[geocentrism] Re: Psalm 19/ Christ 2nd Return
- From: "philip madsen" <pma15027@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <geocentrism@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:35:38 +1000
Perhaps I meant another word than interpretation Allen.. But I just cannot
think of what to call it , when one says the Bible is speaking quite literally,
and at another time it is being allegorical, at one time reality and another a
parable.. At one time historical, and at another mystical or symbolic.. And
people can chose to be selective or unanimous in which is this or that, If I
cannot call separating which is which from those examples, as interpretation,
then give me a better word..
By the way Allen I was not singleing you out personally for attack by my post
but all in general.. er well not attack, just another view..
Phil.
By the way , as I do not think we have much more time left for communicatuon, I
will forgive typografical errors, becuas taking the time to correct thenm might
make it too late.. Ka boom!
Philip
----- Original Message -----
From: allendaves@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: geocentrism@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 12:27 PM
Subject: [geocentrism] Re: Psalm 19/ Christ 2nd Return
Phil it is not a matter of interpritaion..you either accept what it
states or not.....if i miss quote or somthing fine but im not interpreting
anything.... besides..."learn in us not to think of men ( including your
Historical figures) beyond what is written..how simple is that?
--- On Thu, 8/21/08, philip madsen <pma15027@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: philip madsen <pma15027@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [geocentrism] Re: Psalm 19/ Christ 2nd Return
To: geocentrism@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thursday, August 21, 2008, 6:47 PM
Whilst I admire your imaginative interpretations, and even welcome
the variety, I do not think you have considered all the aspects of historical
and scriptural evidence.
Millennium and Millenarianism
The fundamental idea of millenarianism, as understood by Christian
writers, may be set forth as follows: At the end of time Christ will return in
all His splendour to gather together the just, to annihilate hostile powers,
and to found a glorious kingdom on earth for the enjoyment of the highest
spiritual and material blessings; He Himself will reign as its king, and all
the just, including the saints recalled to life, will participate in it. At the
close of this kingdom the saints will enter heaven with Christ, while the
wicked, who have also been resuscitated, will be condemned to eternal
damnation. The duration of this glorious reign of Christ and His saints on
earth, is frequently given as one thousand years. Hence it is commonly known as
the "millennium", while the belief in the future realization of the kingdom is
called "millenarianism" (or "chiliasm", from the Greek chilia, scil. ete).
This term of one thousand years, however, is by no means an essential
element of the millennium as conceived by its adherents. The extent, details of
the realization, conditions, the place, of the millennium were variously
described. Essential are the following points:
a.. the early return of Christ in all His power and glory,
b.. the establishment of an earthly kingdom with the just,
c.. the resuscitation of the deceased saints and their
participation in the glorious reign,
d.. the destruction of the powers hostile to God, and,
e.. at the end of the kingdom, the universal resurrection with the
final judgment, after which the just will enter heaven, while the wicked will
be consigned to the eternal fire of hell.
The roots of the belief in a glorious kingdom, partly natural, partly
supernatural, are found in the hopes of the Jews for a temporal Messiah and in
the Jewish apocalyptic. Under the galling pressure of their political
circumstances the expectation of a Messiah who would free the people of God had
in the Jewish mind, assumed a character that was to a great extent earthly; the
Jews longed above all for a saviour who would free them from their oppressors
and restore the former splendour of Israel. These expectations generally
included the belief that Jehovah would conquer all powers hostile to Himself
and to His chosen people, and that He would set up a final, glorious kingdom of
Israel. The apocalyptic books, principally the book of Henoch and the fourth
book of Esdras, indicate various details of the arrival of the Messiah, the
defeat of the nations hostile to Israel, and the union of all the Israelites in
the Messianic kingdom followed by the renovation of the world and the universal
resurrection.
