eschatological ideas Justin shares the views of the Chiliasts concerning the millennium.” He maintains a premillennial distinctive, namely that there would be two resurrections, one of believers before Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
' reign and then a general resurrection afterwards. Justin wrote in chapter 80 of his work Dialogue with Trypho, “I and others who are right-minded Christians on all points are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead
Resurrection of the dead
Resurrection of the Dead is a belief found in a number of eschatologies, most commonly in Christian, Islamic, Jewish and Zoroastrian. In general, the phrase refers to a specific event in the future; multiple prophesies in the histories of these religions assert that the dead will be brought back to...
, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built… For Isaiah
Isaiah
Isaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...
spoke in that manner concerning this period of a thousand years.” Though he conceded earlier in the same chapter that his view was not universal by saying that he “and many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise.”
Irenaeus
Saint Irenaeus , was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire . He was an early church father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology...
, the late 2nd century bishop of Lyon was an outspoken premillennialist. He is best known for his voluminous tome written against the 2nd century Gnostic
Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
threat, commonly called Against Heresies
On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis
On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis, today also called On the Detection and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So Called , commonly called Against Heresies , is a five-volume work written by St. Irenaeus in the 2nd century...
. In the fifth book of Against Heresies, Irenaeus concentrates primarily on eschatology
Eschatology
Eschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
. In one passage he defends premillennialism by arguing that a future earthly kingdom is necessary because of God's promise to Abraham, he wrote “The promise remains steadfast… God promised him the inheritance of the land. Yet, Abraham did not receive it during all the time of his journey there. Accordingly, it must be that Abraham, together with his seed (that is, those who fear God and believe in Him), will receive it at the resurrection of the just.” In another place Irenaeus also explained that the blessing to Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
“belongs unquestionably to the times of the kingdom when the righteous will bear rule, after their rising from the dead. It is also the time when the creation will bear fruit with an abundance of all kinds of food, having been renovated and set free… And all of the animals will feed on the vegetation of the earth… and they will be in perfect submission to man. And these things are borne witness to in the fourth book of the writings of Papias, the hearer of John
John of Patmos
John of Patmos is the name given, in the Book of Revelation, as the author of the apocalyptic text that is traditionally cannonized in the New Testament...
, and a companion of Polycarp
Polycarp
Saint Polycarp was a 2nd century Christian bishop of Smyrna. According to the Martyrdom of Polycarp, he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake, then stabbed when the fire failed to touch him...
.” (5.33.3) Apparently Irenaeus also held to the sexta-/septamillennial scheme writing that the end of human history will occur after the 6,000th year. (5.28.3)
Other ante-Nicene premillennialists
Irenaeus and Justin represent two of the most outspoken premillennialists of the pre-Nicean church. Other early premillennialists included Pseudo-BarnabasEpistle of Barnabas
The Epistle of Barnabas is a Greek epistle containing twenty-one chapters, preserved complete in the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus where it appears at the end of the New Testament...
, Papias, Methodius
Methodius of Olympus
The Church Father and Saint Methodius of Olympus was a Christian bishop, ecclesiastical author, and martyr.-Life:Few reports have survived on the life of this first scientific opponent of Origen; even these short accounts present many difficulties. Eusebius does not mention him in his Church...
, Lactantius
Lactantius
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian author who became an advisor to the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his religious policy as it developed, and tutor to his son.-Biography:...
, Commodianus
Commodianus
Commodianus was a Christian Latin poet, who flourished about AD 250.The only ancient writers who mention him are Gennadius, presbyter of Massilia , in his De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, and Pope Gelasius in De libris recipiendis et non recipiendis, in which his works are classed as Apocryphi,...
Theophilus
Theophilus of Antioch
Theophilus, Patriarch of Antioch, succeeded Eros c. 169, and was succeeded by Maximus I c.183, according to Henry Fynes Clinton, but these dates are only approximations...
, Tertullian
Tertullian
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
, Melito, Hippolytus of Rome, Victorinus of Pettau and various Gnostics groups and the Montanists. Many of these theologians and others in the early church expressed their belief in premillennialism through their acceptance of the sexta-septamillennial tradition. This belief claims that human history will continue for 6,000 years and then will enjoy Sabbath
Sabbath
Sabbath in Christianity is a weekly day of rest or religious observance, derived from the Biblical Sabbath.Seventh-day Sabbath observance, i.e. resting from labor from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, is practiced by seventh-day Sabbatarians...
for 1,000 years (the millennial kingdom), thus all of human history will have a total of 7,000 years prior to the new creation
World to Come
The World to Come is an eschatological phrase reflecting the belief that the "current world" is flawed or cursed and will be replaced in the future by a better world or a paradise. The concept is similar to the concepts of Heaven and the afterlife, but Heaven is another place generally seen as...
.
Ante-Nicene opposition
The first clear opponent of premillennialism associated with Christianity was Marcion. Marcion opposed the use of the Old Testament and most books of the New Testament that were not written by the apostle Paul. Regarding the Marcion and premillennialism, Harvard scholar H. Brown noted,- The first great heretic broke drastically with the faith of the early church in abandoning the doctrine of the imminent, personal return of Christ…Marcion did not believe in a real incarnationIncarnationIncarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....
