8. The Time and Place

As old as the doctrine itself are the attempts to define the time of the millennial period. The failure to arrive at the time fixed proved no discouragement to fresh attempts. From Hippolytus to the present day there has been a ooatinu ons succession of these calculations, arbitrary enough in both their point of departure and their method of reckoning. The early Fathers most commonly looked for the second advent at the end of 8,000 years of the world's history; and many definite dates have been confidently announced. As to the duration of the millennial reign, more unanimity has prevailed, resting on Rev. xx. 4, 8 sqq.; Ps. xc. 4; II Pet. iii. 8. The thousand-year period has been almost universally adopted, though the Gospel of Nicodemus shortens it to 500 years, and Bengel, through an exegetical misunderstanding of Rev. xx., makes two successive periods of 1,000. Modern millenarians, however, such as Rothe, Ebrard, and Lange, discreetly take the

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thousand years of the Apocalypse as a prophetic symbol, and renounce the attempt to fix a definite period. As to the place, the great majority of millenarians have looked for the reign of Christ on earth; and its central point (except where sectarian beliefs have chosen another spot, as with the Montanists, Irvingites, and Mormons) the restored and beautified Jerusalem; or the heavenly Jerusalem, glittering with gold and jewels, was to descend to earth.

The number of the elect who are to share these blessings has also been much discussed. A too literal interpretation of Rev. xx. 4 limited them to the martyrs and those who remained faithful in the final persecution; and sectarian narrowness allowed small factions to exclude all who did not belong to their communion. The millenarian- g. Theism of the Church was much wider. Number of The Fathers (e.g., Justin, Irenseus) the Partici- take in all faithful Christians and the pants. just of the old covenant. PoirAt in cluded pagans, such as Socrates, who had been enlightened by the Logos, though these were not to reign but to be happy subjects. Many, on the basis of the yet unfulfilled prophecies as to the future of Israel, have laid it down that the Jew ish people, converted and restored to Palestine, shall form the nucleus of the kingdom of Christ. Ebrard founds this prediction not only upon Old Testament prophecies but also on Acts i. 6 sqq., iii. 20 sqq.; Rom. xi. 29. The condition of the participants has also been variously conceived. The later writers dwell, some on the theological side of the change which they expect--on a relig ious-ethical assimilation to God; others on the the osophical side-the spiritualizing of our nature. In all cases they look for the effect to follow upon the immediate personal presence of the Lord though this is conceived in various modes, according to the different ideas of the nature of the king dom. The representations range through all im aginable pleasures, from the intoxication of the senses to pure contemplation of the divine Majesty. To be sure, the coarser ideas, such as those of Cerinthus, of the Ebionites, and of the Sibylline Books could find an echo only in fanatics like Fel genhauer. But even higher natures deceived them selves with dreams of a wonderful fertility of nature (Irenæus) and a numerous progeny (Commodian, Lactantius). The most ideal conceptions embraced the abolition of idolatry, the unity and spirituality of the worship of God, full knowledge of the truth, and contemplation of the Godhead in all its essen tial glory, to which freedom from the evils of this life was added. Sin was not always understood to be totally abolished; the transitional period of the millennium was distinguished from eternity prin cipally by the fact that the scarlet thread of evil still ran through it. But the power of evil was re strained and harmless (Kurtz, Lange), the number of the elect far surpassed that of sinners (Jurieu), and the baser forms of temptation were no more. Nature still had the attributes of corruptibility, since according to Scripture (II Pet. iii. 7; Rev. xxi.1) the new heavens and the new earth belong to the com plete and final perfection of eternity. (BnATSz.)

Chiliasm as such has held to certain features which are quite as distinct and permanent as the 1,000 years. At first, the millennium was limited to the Jews alone; later on it was taken over by the Christians and they,-as the Jews had before them, conceived it as consisting of sensuous conditions (cf.: F. W. Weber, System der altsynagogal ischen paldetinischen Theologie, pp. 333-386, Leip sic; 1880). There was a crass materialism or a violent supernaturalism, fancy ran riot, and ethical and spiritual elements were largely absent (cf. Iretueus, Hwr., v. 33; Eng. transl., ANF, i. 562-563). This element persisted and reappears in various forms, especially in the earlier and the more recent centuries of the Church. So far as chiliasm is distinguished from the millennium, it signifies the personal corporeal reign of Christ on earth a thousand years, whereas the millennium does not necessarily involve the personal presence of Christ during that period.

The two views of the millennium are distinguished as pre- and post-millennium. With many minor but unimportant differences, the pre-millennialists hold: (1) the millennium is a period of io. Pre- world-wide righteousness, ushered in millenarian- by the sudden, unannounced, visibleism and advent of Jesus Christ. (2) The Gos-

Postmille- pel, purely as witness, is first to be narianism. proclaimed throughout the whole earth.

