Millenarianism: Overview

Millenarianism refers to religious beliefs about a thousand-year period at the end of the world. This period, the millennium (from two Latin words, mille, thousand, and annum, year), is described in the Bible's Book of Revelation (20:1–6). Millenarians, while believing that Christ's Second Coming will usher in this earthly kingdom for the faithful, differ on the timing of the millennium. Some (premillennialists) believe Christ will return before the perfect age, while others (postmillennialists) expect that Christ will return after the elect have established the millennium either by preaching the gospel or by fire and sword. Millenarianism is synonymous with millennialism. A closely related term, chiliasm, (based on the Greek word for a thousand) is similar in meaning but sometimes has the association of the violence needed to bring about this thousand-year period. While individuals may quietly embrace millenarian beliefs, characteristically it has been through larger movements that millenarian hopes get expressed most dramatically.

Origins of Millenarianism

The roots of millenarianism are in apocalyptic literature. Ancient Near Eastern myths depict a great battle between good and evil, but explicit apocalyptic literature first appears in both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures of the Hellenistic period, from approximately 200 b.c.e. to approximately 100 c.e. The Book of Revelation (its Greek name, Apocalypse, means unveiling or revelation and provides the generic term for consolation literature and supplies much of the imagery of millenarianism) was written in 92–96 c.e. Apocalyptic writings, such as Second Isaiah (chapters 40–55), Isaiah (24–27), and Daniel (2:13–45, chapters 7–12), sought to comfort believers in times of difficulty and to put contemporary suffering in perspective. God would enable his suffering faithful, his elect ones, to triumph and have dominion over their enemies.

The earliest Christian communities arose amid Jewish apocalyptic thinking and Jewish renewal movements such as the Maccabees and Zealots. The earliest Christian literature reflects this eschatological expectation. St. Paul repeatedly refers to the Parousia, the Lord's Second Coming (1 Thess. 2:19, 3:13, 4:15, 5:23). The synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) similarly reflect the concerns of the first generation of Christians, for example, recalling how Jesus began his ministry with an urgent proclamation of the imminence of the end times and the coming of the Kingdom: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15). Early Christians were convinced the Second Coming would occur in their lifetime.

The Book of Revelation, written in response to the unexpected persecution of Christians as well as the nonappearance of the Parousia, uses mysterious symbols, striking images, and visions to provide for suffering believers assurance of the Lord's imminent return, restoration of order in the cosmos, and a final victory with a new creation. Satan would be bound and the saints would reign with Christ for a thousand years (20:1–6).

Millenarian Movements

The first major millenarian movement after the early Christian communities was Montanism. Montanus, its founder, sought to restore the enthusiasm of the early period of the church. Montanus's movement began about 172 c.e. He expected the Lord to return to Pepuza and Tymion, two small towns in Asia Minor. The New Jerusalem would soon descend to earth and the thousand-year reign of Christ would begin. Montanus encouraged his followers to live in strict asceticism to prepare for this Second Coming. The church turned against Montanus because millenarianism was not central in Christian doctrine and because ecstatic prophecy and private interpretation undermined church discipline.

St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) effectively closed the door on millenarian speculation for centuries by writing against the kind of literal interpretation of Scriptures that promised a physical paradise on earth. But early in the Middle Ages Joachim of Fiore (1130 or 1135–1201 or 1202) reopened the door for many apocalyptic and renewal movements, such as the Spiritual Franciscans and the Fraticelli. Joachim believed his own age was in crisis and preached that human agency would contribute to bringing the church through to the final stage of history, the age of the Holy Spirit.

In many instances millenarian hopes and expectations became intertwined with political and social aspirations and resulted in a violent mix—especially when reform efforts, blocked by rigid church and secular authorities, became radical and extreme. Such a situation occurred, for instance, in the fifteenth century in Bohemia and Moravia, when the Hussite reform movement, blended with inchoate nationalistic feelings and social tensions, became the Hussite Revolution, which in turn spawned the radical millenarian movement of the Taborites. Using religious images and millenarian beliefs, Taborites created a short-lived millenarian society that fought violently against the forces sent to crush it.

