"Millennial Reign" of Christ

Gary DeMar
"Papias claims that the following description of the millennium was uttered by Jesus:

"The days will come, in which vines shall grow, each having ten thousand branches, and each branch ten thousand twigs, and each true twig ten thousand shoots, and in each one of the shoots ten thousand clusters, and on every one of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed and will give five and twenty metretes of wine."

Papias attributes these words to Jesus. As historian Leroy Froom writes, “This tradition was supposedly derived from Christ, but in reality it came from Jewish apocalyptic sources”—The Book of the Apocalypse of Baruch the Son of Neriah. While Papias was a premillennialist, he does not support his position by an appeal to the Bible.

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"the SOULS of those that were BEHEADED.. which had not worshipped the Beast.. neither had received his mark.. lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."

Hampden-Cook on Millennium | Concerning the Millennium | A Dissuasive From the Errors of the Time - The thousand years of Christ his visible Reign upon earth, is against Scripture | Millennium | History of Millennialism | Chiliasm in the Early Church | Christian Millennial Expectations through the centuries "the 1,000 is not to be taken literally, but figuratively, and the millennial kingdom is already alive in the Christian Church. This means that all the events described in Revelation had already taken place"

Catechism of the Catholic Church :
"The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism"

"In the age of Constantine, however, a radical change took place in this belief. After Christianity, contrary to all expectation, triumphed in the Roman empire, and was embraced by the Caesars themselves, the millennial reign, instead of being anxiously waited and prayed for, began to be dated either from the first appearance of Christ, or from the conversion of Constantine, and to be regarded as realized in the glory of the dominant imperial state-church. From that time chiliasm, not indeed in its essence, as the hope of a golden age of the church on earth, and of a great sabbath of the world after the hard labor of the world's history, but in its distorted Ebionistic form, took its place among the heresies, and was rejected subsequently even by the Protestant reformers as a Jewish dream." (Schaff's History, pg. 299-301)

LATEST ADDITIONS

• 9/4/12: Papias-Syriac Document Translated - Comment on the Millennium from the first half of the Ninth Century by "John of Dara"

• 9/4/12: Revelation's Millennia and Greco-Roman Notions of Hades

• Michael J. Svigel The Phantom Heresy: Did the Council of Ephesus Condemn Chiliasm? (2004) "The pronouncement by the Holy Office referred to therein occurred in July of 1944 in answer to the following question: “Quid sentiendum de systemate Millenarismi mitigati, docentis scilicet Christum Dominum ante finale iudicium, sive praevia sive non praevia plurium iustorum resurrectione, visibiliter in hanc terram regnandi causa esse venturum?” The response to the question, confirmed by Pope Pius XII, was short and direct: “Systema Millenarismi mitigati tuto doceri non posse,” i.e., “A mild millennial system is not able to be taught safely” (Henricus Denzinger, ed., Enchiridion Symbolorum: Definitionum et Declarationum de Rebus Fidei et Morum, 36^th emended ed., ed. Adolfus Schönmetzer [Freiburg: Herder, 1976], 759). What is meant by “mitigated” or “mild” millennialism and by the qualifier “safely” renders the official answer ambiguous.

Didache: Teaching of the Twelve
"For in the last days false prophets and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate; for when lawlessness increases, they shall hate and persecute and betray one another, and then shall appear the world-deceiver as Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands, and he shall do iniquitous things which have never yet come to pass since the beginning. Then shall the creation of men come into the fire of trial, and many shall be made to stumble and shall perish; but those who endure in their faith shall be saved from under the curse itself. And then shall appear the signs of the truth: first, the sign of an outspreading in heaven, then the sign of the sound of the trumpet. And third, the resurrection of the dead -- yet not of all, but as it is said: "The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him." Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven." - Didache 16 (source)

Philip of Side (434-439)
"Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, who was a disciple of John the Divine, and a companion of Polycarp, wrote five books of Oracles of the Lord, wherein, when giving a list of the Apostles, after Peter and John, Philip and Thomas and Matthew he included among the disciples of the Lord Aristion and a second John, whom also he called `The Elder.' So some think that this John is the author of the two short and catholic Epistles, which are published in the name of John; and he gives as the reason that the primitive (fathers) only accept the first epistle. Some too have wrongly considered the Apocalypse also to be his (i.e. the Elder John's) work. Papias too is in error about the Millennium, and from him Irenaeus also." (History of Christianity fragment from codex Baroccianus 142 )

Epiphanes (315-403)
"There is indeed a millennium mentioned by St. John; but the most, and those pious men, look upon those words as true indeed, but to be taken in a spiritual sense." (Heresies, 77:26.)

Eusebius (A.D.325)
"This same historian (Papias) also gives other accounts, which he says he adds as received by him from unwritten tradition, likewise certain strange parables of our Lord, and of His doctrine and some other matters rather too fabulous. In these he says there would be a certain millennium after the resurrection, and that there would be a corporeal reign of Christ on this very earth; which things he appears to have imagined, as if they were authorized by the apostolic narrations, not understanding correctly those matters which they propounded mystically in their representations. For he was very limited in his comprehension, as is evident from his discourses; yet he was the cause why most of the ecclesiastical writers, urging the antiquity of man, were carried away by a similar opinion; as, for instance, Irenaeus, or any other that adopted such sentiments. (Book III, Ch. 39)

"But Cerinthus, too, through revelations written, as he would have us believe, by a great apostle, brings before us marvelous things, which he pretends were shown him by angels; alleging that after the resurrection the kingdom of Christ is to be on earth, and that the flesh dwelling in Jerusalem is again to be subject to desires and pleasures. And being an enemy to the scriptures of God, wishing to deceive men, he says that there is to be space of a thousand years for marriage festivities." "One of the doctrines he taught was, that Christ would have an earthly kingdom."  (Eusebius's  Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 28)

 [Eusebius's Eccl. Hist., V. 24], states that while John was at Ephesus, he entered a bath to wash and found that Cerinthus was within, and refused to bathe in the same bath house, but left the building, and exhorted those with him to do the same, saying, "Let us flee, lest the bath fall in, as long as Cerinthus, that enemy of the truth, is within." (Eusebius's Eccl. Hist., III. 28. )

  "Cerinthus required his followers to retain part of the Mosaical law, but to regulate their lives by the example of Christ: and taught that after the resurrection Christ would reign upon earth, with his faithful disciples, a thousand years, which would be spent in the highest sensual indulgences.