The natural and the supernatural are mingled in this conception of a
Messianic kingdom as the closing act of the world's history. The Jewish hopes
of a Messiah, and the descriptions of apocalyptic writers were blended; it was
between the close of the present world-order and the commencement of the new
that this sublime kingdom of the chosen people was to find its place. That many
details of these conceptions should remain indistinct and confused was but
natural, but the Messianic kingdom is always pictured as something miraculous,
though the colours are at times earthly and sensuous. The evangelical accounts
clearly prove how fervently the Jews at the time of Christ expected an earthly
Messianic kingdom, but the Saviour came to proclaim the spiritual kingdom of
God for the deliverance of man from his sins and for his sanctification, a
kingdom which actually began with His birth. There is no trace of chiliasm to
be found in the Gospels or in the Epistles of St. Paul; everything moves in the
spiritual and religious sphere; even the descriptions of the end of the world
and of the last judgment bear this stamp. The victory over the symbolical beast
(the enemy of God and of the saints) and over Antichrist, as well as the
triumph of Christ and His saints, are described in the Apocalypse of St. John
(Revelation 20-21), in pictures that resemble those of the Jewish apocalyptic
writers, especially of Daniel and Henoch. Satan is chained in the abyss for a
thousand years, the martyrs and the just rise from the dead and share in the
priesthood and kingship of Christ. Though it is difficult to focus sharply the
pictures used in the Apocalypse and the things expressed by them, yet there can
be no doubt that the whole description refers to the spiritual combat between
Christ and the Church on the one hand and the malignant powers of hell and the
world on the other. Nevertheless, a large number of Christians of the
post-Apostolic era, particularly in Asia Minor, yielded so far to Jewish
apocalyptic as to put a literal meaning into these descriptions of St. John's
Apocalypse; the result was that millenarianism spread and gained staunch
advocates not only among the heretics but among the Catholic Christians as
well.
One of the heretics, the Gnostic Cerinthus, who flourished towards
the end of the first century, proclaimed a splendid kingdom of Christ on earth
which He would establish with the risen saints upon His second advent, and
pictured the pleasures of this one thousand years in gross, sensual colours
(Caius in Eusebius, "Hist. Eccl.", III, 28; Dionysius Alex. in Eusebius, ibid.,
VII, 25). Later among Catholics, Bishop Papias of Hierapolis, a disciple of St.
John, appeared as an advocate of millenarianism. He claimed to have received
his doctrine from contemporaries of the Apostles, and Irenaeus narrates that
other "Presbyteri", who had seen and heard the disciple John, learned from him
the belief in millenarianism as part of the Lord's doctrine. According to
Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., 111, 39) Papias in his book asserted that the
resurrection of the dead would be followed by one thousand years of a visible
glorious earthly kingdom of Christ, and according to Irenaeus (Adv. Haereses,
V, 33), he taught that the saints too would enjoy a superabundance of earthly
pleasures. There will be days in which vines will grow, each with 10,000
branches, and on each branch 10,000 twigs, and on each twig 10,000 shoots, and
in each shoot 10,000 clusters, and on each cluster 10,000 grapes, and each
grape will produce 216 gallons of wine etc.
Millenarian ideas are found by most commentators in the Epistle of
St. Barnabas, in the passage treating of the Jewish sabbath; for the resting of
God on the seventh day after the creation is explained in the following manner.
After the Son of God has come and put an end to the era of the wicked and
judged them, and after the sun, the moon, and the stars have been changed, then
He will rest in glory on the seventh day. The author had premised, if it is
said that God created all things in six days, this means that God will complete
all things in six millenniums, for one day represents one thousand years. It is
certain that the writer advocates the tenet of a re-formation of the world
through the second advent of Christ, but it is not clear from the indications
whether the author of the letter was a millenarian in the strict sense of the
word. St. Irenæus of Lyons, a native of Asia Minor, influenced by the
companions of St. Polycarp, adopted millenarian ideas, discussing and defending
them in his works against the Gnostics (Adv. Haereses, V, 32). He developed
this doctrine mainly in opposition to the Gnostics, who rejected all hopes of
the Christians in a happy future life, and discerned in the glorious kingdom of
Christ on earth principally the prelude to the final, spiritual kingdom of God,
the realm of eternal bliss. St. Justin of Rome, the martyr, opposes to the Jews
in his Dialogue with Tryphon (ch. 80-1) the tenet of a millennium and asserts
that he and the Christians whose belief is correct in every point know that
there will be a resurrection of the body and that the newly built and enlarged
Jerusalem will last for the space of a thousand years, but he adds that there
are many who, though adhering to the pure and pious teachings of Christ, do not
believe in it. A witness for the continued belief in millenarianism in the
province of Asia is St. Melito, Bishop of Sardes in the second century. He
develops the same train of thought as did St. Irenæus.
