First :- A historical glance : -
The idea of the millennium appeared as a result of the intensive oppression and the cruel slavery that the Jewish people had suffered under the yoke of the Roman empire which has begun at 332 BC . They began to interpret the prophecies of the Old Testament with what was agreeable with their temporary materialistic demands , so , some books has appeared by some writers who were involved in knowledge , but they were not moved by the leading of the Holy Spirit , such as Ezra II , Enoch , The Visions of Baruch , Moses and others who wrote during the second century B.C . They put all their visions and dreams of their minds in these writings , it was their style to escape from t5he intensive oppression escaping from facing their real present state and from their responsibilities . They proclaimed the earthly kingdom of Israel , that will be full of all the earthly pleasures , where Israel will be the bride of the world who will eat and drink all the fruits of the nations , whi8le the rest of the nations lick the dust under their feet , the spread of these ideas among the Jews during the prior ages before the advent of the Christ directly . For example , the Book of Baruch II which was a Jewish Book which appeared in the first century B.C . , in this book we read these words “ Then The Messiah comes , and all the things in the world subject to him , he will set on his throne and the joy and the comfort will be declared , the wild beasts of the bush will serve the people , the baby will play on the swarm of the cobra , the weaning child will put his hands on the hole of the snake , so the snakes will come out from their holes and give him the loyalty with a complete subordination , the earth will bear its fruits multiple thousands of its normal quantity , each vine will carry a thousand branches , each branch will carry a thousand clusters , each cluster will contain of a thousand grape fruits , each grape produces a thousand Cr of alcohol, then the hungry people will rejoice and see every day wonders. “
All these earthly wishes were not consistent with the spirit of the Christianity , but the intensive oppression produced these dreams . Thus we find the disciples before accepting the Holy Spirit were not understand when they asked Jesus Christ “ Lord wilt thou at this time restore again The Kingdom to Israel ? “ Acts 1 : 6
Another person came to Christ and asked him “ I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest….” Luke 9 : 57, He thought that Jesus came to establish an earthly kingdom , that Israel will be able to be the Lady of the Kingdoms , also The Mother of The Sons of Zebedee , came and asked Jesus to make her two sons one on His right hand and the other on His left hand in His kingdom , also when the people took him by force to make Him a king . John 6 : 15.
The amazing thing is that : - some Fathers of the Church accepted these teachings without examination ,on the top of them was ( Papias ) who was the Bishop of Heirapolis in Asia Minor 130 AD. According to Eusebius of Cesarea , who was the Father of the ecclesiastical history , that Papias “ seems that he has a limited understanding , his researches included evidences that it will be a thousand years after the resurrection of the dead , and that the Christ’s Kingdom might be established on the same earthly land Eusebius comment that Papias has a lack of understanding about the Apostolic writings , he did not realize that their words has an allegorical , spiritual aspects , his view were the bases of the Church’s Father’s beliefs about the millennium which was based upon the seniority of the time during the period of Papias’s time , like Irenyius and the others who accepted these views “ . Eusebius called these vies of the earthly millennium “ A Myth “ *(21).
The Father Mathew Elmiskeen *(2 2 ) said that Ireneous has has come and proclaim that same teachings referring to Papias and so , Hippolytus and Tertullian followed him so, all the followers after them based their thoughts on their prior Fathers , while the original source of their knowledge was the misleading Jewish Apocrypha writings .
Second : - What is the attitude of the new testament towards the Millennium.
The bishop Gregory said “ What is included in the book of “The Revelation” about the thousand years is not more than one verse in Rev 20 : 16 , it has not repeated again both by using the same words , or by repeating the same meanings along the different parts of the Holy Bible , The Old and The New Testaments , that shows that there was a special meaning for this Holy Text and should be understood as a particular concept , because the book of “ The Revelation “ is filled with symbols “ . then he added “ Yes, The Glorified Christ’s teachings has not mentioned the “ Millennium “,so , all the teachings in the Gospels and the Epistles also the Johannine Epistles itself which are included in them.*(23)
I emphasize that the only verse or the orphan verse which states The term “Thousand Years “, came in “The Revelation “ that was the symbolic , prophetic book that was written by John about 98 AD .