, and consequently there was no logical place in his system for a real Second Coming…Marcion expected the majority of mankind to be lost…he denied the validity of the Old Testament and its Law…As the first great heretic, Marcion developed and perfected his heterodox system before orthodoxy had fully defined itself…Marcion represents a movement that so radically transformed the Christian doctrine of God and Christ that it can hardly be said to be Christian.
Throughout the Patristic
Patristics
Patristics or Patrology is the study of Early Christian writers, known as the Church Fathers. The names derive from the Latin pater . The period is generally considered to run from the end of New Testament times or end of the Apostolic Age Patristics or Patrology is the study of Early Christian...
period—particularly in the 3rd century—there had been rising opposition to premillennialism. Origen
Origen
Origen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...
was the first to challenge the doctrine openly. Through allegorical
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
interpretation, he had been a proponent of amillennialism (of course, the sexta-septamillennial tradition was itself based upon similar means of allegorical interpretation). Although Origen was not always wholly "orthodox" in his theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, he had at one point completely spiritualized Christ’s second coming prophesied in the New Testament. Origen did this in his Commentary on Matthew when he taught that “Christ’s return signifies His disclosure of Himself and His deity to all humanity in such a way that all might partake of His glory to the degree that each individual’s actions warrant (Commentary on Matthew 12.30).” Even Origen’s milder forms of this teaching left no room for a literal millennium and it was so extreme that few actually followed it. But his influence did gain wider acceptance especially in the period following Constantine
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
.
Dionysius of Alexandria
Dionysius of Alexandria
Pope Dionysius of Alexandria, named "the Great," was the Pope of Alexandria from 248 until his death on November 17, 265 after seventeen years as a bishop. He was the first Pope to hold the title "the Great" . We have information on Dionysius because during his lifetime, Dionysius wrote many...
stood against premillennialism when the chiliastic work, The Refutation of the Allegorizers
Book of Nepos
The Book of Nepos is one of the texts of the New Testament apocrypha, written by an Egyptian bishop, Nepos. He was a strict literalist , and his text, also known as the Refutation of the Allegorisers was aimed at refuting the arguments of those who held that certain sections of the Bible were mere...
written by Nepos, a bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
became popular in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
. Dionysius argued against Nepos's influence and convinced the churches of the region of amillennialism. The church historian, Eusebius, reports this in his Ecclesiastical History
Church History (Eusebius)
The Church History of Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea was a 4th-century pioneer work giving a chronological account of the development of Early Christianity from the 1st century to the 4th century. It was written in Koine Greek, and survives also in Latin, Syriac and Armenian manuscripts...
. Eusebius also had low regard for the chiliast, Papias, and he let it be known that in his opinion Papias was "a man of small mental capacity" because he had taken the Apocalypse
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
literally.
Augustinian eschatological foundation
Oxford theologianUniversity of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
Alister McGrath
Alister McGrath
Alister Edgar McGrath is an Anglican priest, theologian, and Christian apologist, currently Professor of Theology, Ministry, and Education at Kings College London and Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture...
has noted that "all medieval theology is ‘Augustinian’
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
to a greater or lesser extent." Augustine’s (354-430) influence shaped not only the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, but it also influenced the Reformers
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
, who constantly referred to his teaching in their own debates. His teaching is “still one of the most potent elements in Western religious thought.” Therefore, to analyze what happened to premillennialism in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, it is necessary to observe the Augustinian foundation.
In his early period, Augustine held to the sexta-/septamillennial view common in early Christianity (see above section on Patristic Age). In accordance with this view, Augustine divided history into two separate dispensations, first the church age (the current age of 6,000 years), and then the millennial kingdom (Sermon 259.2). Nevertheless, early in his career Augustine converted from premillennialism to amillennialism. Anderson locates three reasons that may account for Augustine’s theological shift:
- A Reaction to DonatistDonatistDonatism was a Christian sect within the Roman province of Africa that flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries. It had its roots in the social pressures among the long-established Christian community of Roman North Africa , during the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian...
Excess - Augustine displayed a revulsion to the Donatists' bacchanal feasts which seemingly used excessive amounts of food and drink (City of God, 20.7). The Donatists were premillennial and thus Augustine formed a connection between their sensual behavior and their earthly eschatological expectation. - A Reaction to Eschatological Sensationalism - The millennial fervor of premillennialists as the year AD 500 was nearing caused them to have overly jovial celebrations (some septa-/sextamillennial interpreters calculated Jesus’s birth to have happened 5,500 years after creation). These feasts appeared to Augustine to take more pleasure in the physical world than the spiritual. Such earthly revelry was repulsive to Augustine since he placed little value on the material world.
- A Preference for Allegorical Interpretation - Finally, Augustine was influenced by the popular allegorical interpretation of Scripture, particularly of The Book of Revelation. Tyconius (d. c. 400), a Donatist layLaityIn religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...
theologian, “whose reinterpretation of his culture’s separatistSeparatismSeparatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession, separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy...
and millenarian traditions provided the point of departure for what is more brilliant and idiosyncratic in Augustine’s own theology. And it is Tyconius, most precisely, whose own reading of John’s ApocalypseBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
determined the Western church’s exegesis for the next eight hundred years.”