In sixteenth-century Germany Lutheran reforms triggered a sense of liberation as well as disorientation amid social and religious changes. Just as Martin Luther used apocalyptic imagery to portray the pope as the Antichrist, Thomas Müntzer portrayed Luther as the Beast of the Apocalypse because Luther was countering Müntzer's reformist efforts. Müntzer committed himself to social and religious revolution, believing any who opposed this process of the last days must be violently annihilated. Anabaptist groups channeled reform hopes into efforts to establish a new golden age. Some groups preached a nonviolent awaiting for the end times, while other segments developed a fanatical millenarianism as authorities opposed them. In Münster the Anabaptists set up the new Kingdom of Zion, which came to a violent and bloody end in 1535.

At the end of the sixteenth century and early in the seventeenth, the political and religious conditions in England prompted a wave of millenarian interest and excitement. English Puritans increasingly interpreted biblical prophecies about calamities and the Second Coming as referring to contemporary situations. Learned men tried to decipher from Scripture the date when the end of the world might arrive. The most radical of English millenarians were known as the Fifth Monarchy Men (from the vision recounted in the Book of Daniel, chapter 7). In the early eighteenth century France's Camisards or "French Prophets" sought from the Catholic king some tolerance for their Protestant culture and practices. The Camisards believed their sufferings were part of God's plan for the coming of the millennium. Lay prophets, including many children, amid physical manifestations of shaking and convulsions, revealed that the Judgment Day was soon approaching, that the reign of the Beast of the Apocalypse would soon end.

Millenarianism in North America

North America was especially fertile soil for the growth of millenarian movements and ideas. English Puritans brought millenarianism with them to American shores with the apocalyptic vision of being God's instruments in establishing the New Kingdom. John Winthrop, the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, expressed the Puritan aspiration of building a revolutionary city, a New Jerusalem, "coming down out of heaven from God" (Rev. 21:10). Early Puritan divines such as Joseph Cotton and Increase Mather continued the tradition of learned speculation about the date the millennium would begin and how the conversion of the Jews must precede the Second Advent of Christ. A not-inconsiderable part of American optimism and expansionism rested on beliefs about being God's elect and about the qualities of the earthly paradise.

William Miller, born in 1782 in Massachusetts, scrutinized the Scriptures and reconfigured biblical chronology. If the world began in 4004 b.c.e. and lasted 6,000 years, Miller concluded that "sometime" between 1843 and 1844 would be the end of the world. His pamphlet about the Second Coming of Christ and his reign convinced upwards of fifty thousand Americans that time would run out in 1844.

Of course, the world did not end, and the Great Disappointment of 1844 fragmented the Millerite movement. The diversity of responses to the nonappearance of the end included efforts to recalculate and "adjust" the prophetic dates of Jesus's Second Coming. Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses evolved from the discouragement and divisions of Millerism. They, along with the Mormons, another fast-growing American religion, have explicit millenarian expectations, implying the lasting appeal of millenarian hopes.

Although most millenarian terms, images, and ideas originated within ancient Judaism and early Christianity, millenarianism has echoes in other religions and in cults. At its core, millenarianism offers the idea of history as progressing toward a transformed world. This nourishes the ever green yearning for an end of suffering and oppression and hardship. It is not surprising, then, that anxious and "deprived" people continue to look for signs that a new age is dawning. This human aspiration for a transformed world can then be discerned not only behind a variety of utopias and ideas about society, including those of Karl Marx or Hitler's Thousand Year Reich, but also in such contemporary millenarian cults as the People's Temple, the Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate, and AUM Shinrikyo.

See also Christianity ; Eschatology ; Judaism ; Puritanism ; Utopia .

bibliography

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Michael St. Clair