 This mixture of Judaism and Oriental philosophy was calculated to make many converts, and this sect soon became very numerous. They admitted a part of St. Matthew's Gospel but rejected the rest, and held the epistles of St. Paul in great abhorrence." (Gregory and Ruter's Church History., Page 30. )

Justin Martyr (A.D.150)
CHAP. XI.--WHAT KINGDOM CHRISTIANS LOOK FOR.
"And when you hear that we look for a kingdom, you suppose, without making any inquiry, that we speak of a human kingdom; whereas we speak of that which is with God, as appears also from the confession of their faith made by those who are charged with being Christians, though they know that death is the punishment awarded to him who so confesses. For if we looked for a human kingdom, we should also deny our Christ, that we might not be slain; and we should strive to escape detection, that we might obtain what we expect. But since our thoughts are not fixed on the present, we are not concerned when men cut us off; since also death is a debt which must at all events be paid." (First Apology of Justin Martyr, ch. 11)

Victorinus
"Even though the floods of the nations and the vain superstitions of heretics should revolt against their true faith, they are overcome, and shall be dissolved as the foam, because Christ is the rock by which, and on which, the church is founded. And thus it is overcome by no [16] traces of maddened men. Therefore they are not to be heard who assure themselves that there is to be an earthly reign of a thousand years; who think, that is to say, with the heretic Cerinthus. For the kingdom of Christ is now eternal in his saints."  (Commentary on the Apocalypse)

Christianity Today
"In City of God, Augustine (354-430) viewed the thousand years of Revelation 20 not as some special future time but "the period beginning with Christ's first coming," that is, the age of the Christian church. Throughout this age, the saints reign with Christ—not in the fullness of the coming kingdom prepared for those blessed by God the Father, but "in some other and far inferior way." This position, often called "amillennial," became the view of most Christians in the West, including the Reformers, for almost 1,500 years." 

"Impressed by New England's spiritual awakening in the early 1740s, he wrote, " 'Tis not unlikely that this work of God's Spirit, that is so extraordinary and wonderful, is the dawning, or at least a prelude, of that glorious work of God, so often foretold in Scripture…. And there are many things that make it probable that this work will begin in America." After the Great Awakening, Edwards became more cautious and dated the Millennium (a term he used rarely) somewhere around the year 2000." (October 12, 2001)

"The days will come in which vines shall grow," imagined Papias of Hierapolis, "each having ten thousand branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each true twig ten thousand shoots, and in each one of the shoots ten thousand clusters, and on every one of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed will give two hundred gallons of wine. And when any of the saints shall lay hold of a cluster, another shall cry out, 'I am a better cluster, take me; bless the Lord through me.'" Papias (c.60-120) was perhaps the first post-biblical author to describe the thousand-year visible Kingdom of Christ—the Millennium." (The End: A History of the Second Coming)

Robert G. Clouse
"the Council of Ephesus in 431, belief in the millennium was condemned as superstitious." (Clouse, The Meaning of the Millennium, p. 9.)

James M. Efird (1989)
"If one examines the texts carefully, however, it becomes rather obvious that John is not talking about the earth but is describing a scene in heaven.  The martyrs are in heaven here and in every other place in Revelation (cf. 6:9-10).  These martyrs are reigning with Christ in heaven, not for one thousand literal years but completely, totally."  (Revelation for Today: An Apocalyptic Approach, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1989, p. 115)

Richard Erdoes
"On the last day of the year 999, according to an ancient chronicle, the old basilica of St. Peter's at Rome was thronged with a mass of weeping and trembling worshippers awaiting the end of the world.  This was the dreaded eve of the millennium, the Day of Wrath when the earth would dissolve into ashes.  Many of those present had fiven away all of their possessions to the poor - lands, homes, and household goods - in order to assure for themselves forgiveness for their trespasses at the Last Judgment and a good place in heaven near the footstool of the Almighty.  Many poor sinners - and who among them was not without sin?  had entered the church in sackcloth and ashes, having already spent weeks and months doing penance and mortifying the flesh ... the last day of the year 999 and the first day of the year 1000 had come and gone.  Yet still the earth stood still and people still lived." (A.D.2000: Living on the Brink of Apocalypse, 1,194.)

Joseph Hall (1574-1656)
"the main grounde of all their Heterodoxie in this point, is that they put a meerly-literall construction upon the prophesies and promies of Scripture which the Holy Ghost intended onely to be spiritually understood..." (Anonymously published The Revelation Unrevealed concerning the Thousand-Yeares Reigne of the Saints with Christ upon Earth (1650)

Harold Hazelip (1966)
"The 1000 years appears nowhere in the 66 books, 1189 chapters, 31,173 verses of the Bible except for 6 occurrences in 6 consecutive verses of Revelation 20:2-7.  It is not good exegesis to build an entire system of eschatology, a philosophy of history, on such a highly symbolic passage, particularly when that interpretation conflicts with other plain passage of scripture." ("Revelation and the Millennium," Restoration Quarterly 18, 1975, 234)

Joel Green
"The kingdom is God's reign, already begun."  (How to Read Prophecy, 87)

"The Lord's present reign is most visible in the church.  Nonetheless, it must be stated emphatically: the church in not the kingdom.  The kingdom is the universal, final, eternal, perfect, transcendent and definitive reign of God."   (How to Read Prophecy, 118)