After moving away from premillennialism to amillennialism, Augustine viewed Sabbath rest in the sexta-/septamillennial scheme as “symbolically representative of Eternity.” Moreover, the millennium of Revelation 20 became for him “symbolically representative of Christ’s present reign with the saints.” Richard Landes
Richard Landes
Richard Allen Landes is an American historian and author, specializing in Millennialism. He currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Boston University...
observed the 4th century as a time of major shift for Christian eschatology by noting that it "marked a crucial moment in the history of millenarianism, since during this period Augustine repudiated even the allegorizing variety he himself had previously accepted. From this point on he dedicated much of his energy to ridding the church of this belief
Doctrine
Doctrine is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system...
."
Medieval and Reformation amillennialism
Augustine’s later amillennial view laid the eschatological foundation for the Middle Ages which practically abandoned premillennialism. The theological term “kingdom” maintained its eschatological function, though it was not necessarily futuristic. Instead it consistently referred to the present age so that the church was currently experiencing the eschaton. Julian of ToledoJulian of Toledo
Julian of Toledo was born to Jewish parents in Toledo, Hispania, but raised Christian. He was well educated at the cathedral school, was a monk and later abbot at Agali, a spiritual student of Saint Eugene II, and archbishop of Toledo...
(642-690) summarizes the medieval doctrine of the millennium by referring to it as “the church of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
which, by the diffusion of its faith and works, is spread out as a kingdom of faith from the time of the incarnation until the time of the coming judgment.”
A notable exception to normative medieval eschatology is found in Joachim of Fiore
Joachim of Fiore
Joachim of Fiore, also known as Joachim of Flora and in Italian Gioacchino da Fiore , was the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni in Fiore . He was a mystic, a theologian and an esoterist...
(c. 1135-1202), a Cistercian monk, who to an extent, stressed premillennial themes. Joachim divided earth's history into three periods. He assigned each age to a particular person of the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
as the guiding principle of that era. The first era was the Old Testament history and was accordingly the age of the Father
God the Father
God the Father is a gendered title given to God in many monotheistic religions, particularly patriarchal, Abrahamic ones. In Judaism, God is called Father because he is the creator, life-giver, law-giver, and protector...
; the current age of the church was the age of the Son
God the Son
God the Son is the second person of the Trinity in Christian theology. The doctrine of the Trinity identifies Jesus of Nazareth as God the Son, united in essence but distinct in person with regard to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit...
; and still in Joachim's future was the age of the Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
. For Joachim, year 1260 was to mark the end of the second and the beginning of the third and final golden age of earth's history.
During the Reformation period, amillennialism continued to be the popular view of the Reformers. The Lutherans formally rejected chiliasm in The Augsburg Confession. “Art. XVII., condemns the Anabaptists and others ’who now scatter Jewish opinions that, before the resurrection of the dead, the godly shall occupy the kingdom of the world, the wicked being everywhere suppressed.’" Likewise, the Swiss Reformer
Reformation in Switzerland
The Protestant Reformation in Switzerland was promoted initially by Huldrych Zwingli, who gained the support of the magistrate and population of Zürich in the 1520s. It led to significant changes in civil life and state matters in Zürich and spread to several other cantons of the Old Swiss...
, Heinrich Bullinger
Heinrich Bullinger
Heinrich Bullinger was a Swiss reformer, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Zurich church and pastor at Grossmünster...
wrote up the Second Helvetic Confession
Helvetic Confessions
Helvetic Confessions, the name of two documents expressing the common belief of the Reformed churches of Switzerland.The First Helvetic Confession , known also as the Second Confession of Basel, was drawn up at that city in 1536 by Heinrich Bullinger and Leo Jud of Zürich, Kaspar Megander of Bern,...
which reads "We also reject the Jewish dream of a millennium, or golden age on earth, before the last judgment
Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of the Lord in Christian theology, is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. It will purportedly take place after the...
." Furthermore, John Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
wrote in Institutes that millennialism is a "fiction" that is "too childish either to need or to be worth a refutation." The Anglican Church originally formalized a statement against millennarianism in the Anglican Articles
Thirty-Nine Articles
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are the historically defining statements of doctrines of the Anglican church with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. First established in 1563, the articles served to define the doctrine of the nascent Church of England as it related to...
. This is observed in the 41st of the Anglican Articles, drawn up by Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon which resulted in the separation of the English Church from...
(1553), described the millennium as a 'fable of Jewish dotage.' but it was omitted at a later time in the revision under Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
(1563).
Contrarily, certain Anabaptists, Huguenots, and Bohemian Brethren were premillennial. Michael Servetus
Michael Servetus
Michael Servetus was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and humanist. He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation...
taught a chiliastic view, though he was denounced by the Reformers as a heretic
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
and executed in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
under Calvin's authority. A few in the mainstream accepted it, such as Joseph Mede
Joseph Mede
Joseph Mede was an English scholar with a wide range of interests. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow from 1613. He is now remembered as a biblical scholar. He was also a naturalist and Egyptologist...
(1586–1638). and possibly Hugh Latimer
Hugh Latimer
Hugh Latimer was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, Bishop of Worcester before the Reformation, and later Church of England chaplain to King Edward VI. In 1555, under Queen Mary, he was burnt at the stake, becoming one of the three Oxford Martyrs of Anglicanism.-Life:Latimer was born into a...
(d. 1555), but it was never a conventional belief throughout the period.