The Montanistic movement had its origin in Asia Minor. The
expectation of an early advent of the celestial Jerusalem upon earth, which, it
was thought, would appear in Phrygia, was intimately joined in the minds of the
Montanists with the idea of the millennium. Tertullian, the protagonist of
Montanism, expounds the doctrine (in his work now lost, "De Spe Fidelium" and
in "Adv. Marcionem", IV) that at the end of time the great Kingdom of promise,
the new Jerusalem, would be established and last for the space of one thousand
years. All these millenarian authors appeal to various passages in the
prophetic books of the Old Testament, to a few passages in the Letters of St.
Paul and to the Apocalypse of St. John. Though millenarianism had found
numerous adherents among the Christians and had been upheld by several
ecclesiastical theologians, neither in the post-Apostolic period nor in the
course of the second century, does it appear as a universal doctrine of the
Church or as a part of the Apostolic tradition. The primitive Apostolic symbol
mentions indeed the resurrection of the body and the return of Christ to judge
the living and the dead, but it says not a word of the millennium. It was the
second century that produced not only defenders of the millennium but
pronounced adversaries of the chiliastic ideas. Gnosticism rejected
millenarianism. In Asia Minor, the principal seat of millenarian teachings, the
so-called Alogi rose up against millenarianism as well as against Montanism,
but they went too far in their opposition, rejecting not only the Apocalypse of
St. John, alleging Cerinthus as its author, but his Gospel also. The opposition
to millenarianism became more general towards the end of the second century,
going hand in hand with the struggle against Montanism. The Roman presbyter
Caius (end of the second and beginning of the third century) attacked the
millenarians. On the other hand, Hippolytus of Rome defended them and attempted
a proof, basing his arguments on the allegorical explanation of the six days of
creation as six thousand years, as he had been taught by tradition.
The most powerful adversary of millenarianism was Origen of
Alexandria. In view of the Neo-Platonism on which his doctrines were founded
and of his spiritual-allegorical method of explaining the Holy Scripture, he
could not side with the millenarians. He combatted them expressly, and, owing
to the great influence which his writings exerted on ecclesiastical theology
especially in Oriental countries, millenarianism gradually disappeared from the
idea of Oriental Christians. Only a few later advocates are known to us,
principally theological adversaries of Origen. About the middle of the third
century, Nepos, bishop in Egypt, who entered the lists against the allegorism
of Origen, also propounded millenarian ideas and gained some adherents in the
vicinity of Arsino . A schism threatened; but the prudent and moderate policy
of Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, preserved unity; the chiliasts abandoned
their views (Eusebius "Hist. Eccl.", VII, 14). Egypt seems to have harboured
adherents of millenarianism in still later times Methodius, Bishop of Olympus,
one of the principal opponents of Origen at the beginning of the fourth
century, upheld chiliasm in his Symposion (IX, 1, 5). In the second half of the
fourth century, these doctrines found their last defender in Apollinaris,
Bishop of Laodicea and founder of Apollinarism (q.v.). His writings on this
subject, have been lost; but St. Basil of Caesarea (Epist. CCLXIII, 4),
Epiphanius (Haeres. LXX, 36) and Jerome (In Isai. XVIII) testify to his having
been a chiliast. Jerome also adds that many Christians of that time shared the
same beliefs; but after that millenarianism found no outspoken champion among
the theologians of the Greek Church.