John N.D. Kelly (1978)
"..in the apostolic age, as the New Testament documents reveal, the Church was pervaded with an intense conviction that hope to which Israel had looked forward yearningly had at last been fulfilled. ..history had reached its climax and the reign of God, as so many of our Lord's parables imply, had been effectively inaugurated." (Early Christian Doctrines. Revised Edition, 1978. pp. 459-461)

"About the middle of the second century Christian eschatology enters upon a new, rather more mature phase. ..Justin teaches on the basis of Old Testament prophecy that, in addition to His coming in lowliness at His incarnation, Christ will come again in glory .. new emphases and fresh lines of thought begin to appear, partly for apologetic motives and partly as the result of growing speculation. The clash with Judaism and paganism made it imperative to set out the bases of the revealed dogmas more thoroughly. ..millenarianism, or the theory that the returned Christ would reign on earth for a thousand years, came to find increasing support among Christian teachers." (Early Christian Doctrines. Revised Edition, 1978. pp. 465)

"[Justin Martyr's] argument is that, while numerous contexts no doubt predict His coming in humiliation, there are others (e.g. Is. 53:8-12; Ezek. 7f; Dan. 7:9-28; Zech. 12:10-12; Ps. 72:1-20; 110:1-7) which clearly presuppose His coming in majesty and power. The former coming was enacted at the incarnation, but the latter still lies in the future. It will take place, he suggests, at Jerusalem, where Christ will be recognized by the Jews who dishonored Him as the sacrifice which avails for all penitent sinners, and where He will eat and drink with His disciples; and He will reign there a thousand years. This millenarians, or "chialistic," doctrine was widely popular at this time. ..[But] he confesses that he knows pious, pure-minded Christians who do not share this belief.." (pp. 464-466)

Arthur Cushman McGiffert (1890)
"Jewish chiliasm was very common at about the beginning of the Christian era, and is represented in the voluminous apocalyptic literature of that day. Christian chiliasm was an outgrowth of the Jewish, but spiritualized it, and fixed it upon the second, instead of the first, coming of Christ." (Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers (NPNF), eds. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979), 2:1:172, note 19.⁾

Dwight Pentecost
"the prophecies regarding David’s reign in the millennium are not literally understood; they speak of Christ." (Things to Come: A study Biblical Eschatology [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan/Academie, (1958) 1964], p. 498).

William H. Rutgers
"That chiliasm roots in this particularistic Judiaistic Apocalyptic mold cannot be gainsayed." (Premillenialism in America, pg. 47)

“Amazingly meager indeed are the direct and explicit statements which can by any means show of reasonableness be claimed as evidence for Chiliasm. To imagine that we can distil from these rare fragments the orthodox faith of the early church is a huge assumption, and even more preposterous is it to claim that these barren feeble utterances represent Chiliasm in its modern premillenial manifestation. “(Premillenialism in America, pg. 52, 53)
 

Dr. Stephen Travis (1974)
"The idea of a thousand-year reign appears in the Bible only in Revelation 20.  That is no reason for dismissing it, but it is a hint that the millennium is not to be regarded as a literal thousand-year reign on earth..  So how should we understand the passage about the millennium in Revelation 20:1-6?  Certainly we should not there is no mention of a reign on earth.  If the 'thrones' (verse 4) are anywhere, there are in heaven, like all the other thrones mentioned in Revelation (except for the thrones of Satan and of 'the beast').  It is better to understand this thousand-year reign not as some future literal, earthly reign, but as a symbol of the period between Christ's resurrection and final coming." (The Jesus Hope, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1974, 89-90)

Waddington
"This obscure doctrine was probably known to but very few except the fathers of the church, and is very sparingly mentioned by them during the first centuries; and there is reason to believe that it scarcely attained much notoriety, even among the learned Christians, until it was made a matter of controversy by Origen, and then rejected by the greater majority. In fact, we find Origen himself asserting that it was confined to those of a simpler sort." (History pg.56)
 

Richard Whatley (1787-1863)
"Now if all these things should come to pass, the determined expectation of which caused the Jews to reject Christ -- if he should actually appear, with miraculous splendor, as the restorer of the Jewish nation, and city, and Temple, reigning over the whole world as a great earthly sovereign, and reserving peculiar privileges for his own nation -- if, I say, all these expectations should be fulfilled, to which the Jews have so long and so obstinately clung, surely this would not be so much a conversion of the Jews to Christianity as a conversion of Christians to Judaism; it would not be bringing the Jews to the gospel by overcoming their national prejudices, but rather carrying back the gospel to meet the Jewish prejudices; it would be destroying the spiritual character of our religion, and establishing those erroneous views which have hitherto caused the Jews to reject it. We may conclude, then, that all the promises and predictions in Scripture relative to the future glories of the Jews and of Jerusalem, are to be understood of the Christian church, of which the Jewish church was a figure; and all that is said of feasting, and splendor, and wealth, and worldly greatness and enjoyment, is to be interpreted spiritually of the inward comfort and peace of mind, and "joy of the Holy Ghost", which is promised to sincere Christians in this life, and of the unspeakable happiness prepared for them after death."   (Richard Whately, (1787-1863) A View of the Scripture, Revelations Concerning a Future State)

? Waddington
"This obscure doctrine was probabally known to but very few except the fathers of the church, and is very sparingly mentioned by them during the first centuries; and there is reason to believe that it scarcely attained much notoriety, even among the learned Christians, until it was made a matter of controversy by Origen, and then rejected by the greater majority. In fact, we find Origen himself saying that it was confined to those of the simpler sort. " (Waddington's History, pg. 56)

Robert Baillie (1645)
"AMONG all the Sparkles of new light wherewith our Brethren do entertain their own and the people’s fancy, there is none more pleasant than that of the thousand years; a conceit of the most Ancient and gross Heretic Cerinthus, a little purged by Papias, and by him transmitted to some of the Greek and Latin Fathers, but quickly declared, both by the Greek and Latin Church to be a great errour, if not an heresy. Since the days of Augustine unto our time, it went under no other notion, and was embraced by no Christian we hear of, till some of the Anabaptists did draw it out of its grave" (A Dissuasive From the Errors of the Time - The thousand years of Christ his visible Reign upon earth, is against Scripture)