Modern era
17th and 18th centuries
In the Modern AgeModern Age
Modern Age is an American conservative academic quarterly journal, founded in 1957 by Russell Kirk in close collaboration with Henry Regnery...
millenarianism gained a surprising acceptance among the Pietists of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
during the 17th and 18th century. Although they were not premillennial, the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
theologian Daniel Whitby
Daniel Whitby
Daniel Whitby was a controversial English theologian and biblical commentator. An Arminian priest in the Church of England, Whitby was known as strongly anti-Calvinistic and later gave evidence of strong Arian and Unitarian tendencies....
(1688–1726), the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Johann Albrecht Bengel
Johann Albrecht Bengel
Johann Albrecht Bengel , Lutheran pietist clergyman and Greek-language scholar known for his edition of the Greek New Testament and his commentaries on it.-Life and career:Bengel was born at Winnenden in Württemberg, Germany....
(1687–1752), and the American Jonathan Edwards (1703–58) “fueled millennial ideas with new influence in the nineteenth century.” It was authors such as these who concluded that the decline of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
would make way for the conversion and restoration of the nation of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. Edwards taught that a type of Millennium would occur “1260 years after A.D. 606 when Rome was recognized as having universal authority.” His Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
contemporaries, Increase Mather
Increase Mather
Increase Mather was a major figure in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay . He was a Puritan minister who was involved with the government of the colony, the administration of Harvard College, and most notoriously, the Salem witch trials...
and Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather, FRS was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer; he is often remembered for his role in the Salem witch trials...
, openly proclaimed a belief in a literal millennium. Increase Mather wrote “That which presseth me so, as that I cannot gainsay the Chiliastical opinion, is that I take these things for Principles, and no way doubt but that they are demonstrable. 1. That the thousand apocalyptical years are not passed but future. 2. That the coming of Christ to raise the dead and to judge the earth will be within much less than this thousand years. 3. That the conversion of the Jews will not be till this present state of the world is near unto its end. 4. That, after the Jews’ conversion there will be a glorious day for the elect upon earth, and that this day shall be a very long continuance.”
19th century to present
Between 1790 and the mid-19th century, premillennialism was a popular view among English Evangelicals, even within the Anglican church. Thomas Macaulay observed this and wrote “Many Christians believe that the Messiah will shortly establish a kingdom on the earth, and visibly reign over all its inhabitants.”Throughout the 19th century, premillennialism continued to gain wider acceptance in both the US and in Britain, particularly among the Irvingites, Plymouth Brethren
Plymouth Brethren
The Plymouth Brethren is a conservative, Evangelical Christian movement, whose history can be traced to Dublin, Ireland, in the late 1820s. Although the group is notable for not taking any official "church name" to itself, and not having an official clergy or liturgy, the title "The Brethren," is...
, Christadelphians
Christadelphians
Christadelphians is a Christian group that developed in the United Kingdom and North America in the 19th century...
, Church of God
Church of God
Church of God is a name used by numerous, mostly unrelated Christian denominational bodies, most of which descend from either Pentecostal/Holiness or Adventist traditions.-Pentecostal Movement:*Church of God...
, Christian Israelite Church
Christian Israelite Church
The Christian Israelite Church was founded in 1822 by the prophet John Wroe in England. From 1822 to 1831, the church had its headquarters in the town of Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, which the church wanted to turn into a "new Jerusalem". Wroe's followers intended to build a wall around the town...
,and Seventh-day Adventists
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
. Premillenialism continues to be popular among Evangelical, Fundamentalist Christian
Fundamentalist Christianity
Christian fundamentalism, also known as Fundamentalist Christianity, or Fundamentalism, arose out of British and American Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century among evangelical Christians...
, and Living Church of God
Living Church of God
The Living Church of God is one of the church groups formed by followers of the teachings of the late Herbert W. Armstrong. It was formed as a series of major doctrinal changes were introduced in the Worldwide Church of God after Armstrong's death in 1986...
communities in the 20th and 21st centuries, expanding further into the churches of Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
.
Many traditional denominations continue to oppose the concept of a literal millennial kingdom. The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the official text of the teachings of the Catholic Church. A provisional, "reference text" was issued by Pope John Paul II on October 11, 1992 — "the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council" — with his apostolic...
teaches an amillennial position asserting that “Already they [the saints] reign with Christ; with him ‘they shall reign for ever and ever.” (Article, 12. II. 1029). On the Protestant side, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod explicitly states “When Christ returns, “new heavens and a new earth” will be created (2 Pet. 3:10-13).
Whalen has noted that modern premillennialism is “criticized roundly for naïve scholarship which confuses the poetic
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and inspirational prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
of prophecy
Prophecy
Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
with fortune telling,” though “Premillennialists retort that they merely follow the Word of God, regardless of ridicule.” He then notes that, nevertheless, “the virtual theology which surrounds premillennialism is today stronger and more widely spread than at any time in history.”
Historic vs. dispensational premillennialism
Contemporary premillennialism is divided into two schools of thought.Historic premillennialism
Historic, or Classic Premillennialism is distinctively non-dispensational. This means that it sees no radical theological distinction between Israel and the Church. It is often post tribulational meaning that the raptureRapture
The rapture is a reference to the "being caught up" referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet "the Lord"....
of the church will occur after a period of tribulation
Post Tribulation Rapture
In Christian eschatology, the Post-Tribulation Rapture doctrine is the belief in a combined Resurrection and Rapture of all believers coming after the Great Tribulation.-Doctrine and implications:...
