Millenium Theology

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Hi OneAccord

Do you imagine some kind of supernatural restoration as well?

I'm sure God will accelertate the healing process of the world. I don't know how long it will take. We have interesting times ahead indeed.

All Praise The Ancient Of Days

[Brad]

The 1,000 years are signified "symbolic" years.

What Blindseeker said about Hosea 6:1-3 is a view that I believe. For 2,000 years the body of Christ has been beaten and torn we can now be in transition into the third day "millennium" and into the third heaven. Satan is now bound because Christ is being revealed in us. Each and every one of us is as a drop of latter rain in the coming of the Lord.

Hosea 6

A Call to Repentance

Israel's Insincere Repentance

1 Come, and let us return to the LORD;

[Brad]

Millennium

General Information

Introduction

A millennium is a period of 1,000 years. The word millennium is derived from the Latin words mille, which means "thousand," and annus, "years."

In various Christian doctrines, millennium refers to a 1,000-year period foretold in the Bible's Book of Revelation, involving the apocalypse (the end of the world) and the reign of Jesus Christ on earth. The concept of the millennium is not only associated with Christian thought, however. Many cultures of the world have similar beliefs about the imminent transformation or end of the world and the creation of an age in which human suffering and violence will be eliminated. Thus, Western scholars commonly use the term millennium to refer generally to any new age of holiness, harmony, and earthly perfection. Similarly, the word millennialism is used to describe beliefs about an imminent apocalypse, the salvation of the world, or the creation of an earthly paradise. Such beliefs have existed throughout history and are still held by millions of people today.

The year 2000 had sparked widespread feelings that something monumental was going to occur with the flip of the calendar page. Although the year 2000 is a subjective marking of the passage of time, in popular culture it has enormous symbolic and conceptual power. For many people, it represents a pivotal moment in history, a time to reflect on the past thousand years or imagine a thousand years to come.

For the past several hundred years, people in Western cultures have marked time in terms of 10-year periods (decades) and 100-year periods (centuries). Westerners tend to associate eras with decades and centuries. For example, many Americans think of the 1920s as the Roaring Twenties, and they frequently associate the 1960s with protests and social activism. Many people attach special significance to years that end in a zero, because these years seem to signal a transition from one era to another. A year that ends in triple zeros, then, suggests an even greater change. Thus, the year 2000 had evoked hope for transformation and the birth of a new age, as well as fears about potential global catastrophes.

Dating the Millennium

Although January 1, 2000, was popularly celebrated as the beginning of the 3rd millennium, there are differing beliefs about when the new millennium actually began. The Western dating of the millennium is based on the Gregorian calendar, which is the most globally recognized system for marking the passage of years.

According to the Gregorian calendar, the millennium did not begin until January 1, 2001. The Gregorian calendar follows the AD (Latin anno Domini, "in the year of our Lord") system introduced by Christian monk Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century AD. The AD system counts time from the year Jesus Christ was born. Dionysius dated Jesus' birth in the year AD 1 rather than in AD 0, because Roman numerals, which were still in use, had no symbol for zero. In this dating system, each century begins with a year ending in 01 and ends with a year ending in 00. For example, the 19th century began in 1801 and ended in 1900. Therefore, December 31, 2000, ended the old millennium, and January 1, 2001, marked the start of the new millennium in this dating system.

Some people believe the new millennium, as marked by the birth of Jesus, began several years earlier than 2001. According to many scholars, Dionysius made various errors in calculating Jesus' birth date. Historical evidence indicates that Jesus was actually born in 4 BC or earlier. As a result, the 2,000-year anniversary of the birth of Jesus may have occurred sometime in the 1990s.

Other people believe that the change to the new millennium lasts a period of 33 years, corresponding to the life span of Jesus. According to some historians, the year 1033 - regarded by many people as the 1,000-year anniversary of Jesus' death - resulted in widespread millennial fervor in which people made pilgrimages to Jerusalem and anticipated the destruction or renewal of the world. Some people have predicted that the year 2033 [or maybe 2029, due to Dionysius' errors] will have millennial significance as well and will be viewed as the date that marks the beginning of the new millennium.

About two-thirds of the people in the world use religious or ceremonial calendars in addition to the Gregorian calendar. For example, January 1, 2000, on the Gregorian calendar was the year 1420 on the Islamic calendar, 5760 on the Jewish calendar, and 4697 on the Chinese calendar. However, even people who use these other calendars are aware of the global significance of the Gregorian calendar years 2000 and 2001.