G.C. Berkouwer
"The kingdom has already come; and the believers must see, discover, and recognize that." (The Return of Christ, 87)

Lorraine Boettner (1957)
"So dependent is Premillennialism of the first 10 verses in Revelation 20, which it takes literally and then relies primarily on Old Testament kingdom prophecies for proof, that had it not been for this misinterpretation, the system as such probably never would have arisen." (The Millennium, rev. ed, Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, [1957] 1984, p. 11)

"We call attention also to the completely disproportionate emphasis that the premillennial system places on the Book of Revelation.  For according to that interpretation chapters 4 through 19, a total of 16 chapters, are used to describe the comparatively short seven year Tribulation, while only six verses in chapter 20 are used to describe the glorious one thousand year reign of Christ upon the earth, with all the great and mighty events that undoubtedly would happen during that time.  Such a method of interpretation is absurd on the face of it.  The order should at least be reversed." (The Millennium, rev. ed, Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, [1957] 1984, p. 202)

John Calvin (1536)
"But a little later there followed the chiliasts, who limited the reign of Christ to a thousand years. Now their fiction is too childish either to need or to be worth a refutation. And the Apocalypse, from which they undoubtedly drew a pretext for their error does not support them. For the number "one thousand" (Rev. 20:4) does not apply to the eternal blessedness of the church but only to the various disturbances that awaited the church, while still toiling on earth."

"For when we apply to it the measure of our own understanding, what can we conceive that is not gross and earthly? So it happens that like beasts our senses attract us to what appeals to our flesh, and we grasp at what is at hand. So we see that the Chialists (i.e. those who believed that Christ would reign on earth for a thousand years) fell into a like error. Jesus intended to banish from the disciples' minds a false impression regarding the earthly kingdom: for that, as He points out in a few words, consists of the preaching of the Gospel. They have no cause therefore to dream of wealth, luxury, power in the world or any other earthly thing when they hear that Christ is reigning when He subdues the world to Himself by the preaching of the Gospel. It follows from this that His reign is spiritual and not after the pattern of this world." - Comm. on Acts 1:8 (Torrance, VI, 32).

Dr. K.R. Hagenbach (1852)
"Though millennialism was suppressed by the early church, it was nevertheless from time to time revived by heretical sects." (History of Christian Doctrine, Volume 2, p. 378)

B.W. Johnson (1891)
And [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. Of the martyrs. Note that it is the "souls" that he observes. These are they "who came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years". Is this a literal resurrection from the grave? I answer decidedly in the negative. (1) The apostle does not say one word about the resurrection of the "bodies" of the martyrs, nor does he say that he saw the martyrs themselves. He is particular to say that he saw the "souls" or "spirits" of the martyrs living and reigning with Christ. (2) They had been put to death in the body, and their souls were unseen upon the earth, but there is no intimation in Scripture that their souls had ever ceased to exist. They were alive with Christ, but now they live in some sense different from that existence which they had before. It cannot mean that their souls came to life, for they had never ceased to have existence. (3) What, then, does the affirmation mean? That as Christ reigns upon the earth during the millennial period by his truth, so the spirit of the martyrs is revived and lives in the Church. The souls of the martyrs live because the Church is composed of those who love Christ better than goods or liberty or life. This glorious reign of Christ pervades the earth because the souls of the martyrs are resurrected and live in all who name the name of Christ, and who are filled with the spirit of ancient martyrs. (4) If any should think such an interpretation of symbolical language far fetched, let him compare Scripture. This explanation is not forced nor the interpretation of the language unusual. It was predicted by the prophets that Elijah must come again before the Messiah. He did come in spirit and power, not in person, but as the stern, fearless, upright reformer of the wilderness of Jordan."

Jim McGuiggan (1998)
"An old Christianity Today cartoon offers this:  A man is sitting in a hotel room.  His hair's a mess, his shirt is lying open, and his tie is loosed.  He's unshaven, his eyes have deep, dark rings around them, and he has a look of desperation on his face as he hoarsely says into the phone, "Pastor, you've got to help me.  I've lost my job, my wife has left me, the kids have gone with her, I'm in debt over my head, and I won't be able to pay the hotel bill.  Please, tell me, is Revelation 20 literal or figurative?" (Jesus: Hero of Thy Soul: Impressions Left by the Savior's Touch, p. 15)

J.A.W. Neander (1837)
" Among the Jews the representation was growing that the messiah would reign 1000 years upon the earth. Such products of Jewish imagination passed over into Christianity. " (History of Christian Dogmas, Vol. I, pg. 248)

"Amazingly meager indeed, are the direct and explicit statments which can by any show of reasonablness be claimed as evidence for Chiliasm. To imagine that we can distil from these rare fragments the orthodox faith of the early church is a huge assumption, and even more perpostrous is it to claim that these barren, feeble utterances represent Chiliasm in its modern premillenial manifestation. " (Ibid. pgs. 52 - 53)

Philip Schaff (1877)
"The most striking point in the eschatology of the ancient church is the widely current and very prominent chiliasm, or the doctrine of a visible reign of Christ in glory on earth with the risen saints for a thousand years. The Jewish hope of a Messianic kingdom, which rested on carnal misapprehension of the prophetic figures, was transplanted to the soil of Christianity, but here spiritualized, and fixed on the second coming of Christ instead of the first ; and this earthly sabbath of the church was no longer regarded as the goal of her course, but only as a prelude to the endless blessedness of heaven.3

The Christian chiliasm, if we leave out of sight the sensuous and fanatical extravagance, into which it has frequently run, both in ancient and in modern times, is based on the unfulfilled promises of .the Lord,4 and particularly on the apocalyptic figure of his thousand years' reign upon earth after the first resurrection ;6 in connexion with the numerous passages respecting his glorious return, which declare it to be near, and yet uncertain and unascertainable as to its day and hour, that believers may be always ready for it.1 This precious hope, through the whole age of persecution, was a copious fountain of encouragement and comfort under the pains of that martyrdom which sowed in blood the seed of a glorious harvest for the church.

