The expectation of the "last day" in the year 1000 A. D., reinvested the doctrine with a transitory importance; but it lost all credit again when the hopes so keenly excited by the _crusades_ faded away before the stern reality of Saracenic success, and the predictions of the "Everlasting Gospel," a work of Joachim de Floris, a Franciscan abbot, remained unfulfilled.[241:1]
At the period of the _Reformation_, millenarianism once more experienced a partial revival, because it was not a difficult matter to apply some of its symbolism to the papacy. The Pope, for example, was _Antichrist_--a belief still adhered to by some extreme Protestants. Yet the doctrine was not adopted by the great body of the reformers, but by some fanatical sects, such as the Anabaptists, and by the Theosophists of the seventeenth century.
During the civil and religious wars in France and England, when great excitement prevailed, it was also prominent. The "Fifth Monarchy Men" of Cromwell"s time were millenarians of the most exaggerated and dangerous sort. Their peculiar tenet was that the millennium _had_ come, and that _they_ were the saints who were to inherit the earth. The excesses of the French Roman Catholic Mystics and Quietists terminated in _chiliastic_[242:1] views. Among the Protestants it was during the "Thirty Years" War" that the most enthusiastic and learned chiliasts flourished. The awful suffering and wide-spread desolation of that time led pious hearts to solace themselves with the hope of a peaceful and glorious future. Since then the _penchant_ which has sprung up for expounding the prophetical books of the Bible, and particularly the _Apocalypse_, with a view to present events, has given the doctrine a faint semi-theological life, very different, however, from the earnest faith of the first Christians.
Among the foremost chiliastic teachers of modern centuries are to be mentioned Ezechiel Meth, Paul Felgenhauer, Bishop Comenius, Professor Jurien, Seraris, Poiret, J. Mede; while Thomas Burnet and William Whiston endeavored to give chiliasm a geological foundation, but without finding much favor. Latterly, especially since the rise and extension of missionary enterprise, the opinion has obtained a wide currency, that after the conversion of the whole world to Christianity, a blissful and glorious era will ensue; but not much stress--except by extreme literalists--is now laid on the nature or duration of this far-off felicity.
Great eagerness, and not a little ingenuity have been exhibited by many persons in fixing a _date_ for the commencement of the millennium. The celebrated theologian, Johann Albrecht Bengel, who, in the eighteenth century, revived an earnest interest in the subject amongst orthodox Protestants, a.s.serted from a study of the prophecies that the millennium would begin in 1836. This date was long popular. Swedenborg held that the last judgment _took place_ in 1757, and that the new church, or "_Church of the New Jerusalem_," as his followers designate themselves--in other words, the millennial era--_then began_.
In America, considerable agitation was excited by the preaching of one William Miller, who fixed the second advent of Christ Jesus about 1843.
Of late years, the most noted English millenarian was Dr. John c.u.mming, who placed the end of the _present dispensation_ in 1866 or 1867; but as that time pa.s.sed without any millennial symptoms, he modified his original views considerably, before he died, and conjectured that the beginning of the millennium would not differ so much after all from the years immediately preceding it, as people commonly suppose.
FOOTNOTES:
[233:1] We say "is made to teach it," for the probability is that Paul never wrote this pa.s.sage. The authority of _both_ the Letters to the _Thessalonians_, attributed to Paul, is undoubtedly spurious. (See The Bible of To-Day, pp. 211, 212.)
[233:2] I. Thessalonians, iv. 14-17.
[233:3] Ibid. v. 22, 23.
[233:4] We say "James," but, it is probable that we have, in this epistle of James, another pseudonymous writing which appeared after the time that James must have lived. (See The Bible of To-Day, p. 225.)
[233:5] James, v. 7, 8.
[233:6] I. Peter, iv. 7.
[233:7] I. Peter, v. 7. This Epistle is not authentic. (See The Bible of To-Day, pp. 226, 227, 228.)
[234:1] I. John, ii. 26. This epistle is not authentic. (See Ibid. p.
231.)
[234:2] I. John, v. 2.
[234:3] Acts, i. 10, 11.
[234:4] Rev. xxii. 20.
[234:5] Matt. xvi. 27, 28.
[234:6] Ibid. xxiv. 3.
[234:7] Ibid. xxiv. 34-36.
[235:1] Towards the close of the second century. (See Bible of To-Day.)
[235:2] II. Peter, iii. 4.
[235:3] II. Peter, iii. 8-10.
[235:4] See Middleton"s Works, vol. i. p. 188.
[236:1] Chapters xx. and xxi. in particular.
[236:2] The _Christian Saviour_, as well as the _Hindoo Saviour_, will appear "in the latter days" among mortals "in the form of an armed warrior, riding a _white horse_." St. John sees this in his _vision_, and prophecies it in his "Revelation" thus: "And I saw, and behold a _white horse_: and he that sat on him had a _bow_; and a _crown_ was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer." (Rev. vi.
2.)
[237:1] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 75. Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. pp.
497-503. See also, Williams: Hinduism, p. 108.
[237:2] Prog. Relig. Ideas, i. 247, and Bunsen"s Angel-Messiah, p. 48.
[237:3] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 209.
[237:4] See Ibid. p. 279. The Angel-Messiah, p. 287, and chap. xiii.
this work.
[237:5] Pp. 122, 123.
[237:6] "And I saw the _dead_, small and great, stand before G.o.d." (Rev.
xx. 12.)
[237:7] "And the _sea_ gave up the dead which were in it." (Rev. xx.
13.)
[237:8] "And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars." "Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places." (Matt. xxiv. 6, 7.)
[238:1] "And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." (Matt. xxv. 32, 33.)
[238:2] "He descended into h.e.l.l, the third day he rose (again) from the dead." (Apostles" Creed.)
[238:3] Purgatory--a place in which souls are supposed by the papists to be purged by fire from carnal impurities, before they are received into heaven.
[238:4] "And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years." (Rev. xx. 2.)
[238:5] "And death and h.e.l.l were cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. xx.
14.)
[238:6] "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first earth, and the first heaven were pa.s.sed away." (Rev. xxi. 1.)
[238:7] "And G.o.d shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are pa.s.sed away." (Rev. xxi. 1.)
[238:8] "And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, "Alleluia; salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord, our G.o.d."" (Rev. xix. 1.) "For the Lord G.o.d omnipotent reigneth." (Rev. xix. 6.)
[238:9] Dupuis: Orig. Relig. Belief.
[238:10] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 407.