Amillennialism (Latin:
a- "against" +
millennialismThis article covers all forms of Christian and non-Christian Millennialism. You may be looking for the specific articles on Christian Premillennialism, Amillennialism or Postmillenialism....
) is a view in Christian
end-times theologyIn Christian theology, Christian eschatology is the study of its religious beliefs concerning all future and final events , as well as the ultimate purpose of the world , of humankind, and the Church....
named for its rejection of the theory that
Jesus ChristJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
will have a thousand-year long, physical reign on the earth. This is in opposition to
premillennialPremillennialism in Christian end-times theology is the belief that Christ will literally and physically be on the earth for his millennial reign, at his second coming. The doctrine is called premillennialism because it holds that Christ’s physical return to earth will occur prior to the...
and some
postmillennialIn Christian end-times theology, , postmillennialism is an interpretation of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation which sees Christ's second coming as occurring after the "Millennium", a Golden Age or era of Christian prosperity and dominance...
views of
chapter 20 of the
Book of RevelationThe Book of Revelation, also called the Revelation of St. John, the Apocalypse of John, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ, is the last book of the New Testament. It may be shortened to Revelation but never Revelations...
.
In contrast, the amillennial view holds that the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 is a
symbolicSymbolism is the use of symbols to represent things such as ideas and emotions. Symbolism is sometimes used to refer specifically to totemic symbols that stand on their own, as opposed to linguistic symbols....
number, not a literal description; that the millennium has already begun and is identical with the current
churchChristian Church and church Christian Church and church Christian Church and church (Greek kyriakon, "thing belonging to the Lord"; also ekklesia (Latinized as ecclesia, "assembly") are used to denote both a Christian association of people and a place of worship. In the phenomenological sense there...
age, (or more rarely, that it ended with the
destruction of JerusalemThe Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD was a decisive event in the First Jewish-Roman War. It was followed by the fall of Masada in 73 AD. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which...
in
AD 70Year 70 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.-Roman Empire:* The building of the Colosseum starts .* Frontinus is praetor of Rome....
— see
PreterismPreterism is a variant of Christian eschatology which holds that most or all of the biblical prophecies concerning the Last Days or End Times refer to events which already happened in the first century after Christ's birth. Because of its claims that Israel was supplanted by the Christian church...
). Amillennialism holds that while Christ's reign during the millennium is
spiritThe English word "spirit" has many differing meanings and connotations, but commonly refers to a supernatural being or essence — transcendent and therefore metaphysical in its nature: the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines it as "the non-physical part of a person"...
ual in nature, at the end of the church age, Christ will return in
final judgmentThe concept of a Last Judgment is found in all Abrahamic religions and elsewhere like Zoroastrianism and Duat.In Islam, the Last Judgment is referred to as "the Day of Standing" and God Almighty, will judge all Creation....
and establish permanent physical reign.
Terminology
Many proponents dislike the name amillennialism because it emphasizes their negative differences with premillennialism rather than their positive beliefs about the millennium, and although they prefer alternate terms such as
nunc-millennialism (that is, now-millennialism) or
realized millennialism, the acceptance and widespread usage of the different names has been limited.
Teaching
Amillennialism teaches that the
Kingdom of GodThe Kingdom of God or Reign of God is a foundational concept in the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam....
will not be physically established on earth throughout the "millennium", but rather
- that Jesus is presently reigning from heaven, seated at the right hand of God the Father,
- that Jesus also is and will remain with the church until the end of the world, as he promised at the Ascension,
- that at Pentecost
Pentecost is one of the prominent feasts in the Christian liturgical year. The feast is also called Whitsun, Whitsunday, Whit Sunday, and Whitsuntide, especially in the United Kingdom. Pentecost is celebrated seven weeks after Easter Sunday, hence its name...
, the millennium began, as is shown by PeterSimon Peter , Pétros “Rock”, Kephas in Hellenized Aramaic) was a leader of the early Christian Church, who features prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Peter was the son of John, and was from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee...
using the prophecies of JoelJoel was a prophet of ancient Israel, the second of the twelve minor prophets and the author of the Book of Joel.He is mentioned by name only once in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, in the introduction to his own brief book, as the son of Pethuel...
, about the coming of the kingdom, to explain what was happening,
- and that, therefore the church and its spread of the good news is Christ's kingdom.
Amillennialists cite scripture references to the kingdom not being a physical realm: Matthew 12:28, where Jesus cites his driving out of demons as evidence that the kingdom of God had come upon them; Luke 17:20-21, where Jesus warns that the coming of the kingdom of God can not be observed, and that it is among them; and Romans 14:17, where Paul speaks of the kingdom of God being in terms of the Christians' actions.
In particular, they regard the thousand year period as a figurative expression of Christ's reign being perfectly completed, as the "thousand hills" referred to in Psalm 50:10, the hills on which God owns the cattle, are all hills, and the "thousand generations" in 1 Chronicles 16:15, the generations for which God will be faithful, refer to all generations. (Some postmillennialists and nearly all premillennialists hold that the word
millennium should be taken to refer to a literal thousand-year period.)