. Historic premillennialism maintains chiliasm because of its view that the church will be caught up to meet Christ in the air and then escort him to the earth in order to share in his literal thousand year rule. Proponents of the view include Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a large British Particular Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers"...
http://www.spurgeon.org/eschat.htm#ans-conc and George Eldon Ladd
George Eldon Ladd
George Eldon Ladd was a Baptist minister and professor of New Testament exegesis and theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California....
, and the 19th century Lutheran theologian, G.N.H. Peters.
Dispensational premillennialism
Rapture
The rapture is a reference to the "being caught up" referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet "the Lord"....
immediately before a seven year worldwide Tribulation
Tribulation
The Great Tribulation refers to tumultuous events that are described during the "signs of the times", first mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet discourse...
. This will be followed by an additional return of Christ with his saints (though there are post tribulation dispensationalists, such as Robert Gundry).
Dispensationalism traces its roots to the 1830s and John Nelson Darby
John Nelson Darby
John Nelson Darby was an Anglo-Irish evangelist, and an influential figure among the original Plymouth Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism. He produced a translation of the Bible based on the Hebrew and Greek texts called The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation...
(1800–1882), a Calvinist theologian and a founder of the Plymouth Brethren
Plymouth Brethren
The Plymouth Brethren is a conservative, Evangelical Christian movement, whose history can be traced to Dublin, Ireland, in the late 1820s. Although the group is notable for not taking any official "church name" to itself, and not having an official clergy or liturgy, the title "The Brethren," is...
. In the US, the dispensational form of premillennialism was propagated on the popular level largely through the Scofield Reference Bible
Scofield Reference Bible
The Scofield Reference Bible is a widely circulated study Bible edited and annotated by the American Bible student Cyrus I. Scofield, that popularized dispensationalism at the beginning of the 20th century...
and on the academic level with Lewis Sperry Chafer
Lewis Sperry Chafer
Lewis Sperry Chafer was an American theologian. He founded and served as the first president of Dallas Theological Seminary, and was an influential founding member of modern Christian Dispensationalism.-Early life:...
’s eight volume Systematic Theology. More recently dispensationalism has been popularized through Hal Lindsey
Hal Lindsey
Harold Lee "Hal" Lindsey is an American evangelist and Christian writer. He is a Christian Zionist and dispensationalist author. He currently resides in Texas.-Biography:...
's 1970s bestseller, The Late, Great Planet Earth
The Late, Great Planet Earth
The Late, Great Planet Earth is the title of a best-selling 1970 book co-authored by Hal Lindsey and Carole C. Carlson, and first published by Zondervan. The book was adapted in 1979 into a movie narrated by Orson Welles and released by Pacific International Enterprises. It was originally...
and through the Left Behind
Left Behind
Left Behind is a series of 16 best-selling novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, dealing with Christian dispensationalist End Times: pretribulation, premillennial, Christian eschatological viewpoint of the end of the world. The primary conflict of the series is the members of the Tribulation...
Series by Tim Lahaye
Tim LaHaye
Timothy F. LaHaye is an American evangelical Christian minister, author, and speaker. He is best known for the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction, which he co-wrote with Jerry B. Jenkins. He has written over 50 books, both fiction and non-fiction.-Early life:LaHaye was born in Detroit,...
and Jerry Jenkins. Popular proponents of dispensational premillennialism have been John F. MacArthur
John F. MacArthur
John Fullerton MacArthur, Jr. is a United States evangelical writer and minister noted for his internationally known and broadcast radio program titled Grace to You...
, Phil Johnson, Ray Comfort
Ray Comfort
Ray Comfort is a New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist. Comfort started Living Waters Publications and The Way of the Master in Bellflower, California and has written a number of books.-Early life and career:...
, Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
, Todd Friel, Dwight Pentecost
J. Dwight Pentecost
J. Dwight Pentecost is a Christian theologian best known for his book Things to Come.He currently is Distinguished Professor of Bible Exposition, Emeritus, at Dallas Theological Seminary, one of only two so honored. He holds a B.A. from Hampden-Sydney College and Th.M. and Th.D. degrees from...
, John Walvoord
John Walvoord
John F. Walvoord was a Christian theologian, pastor, and president of Dallas Theological Seminary from 1952 to 1986. He was the author of over 30 books, focusing primarily on eschatology and theology including The Rapture Question, and was co-editor of The Bible Knowledge Commentary with Roy B....
(d. 2002), Tim Lahaye
Tim LaHaye
Timothy F. LaHaye is an American evangelical Christian minister, author, and speaker. He is best known for the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction, which he co-wrote with Jerry B. Jenkins. He has written over 50 books, both fiction and non-fiction.-Early life:LaHaye was born in Detroit,...
, Charles Caldwell Ryrie
Charles Caldwell Ryrie
Charles Caldwell Ryrie is a Christian writer and theologian who served as professor of systematic theology and dean of doctoral studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and as president and professor at what is now Philadelphia Biblical University...