Hence we find chiliasm not only among the heretical Jewish- Christians and the Montanists, with whom it was a fundamental article of faith ; but also, in a purified form, in a number of orthodox church teachers. Barnabas considers the Mosaic history of the creation a type of six ages of labor for the world, with a thousand years' sabbath of blessed rest ; since with God " one day is as a thousand years."3 Papias of Hierapolis appealed, in support of his somewhat quaint notions of the happiness of the millennial reign, to apostolic traditions ; but the other apostolic fathers make no express mention of the subject. Justin Martyr regarded the expectation of the earthly perfection of the church as the keystone of pure doctrine, but knew orthodox Christians who did not share it ; as, indeed, the other apologists are at least silent respecting it. Irenaeus, on the strength of tradition from St. John and his disciples, taught that after the destruction of the Roman empire, and the brief raging of antichrist, Christ will visibly appear, will bind Satan, will reign at the rebuilt city of Jerusalem with the little band of faithful confessors and the host of risen martyrs over the nations of the earth, and will celebrate the millennial sabbath of preparation for the eternal glory of heaven ; then, after a temporary liberation of Satan, follows the final victory, the general resurrection, the judgment of the world, and the consummation in the new heavens and the new earth. Tertullian, in behalf of his chiliastic ideas, pointed not only to the Apocalypse, but also to the predictions of the Montanist prophets.

But Millenarianism became frequently, especially with the Montanists in Asia Minor, so colored in the grossly sensuous style of Judaism, that it provoked opposition, first in the Roman church and then in the Alexandrian school. The presbyter Caius, towards the end of the second century, in controversywith the Montanist Proclus, referred chiliasm, and perhaps even the Apocalypse of John, to the hated heretic Cerinthus ; and Origen spiritualized the symbolical language of the Revelation. Yet even in Egypt chiliasm had many friends. In the West it maintained itself still longer, and found advocates in Commodian towards the close of the third century, and Lactantius and Victorinus in the beginning of the fourth.

In the age of Constantine, however, a radical change took place in this belief. After Christianity, contrary to all expectation, triumphed in the Roman empire, and was embraced by the Caesars themselves, the millennial reign, instead of being anxiously waited and prayed for, began to be dated either from the first appearance of Christ, or from the conversion of Constantine, and to be regarded as realized in the glory of the dominant imperial state-church. From that time chiliasm, not indeed in its essence, as the hope of a golden age of the church on earth, and of a great sabbath of the world after the hard labor of the world's history, but in its distorted Ebionistic form, took its place among the heresies, and was rejected subsequently even by the Protestant reformers as a Jewish dream." (Schaff's History, pg. 299-301)

C.H. Spurgeon (1865)
"Those who wish to see the arguments upon the unpopular side of the great question at issue, will find them here; this is probably one of the ablest of the accessible treatises from that point of view. We cannot agree with Mr. Young, neither can we refute him. It might tax the ingenuity of the ablest prophetical writers to solve all the difficulties here started, and perhaps it would be unprofitable to attempt the task. . . (review of Short Arguments about the Millennium; or plain proofs for plain Christians that the coming of Christ will not be pre-millennial; that his reign will not be personal, B. C. Young. In The Sword and Trowel 1:470 (October 1867).

Daniel Whitby (1703)
"The doctrine of the Millennium was never generally received in the church of Christ “ (Daniel Whitby, “A Treatise on the True Millennium,” in Patrick, Lowth, Arnald, Whitby, and Lowman, Commentary on the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament, 4 vols. (Philadelphia, PA: Carey and Hart, 1845), vol. 4, p. 1118.)

“The doctrine of the millennium was not the general doctrine of the primitive church from the times of the apostles to the Nicene council . . . for then it could have made no schism in the church, as Dionysius of Alexandria saith it did.” (Ibid., pp. 1122-23. He cites Dionysius 5:6; Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 7:24.)

Jay Adams (1966)
"In fact, apart from the twentieth chapter of Revelation, they (former premillennialists) wonder how anyone could come to the premillennial viewpoint at all.  They freely admit that this one chapter is the sole basis for their belief.  They have begun to demand that certain assumptions be proved.  They ask, for instance, where biblical warrant may be found for identifying scores of Old Testament prophecies with the 1000-year period mentioned (but not described) in Revelation 20.  They no longer can agree to the exploded "postponement theory," and having rejected that pillar of the dispensational system for the first time, they are able to see that Daniel's seventieth week (Daniel 9) is not paranthetically separated from the other sixty-none by the church age, but was fulfilled in the time of Christ.  They have carefully restudied Matthew 24 and the parallel passages in the other gospels and are now convinced that much of what they once referred to as a "great tribulation" immediately prior to the second coming, rightly pertains to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.  With this, the entire matter of a future tribulation and Antichrist is brought in question." (The Time is at Hand, p. 3)

Alexander Brown
"Let us not forget that once in the Church's history it was the common belief that John's 1000 years were gone. Dorner bears witness that the Church up to Constantine understood by Antichrist chiefly the heathen state, and to some extent unbelieving Judaism (System iv.,390). Victorinus, a bishop martyred in 303, reckoned the 1000 years from the birth of Christ.

Augustine wrote his magnum opus 'the City of God' with a sort of dim perception of the identity of the Christian Church with the new Jerusalem. Indeed we know that the 1000 years were held to be running by the generations previous to that date, and so intense was their faith that the universal Church was in a ferment of excitement about and shortly after 1000 A.D. in expectation of the outbreak of Satanic influence. Wickliff, the reformer, believed that Satan bad been unbound at the end of the 1000 years, and was intensely active in his day. That this period in Church history is past, or now runs its course, has been the belief of a roll of eminent men too long to be chronicled on our pages of Augustine, Luther, Bossuet, Cocceius, Grotius, Hammond, Hengstenberg, Keil, Moses Stuart, Philippi, Maurice." (Alexander Brown, Great Day of the Lord, p. 216.)