Religious and Mystical Beliefs

Millennialist beliefs are not only related to the turn of the millennium. Since the beginning of human history, people in nearly every society have told sacred stories about worldly destruction, the regeneration of the earth, and the creation of a terrestrial paradise. Scholars have documented these types of stories from Zoroastrian, Babylonian, Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Greek, Roman, Norse, African, Maya, and Native American cultures.

Millennialist ideas are concerned with the destiny and destruction of the world, the end of time, the end of evil and suffering, and the creation of a perfect age. Millennialist belief systems have an enduring appeal because they assert that there is an underlying plan for history, that human existence is meaningful, and that a new world of peace and justice will be created.

Book of Revelation

In the Christian Bible, the concept of the millennium is introduced toward the end of the Book of Revelation (sometimes called the Apocalypse). According to Revelation 19:11-21, 20:1-10, and other passages, Jesus Christ will return to earth and defeat Satan at the battle of Armageddon (Second Coming). Christ will then throw Satan into a bottomless pit for 1,000 years and will reign during this millennium of peace on earth. However, at the end of those 1,000 years, Satan and the forces of evil will rise up to do battle with Christ once again. In this final battle, Christ will defeat Satan forever and throw Satan into a lake of fire to suffer eternal torment. God will then resurrect all human beings and judge them according to their beliefs and actions. This event is often referred to as the Last Judgment. According to Revelation, God will give the righteous people eternal life in paradise and will send the evil ones to hell.

Types of Christian Millennialism

The concept of the millennium and the apocalypse referred to in Revelation has been an important part of certain Christian sects, but it has held less significance for most Roman Catholic and Protestant groups. Believers in Christian millennialism differ about when Christ will return to earth, how the millennium will start, and the nature of the millennium. The three major types of Christian millennialism are premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism.

* Premillennialism stresses a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation. In the premillennial view, worldwide destruction and the return of Jesus Christ are required to save humanity and bring about a new era of peace on earth. This belief system - also referred to as catastrophic millennialism - generally expresses a pessimistic view of modern society and sees the world as fatally flawed.

* Postmillennialism, also referred to as progressive millennialism, interprets the Bible less literally than premillennialism does. Postmillennialists regard the millennium as a 1,000-year reign of Christian ideals that will end with the return of Christ. In this view, the millennium will not start suddenly through an apocalypse, but gradually through the efforts of human beings. Postmillennialists believe that through social reform and by upholding Christian ideals, the kingdom of God will be built on earth and Christ will return. Christ will then defeat Satan in a final battle, as referred to in the Book of Revelation. Some postmillennialists believe the millennium has already started.

* Amillennialism, the predominant view for much of Christian history, is the belief that biblical references to the millennium are strictly figurative and that there will be no earthly millennium. Some amillennialists believe that the millennial rule of Christ occurs in the hearts of believers. Others believe that the description of the millennium in Revelation refers to Christ's reign in the kingdom of Heaven.

The Year 1000

In studying the various forms of millennialism, historians have debated whether people recognized the turn of the millennium aroundthe year 1000. Some scholars believe that an apocalyptic fever had gripped Europe by the year 999. According to these scholars,many people converted to Christianity, stopped planting their crops, confessed their sins, and forgave each other their debts. Others abandoned their families to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem in hope of witnessing the Second Coming of Christ, or they knelt in church in terror as they anticipated an apocalypse.

However, most historians argue that the accounts of millennial hysteria are the romantic concoctions of overly imaginative writers. These historians note that the doctrines of the Catholic Church at the end of the 1st millennium were opposed to any teachings about imminent apocalypse. Furthermore, most people living in the years 999 and 1000 were not even aware that it was the end of the 1st millennium. However, there is considerable historical evidence that after the year 1000, millennialism became more widespread. It gained followers during the Crusades (wars between Western European Christians and Muslims that began in 1095) and throughout the latter part of the Middle Ages.