(in the notes for the Ryrie Study Bible) and Charles L. Feinberg
Charles L. Feinberg
Charles Lee Feinberg was an American Biblical scholar and professor of Semitics and Old Testament. He was an authority on the Jewish history, languages and customs of the Old Testament and Biblical prophecies....
. Craig Blaising and Darrell Bock
Darrell Bock
Darrell L. Bock is a New Testament scholar and research professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas, United States...
have developed a form of dispensationalism that is growing in popularity known as progressive dispensationalism
Progressive dispensationalism
In evangelical Christian theology, progressive dispensationalism is a variation of traditional dispensationalism. All dispensationalists view the dispensations as chronologically successive. Progressive dispensationalists, in addition to viewing the dispensations as chronological successive, also...
. This view understands that an aspect of the eschatological kingdom presently exists, but must wait for the millennium to be realized fully.
John Nelson Darby was simply following the line of such persons as Edward Irving.
See also
- Summary of Christian eschatological differences
- Christian eschatologyChristian eschatologyChristian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...
- PostmillennialismPostmillennialismIn Christian end-times theology, , postmillennialism is an interpretation of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation which sees Christ's second coming as occurring after the "Millennium", a Golden Age in which Christian ethics prosper...
- AmillennialismAmillennialismAmillennialism is a view in Christian end-times theology named for its rejection of the theory that Jesus Christ will have a thousand-year long, physical reign on the earth...
- IdealismIdealism (Christian eschatology)Idealism in Christian eschatology is an interpretation of the Book of Revelation that sees all of the imagery of the book as non-literal symbols.Jacob Taubes writes that idealist eschatology came about as Renaissance thinkers began to doubt that the Kingdom of...
- FuturismFuturism (Christian eschatology)Futurism is a Christian eschatological view that interprets the Book of Revelation, the Book of Daniel, the Olivet discourse and the parable of the Sheep and the Goats as future events in a literal, physical, apocalyptic, and global context...
- PreterismPreterismPreterism is a Christian eschatological view that interprets prophecies of the Bible, especially Daniel and Revelation, as events which have already happened in the first century A.D. Preterism holds that Ancient Israel finds its continuation or fulfillment in the Christian church at the...
- HistoricismHistoricism (Christian eschatology)Historicism is a method of interpretation, in Christian eschatology, by associating biblical prophecies with actual historical events as well as identifying symbolic beings with historical persons or societies. In prophetic theology, the main texts of interest are apocalyptic literature such as the...
- Biblical hermeneuticsBiblical hermeneuticsBiblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles of interpretation concerning the books of the Bible. It is part of the broader field of hermeneutics which involves the study of principles for the text and includes all forms of communication: verbal and nonverbal.While Jewish and Christian...
- RaptureRaptureThe rapture is a reference to the "being caught up" referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet "the Lord"....
- TribulationTribulationThe Great Tribulation refers to tumultuous events that are described during the "signs of the times", first mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet discourse...
- Jewish eschatologyJewish eschatologyJewish eschatology is concerned with the Jewish Messiah, afterlife, and the revival of the dead. Eschatology, generically, is the area of theology and philosophy concerned with the final events in the history of the world, the ultimate destiny of humanity, and related concepts.-The Messiah:The...
- Millennial Day TheoryMillennial Day TheoryThe Millennial Day Theory is a theory in Christian eschatology which hypothesizes that the Second Coming of Jesus will occur on the 6000th year after the creation of Adam...
Works from an amillennial or postmillennial perspective
- Bahnsen, Greg L.Greg BahnsenGreg L. Bahnsen was an influential Calvinist philosopher, apologist, and debater. He was an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and a full time Scholar in Residence for the Southern California Center for Christian Studies.-Early life and education:He was the first born of two...
1999. Victory in Jesus: The Bright Hope of Postmillennialism. ISBN 0-9678317-1-7. Texarkana, AR: Covenant Media Press. - Beale, G. K. The Book of RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
: A Commentary on the Greek TextNew TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. New International Commentary on the Greek TestamentNew TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998. ISBN 080282174X . A well written 1245 page commentary on the GreekKoine GreekKoine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....
text of RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
from an amillennial perspective. Beale has an excursus on the concept of the temporary messianic kingdom and how it fits into amillennial understanding. - Bloesch, Donald G. The Last Things: ResurrectionResurrectionResurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
, Judgment, Glory (Christian Foundations, 7) . Westmont, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8308-1417-5. A recent eschatologyEschatologyEschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
text from an amillennial reformed perspective. - Boettner, LoraineLoraine BoettnerLoraine Boettner was an American theologian and author.-Biography:Boettner was born in Linden, Missouri. He received a Th.B. and Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and he received the honorary degrees of Doctor of Divinity and Doctor of Letters . He was a member of the Orthodox...
. The Millennium. P&R Publishing, 1990. ISBN 0-87552-113-4. This is a revised edition of the classic 1957 postmillennial work. - Davis, John Jefferson. 1996. The Victory of Christ's Kingdom: An Introduction to Postmillennialism. Moscow, ID: Canon Press.
- DeMar, Gary. 1999. Last Days Madness:Obsession of the Modern Church (ISBN 0-915815-35-4) Power Springs, GA: American Vision.
- Gentry, KennethKenneth GentryKenneth L. Gentry, Jr. is a Reformed theologian, and an ordained minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly. He is particularly known for his support for and publication on the topics of partial preterism and postmillennialism in Christian eschatology, as well as for theonomy...