J. Marcellus Kik (1971)
"The premillenialist, however, maintains as a cardinal and fundamental tenet of his system of eschatology that the throne of glory is an earthly throne set up in the material city of Jerusalem.  The temporal throne of David is to be reconstructed in Jerusalem... As a matter of fact there is not one passage in the New Testament which gives definite information of a personal reign of Christ upon a temporal throne in the material city of Jerusalem!  What seems to be hidden to the apostles have been revealed by uninspired men." (An Eschatology of Victory, 171)

John Lightfoot
"With the same reference it is, that the times and state of things immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem are called 'a new creation,' new heavens,' and 'a new earth.' When should that be? Read the whole chapter; and you will find the Jews rejected and cut off; and from that time is that new creation of the evangelical world among the Gentiles.

Compare 2 Cor. 5:17 and Rev. 21:1,2; where, the old Jerusalem being cut off and destroyed, a new one succeeds; and new heavens and a new earth are created.

2 Peter 3:13: 'We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth.' The heaven and the earth of the Jewish church and commonwealth must be all on fire, and the Mosaic elements burnt up; but we, according to the promise made to us by Isaiah the prophet, when all these are consumed, look for the new creation of the evangelical state" (vol. 3, p.453)

"That the destruction of Jerusalem and the whole Jewish state is described as if the whole frame of the world were to be dissolved. Nor is it strange, when God destroyed his habitation and city, places once so dear to him, with so direful and sad an overthrow; his own people, whom he accounted of as much or more than the whole world beside, by so dreadful and amazing plagues. Matt. 24:29,30, 'The sun shall be darkened &c. Then shall appear the 'sign of the Son of man,' &c; which yet are said to fall out within that generation, ver. 34. 2 Pet. 3:10, 'The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,' &c. Compare with this Deut. 32:22, Heb. 12:26: and observe that by elements are understood the Mosaic elements, Gal 4:9, Coloss. 2:20: and you will not doubt that St. Peter speaks only of the conflagration of Jerusalem, the destruction of the nation, and the abolishing the dispensation of Moses" (vol. 3, p. 452).

"Temporal Adverb" in I Corinthians 15:26

"..afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then (eita) cometh the end.."

W.D. Davies (1948)
"('the end' in v. 24) "is a technical phrase denoting the final consummation immediately or at any rate with only a very short interval" (after the parousia). (Paul and Rabbinic Judaism, p. 295).

The Nature of this Transition Period

See Also: 40 Years and that Generation

Stan Moody
"I could not stand on Masada without realizing that something of a critical nature happened there which marked a new era in God's redemptive plan.  It seemed like  a moment of cleavage, with the old order giving way to the new Messianic order, and Jews completed in Christ, violently and suddenly (albeit unwillingly) being severed from their Jewish traditions. I began to see that in a very real sense, Masada was a moment in the fulfillment of John the Baptist's "coming wrath" (Luke 3:7), from which Christians in obedience to Christ had escaped.  By this violent rendering, they at last were free to worship unencumbered by the temptation to revert to the old Jewish customs.  Masada signaled the end of the overlapping of the ages.  The Temple had given way to the Cross.  Surely, A.D.70-72 marked the last days, at least for the moment, of national Israel as God's chosen people, and of Jerusalem as God's dwelling place." (Introduction, Crisis in Evangelical Scholarship)

H.J. Schoeps (1966)
(on the traditional views concerning the length of the intermediate Messianic kingdom) "fix a very short interval for the interim period, namely, forty years (R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus; Bar in Sanh. 99a; R. Aqiba: Midr. Teh. on Ps 90:15; Tanch. Eqeb 7b, Pes. Rabb. 4a). The two Tannaites, commenting on Ps 95:7, derive this time indication from the Messianically understood v.10 (forty years I loathed that generation) and from Deut. 8:2 by a parallelization with the forty years in the desert." (Paul, p. 100)

Lohse, TDNT
"The idea of the millennium which the divine works out here is to be understood against the backdrop of the Jewish apoc. traditions that he adopts and uses. In the expectation of an intermediate Messianic kingdom which shall precede the end and the coming of the reign of God, Eth. En. 91:12f; 93:1-14; Sib., 3, 652-660; 4 Esr. 7:28f; S. Bar. 29:3; 30:1-5; 40:3, two forms of eschatological hope are combined. Acc. to the older view the Messiah will be the end-time king restoring the Davidic monarchy and raising it to new heights. In apoc., however, a very different concept of the future age of salvation develops. On this view God's envoy will appear from heaven, the dead will rise again at his coming, and all men must come before his judgment-seat. Later an attempt was made to fuse the older national concept with the universal eschatology by putting the reign of the Messiah-King before the end of the world and the beginning of the new aeon. The earthly Messianic age will be for a limited term and it will be followed by a last assault of the powers of chaos prior to the commencement of the future world." (TDNT, Vol. IX, page 470)

B.F. Westcott (1889)
"Jewish teachers distinguished a 'present age' (this age) from 'that age' (the age to come). Between 'the present age' of imperfection and conflict and trial and 'the age to come' of the perfect reign of God they placed 'the days of the Messiah,' which they sometimes reckoned in the former, sometimes in the latter, and sometimes distinct from both. They were, however, commonly agreed that the passage from one age to the other would be through a period of intense sorrow and anguish, 'the travail-pains' of the new birth (Mt. 24:8). The apostolic writers, fully conscious of the spiritual crisis through which they were passing speak of their own time as the 'last days' (Acts 2:17; James 5:3; comp. 2 Tim. 3:1); the 'last hour' (1 Jno. 2:18); the 'end of the times' (1 Peter 1:20; 2 Pet. 3:3); 'the last time' (Jude 18)."