Contemporary Religious and Mystical Beliefs

Today many mainline religious organizations reject the concept of an apocalypse or a Christian millennium. However, millennialist beliefs are still integral to the worldviews of some denominations of Protestantism. For example, a number of Evangelical denominations hold premillennialist beliefs, including the Southern Baptist Convention, the Assemblies of God, and the Church of the Nazarene (see Evangelicalism). Many members of these and other Evangelical denominations claim that recent wars, plagues, famines, and earthquakes are signs that an apocalypse is imminent and that Christ will return. According to these groups, the world will experience a seven-year period of misery and massive destruction, but Christians will be removed from the Earth unharmed. [This involves the concept of "the Rapture".]

Adventism is another Protestant branch that holds millennialist views (see Adventists). Adventist groups grew out of the religious Millerite movement, led by American Baptist preacher William Miller, who predicted that the world would end by 1843 or 1844. After his predictions proved false, some disenchanted Millerites formed into various Adventist groups, such as the Seventh-day Adventists. Adventists maintain that various apocalyptic predictions have been fulfilled and that Christ will return in the near future. The Seventh-day Adventists assert that an invisible, spiritual apocalypse occurred in 1844 with the "cleansing of heaven," and they believe that it will eventually be followed by world destruction in which only the faithful will be saved.

Jehovah's Witnesses, another group formed from the Millerite movement, claim the spiritual, invisible Second Coming of Christ occurred in 1874 and that Christ's invisible reign started in 1914. The group believes an apocalypse will come in the near future. The religious group's founder, Charles Taze Russell, declared that the fulfillment of Christ's millennial kingdom would be completed only after the foreordained destruction of nations, governments, churches, and world leaders, all of which Russell considered representations of Satan's rule. The Jehovah's Witnesses rejected formal religious and governmental organizations, and they developed the practice of door-to-door evangelism in an attempt to convert nonbelievers.

Millennial beliefs are also an important part of the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as Mormonism. The religion was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Smith claimed an angel told him that Christ's Second Coming was imminent, and Smith believed he had been chosen to prepare humanity for the millennium. According to Smith's visions, the millennial kingdom will be established in the United States. Today, Mormonism does not stress millennialism as much as it did in the past. However, many Mormons interpret some world events as the fulfillment of prophecies that foretell an apocalyptic period.

Many other contemporary religious groups have millennialist views. These include the Unification Church, Hare Krishna, Baha'i, Rastafarianism, and other religious movements. Millennialist prophecy, once central to the early Jewish faith, continues today among members of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, an Orthodox Hasidic sect of Judaism. In the late 1980s and early 1990s many followers of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of Brooklyn, New York, believed that he was the Messiah who would bring about the redemption of the world. Schneerson never claimed to be the Messiah, but he interpreted current events as apocalyptic signs that foretold the Messiah's appearance in the near future.

Millennialist beliefs also exist at a grassroots level as a form of popular or folk belief, apart from the sanction of formal religious institutions. For instance, there is popular interest in the apocalyptic predictions of Nostradamus, a 16th-century French physician and astrologer, and Edgar Cayce, an American who lived in the early 20th century and claimed to have psychic and healing abilities. Some people also believe that alleged apparitions of the Virgin Mary warn of imminent worldly destruction.

Recent Millennialist Movements

Apocalyptic and millennialist movements not affiliated with established religious institutions are often depicted in stereotypical ways as doomsday cults, involving violent activities, mass suicides, and "brainwashed fanatics" with bizarre beliefs. Of the hundreds of contemporary millennialist groups that exist, relatively few movements have been motivated to acts of violence or suicide. But there have been some exceptions in recent years, including apocalyptic groups such as the Branch Davidians, Aum Shinrikyo, and Heaven's Gate.

* The Branch Davidian sect, a splinter group founded in 1934 from mainstream Seventh-day Adventists, believed that biblicalprophecies about the apocalypse were being fulfilled in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1993 federal agents attempted a raid on the group's compound in Waco, Texas, in search of illegal weapons. The Davidians interpreted the investigation as a sign of the apocalypse, and a shootout erupted in which four agents and a number of Davidians died. After a 51-day standoff, agents used gas to force occupants out of the compound, and a fire broke out that killed dozens of Davidians.

* The Japanese Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) sect integrates certain Buddhist, Daoist (Taoist), and Christian doctrines with Tantric (mystic) yoga. The sect believed that an apocalypse would occur in 1999. During the mid-1990s the group had tens of thousands of members in Japan, Russia, Germany, the United States, and several other countries. However, many members left the group in 1995. That year the group's leaders were charged with killing 12 people after releasing nerve gas in a subway station in Tokyo, Japan, in an apparent attempt to fulfill apocalyptic prophecies.