. 1992. He Shall Have Dominion: A Postmillennial Eschatology. Tyler, Tx: Institute For Christian Economics. - Gentry, Kenneth L.Kenneth GentryKenneth L. Gentry, Jr. is a Reformed theologian, and an ordained minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly. He is particularly known for his support for and publication on the topics of partial preterism and postmillennialism in Christian eschatology, as well as for theonomy...
2003. Thine is the Kingdom: A Study of the Postmillennial Hope. Vallecito, CA: Chalcedon Foundation. - Hill, Charles E. Regnum Caelorum: Patterns of Millennial Thought in Early Christianity - Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 2001 (review)
- Hoekema, Anthony A.Anthony A. HoekemaAnthony Andrew Hoekema was a Calvinist minister and theologian who served as professor of Systematic theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, for twenty-one years.- Biography :...
. The BibleBibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
and the Future. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994. ISBN 0-8028-0851-4 - Hughes, James A. “RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
20:4-6 and the Question of the Millennium,” Westminster TheologicalWestminster Theological SeminaryWestminster Theological Seminary is a Presbyterian and Reformed Christian graduate educational institution located in Glenside, Pennsylvania, with a satellite location in London.-History:...
JournalAcademic journalAn academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
35 (Spring 73):281-302. - Mathison, Keith A. 1999. Postmillenialism. An Eschatology of Hope. Philipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing. ISBN 0-87552-389-7. Good one volume over-view of PostmillennialismPostmillennialismIn Christian end-times theology, , postmillennialism is an interpretation of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation which sees Christ's second coming as occurring after the "Millennium", a Golden Age in which Christian ethics prosper...
. Written by a proponent. - Murray, Iain.Iain MurrayIain Hamish Murray was educated in the Isle of Man and at the University of Durham. He entered the Christian ministry in 1955. He served as assistant to Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel and subsequently at Grove Chapel, London and St. Giles Presbyterian Church, Sydney, Australia,...
1971. The Puritan Hope: A Study in Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy. London, UK: Banner of Truth Trust. - Riddlebarger, Kim. A Case for AmillennialismAmillennialismAmillennialism is a view in Christian end-times theology named for its rejection of the theory that Jesus Christ will have a thousand-year long, physical reign on the earth...
: Understanding the End Times. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003. An up to date defense of AmillennialismAmillennialismAmillennialism is a view in Christian end-times theology named for its rejection of the theory that Jesus Christ will have a thousand-year long, physical reign on the earth...
. - Sproul, R. C.R. C. SproulRobert Charles Sproul, is a prominent American Calvinist theologian, author, and pastor of the Reformed tradition...
1998. The Last Days According to Jesus. ISBN 0-8010-1171-X. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Works from a premillennial perspective
- Chares, R. H. The RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
of St. JohnJohn of PatmosJohn of Patmos is the name given, in the Book of Revelation, as the author of the apocalyptic text that is traditionally cannonized in the New Testament...
. International Critical Commentary. 2 Vols. Edinburgh: T&T ClarkT&T ClarkT&T Clark is a British publishing firm which was founded in Edinburgh in 1821 and which now exists as an imprint of Continuum International Publishing Group....
, 1920. See volume 2, pages 182-86 in particular. - Deere, Jack S.Jack DeereJack Deere is a charismatic pastor and theologian from the USA.He was an associate professor of Old Testament at Dallas Seminary, a bastion of cessationism, the doctrine that the charismatic gifts of the Spirit, such as tongues, prophecy and healing, ended at the close of the 1st century...
“Premillennialism in RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
20:4-6,” Bibliotheca SacraBibliotheca SacraBibliotheca Sacra is the theological journal published by Dallas Theological Seminary. First published in 1844, it is the oldest theological journal in the United States. It originally was published by Union Theological Seminary in 1843, moved to Andover Theological Seminary in 1844, to Oberlin...
135. (January 1978): 58-74. This journalAcademic journalAn academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
article is still considered by many premillennialists to be one of the stronger defenses of premillennialism in print. - Ladd, George EldonGeorge Eldon LaddGeorge Eldon Ladd was a Baptist minister and professor of New Testament exegesis and theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California....
. A Commentary on the RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
of JohnJohn of PatmosJohn of Patmos is the name given, in the Book of Revelation, as the author of the apocalyptic text that is traditionally cannonized in the New Testament...
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972. ISBN 0-8028-1684-3. A commentary on RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
from a historical premillennial perspective. - Ladd, George EldonGeorge Eldon LaddGeorge Eldon Ladd was a Baptist minister and professor of New Testament exegesis and theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California....
. The Last Things. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988. ISBN 0-8028-1727-0. - Osbourne, Grant R. RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker AcademicBaker Book HouseBaker Publishing Group is an evangelical Protestant Christian book publisher based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It has six subdivisions: Bethany House, Revell, Baker Books, Baker Academic, Chosen and Brazos Press.-Identity:...
, 2002. ISBN 0-8010-2299-1. A commentary on RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
from a general premillennial perspective, though no particular view of the raptureRaptureThe rapture is a reference to the "being caught up" referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet "the Lord"....
is defended. - Peters, G.N.H. The Theocratic Kingdom. 3 Vols. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1952. ISBN 0-8254-3540-4. This is the largest defense of premillennialism in any language. It was written in the 19th century by an AmericanUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Lutheran pastorPastorThe word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
. The viewpoint is historical premillennial, meaning that it is post tribulationalRaptureThe rapture is a reference to the "being caught up" referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet "the Lord"....
