Millennialism
A thousand-year reign of Christ — but is it earthly, present, or wholly to come
Millennialism concerns the thousand-year reign of Christ described in Revelation 20. Traditions read it differently. Premillennial writers such as Papias and Irenaeus expected a future earthly reign; Augustine advanced an amillennial view, reading the thousand years symbolically of the present age; postmillennial readings differ again. This early hope, called chiliasm, was influential in the early centuries and later marginalized in much of the Church.
How it traveled
- RevelationPatmos · 100explains
- Dialogue with TryphoRome · 165explains
- The Instructions of Commodianus.— · 220explains
- Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John— · 303explains
- The Church History of EusebiusCaesarea · 339explains
- Jerome and Gennadius. Lives of Illustrious MenBethlehem · 420explains
- City of GodHippo Regius · 430explains
- A History of the Work of RedemptionNorthampton, Massachusetts · 1758applies
Key passages(20)
A History of the Work of Redemption · Jonathan Edwards
(3.) It shall be a time wherein religion shall in every respect be uppermost in the world. It shall be had in great esteem and honour. The saints have hitherto for the most part been kept under, and w
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A History of the Work of Redemption · Jonathan Edwards
(7.) That will be a time of the greatest temporal prosperity. Such a spiritual state as we have just described, has a natural tendency to health and long life; and that this will actually be the case,
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
5. Although the minds of men ought to be perpetually occupied with this pursuit, yet, as if they actually resolved to banish all remembrance of the resurrection, they have called death the end of all
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City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 7.—What is Written in the Revelation of John Regarding the Two Resurrections, and the Thousand Years, and What May Reasonably Be Held on These Points. The evangelist John has spoken of these
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City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 9.—What the Reign of the Saints with Christ for a Thousand Years Is, and How It Differs from the Eternal Kingdom. But while the devil is bound, the saints reign with Christ during the same th
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City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 13.—Whether the Time of the Persecution or Antichrist Should Be Reckoned in the Thousand Years. This last persecution by Antichrist shall last for three years and six months, as we have alrea
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Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John · Victorinus
1–3. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a chain in his hand. And he held the dragon, that old serpent, which is called the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a
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Jerome and Gennadius. Lives of Illustrious Men · Jerome
Chapter XVIII. Papias,Exposition of the words of our Lord, in which, when he had asserted in his preface that he did not follow various opinions but had the apostles for authority, he said “I conside
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He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years,
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and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were finished. After this, he must be freed for a short time.
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I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as didn’t worship the
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The rest of the dead didn’t live until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
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Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him one thousand years.
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
A similar suggestion had been already made by Dionysius in the passage quoted by Eusebius in Bk. VII. chap. 25, and Eusebius was undoubtedly thinking of it when he wrote these words. The suggestion is
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Chapter XXIV.—Nepos and his Schism. Of this Egyptian bishop Nepos, we know only what is told us in this chapter. Upon chiliasm in the early Church, see above, Bk. III. chap. 39, note 19. It is intere
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The Instructions of Commodianus. · Commodianus
LXXX.—The Name of the Man of Gaza. Ye who are to be inhabitants of the heavens with God-Christ, hold fast the beginning, look at all things from heaven. Let simplicity, let meekness dwell in your bod
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“For Isaiah spake thus concerning this space of a thousand years: ‘For there shall be the new heaven and the new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, or come into their heart; but they shall
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As the elders who saw John the disciple of the Lord remembered that they had heard from him how the Lord taught in regard to those times, and said]: “The days will come in which vines shall grow, havi
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Chapter XXVIII.—Cerinthus the Heresiarch. 1. We have understood that at this time Cerinthus, The earliest account which we have of Cerinthus is that of Irenæus (Adv. Hær. I. 26. 1; cf. III. 3. 4, qu
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
The Apocalypse is one of the best authenticated books of the New Testament. It was used by Papias and others of the earliest Fathers, and already by Justin Martyr was expressly ascribed to the apostle
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