"Procreation still takes place during this era of time because those who survived the tribulation hour enter the Millennium with human bodies.  The believers upon the thrones possess resurrected bodies and do not bear children, but the others do. " - JVI

Jack Van Impe
"Those who oppose the teaching of a literal one-thousand year reign of Christ upon earth are in direct opposition to the Word of God!" (Revelation Revealed, p. 233)

"Only the spiritually blind can deny the fact of a literal millennium.  Only the willfully ignorant can claim that the teaching is based on just one chapter of the Bible." (Revelation Revealed, p. 236)

"Procreation still takes place during this era of time because those who survived the tribulation hour enter the Millennium with human bodies.  The believers upon the thrones possess resurrected bodies and do not bear children, but the others do.  Consequently, the children born during this one-thousand-year period are born with the old Adamic, or sin nature which has been an inherent part of man ever since the fall of man ever since the fall of Adam and Eve.  Many of them, of course, accept Christ as their personal saviour, but many do not!  Satan's release, then, is to determine whether or not Christ is real to these children of the Millennium, or whether they have been submissive simply because He ruled with a 'rod of iron.'" (Revelation Revealed, p. 239)

Here shalt thou sit incarnate, here shalt reign Both God and Man, Son both of God and Man, Anointed universal King; all power I give thee, reign forever, and assume Thy merits; under thee as Head Supreme Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions I reduce: All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide In Heaven, or Earth, or under Earth in Hell.   John Milton, Paradise Lost [3.315-22]

Date: 20 Jan 2006
Time: 19:25:16

Comments:

We are studing Rev now in our church. after reading
the information above I think we are little children
trying to understand things our simple mind can
not understand. m tackett in Oklahome

Date: 07 Aug 2006
Time: 12:45:04

Comments:

I know there is a danger in being too brief,but I feel constrained to comment on what I have read. First let me state none of the points made really deal with the text. They simply attempt to explain away what is said. For me there is a 1000 years or a long period of time referred to in the text and it is supported by the fact that there are things that happen before it, during it, and after it. I can enlarge upon this but it is enough to deserve a response. The Beast and false prophet and the Devil operate before it but not during it and the Devil is set free after it. Gary Smith from Bermuda acsmith@northrock.bm

Date: 06 Sep 2006
Time: 10:22:34

Comments:

As I sit and read all of the articles enclosed on this website, I would like to remind people that, whatever your view of the end, we are to love one another. Some of these articles are dripping with sarcasm and contempt. No matter what your view on eschatology, this world is not getting any better. This is to all of our shame because we are arguing and fighting with one another instead of changing hearts for Christ. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2Peter 3:10 This was from a literal book printed on a real press, sold at a real store, bought by my human (not spiritual) husband.
K.Hamrick

Date: 27 Oct 2006
Time: 14:35:16

Comments:

Way to take Justin Martyr out of context.

Here's what he truly thought.

In <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-dialoguetrypho.html">Dialogue with Trypho</a>, LXXX, Justin Martyr writes:
<blockquote>And Trypho [whom Justin was speaking to] to this replied, "I remarked to you sir, that you are very anxious to be safe in all respects, since you cling to the Scriptures. But tell me, do you really admit that this place, Jerusalem, shall be rebuilt; and do you expect your people to be gathered together, and made joyful with Christ and the patriarchs, and the prophets, both the men of our nation, and other proselytes who joined them before your Christ came? or have you given way, and admitted this in order to have the appearance of worsting us in the controversies?"

Then I answered, "I am not so miserable a fellow, Trypho, as to say one thing and think another. I admitted to you formerly, that I and many others are of this opinion, and [believe] that such will take place, as you assuredly are aware; but, on the other hand, I signified to you that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise. Moreover, I pointed out to you that some who are called Christians, but are godless, impious heretics, teach doctrines that are in every way blasphemous, atheistical, and foolish. But that you may know that I do not say this before you alone, I shall draw up a statement, so far as I can, of all the arguments which have passed between us; in which I shall record myself as admitting the very same things which I admit to you. For I choose to follow not men or men's doctrines, but God and the doctrines [delivered] by Him. For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this [truth], and

Furthermore, <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-dialoguetrypho.html">ibid</a>, LXXXI, Justin Martyr writes:
<blockquote>And further, there was a certain man with us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation that was made to him, that those who believed in our Christ would dwell a thousand years in Jerusalem; and that thereafter the general, and, in short, the eternal resurrection and judgment of all men would likewise take place.</blockquote>

Date: 13 Nov 2006
Time: 08:25:22

Comments:

Jesus the Christ, having been both God and Man, once upon this earth, is perfectly capiable of being here again. He will create a new earth and a new Jerusalem, of that we can be certain. Will there be a second chance for those who did not choose Him the first time around? I would not gamble on that one. I would choose Him today. I do believe He will reign here. I do believe in the Thousand Year Reign. But, do we know how He measures time? I think not. What will take place? Only He knows. Those of us who is left will see. The key is to be ready. Are you??? Dr. Terri Hart Hunter

Date: 19 Apr 2007
Time: 08:26:54

Comments:

Many christians believe that the end of the world could come any day now. As a christian myself and an avid reader of the Bible, I have interpreted from the book of Revelation that the end can not come until after the millinial reign. I actually look forward to this time. I expect, if I am alive, that I will live Throughout this Thousand years and return with Jesus to the new heaven. If I am not living, then I will be resurected to do the same.The common belief that one will be taken away and the other left here, all in the twinkling of an eye does not seem likely to happen. I feel from this day forth or from the time of my resurection, that there will at least be a thousand years of peace on this earth, free from the evil influences of satan. Am I seeing this in the wrong perspective?

Dean Riggan
driggan3@nc.rr.com
 

Date: 27 Feb 2009
Time: 22:05:22

Your Comments:

One reason why the millennium is not literal is that satan was said to be bound so that the nations (ethnay) would no longer be deceived.

The word is used by Paul in Rom 11:13. It is a reference to the Gentiles! When were the gentiles no longer deceived? When they came to faith in Jesus. Thus the 1000 years started sometime in the 30's of the 1st century.