* In 1997, 39 members of the religious group Heaven's Gate committed suicide near San Diego, California. Followers believed that a gigantic spacecraft trailed the Hale-Bopp comet in March 1997 and offered an opportunity for them to be transported to a higher realm before the Earth would be annihilated.

Although these groups differ in their doctrines, aspects of their belief systems share certain common ideas. These ideas include a sense of fatalism for a world regarded as completely evil and doomed, and a desire for planetary escape and salvation. Some people predict that the dawning of the 3rd millennium may motivate other apocalyptic groups with similar beliefs to embrace and enact violent scenarios as well.

Secular Attitudes

Until recently, most people believed that an apocalypse would involve deities or divine forces. However, during the 20th century, more people developed secular theories about an apocalypse. Some believe the world will end due to nuclear warfare, new technologies, environmental destruction, epidemic diseases, global famine and overpopulation, or an Earth collision with a large asteroid or comet. Secular beliefs about inevitable societal destruction reflect a sense of helplessness, despair, or fatalistic resignation.

The creation of nuclear weapons in particular has fundamentally altered contemporary apocalyptic thought, evoking widespread fatalism about the future of humanity. When the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945, the event initiated an era of fear about global destruction. Despite the end of the Cold War, concerns about the possibility of nuclear annihilation persist today, stemming from fear that nuclear weapons will be developed and used by hostile nations or extremist organizations.

Specific secular beliefs about catastrophe occurring at the beginning of 2000 were associated with what was known as the year 2000 computer problem, the Y2K problem, or the millennium bug. Many [older] computers were programmed to recognize the year by the last two numbers of the year instead of by all four digits. On January 1, 2000, these computers registered the year as the digits 00. Computers that had not been fixed, understood these digits as representing the year 1900 and generated some error messages or shut down. Some people believed that many computer systems worldwide would crash when the date changed from 1999 to 2000. They feared these computer crashes would spark economic, political, and social catastrophes that would involve the malfunction of missile systems, hospital equipment, satellites, air transportation, and other major technologies.

Daniel N Wojcik

[Brad]

Views of the Millennium

Advanced Information

The word "millennium" is derived from the Latin for a thousand (at times the word "chiliasm" taken from the Greek and meaning the same thing is used). It denotes a doctrine taken from a passage in Revelation (20:1 - 10) in which the writer describes the devil as being bound and thrown into a bottomless pit for a thousand years. The removal of Satanic influence is accompanied by the resurrection of the Christian martyrs, who reign with Christ during the millennium. This period is a time when all of humankind's yearning for an ideal society characterized by peace, freedom, material prosperity, and the rule of righteousness will be realized. The vision of the OT prophets who foretold a period of earthly prosperity for the people of God will find fulfillment during this era.

Millennialism addresses problems that are often overlooked in other eschatological views. Although most Christian theologians discuss death, immortality, the end of the world, the last judgment, the rewards of the just, and the punishment of the damned, they often limit themselves to the prospects for the individual in this world and the next. In contrast, millennialism is concerned with the future of the human community on earth. It is concerned with the chronology of coming events just as history is involved with the study of the record of the past.

Millennialism has appeared within both Christian and non Christian traditions. Anthropologists and sociologists have found millennialist belief among non Western people, but they have debated as to whether or not these appearances of the teaching are based upon borrowing from the teaching are based upon borrowing from Christian preaching. Most Christian theologians believe that millennialism is based on material written by Judeo Christian authors, especially the books of Daniel and Revelation. The ideas, events, symbols, and personalities introduced in these writings have reappeared countless times in the teachings of prophets of the end of the world. Each new appearance finds these motifs given fresh significance from association with contemporary events.

Major Varieties of Millennialism

For purposes of analysis and explanation Christian attitudes toward the millennium can be classified as premillennial, postmillennial, and amillennial. These categories involve much more than the arrangement of events surrounding the return of Christ. The thousand years expected by the premillennialist is quite different from that anticipated by the postmillennialist. The premillennialist believes that the kingdom of Christ will be inaugurated in a cataclysmic way and that divine control will be exercised in a more supernatural manner than does the postmillennialist.