In the West, the millenarian expectations of a glorious kingdom of
Christ and His just, found adherents for a long time. The poet Commodian
(Instructiones, 41, 42, 44) as well as Lactantius (Institutiones, VII) proclaim
the millennial realm and describe its splendour, partly drawing on the earlier
chiliasts and the Sybilline prophecies, partly borrowing their colours from the
"golden age" of the pagan poets; but the idea of the six thousand years for the
duration of the world is ever conspicuous. Victorinus of Pettau also was a
millenarian though in the extant copy of his commentary on the Apocalypse no
allusions to it can be detected. St. Jerome, himself a decided opponent of the
millenial ideas, brands Sulpicius Severus as adhering to them, but in the
writings of this author in their present form nothing can be found to support
this charge. St. Ambrose indeed teaches a twofold resurrection, but millenarian
doctrines do not stand out clearly. On the other hand; St. Augustine was for a
time, as he himself testifies (De Civitate Dei, XX, 7), a pronounced champion
of millenarianism; but he places the millennium after the universal
resurrection and regards it in a more spiritual light (Sermo, CCLIX). When,
however, he accepted the doctrine of only one universal resurrection and a
final judgment immediately following, he could no longer cling to the principal
tenet of early chiliasm. St. Augustine finally held to the conviction that
there will be no millennium. The struggle between Christ and His saints on the
one hand and the wicked world and Satan on the other, is waged in the Church on
earth; so the great Doctor describes it in his work De Civitate Dei. In the
same book he gives us an allegorical explanation of Chapter 20 of the
Apocalypse. The first resurrection, of which this chapter treats, he tells us,
refers to the spiritual rebirth in baptism; the sabbath of one thousand years
after the six thousand years of history is the whole of eternal life -- or in
other words, the number one thousand is intended to express perfection, and the
last space of one thousand years must be understood as referring to the end of
the world; at all events, the kingdom of Christ, of which the Apocalypse
speaks, can only be applied to the Church (De Civitate Dei, XX 5-7). This
explanation of the illustrious Doctor was adopted by succeeding Western
theologians, and millenarianism in its earlier shape no longer received
support. Cerinthus and the Ebionites are mentioned in later writings against
the heretics as defenders of the millennium, it is true, but as cut-off from
the Church. Moreover, the attitude of the Church towards the secular power had
undergone a change with closer connection between her and the Roman empire.
There is no doubt that this turn of events did much towards weaning the
Christians from the old millenarianism, which during the time of persecution
had been the expression of their hopes that Christ would soon reappear and
overthrow the foes of His elect. Chiliastic views disappeared all the more
rapidly, because, as was remarked above, in spite of their wide diffusion even
among sincere Christians, and in spite of their defence by prominent Fathers of
the early Church, millenarianism was never held in the universal Church as an
article of faith based on Apostolic traditions.
The Middle Ages were never tainted with millenarianism; it was
foreign both to the theology of that period and to the religious ideas of the
people. The fantastic views of the apocalyptic writers (Joachim of Floris, the
Franciscan-Spirituals, the Apostolici), referred only to a particular form of
spiritual renovation of the Church, but did not include a second advent of
Christ. The "emperor myths," which prophesied the establishment of a happy,
universal kingdom by the great emperor of the future, contain indeed
descriptions that remind one of the ancient Sybilline and millenarian writings,
but an essential trait is again missing, the return of Christ and the
connection of the blissful reign with the resurrection of the just. Hence the
millennium proper is unknown to them. The Protestantism of the sixteenth
century ushered in a new epoch of millenarian doctrines. Protestant fanatics of
the earlier years, particularly the Anabaptists, believed in a new, golden age
under the sceptre of Christ, after the overthrow of the papacy and secular
empires. In 1534 the Anabaptists set up in Münster (Westphalia) the new Kingdom
of Zion, which advocated sharing property and women in common, as a prelude to
the new kingdom of Christ. Their excesses were opposed and their millenarianism
disowned by both the Augsberg (art. 17) and the Helvetian Confession (ch. 11),
so that it found no admission into the Lutheran and Reformed theologies.
Nevertheless, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries produced new apocalyptic
fanatics and mystics who expected the millennium in one form or another: in
Germany, the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren (Comenius); in France, Pierre
Jurien (L'Accomplissement des Propheties, 1686); in England at the time of
Cromwell, the Independents and Jane Leade. A new phase in the development of
millenarian views among the Protestants commenced with Pietism. One of the
chief champions of the millennium in Germany was I.A. Bengel and his disciple
Crusius, who were afterwards joined by Rothe, Volch, Thiersch, Lange and
others. Protestants from Wurtemberg emigrated to Palestine (Temple Communities)
in order to be closer to Christ at His second advent. Certain fantastical sects
of England and North America, such as the Irvingites, Mormons, Adventists,
adopted both apocalyptic and millenarian views, expecting the return of Christ
and the establishment of His kingdom at an early date. Some Catholic
theologians of the nineteenth century championed a moderate, modified
millenarianism, especially in connection with their explanations of the
Apocalypse; as Pagani (The End of the World, 1856), Schneider (Die
chiliastische Doktrin, 1859), Rohling (Erklärung der Apokalypse des hl.
lohannes, 1895; Auf nach Sion, 1901), Rougeyron Chabauty (Avenir de l'Eglise
catholique selon le Plan Divin, 1890).
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