What Millennialist doctrines do some contemporary denominations teach?

Some denominations cast Millennialism as their central doctrine and on this basis, predict specific dates for the return of Christ to reign over the world. Here we find that there are differences between the writings of the early Church and the writings of our contemporary authors.

• a. In the writings of the early Church, the millennium only appears incidentally, as a secondary argument to motivate the main argument that the Jews, having rejected Jesus, have been deprived of all the promises of the Old Testament, as we see when

1216 St. Augustine of Hippo, City of God, Books XVII–XXII 20.7 (FOTC 24:264–269). Cf. St. Augustine of Hippo, The Works of St. Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century: Part III—Sermons; Volume VII: Sermons 230–272B , trans., Edmund Hill, ed., John E. Rotelle (New City Press, 1993) 259.2: pp. 177– 178.

St. Justin Martyr cautions, “many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise.”¹²¹⁷

• b. Nonetheless, some Protestant denominations advocate this idea on the following grounds:

First: The Lord Christ comes to reign over His saints¹²¹⁸ before the “man of sin” comes and initiates the great tribulation, so the saints do not live through that tribulation. Then He returns and appears again to destroy the antichrist.

Second: Israel will believe in the Lord Christ, but they will remain a body distinct from the Church;¹²¹⁹ and Jerusalem will expand and be adorned and become a center for the Jewish people who will rule the world.

Third: The Temple of Jerusalem will be rebuilt and animal sacrifices will once again be offered …

Rather than entering into a debate over this framework myself, I would prefer to present the responses to this view of some of my Protestant brethren:

• a. Erdmann¹²²⁰ argues that the principles on which the idea of a material millennium is built contradict each other and depart from the spirit of the Holy Bible.

• b. In his book, Worthy is the Lamb , Summers argues that a system of eschatology, theology, or philosophy of history cannot be built on a shaky literal interpretation of just three verses (i.e., Rev. 20:4–6).¹²²¹

• c. H. Monod¹²²² rejects the literal interpretation of the millennium, and his reasoning can be summarized thus:

First: Spiritual and symbolic interpretations are more in harmony with the style of the prophets in general and especially with the Book of Revelation. Thus, when we

1217 St. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 80 (ANF 1:239). Translator’s Note: That is, while Justin and some Christians believe in an earthly millennium, other pious Christians do not. It is not a matter of central importance to Christians, but Justin discusses it only in the context of his argument to the Jewish Trypho that it is Christians who inherit the promises of the Old Testament rather than the Jews.

1218 In her book Revealing the Future , Laura B. Hamilton believes that those who will reign with Christ are those who submit to Him, but among them will be those who submit to Him with their bodies but not their hearts. At the coming of the antichrist, those who have truly submitted will be revealed in distinction to the hypocrites.

1219 Charles R. Erdman, The Revelation of John: An Exposition (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1936): p. 146.

1220 Charles R. Erdman, The Revelation of John: An Exposition (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1936): p. 144–146.

1221 Ray Summers, Worthy Is the Lamb (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1951): pp. 205–206.

1222 Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator: Vol. 17, Revelation (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978).

read that a church is a candlestick and its minister is a star, we cannot possibly interpret this literally.

Second: Note that St. John speaks only of the “souls” that revive again and reign with Christ [which souls alone cannot do]. He does not speak of “souls and bodies.”

Third: A literal interpretation is not in harmony with other texts in the Bible that speak of the general resurrection. Nowhere else do we read of the resurrection occurring twice or at two different periods. But from Dan. 12:2; John 5:28–29; and 1 Thess. 4:16–17, it is quite clear that the resurrection of the dead — for the righteous and the wicked — is immediately followed by judgment and eternal life.

Fourth: It is impossible to understand how returning to earth brings happiness to the righteous who died in faith and were gathered with the rest of God’s people. The error of the Jews lies in their desire for a temporal reign of the Messiah, and those who believe in a literal millennium fall into the same error.

Fifth: If we accept a literal interpretation, what would happen to those born during the millennium? Currently, by death (physically), the faithful are saved: they die in peace, because they leave behind trials and misery to go to the Lord; but this would not be the case of those born in the millennium. He asks how it is that those born during the millennium could carry the cross with the Lord Jesus, given it is a kingdom in which they marry and are married, and is not a narrow way?

Sixth: This text is the only passage in the Holy Bible in which it is said that the first resurrection will be before the end of the world, while many prophecies talk about the resurrection without mentioning any resurrection of the body in the literal physical form. Which makes more sense: to interpret the entire Bible, especially these prophecies, in the light of this one mysterious passage; or to interpret the mysterious passage in the light of the many clear prophecies in the Bible?

Finally, Monod draws this conclusion: “the millennium, is to be understood in a spiritual sense, and that the subject is the authority which He will exercise over souls by the progress of the gospel … as regards conversion and as regards salvation. Indeed, since that glorious reign of Christ is a spiritual reign, since it will essentially consist in the submission of hearts to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

• d. Gibb¹²²³ rejects the idea of a temporal millennium, refuting the idea that the resurrected body will reign physically and visibly. He also says that the souls of the martyrs are alive and that they experience a kind of resurrection when they taste a kind of rest and a state of authority and vitality. They exercise a kind of reign with the Lord for the sake of the pains and toils they endured for the Lord’s sake. The

1223 Joseph S. Exell, The Biblical Illustrator: Vol. 17, Revelation (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978): pp. 275–276.

saints of the Lord Jesus reign with Him in a glorious, immaterial way beyond our present comprehension. He calls those who believe in a literal millennium materialists and skeptics and calls for us to have a more accurate hope rather than this kind of material hope in vain matters. It is better for a person to seek everything for the sake of Christ in order to gain Christ and be found in Him, to benefit from the heavenly kingdom — knowing that the cross is the way to the crown — rather than to seek material things.

Finally, he says that rejecting a temporal millennial kingdom instils comfort in the faithful, when they take off their earthly tent. They know that their souls will not sleep in a state of insensible darkness while their bodies rest in the dust; indeed, death is gain for them.

These are a few excerpts from the writings of our Protestant brethren in which they vehemently attack the doctrine of a temporal millennium.