Premillennialism
Premillennialism, in Christian eschatology, is the belief that Jesus will physically return to the Earth before the Millennium, heralding a literal thousand-year messianic age of peace. Premillennialism is based upon a literal interpretation of Revelation 20 in the New Testament, which describes Jesus's reign in a period of a thousand years.
Premillennialism is in contrast to amillennialism and postmillennialism beliefs. Amillennialism interprets as pertaining to the present time, and holds that Christ currently reigns in Heaven with the departed saints. This interpretation views the symbolism of Revelation as referring to a spiritual conflict between Heaven and Hell rather than a physical conflict on Earth. Amillennialists do not view the thousand years mentioned in Revelation as a literal thousand years, but see the number "thousand" as symbolic and numerological and see the kingdom of Christ as already present in the church beginning with the Pentecost in the book of Acts. Denominations such as Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, Calvinism and Lutheranism are generally amillennial. Postmillennialism views the millennial rule as a Golden Age in which Christian ethics prosper through preaching and redemptive work, but occurring before the second coming.
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 or after the Great Tribulation preceding the Millennium. In the 20th century, the belief became common in Evangelicalism according to surveys on this topic.
Terminology
The current religious term premillennialism did not come into use until the mid-19th century. The word's coinage was "almost entirely the work of British and American Protestants and was prompted by their belief that the French and American Revolutions realized prophecies made in the books of Daniel and Revelation."Other views
The proponents of amillennialism interpret the millennium as being a symbolic period of time, which is consistent with the highly symbolic nature of the literary and apocalyptic genre of the Book of Revelation, sometimes indicating that the thousand years represent God's rule over his creation or the Church.Postmillennialists hold to the view that the Second Coming will happen after the millennium.
History
Justin Martyr and Irenaeus
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, although the notion of Millennium in his Dialogue with Trypho seem to differ from that of the Apology. According to Johannes Quasten, "In his eschatological ideas Justin shares the views of the Chiliasts concerning the millennium." He maintains a premillennial distinction, namely that there would be two resurrections, one of believers before Jesus's 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, 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." Apparently Irenaeus also held to the sexta-/septamillennial scheme writing that the end of human history will occur after the 6,000th year..
Other ante-Nicene premillennialists
Irenaeus and Justin represent two of the most outspoken premillennialists of the pre-Nicean church. Other early premillennialists included Pseudo-Barnabas, 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, thus all of human history will have a total of 7,000 years prior to the new creation.Ante-Nicene opposition
The first clear opponent of premillennialism associated with Christianity was the gnostic 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 Marcion and premillennialism, Harvard scholar H. Brown noted,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. 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." 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.
Middle Ages and the Reformation
Augustinian eschatological foundation
has noted that "all medieval theology is 'Augustinian' to a greater or lesser extent." Augustine's influence shaped not only the Western Middle Ages, but it also influenced the Protestant 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. In accordance with this view, Augustine divided history into two separate dispensations, first the church age, and then the millennial kingdom. 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 Donatist excess – Augustine displayed a revulsion to the Donatists' bacchanal feasts which seemingly used excessive amounts of food and drink. 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. 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, a Donatist lay theologian, "whose reinterpretation of his culture's separatist 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 Apocalypse determined the Western church's exegesis for the next eight hundred years."