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Premillennialism

The premillennialist believes that the return of Christ will be preceded by signs including wars, famines, earthquakes, the preaching of the gospel to all nations, a great apostasy, the appearance of Antichrist, and the great tribulation. These events culminate in the second coming, which will result in a period of peace and righteousness when Christ and his saints control the world. This rule is established suddenly through supernatural methods rather than gradually over a long period of time by means of the conversion of individuals. The Jews will figure prominently in the future age because the premillennialist believes that they will be converted in large numbers and will again have a prominent place in God's work. Nature will have the curse removed from it, and even the desert will produce abundant crops, Christ will restrain evil during the age by the use of authoritarian power. Despite the idyllic conditions of this golden age there is a final rebellion of wicked people against Christ and his saints.

This exposure of evil is crushed by God, the non Christian dead are resurrected, the last judgment conducted, and the eternal states of heaven and hell established. Many premillennialists have taught that during the thousand years dead or martyred believers will be resurrected with glorified bodies to intermingle with the other inhabitants of the earth.

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Postmillennialism

In contrast to premillennialism, the postmillennialists emphasize the present aspects of God's kingdom which will reach fruition inthe future. They believe that the millennium will come through Christian preaching and teaching. Such activity will result in a more godly, peaceful, and prosperous world. The new age will not be essentially different from the present, and it will come about as more people are converted to Christ. Evil will not be totally eliminated during the millennium, but it will be reduced to a minimum as the moral and spiritual influence of Christians is increased. During the new age the church will assume greater importance, and many economic, social, and educational problems can be solved. This period is not necessarily limited to a thousand years because the number can be used symbolically. The millennium closes with the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the last judgment.

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Amillennialism

The third position, amillennialism, states that the Bible does not predict a period of the rule of Christ on earth before the last judgment. According to this outlook there will be a continuous development of good and evil in the world until the second coming of Christ, when the dead shall be raised and the judgment conducted. Amillennialists believe that the kingdom of God is now present in the world as the victorious Christ rules his church through the Word and the Spirit. They feel that the future, glorious, and perfect kingdom refers to the new earth and life in heaven. Thus Rev. 20 is a description of the souls of dead believers reigning with Christ in heaven.

The Rise of Millennialism

Early millennial teaching was characterized by an apocalyptic emphasis. In this view the future kingdom of God would be established through a series of dramatic, unusual events. Such teaching has been kept alive throughout the Christian era by certain types of premillennialism. Apocalyptic interpretation is based upon the prophecies of Daniel and the amplification of some of the same themes in the book of Revelation. These works point to the imminent and supernatural intervention of God in human affairs and the defeat of the seemingly irresistible progress of evil. Numerology, theme figures, and angelology play a major role in these presentations. The apocalyptic world view was very influential among the Jews in the period that elapsed between the OT and the NT. Consequently the audiences to which Jesus preached were influenced by it. The early Christians also embraced this outlook.

The book of Revelation, composed during a period of persecution in the first century, used the Jewish apocalyptic interpretation toexplain the Christian era. Daniel's Son of man was presented as Christ, numerological formulas were restated, and the dualistic world of good and evil was provided with a new set of characters. Despite these changes the essential apocalyptic message remained as the book taught the living hope of the immediate direct intervention of God to reverse history and to overcome evil with good. Such an outlook brought great comfort to believers who suffered from persecution by the forces of Imperial Rome. Expressed in a form that has been called historic premillennialism, this hope seems to have been the prevailing eschatology during the first three centuries of the Christian era, and is found in the works of Papias, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Methodius, Commodianus, and Lactantius.

Several forces worked to undermine the millennialism of the early church. One of these was the association of the teaching with a radical group, the Montanists, who placed a great stress on a new third age of the Spirit which they believed was coming among their number in Asia Minor. Another influence which encouraged a change of eschatological views was the emphasis of Origen upon the manifestation of the kingdom within the soul of the believer rather than in the world. This resulted in a shift of attention away from the historical toward the spiritual or metaphysical. A final factor that led to a new millennial interpretation was the conversion of the Emperor Constantine the Great and the adoption of Christianity as the favored Imperial religion.

Medieval and Reformation Millennialism

In the new age brought in by the acceptance of Christianity as the main religion of the Roman Empire it was Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, who articulated the amillennial view which dominated Western Christian thought during the Middle Ages. The millennium, according to his interpretation, referred to the church in which Christ reigned with his saints. The statements in the book of Revelation were interpreted allegorically by Augustine. No victory was imminent in the struggle with evil in the world. On the really important level, the spiritual, the battle had already been won and God had triumphed through the cross. Satan was reduced to lordship over the City of the World, which coexisted with the City of God. Eventually even the small domain left to the devil would be taken from him by a triumphant God.

