MILLENNIUM, MILLENARIANISM

Fundamental Characteristic of the Doctrine (§ 1).

Rise of the Doctrine (§ 2).

Christic and Pauline Doctrine (§ 3).

Periods of Development (§ 4).

Patriotic and Medieval Doctrine (§ 5).

Development During and After the Reformation (§ 6).

Doctrine in the Eighteenth Century (§ 7).

The Time and Place (§ 8).

The Number of the Participants (§ 9).

Premillenarianism and Postmillenarianism (§ 10).

Premillenarianism in Great Britain and America (§ 11).

The term millennium denotes in theology the thousand years of the kingdom of Christ on earth referred to in Rev. xx. 1-6. Millenarianism (or the corresponding word of Greek derivation, ch& asm) is the belief in the millennium; more specifically, the belief that Christ will reign personally on the earth with his saints for one thousand years or an indefinitely long period before the end of the world.

1. Fundamental Characteristic of the Doctrine

The beliefs widely held at different epochs concerning the second coming of Christ and his reign upon earth constitute a historical phenomenon the significance of which can be thoroughly understood only from history itself. The definite period of a thousand years implied by the words which are commonly used as names for such beliefs is really a sub- ordinate and not always strictly understood detail; the main thing is the conception of a glorious period of peace and joy in which the elect shall dwell under the immediate personal rulership of Christ, on earth, after his return and the close of the present dispensation. Whatever modifications the doctrine may have undergone with its later representatives, it never includes the conception of an earthly perfection of the Church in the way of historical development; the millennial reign is not an ideal condition of the world brought about pre vious to and independently of the second coming of Christ by the operation of the divine leaven now working here. It is a supernatural, extra-historical irruption of the other world into this world which is not prepared for it and strives to resist it. The millenarian belief has in common with the Church's doctrine a hope for the visible reappearance of Christ, but goes further when it intercalates between this and the end of the world a reign of a thousand years.

The belief is much older, as a matter of fact, than the Christian Church. The conception of a thou.

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sand-year period which is to follow the downfall of hostile powers, connected, too, with the resurrection of the dead, is found in Zoroastrianism