Original Millennial Doctrines The origin of the introduction of incoherency into early church philosophy and doctrine is found at the end of the second and beginning of the third centuries. The original millennial doctrines of the early church were given titles by later writers and Millennialism or Chiliasm (from chiliad, also a term for one thousand) came to be referred to as Premillennialism. The original doctrine of the millennial reign of Christ on earth was, however, more or less preserved by various early Christian writers, such as Apollinarius, Commodianus, Hippolytus, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Lactantius, Methodius (who saw the millennium as a day of judgement), Montanus, Nepos, pseudo-Barnabus, Tertullian, and Victorinus. The theory of the delayed 70th week, relating Daniel 9:25 to Christ, was first introduced by Hippolytus. The excesses of Lactantius’ teachings saw the term Chiliasm appropriated to them and Chiliasm regarded as aberrant. Some writings became rather carnal, with borrowings from non-biblical sources. It was left to the Athanasians, however, to develop the soul doctrine fully and to refute the doctrine of the earthly reign from Jerusalem, teaching that millennialism was evidence of Etruscan and Persian influence on the early church. Origen and Dynonisius of Alexandria (d.265) opposed the excessive chiliastic millennialism, and as a result, the book of Revelation came to be omitted from the Canon by the Council of Laodicea (c.366). Cyril of Jerusalem (d.368) and Gregory of Nazianius (d.389) exclude the Apocalypse or Revelation from their catalogues of New Testament books; John Chrysostom (d.407) nowhere quoted it. Athanasius did include it in his enumeration; the Councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) declared it Canonical (see details of the history in Bishop B. F. Westcott’s A General Survey of the History of Canon of the New Testament, 1875, chapter 20). The more concise story of the canon is given in the paper Cox, The Bible (No. 164), CCG. On the re-introduction of Revelation to the Canon it became necessary to readjust its interpretation to accommodate the soul doctrine, since it is in this book, at chapter 20, that the one thousand year earthly reign of Christ, with two separate resurrections, is explicitly and unavoidably stated. Accordingly, it was left to Augustine to juxtapose Athanasian doctrine in order to accommodate this teaching on any even remotely coherent basis. His reconstruction, to this day, forms the basis of most Christian teaching and is responsible for the logical incoherence. Augustine’s theory of the spiritualisation of the Millennium is based on the recapitulation theory propounded by Tichonius, holding that Revelation repeated itself under the symbols of the seven seals, trumpets and vials; a position which is absurd. The idea of the Millennium as being the earthly reign of the church was also introduced by Tichonius, and seems to have been used by Eusebius to persuade Constantine. The entire structure appears to have been constructed to appease Roman political vanity. Jerome argued that the Millennium was heavenly, not earthly, and seems to have given Augustine the foundation he sought for the reconstruction. The concept has been carried on to the non-biblical conclusion that the eschatological rule of Christ in the last days is not earthly, but heavenly, and that Satan will roam a desolate earth for 1,000 years. This concept has no logical basis, impugning the omnipotence of God, and introduces the soul doctrine in another form to Christianity. A variant of this aberration is found in the rapture theory, which is contrary to biblical exposition and is logically flawed, as is evident from the development of this work.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 11:45:00 +0000