Interlude: Millenialism/Chiliasm

Millenialism, or Chiliasm

Here in Revelation 20 we have the foundation of what is called the Millennialism movement (also called Chiliasm, based on the Greek word Chilios which means “thousand”).  This belief is that before the final judgment Christ will reign for a thousand years in a kingdom filled by his saints.  After the 1,000 years there will be a great struggle, final judgment through the great book of life, and great consummation. 

While Millennialism was a very common belief in the early church, this is the only passage within the New Testament where Millennialism is taught at all.  In fact, the origin of this belief is not Christianity, but rather Judaism – especially the period after 100 B.C.  So let’s talk a little history, first.

At first the belief was that God would come and establish His kingdom here on earth forever.  The Messiah would come and the Jewish people would become the leaders within this regime.  We can see this belief in the time of Jesus, when even His disciples wanted Jesus to set up an earthly kingdom. 

As time passed, the belief changed because the Jews thought the world was so incurably evil that God would never come.  So, they thought that it was necessary for there to be a time where the good and the evil were weeded out.  This period became the Millennium, and those not worthy enough to pass through the Millennium would be caught by the final consummation.  This progression can be seen in the Apocalypse of Baruch, Enoch, and 2 Esdras.  There was great discussion about how long this period of purification would be among Jewish rabbis: 40 years (Symbolic of the flood, the Exodus, etc), 100 years, 400 years, 1,000 years, 2,000 years, or even 7,000 years.  The reason that 1,000 years was eventually settled upon is because Psalm 90:4 says that “A thousand years in your sight is but yesterday.”  During this Millennium, it is said that there will be no more disease, no suffering, no pain during childbirth, an even the animals will be friendly to mankind. 

Although there are several early Christian forefathers who followed Chiliasm, there was never the idea that one must follow Chiliasm to be a true follower of Christ.  This idea of Millennialism has always been debated as to whether it is to be interpreted literally or figuratively.  The reason that some early church fathers rejected Chiliasm is because most of the time Chiliasm was taught from a self-serving perspective: often those who teach Chiliasm the strongest are those who want the enjoyment of being set up as a “king” {Under Christ, of course} over those who abused them in this life.  Since the whole thrust of the rest of Christianity focuses us on Christ and not our own personal gain, many early church fathers rejected Millennialism. 

That being said, it should be noted that these Christian spiritual fathers weren’t rejecting Chiliasm as much as they were rejecting the self-serving ideals of the people who taught Chiliasm the loudest.  In fact, Augustine speaks the loudest against Millennialsm – likely because he himself had once been a Millennialist – and his point in that condemnation is that the Millenialists were using their own faith for their own personal gain.  In other words, sin was creeping into their faith.  That is the inherent danger of Chiliasm in any form.

In conclusion, Millennialism (or Chiliasm) is certainly not dead within the church.  It is not even necessarily a wrong teaching within the church.  But it is a teaching that has never been universally accepted.  And it is a teaching that if it is taught should be taught carefully so that Christ is always at the center of the teaching and any personal gain is not based on our own righteousness.