Augustine's allegorical interpretation became the official doctrine of the church during the medieval period. However, in defiance ofthe main teaching of the church the earlier apocalyptic premillennialism continued to be held by certain counterculture groups. These millenarians under charismatic leaders were often associated with radicalism and revolts. For example, during the eleventh century in regions most affected by urbanization and social change thousands followed individuals such as Tanchelm of the Netherlands, causing great concern to those in positions of power. In the twelfth century Joachim of Fiore gave fresh expression to the millennial vision with his teaching about the coming third age of the Holy Spirit. During the Hussite Wars in fifteenth century Bohemia the Taborites encouraged the resistance to the Catholic Imperial forces by proclaiming the imminent return of Christ to establish his kingdom. These outbreaks of premillennialism continued during the Reformation era and were expressed most notably in the rebellion of the city of Munster in 1534.

Jan Matthys gained control of the community, proclaiming that he was Enoch preparing the way for the second coming of Christ by establishing a new code of laws which featured a community of property and other radical reforms. He declared that Munster was the New Jerusalem and called all faithful Christians to gather in the city. Many Anabaptists answered his summons, and most of the original inhabitants of the town were forced to flee or to live in a veritable reign of terror. The situation was so threatening to other areas of Europe that a combined Protestant and Catholic force laid siege to the place and after a difficult struggle captured the town, suppressing the wave of millennial enthusiasm.

Perhaps the Munster episode led the Protestant Reformers to reaffirm Augustinian amillennialism. Each of the three main Protestant traditions of the sixteenth century, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican, had the support of the state and so continued the same Constantinian approach to theology. Both Luther and Calvin were very suspicious of millennial speculation. Calvin declared that those who engaged in calculations based on the apocalyptic portions of Scripture were "ignorant" and "malicious." The major statements of the various Protestant bodies such as the Augsburg Confession (1, xvii), the Thirty nine Articles (IV), and the Westminister Confession (chs. 32, 33), although professing faith in the return of Christ, do not support apocalyptic millenarian speculation. In certain respects, however, the Reformers inaugurated changes which would lead to a revival of interest in premillennialism. These include a more literal approach to the interpretation of Scripture, the identification of the papacy with Antichrist, and an emphasis on Bible prophecy.

Modern Millennialism

It was during the seventeenth century that premillennialism of a more scholarly nature was presented. Two Reformed theologians, Johann Heinrich Alsted and Joseph Mede, were responsible for the renewal of this outlook. They did not interpret the book of Revelation in an allegorical manner but rather understood it to contain the promise of a literal kingdom of God to be established on earth before the last judgment. During the Puritan Revolution the writings of these men encouraged others to look for the establishment of the millennial kingdom in England. One of the more radical of these groups, the Fifth Monarchy Men, became infamous for their insistence on the reestablishment of OT law and a reformed government for England. The collapse of the Cromwellian regime and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy discredited premillennialism. Yet the teaching continued into the eighteenth century through the work of Isaac Newton, Johann Albrecht Bengel, and Joseph Priestley.

As the popularity of premillennialism wanted, postmillennialism rose to prominence. First expressed in the works of certain Puritan scholars, it received its most influential formulation in the writings of the Anglican commentator Daniel Whitby. It seemed to him that the kingdom of God was coming ever closer and that it would arrive through the same kind of effort that had always triumphed in the past. Among the many theologians and preachers who were convinced by the arguments of Whitby was Jonathan Edwards. Edwardsean postmillennialism also emphasized the place of America in the establishment of millennial conditions upon the earth.

During the nineteenth century premillennialism became popular once again. The violent uprooting of European social and political institutions during the era of the French Revolution encouraged a more apocalyptic climate of opinion. There was also a revival of interest in the fortunes of the Jews. A new element was added to premillennialism during this period with the rise of dispensationalism. Edward Irving, a Church of Scotland minister who pastored a congregation in London, was one of the outstanding leaders in the development of the new interpretation. He published numerous works on prophecy and organized the Albury Park prophecy conferences, thus setting the pattern for other gatherings of premillenarians during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Irving's apocalyptic exposition found support among the Plymouth Brethren and led many in the group to become enthusiastic teachers of dispensational premillennialism.