. - Ryrie, Charles C.Charles Caldwell RyrieCharles Caldwell Ryrie is a Christian writer and theologian who served as professor of systematic theology and dean of doctoral studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and as president and professor at what is now Philadelphia Biblical University...
The Basis of the Premillennial Faith. Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, 1953. ISBN 1-59387-011-6. This is a small introduction and defense of premillennialism from a dispensationalDispensationalist theologyDispensational theology refers to the unified teachings of Dispensationalism that address what other views teach as divergent theologies in the Old Testament and New Testament...
perspective. - Walvoord, John. The Millennial Kingdom. Grand Rapids: ZondervanZondervanZondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association .- History :...
, 1959. ISBN 0-310-34090-X . A defense from a classical dispensationalDispensationalist theologyDispensational theology refers to the unified teachings of Dispensationalism that address what other views teach as divergent theologies in the Old Testament and New Testament...
perspective.
Works from multiple perspectives or no apparent perspective
- Aune, David A. Revelation Word Biblical Commentary. 3 vols. Waco, TX: Word Books, 1997. A scholarly commentary on RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
. - Bailey, J. W. “The Temporary Messianic Reign in the Literature of Early JudaismJudaismJudaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
,” Journal of Biblical LiteratureSociety of Biblical LiteratureThe Society of Biblical Literature, founded 1880, is a constituent society of the American Council of Learned Societies , with the stated mission to "Foster Biblical Scholarship"...
. (1934), 170. - The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views. Edited by Clouse, Robert G.. Westmont, IL: Inter-Varsity, 1977. ISBN 0-87784-794-0. A balanced presentation of four millennial views. George Eldon LaddGeorge Eldon LaddGeorge Eldon Ladd was a Baptist minister and professor of New Testament exegesis and theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California....
defends historical premillennialism; Herman A. Hoyt presents dispensationalDispensationalismDispensationalism is a nineteenth-century evangelical development based on a futurist biblical hermeneutic that sees a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods in history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants.As a system,...
premillennialism; Loraine BoettnerLoraine BoettnerLoraine Boettner was an American theologian and author.-Biography:Boettner was born in Linden, Missouri. He received a Th.B. and Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and he received the honorary degrees of Doctor of Divinity and Doctor of Letters . He was a member of the Orthodox...
defend explains postmillennialismPostmillennialismIn Christian end-times theology, , postmillennialism is an interpretation of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation which sees Christ's second coming as occurring after the "Millennium", a Golden Age in which Christian ethics prosper...
; and Anthony A. HoekemaAnthony A. HoekemaAnthony Andrew Hoekema was a Calvinist minister and theologian who served as professor of Systematic theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, for twenty-one years.- Biography :...
writes on amillennialismAmillennialismAmillennialism is a view in Christian end-times theology named for its rejection of the theory that Jesus Christ will have a thousand-year long, physical reign on the earth...
. - RevelationBook of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
: Four Views: A Parallel Commentary. Edited by Steve Greg. Waco, TX: Word Books, 1997. ISBN 0-8407-2128-5.
Works on the history of eschatology
- Daley, Brian E. The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of PatristicPatristicsPatristics or Patrology is the study of Early Christian writers, known as the Church Fathers. The names derive from the Latin pater . The period is generally considered to run from the end of New Testament times or end of the Apostolic Age Patristics or Patrology is the study of Early Christian...
EschatologyChristian eschatologyChristian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...
, Cambridge: Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, 2003. ISBN 1-56563-737-2. - Mühling, Markus, "Grundwissen Eschatologie. Systematische Theologie aus der Perspektive der Hoffnung", Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & RuprechtVandenhoeck & RuprechtVandenhoeck & Ruprecht is a scholarly publishing house based in Göttingen, Germany. It was founded in 1735 by Abraham Vandenhoeck in connection with the establishment of the Georg-August-Universität in the same city....
, 2005. ISBN 978-3-8252-2918-4, 209–214. - Froom, Le Roy EdwinLe Roy Edwin FroomLe Roy Edwin Froom was a Seventh-day Adventist minister and historian.-Life:Froom was the first associate secretary of the General Conference Ministerial Association from 1926 to 1950. He was also the founding editor of Ministry Magazine...
. The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers;: The Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation. 4 Vols. Review and Herald, 1946-54. ASIN B0006AR2YQ. An enormously comprehensive history of eschatological thought. Froom is an AdventistSeventh-day Adventist ChurchThe Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
but this is not overly apparent in the work. It is currently out of print. - Hill, Charles F. Regnum Caelorum: Patterns of Millennial Thought in Early ChristianityEarly ChristianityEarly Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001. ISBN 0-8028-4634-3. Hill questions the legitimacy of early premillennial thought by analyzing an apparent paradox in the early chiliast theology, particularly the intermediate stateHadesHades , Hadēs, originally , Haidēs or , Aidēs , meaning "the unseen") was the ancient Greek god of the underworld. The genitive , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the nominative came to designate the abode of the dead.In Greek mythology, Hades...
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