(3) Events of the 1,000 years are: (a) the righteous will rise (some limit this to the martyrs) and reign with Christ on earth, organizing his everlasting kingdom; (b) the Lord and his saints will bring about a "great tribulation" (Rev. ii. 27; Ps. ii. 9); (o) Israel, probably rebellious still, will confess the Crucified One as the Messiah (tech. xii. 10; Rev. i. 7); (d) by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a vast number of sinners yet on the earth will be converted; (e) Satan is bound and locked in the abyss. (4) After the thousand years, (a) Satan, unbound, makes a short, final, and vain effort to regain his lost foothold; (b) himself, his angels, and all lost souls, raised from the dead, will be judged and hurled into the lake of fire, doomed to everlasting torment; (c) the earth renewed by fire becomes the eternal home of the redeemed. The post-millennial doctrine is as follows: (1) Through Christian agencies the Gospel gradually permeates the entire world and becomes immeasurably more effective than at present. (2) This condition thus reached will continue for a thousand years. (3) The Jews will be converted either at the beginning or some time during this period. (4) Following this will be a brief apostasy and terrible conflict of Christian and evil forces. (5) Finally and simultaneously there will occur the advent of Christ, general resurrection, judgment, and, the old world destroyed by fire, the new heavens and the new earth will be revealed (Westminster Confession, xxxii., xxxiii.).

In Great Britain and America pre-millennianism has had many advocates. Among those in Great Britain were many divines of the Westminster Assembly (cf. Robert Baillie, q.v., Letters and Journals, Edinburgh, 1841-42; Schaff, Creeds, i. 727-746), Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Wesley, Augustus

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Toplady, Archbishop Trench (qq.v.), Edward Bickersteth (q.v., A Practical Guide to the Prophecies,

London, 1835), Horatius Bonar (Proii. Pre. phetical Landmarks, ib. 1839), T. R. millenarian- Binks (Outline of nfulfilled Prophecy,

ism in ib. 1854), H. G. Guinness (Light for the Great Brit Last Days, pp. 338-339, New York, sin and 1885), C. J. Ellicott (Commentary On America. I and II Thess. and II Tim., London,

1866, 1869), H. Alford (Greek Testament, vol. iv., pp. iii., 732, ib. 1871), John Cumming (q.v., Apocalyptic Sketches, ib. 1852). Some premillenarians hold to universal restoration (cf. A. Jukes, Second Death and Restitution of All Things, ib. 1878). In Scotland, Edward Irving (q.v.) gave a profound impulse to this belief (cf. Works, ib. 1879). In America premillenarianism has appeared in three different camps: (1) Christian scholars, as R. J. Breckenridge (The Knowledge of God Subjectively Considered, pp. 667-882, New York, 1860); J. A. Seiss (The Last Times, Philadelphia, 1878), E. R. Craven (Lange's Commentary on Revelation, pp. 93, 339, 352, New York, 1874). (2) The Adventists (q.v.; see also Miller, William), and the Seventh-day Adventists, the latter with a large publishing-house at Battle Creek, Mich. Their doctrine differs from the common belief of Evangelical Christians in two respects-the sleep of the soul after death till the judgment, and the annihilation of the wicked. (3) Evangelists. The most significant meeting with this interest, following a similar convention in London in February of the same year, was held in Holy Trinity Church, New York, Oct., 1878, which was Called by the request of 122 persons, representing ten denominations, the results of which are preserved in Pre millenrcial Essays of the Prophetic Conference, Chicago, 1879. And this note is still firmly in the sermons of many leading evangelists.

C. A. B.

Bibliography: The sources are indicated in the text in the names given there of those who have dealt with the doctrine. In many of the commentaries on Daniel and the Apocalypse, the two Biblical books which have been used as foundation for the treatment, the doctrine is either advocated or expounded. The works on N. T. theology and on the history of the Church and of doctrine usually deal with the topic from the historical standpoint. Much will be found also in the literature under Eschatology, while the systems of doctrine treat the subject more or less fully, from the doctrinal point of view, under "Eschatology." Special works on the history of the idea are: H. Corrodi, Kritische Geschichte do# Chiliasmus, 4 vols., Zurich, 1794; S. Hopkins, A Treaties on the Millennium, added to his System of Dodrines, Boston, 1811; S. Waldegrave, N. T. Millenarianism, London, 1855; A. Chiapelli, Le Ides millanarie dei Criatiani, Naples, 1888; L. Atsberger, Geschichte der christlichen Esrdatologie. Freiburg, 1898; E. Wadetein, Die eschatologische Idppe Antichrist, Weltsabbat, Weltende and Weltpericht. Leipsic, 1896 (deals with the Middle Ages); P. Vols, Jüdische Esdatologie room Daniel bis Akiba, Tübingen, 1903. Works which discuss the doctrine are: G. Duffield, Mitlenarianism Defended, New York, 1843; D. Brown, Christ's Secand Coming; will it be Premillennialf, Edinburgh, 1849; J. F. Berg, The Second Advent of Jesus Christ not Premillenniat, Philadelphia, 1859; W. Kelly, Lectures on the Second Coming and Kingdom of . . . Jesus Christ, London, 1868; 8. M. Merrill, The Second Coming of Christ Considered in its Relation to the Millennium, Cincinnati, 1879; 7. P. Warren, The Parousia, Portland, Me., 1885; E. Storrow, The Millennium, London, 1886; H. Varley, Christ's Coming Kingdom, ib. 1886; J. S. Russell, The Parousia, ib. 1887; D. Bosworth, The Millennium and

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Related Events, New York, 1889; N. West, Studies in Eschatology: the Thousand Years in both Testaments, ib. 1889; L. J. Fisher, That Day of Days, Middletown, O., 1903; H. M. Riggle, The Kingdom of God and the One Thousand Years' Reign, Moundsville, W. Va., 1904; D. Heagle, That Blessed Hope, the Second Coming of Christ, Philadelphia, 1907 (aims to reconcile pre- and poet-millenarianiem).