Perhaps the leading early dispensational expositor among the Brethren was John Nelson Darby. He believed that the second coming of Christ consisted of two stages, the first a secret rapture or "catching away" of the saints which would remove the church before a seven year period of tribulation devastates the earth, and the second when Christ appears visibly with his saints after the tribulation to rule on earth for a thousand years. Darby also taught that the church was a mystery of which only Paul wrote and that the purposes of God can be understood as working through a series of periods, or dispensations, in each of which God dealt with people in unique ways.

Most premillennialists during the early nineteenth century were not dispensationalists, however. More typical of their number was David Nevins Lord, who edited a quarterly journal, The Theological and Literary Review, which appeared from 1848 to 1861. This periodical contained articles of interest to premillennialists and helped to elaborate a nondispensational system of prophetic interpretation. Lord believed that a historical explanation of the book of Revelation was preferable to the futurist outlook which characterized the dispensational view. This approach was followed by most premillennialists in the United States until after the Civil War, when dispensationalism spread among their number. Darby's interpretation was accepted because of the work of individuals such as Henry Moorhouse, a Brethren evangelist, who convinced many interdenominational speakers to accept many interdenominational speakers to accept dispensationalism.

Typical of those who came to believe in Darby's eschatology were William E Blackstone, "Harry" A Ironside, Arno C Gaebelein, Lewis Sperry Chafer, and C I Scofield. It is through Scofield and his works that dispensationalism became the norm for much of American evangelicalism. His Scofield Reference Bible, which made the new eschatological interpretation an integral part of an elaborate system of notes printed on the same pages as the text, proved so popular that it sold over three million copies in fifty years. Bible schools and seminaries such as Biola, Moody Bible Institute, Dallas Theological Seminary, and Grace Theological Seminary, along with the popular preachers and teachers who have utilized the electronic media, have made this interpretation popular among millions of conservative Protestants. The new view replaced the older premillennial outlook to such an extent that when George Ladd restated the historic interpretation in the midtwentieth century it seemed like a novelty to many evangelicals.

While the various forms of premillennialism competed for adherents in nineteenth century America, a form of postmillennialism that equated the United States with the kingdom of God became very popular. Many Protestant ministers fed the fires of nationalism and Manifest Destiny by presenting the coming of the golden age as dependent upon the spread of democracy, technology, and the other "benefits" of Western civilization. Perhaps the most complete statement of this civil millennialism was presented by Hollis Read. Ordained to the Congregational ministry in Park Street Church, Boston, he served as a missionary to India but was forced to return to the United States because of his wife's poor health. In a two volume work, The Hand of God in History, he attempted to prove that God's millennial purposes were finding fulfillment in America. He believed that geography, politics, learning, the arts, and morality all pointed to the coming of the millennium to America in the nineteenth century. From this base the new age could spread to the entire earth.

As Ps. 22:27 stated, "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him." In order to accomplish the purpose of global evangelism Read favored imperialism because the extension of Anglo Saxon control over other nations ensured the spread of the gospel. He cited the prevalence of the English language, which made it easier to preach the Word and to teach the native people the more civilized Western culture, as one example of the benefits of Western control. Technological improvements such as the steam press, the locomotive, and the steamship were also given by God to spread enlightenment and the Christian message to all peoples.

Whenever the United States has faced a time of crisis, there have been those who have revived civil postmillennialism as a means to encourage and comfort their fellow citizens. The biblical content of this belief has become increasingly vague as the society has become more pluralistic. For example, during the period of the Civil War many agreed with Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic," which described God as working through the Northern forces to accomplish his ultimate purpose. President Wilson's crusade to "make the world safe for democracy," which led his country into World War I, was based upon a postmillennial vision that gave American ideals the major role in establishing peace and justice on earth. Since World War II several groups have revived civil millennialism to counter communism and to resist domestic changes such as those brought about by the moves for equal rights for women.

In addition to the premillennial, amillennial, and postmillennial interpretations there have been groups such as the Shakers, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Latter day Saints (Mormons) who tend to equate the activities of their own sect with the coming of the millennium. There are also movements including the Nazis and the Marxists who teach a kind of secular millennialism when they speak of the Third Reich or the classless society.