Amillennialism also teaches that the binding of
SatanSatan is an embodiment of antagonism that originates from the Abrahamic religions, being traditionally considered an angel in Judeo-Christian belief, and a Jinn in Islamic belief...
described in Revelation has already occurred; he has been prevented from "deceiving the nations" by preventing the spread of the gospel. This is the only binding he will suffer in history: the forces of Satan will not be gradually pushed back by the Kingdom of God as history progresses but will remain just as active as always up until the second coming of Christ, and therefore good and evil will remain mixed in strength throughout history and even in the church, according to the amillennial understanding of the Parable of the Wheat and Tares.
Amillennialism is sometimes associated with
IdealismIdealism in Christian eschatology is an interpretation of the Book of Revelation that sees all of the imagery of the book as non-literal symbols.These symbols are perpetually and cyclically fulfilled in a spiritual sense during the conflict between the...
as both teach a symbolic interpretation of many of the prophecies of the Bible and especially the
Book of RevelationThe Book of Revelation, also called the Revelation of St. John, the Apocalypse of John, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ, is the last book of the New Testament. It may be shortened to Revelation but never Revelations...
. However, many amillennialists do believe in the literal fulfillment of Biblical prophecies; they simply disagree with Millennialists about how or when these prophecies will be fulfilled.
History
Early church
The first two centuries of the church held both premillennial and amillennial opinions. Although none of the available Church Fathers advocate amillennialism in the first century,
Justin MartyrJustin Martyr was an early Christian apologist and saint. His works represent the earliest surviving Christian "apologies" of notable size.-Life:Most of what is known about the life of Justin Martyr comes from his own writings...
(died 165), who had
chiliasticThis article covers all forms of Christian and non-Christian Millennialism. You may be looking for the specific articles on Christian Premillennialism, Amillennialism or Postmillenialism....
tendencies in his theology, mentions differing views in his
Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, chapter 80: "I and many others are of this opinion [premillennialism], and [believe] that such will take place, as you assuredly are aware; but, on the other hand, I signified to you that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise."
A few amillenialists such as Albertus Pieters understand
Pseudo-BarnabasPseudo-Barnabas refers to the author of the Epistle of Barnabas and is considered an Apostlic Father, but is not considered to be St...
to be amillennial. In the second century, the
AlogiThe Alogi were a group of Christian heretics in Asia Minor that flourished around 170 CE. What we know of them is derived from their doctrinal opponents, whose literature is still extant, particularly St. Epiphanius of Salamis...
(those who rejected all of John's writings) were amillennial, as was
Caius-Persons:*Caius, Christian writer*Caius Gabriel Cibber, sculptor*Caius of Korea, Catholic missionary*Caius Welcker, footballer*John Caius, physician and cofounder of Gonville and Caius College*Pope Caius...
in the first quarter of the third century. With the influence of Neo-Platonism and
dualismDualism denotes a state of two parts. The word's origin is the Latin duo, "two" . The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages.-Moral...
,
Clement of AlexandriaTitus Flavius Clemens , known as Clement of Alexandria , was a Christian theologian and the head of the noted Catechetical School of Alexandria. Clement is best remembered as the teacher of Origen...
and
OrigenOrigen was an early Christian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished of the early fathers of the Christian Church. According to tradition, he is held to have been an Egyptian who taught in Alexandria, reviving the Catechetical School of Alexandria where Clement of Alexandria had...
denied premillennialism. Likewise,
Dionysius of AlexandriaPope Dionysius of Alexandria, named 'the Great', was the Pope of Alexandria from 248 until his death on November 17, 265 after seventeen years as a bishop. He was the first Pope to have the title "the Great" attached to his name . We have information on Dionysius because during his lifetime,...
argued that Revelation was not written by John and could not be interpreted literally; he was amillennial.
OrigenOrigen was an early Christian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished of the early fathers of the Christian Church. According to tradition, he is held to have been an Egyptian who taught in Alexandria, reviving the Catechetical School of Alexandria where Clement of Alexandria had...
's idealizing tendency to consider only the spiritual as real (which was fundamental to his entire system) led him to combat the "rude" or "crude" Chiliasm of a physical and sensual beyond.
In general, however, premillennialism appeared in the available writings of the early church but it was evident that both views existed side by side. The premillennial beliefs of the early church fathers, however, are quite different from the dominant form of modern-day premillennialism, namely dispensational premillennialism.
Medieval and Reformation periods
Amillennialism gained ground after Christianity became a legal religion. It was systematized by
St. AugustineAugustine of Hippo , Bishop of Hippo Regius, also known as St. Augustine or St. Austin, was an Algerian Berber philosopher and theologian....
in the fourth century, and this systematization carried amillennialism over as the dominant eschatology of the Medieval and Reformation periods. Augustine was originally a premillennialist, but he retracted that view, claiming the doctrine was carnal. Although he argued that Christ's reign was spiritual and not literal and earthly, and that the church was currently living in the millennium, Augustine held to a literal 1,000 year millennium that could end in perhaps A.D. 650 or, at the latest, 1000.
