CHAPTER V PREMILLENNIALISM IN THE HISTORY THERE is neither space nor need in this discussion for a comprehensive history of chiliastic opinion in the Christian Church. A brief survey, however, will further our understanding of modern premillennialism. For convenience, four periods may be distinguished. THE EARLY CHURCH The early church before Augustine in its popular thinking was largely apocalyptic. An early return of Jesus was expected to establish his kingdom. We have seen that the Jewish apocalyptic writings had currency in the early church, and that one New Testament author, Jude, refers to one such writing and quotes by name from another. This apocalyptic thought was generally premillennial; it was a temporary kingdom upon earth that was to be established. That this thought was uncritical is indicated by the currency of the Jewish writings in the church which were interpreted in a Christian way and sometimes suffered Christian interpolation. There was apparently no attempt to reduce it to systematic form. It was a hope that was real and vivid, but aside from its broad outline the form seemed a matter of relative indifference. From the beginning apparently the theology of the church and her creeds was untouched by this doctrine. As the fourth Gospel shows, the more thoughtful minds early passed beyond these conceptions. One passage suggestive of this situation has come down to us from Papias, a church father who died about the middle of the second century. It indicates both the uncritical character of this chiliastic thought and its tendency toward the material. Papias quotes words that are taken from the Apocalypse of Baruch, but ascribes them to Jesus. He says that "the Lord taught in regard to those times, and said: "The days will come in which vines shall grow, having each ten thousand branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each true twig ten thousand shoots, and in every one of the shoots ten thousand clusters, and on every one of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed will give five and twenty metretes of wine. And when any one of the saints shall lay hold of a cluster, another shall cry out, I am a better cluster, take me; bless the Lord through me. In like manner, He said that a grain of wheat would produce ten thousand ears, and that every ear would have ten thousand grains, and every grain would yield ten pounds of clear, pure fine flour.' ” And so forth. FROM AUGUSTINE ONWARD A second stage begins with Augustine. During this period chiliasm is rejected by the church and persists only here and there in special circles. Various reasons account for the change. (1) The external situation of the church was wholly different. John saw no hope for deliverance from threatened destruction except the annihilation of Rome by power from heaven in connection with the return of Christ. Now the threat was removed, Rome was favorable, and the church had free scope. (2) The materialistic and Judaistic side of pre millennialism had repelled the church, as had the character of certain movements like Montanism which were strongly chiliastic. (3) The thought of the church as represented in its great leaders and as crystallized in its creeds had rested upon a wholly different position and concerned itself with other interests. This ordered thought occupied now a larger and more commanding position in the church and premillennialism had no place in it. (4) A similar result followed from the development of the church as an institution, and the whole doctrine of salvation as connected with the church and her sacraments. The salvation which concerned men now was not a world renewal wrought by divine interposition; it was a gift that the church held in her hands in this life, and beyond this life was simply the judgment and the future award. Under Augustine's leadership the church came to consider herself as the kingdom of God on earth and thus supplanted the millennial hope. THE REFORMATION PERIOD Outwardly at least the Protestant Reformation made no change in this. While some of the reformers thought that the end of the world was near, premillennialism itself was repudiated as a Jewish hope. Luther and Calvin both had too much of historic sense and the historic view of the Scriptures for them simply to accept Jewish opinions as held by the second-century church or to transfer literally the political hopes of the Old Testament into Christian theology. Luther, especially at first, had a distinctly depreciatory opinion of Revelation, while Zwingli and Oecolampadius definitely rejected it. In this they were simply reviving the position taken by leaders of the Eastern church in the old discussion in connection with the formation of the canon. Calvin's opinion of premillennialism is emphatically suggested in the Institutes (III. XXV. 5): "Shortly after the Chiliasts arose, who limited the reign of Christ to a thousand years. This fiction is too puerile to need or to deserve refutation." The doctrine of salvation with the reformers was dominantly individual. The larger hope of the kingdom of God as a new order appears neither in its apocalyptic form nor in its later missionary-social conception. The apocalyptic elements of the New Testament they passed by. The missionary task they did not recognize, nor acknowledge the social implications of the Gospel. Their great concern was with the personal and present salvation as an individual experience which was contained in the writings of Paul and John. And yet the Reformation did bring a revival of premillennialism. It appeared in certain minor and more radical movements like the Anabaptists, movements which must not be condemned because of the instance of the Muenster fanatics. There was much of moral earnestness and spiritual passion here. These men felt that the reformers were not sufficiently radical. Over against the more middle-class and aristocratic Lutheran movement they were decidedly democratic, and so emphasized the social application of religion. There was also an emphasis upon special inspiration such as revived one aspect of primitive Christianity. With this went a strong tendency to biblical literalism as the only rule for doctrine and practice. These elements explain the revival of premillennialism, especially the biblical literalism and the social emphasis. THE MODERN MOVEMENT AND ITS SOURCES The nineteenth century brought a revival of premillennialism which was due historically to various influences. Of these two principal ones can be pointed out here. The first was the literalistic conception and use of the Bible. The Protestant leaders had appealed from ecclesiastical authority to the Bible, but it was to the Bible as bearing the Gospel. The test of a book for Luther was the way in which it presented Christ, and in applying that test he put some writings definitely above others. It was a later generation that set up the authority of the letter. Under this influence a mild type of apocalypticism arose, especially in pietistic circles and under the influence of Bengel. It was felt necessary to find a place and meaning for the millennial passage of Revelation 20. Bengel himself indulged in a good deal of apocalyptic calculation and speculation. He made predictions as to the future of Christianity, Mohammedanism, and papacy, as to political events and the like. He calculated the end of the present age and set the date at 1836. In the main, however, his writings were of a most helpful and wholesome character and because of this and his devout personal life he wielded a very large influence. He was not, however, a premillennialist, least of all after the modern pattern. He believed in two millennia, not one. He denied a reign of Christ on earth with his saints, or any visible political kingdom of Christ whatever, protesting against “the Judaizing and fleshly meanings" of the thousand years. |