Date: 01 Mar 2009
Time: 21:50:55

Your Comments:

One must understand the the six day theory, and the 7 dispensations, before one can deny the Millennium. To deny the Millennium is literally to rip passage and passage from Gods Word.

Date: 21 May 2009
Time: 07:33:58

Your Comments:

Over and over it is said that the millennial age is only spoken of in revelations, this is not true for Isaiah also speaks of it and it is foreshadowed in Ezekiel's measuring of the temple.But the saints will reign with their Lord from heaven.

Date: 27 Aug 2009
Time: 02:21:33

Your Comments:

Having spent the last few months emersed in the different views on the '1000 years' it has become apparent that every view is not without its problems. Could it be that these problems are the result of attempting to tanspose the reward of the martyrs onto the fate of Satan in the text? In other words John may have utilized the '1000 years' as a popular measurement of time in order to draw a contradistinction between two economies. I t may well be that in 20:1-3 John incorporates the widely known combat myth attaching the '1000 years' to it to convey to his original audience his belief that Satan was imminently ready to be unleashed to rally the Parthians from the East with Nero at its head to bring this age to its end along with the carrer of Satan. Conversley when the '1000 years' is used for the reward for martyrdom in that short end battle its meaning cannot possibly be transposed onto the fate of Satan. Rather, they will rule in the age to come upon the renovated earth Rev 5:10. The problematic verse is 5.Notice that the verse does not specifically say that the rest of the dead come to life 1000 years after the first resurrection. If Satans history ends with the age so too comes the fianl resurrection. Therefore the first resurrection might simply imply that God will gather the faithful martyrs out of the End time battle in order to shower the enemies of God with his firery judgment. In other words the two resurrections are distiguihed from one another on the one eschatological momnet which is seperated by the methapor working in two direction, i.e. This age will end with Satan and the new age will begin with the rewarding of the faithful who inherit the earth.
 

Date: 10 Mar 2010
Time: 11:27:20

Your Comments:

It is a thrill finding this study that from my own seeking and learning I fully agree. It reveals need to understand revelation is not in telling, but understanding.
In first discovering the Greek 'Chilioi' often called Millennium is not found but once in Rev-20, but chronologically separated and twice, was as a light turning itself on. Certainly some must worry that when Satan is released these Millenium end, and the Return or Day of the Lord is not bear sin again for a Millennium, but for final judgment ending when all wicked perish as punishment in the Lake of Fire.
That the Greek have not only words in this manner of fixed numeric, but as in Mega also means 'great', Giga also 'giant', and Tera also 'monster'. Certainly the Thousand within the Covenant Promise is described as both a Thousand Generations, and Eternal, could it be that this for understanding concerning this earth age and the eternal earth-age to come.
Christ gave warning we need also understand, that He did not come to be served (rule) but serve, and we were to do as He. Warning also of this earth age and the rulers of the gentiles, that we are not to be as these.
 

Date: 20 Oct 2012
Time: 18:48:39

Your Comments:

Satan bound? Sure doesn't seem like it. Natural Israel is back in the land like the prophets prophesied. How about peaceful animals? I don't remember that; maybe I slept through it. I am convinced the 1,000 years is literal and is still ahead of us and will be exactly what the Bible teaches. That is the only exp. that makes sense.
 

Date: 31 Jul 2012
Time: 08:22:09

Your Comments:

i think that the 1000 year reign is taught to boost certain groups of people for there own welfare

Date: 27 Feb 2013
Time: 09:50:21

Your Comments:

"Chiliasm found no favor with the best of the Apostolic Fathers... the support from the Apologists too, is extremely meager, only one from among their number can with reasonable fairness be claimed, (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, v. 25 - 36 ).

That's a misquote for Justin Martyr; it's actually from Rutger. Love this website, btw!

[Thanks for the heads-up! Fixing.]

Date: 27 Jul 2013
Time: 20:55:39

Your Comments:

Jack Van Imp may be surprised to learn, there is (no) prophesied "one thousand years" of saints reigning with Christ stated in the bible. This misinterpretation is a result of the Latin Millennium translated in error describing the Greek alpha-numeric 'Chilioi'. Scholar and theologian agree in earliest manuscripts of Rev-20 and 2 Peter 3:8, the Greek numeric is Chilioi, not Chilias.
Chilioi is an alpha-numeric derived from Greek math theorem base-10, in which Chilioi (10x3rd power) represents the (unit) term of plural "Thousands". This is validated in the bible, when either Chilioi or Chilias are found, there will also be included additional numeric to express the (sum) within this Chilioi unit of thousands.
The only exception, is when Chilioi is used singularly (alone) without additional numeric-sum, and this found only six times in the entire NT, 4-times in Rev-20, and remaining 2-times in 2 peter 3:8.
So, the proper interpretation of Chilioi (Thousands) of Years, would be 'Thousands of Years... you will not find "a" or "one" mentioned in the original Greek concerning Rev-20.
 

Date: 27 Jul 2013
Time: 21:02:15

Your Comments:

Jack Van Imp may not realize that the saints reign with Christ for eternity, and has missed the point of Rev-20 concerning the Chilioi "Thousand(s) of Years", this later being only in reference to a period of time within this earth age... perhaps unaware of the eternal "Age to Come".
Christ's Kingdom (within) is a spiritual realm... yet on this earth. Saints will reign (serve) with Christ as predestined in this earth age, and in the age 'eternal' to come.
 

Date: 27 Jul 2013
Time: 21:09:05

Your Comments:

Consider, when Christ 'returns' a second time (not to bear sin again), He sends angels to gather the saints (from where)... from one end of the (heavens) to the other.
Is this 'heavens' in Sheol, no, we are told (now) Christ is in heaven, where He has prepared a place for His saints, to be where He is.
I would encourage Christians to read the original Hebrew and Greek of the bible, there has been much liberty taken by man in translation.