Amillennialism was the dominant view of the
Protestant ReformersThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
. The Lutheran Church formally rejected chiliasm in the The Augsburg Confession— “Art. XVII., condemns the Anabaptists and others ’who now scatter Jewish opinions that, before the
resurrectionThe resurrection of dead humans is a central doctrine of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It may refer either to the resurrection of particular individuals, or a general resurrection of humanity....
of the dead, the godly shall occupy the kingdom of the world, the wicked being everywhere suppressed.’" Likewise, the
Swiss ReformerThe Protestant Reformation in Switzerland was promoted initially by Huldrych Zwingli, who gained the support of the magistrate and population of Zürich in the 1520s. It led to significant changes in civil life and state matters in Zürich and spread to several other cantons of the Old Swiss...
,
Heinrich BullingerHeinrich Bullinger was a Swiss reformer, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Zurich church and pastor at Grossmünster...
wrote up the
Second Helvetic ConfessionHelvetic Confessions, the name of two documents expressing the common belief of the Reformed churches of Switzerland.The First Helvetic Confession , known also as the Second Confession of Basel, was drawn up at that city in 1536 by Bullinger and Leo Jud of Zürich, Megander of Bern, Oswald Myconius...
which reads "We also reject the Jewish dream of a millennium, or golden age on earth, before the
last judgmentThe concept of a Last Judgment is found in all Abrahamic religions and elsewhere like Zoroastrianism and Duat.In Islam, the Last Judgment is referred to as "the Day of Standing" and God Almighty, will judge all Creation....
."
John CalvinJohn Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
wrote in
Institutes that chiliasm is a "fiction" that is "too childish either to need or to be worth a refutation." He interpreted the thousand year period of Revelation 20 non-literally, applying it to the "various disturbances that awaited the church, while still toiling on earth."
Modern times
Amillennialism has been widely held in the
EasternThe Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to in English speaking countries as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the world's second largest Christian communion, estimated to number 225 million members...
and Oriental Orthodox Churches as well as in the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
, which generally follows Augustine on this point and which has deemed that premillennialism "cannot safely be taught." Amillennialism is also common among "mainline" Protestant denominations such as the Lutheran, Reformed, Disciples of Christ, and Anglican churches, and even has a significant following amongst Evangelical Christian denominations.
Partial PreterismPartial preterism is a form of Christian eschatology that places the events of most of the Book of Revelation as occurring during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD yet still affirms an orthodox future bodily return of Christ to earth at an unknown day and hour...
is sometimes a component of amillennial
hermeneuticsHermeneutics is the study of interpretation theory, and can be defined as either the art of interpretation, or the theory and practice of interpretation. Traditional hermeneutics - which includes Biblical hermeneutics - refers to the study of the interpretation of written texts, especially texts in...
. Amillennialism declined in Protestant circles with the rise of Postmillennialism and the resurgence of Premillennialism in the 18th and 19th centuries, but it has regained prominence in the West after World War II.
Criticism
Many premillennialists accuse amillennialists of over-spiritualizing parts of the Bible. Amillennialists argue that to understand the Bible literally, one must interpret it according to its
genreA genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other form of art or utterance...
such that
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
is not read as though it were
poetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, for instance. Amillennialist B. B. Warfield says that in the genre of the Book of Revelation, which he calls an "apocalyptic," everything is stated in a "symbolic medium" such that "every event, person, and thing, that appears on its pages is to be read as a symbol, and the thing symbolized understood. This is not to say one thing and mean another; it is only to say what is said through the medium of a series of symbols, and to mean nothing but the things symbolized." Since the events pictured in an apocalyptic are spoken of in a symbolic medium, the details of the symbol must not be forced onto the thing symbolized because the book itself "gives us a direct description of nothing it sets before us, but always a direct description of the symbol by which it is represented."
The amillennial view that good and evil will persist has led some postmillennialists to accuse amillennialists (and premillennialists) of being overly pessimistic. Amillennialists have countered that the
Parable of the WeedsJesus tells the Parable of the Tares in the Gospel of Matthew and in the noncanonical Gospel of Thomas. It refers to the coming of the Son of Man, when angels will separate the evil ones from the worthy , and the evil ones will be destroyed.The parable fits Matthew's theme of division and judgment...
and the
Parable of Drawing in the NetThe Parable of Drawing in the Net is told by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew . It is the last parable of Jesus in chapter 13. Jesus speaks of heaven, hell, and judgment:- Background :...
show that the good and evil will be sorted out only at the end of the world.
Critics also believe that
caesaropapismCaesaropapism is the idea of combining the power of secular government with, or making it superior to, the spiritual authority of the Christian Church; especially concerning the connection of the Christian Church with government...
caused millennialism to be eliminated from Christianity from the 4th century onwards.
See also
- Summary of Christian eschatological differences
This is a general overview of the different eschatological interpretations of the Book of Revelation held by Christians. The differences are by no means monolithic as representing one group or another...
- Millenarianism
Millenarianism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society, after which all things will be changed...
External links