During the reign of Domitian The Roman Emperor , who was violently persecuting the church , he ordered to make John a captive exiled him to Patmous . Rev. 1 : 4 . it was a place for exiling the criminals at that time , he was over ninety years of age at that time , but although he was working hard as a labor to break the stones , and suffers the severe cold weather at night , the hot heat during the day he was lacking for the essential daily bread ,in this circumstances he wrote his book , while the cruel guards watching him , so he used codes or symbols , he wrote about the stamped book ,the locust which looks like the horses that has hair like the hair of the women , and the woman that clothed with the sun while the is under her feet , and the beast which has ten horns ….etc., even the verses which he has recorded about “ The Thousand Years “ , all of these are symbols , he said in Rev. 20 : 1 – 3 “1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. “
Those who believe in the literal millennium suggest that “ The Key “ , “ The Chain” and “The Bound” has a symbolic meanings, but when they reach to the expression “ Thousand Years”they changed their mind and interpret it more literal than it may means , What a contradiction is their interpretation ? Is it possible to build a large doctrine on any single vague verse that was written in an symbolic book ?
Dr. R.A. Torry said that it is absurd to interpret the biblical clear texts by using a mysterious symbolic verse , it will be better for us to let the obviously apparent interpretation to interpret what it may be full of doubt and mystery not vice versa .
But this does not mean that we can ignore or forget these verses , we must explain and clarify them.
Third : - What is the attitrude of the first church about the “Millinium” ?
When some of the Church’s Fathers spoke about “ The Literal Millennium “ without a thorough examination for the scriptures , some other greatest Fathers of The Church , in the second hand , has another ideas ,” Origen” confronted them with his strong proofs , also “Dionysus” 248 -265 AD , “ Eusebius “ , the bishop of Caesarea 270 A D , “Basil The Great “ 229 – 279 AD , “Gregory the Great “ 321 – 289 AD , St., Jerome 331 – 420 AD , and “ St., Augustine “ 354 – 430 AD , who came with his strong arguments to resist their thoughts considering it as a public heretical thoughts , the Father Matthew Elmiskeen said about St., Augustine that he pulled out the Christian Faith from the madness of the Jewish apocrypha counterfeit , also from the trial of falling with the Christian Spiritual Elevated faith into the ground , by7 mixing it with the earthly hopes which were deviant inherent of the Jewish worship . *(24)
What confirms that the idea of “ The Literal Millennium “ was just illusions and dreams which resulted by the ignorance and the superficial understanding of the Fathers of the third and the forth centuries , because the oldest religious documents contains the doctrine , the worship , and the organization of the early church , we called it “ The Teachings of The Twelve Apostles” which dated back to 150 – 180 AD . It does not contain any single word about the Literal Millennium Kingdom . According to the article XVI of this document we read “ and then the sign of the truth will proclaim , firstly , when the sign of the open sky appeared , the sound of the trumpet followed by the resurrection of the dead , then the Christ will come with all of his saints , and there all the nations of the world will see the glory of the Lord who is coming on the clouds “ . There are not any sign about the reign of the Christ on earth for a thousand years , also no sign about the resurrection of the righteous thousand years before the wicked and the secret abduction.
When these views began to emerge on the church , the church held the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople 381 AD and issued a final rolling curse for those heresies which were prevailed during that era . generally the heresy of the literal millennium was the statement of “ Apolenarius “at that time , so the church added to the creed of the faith these words “ his reign will not be expired “ after the statement of “ He will come in glory to judge the living and the dead” .
Again , in the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus 431 AD , the church condemned this innovation describing it as illusions , dreams and fairy myths.
This idea remained dormant until it has re – emerged again in the sixteenth century by the “ Anabaptist s groups“ , it began to flourish again more and more until the beginning of the eighteenth century , it became the main conjunction of the Zionist Movement , also became the basic doctrine of Jehovah Witnesses , the Adventists and some other groups.
With the sovereignty of the Zionist propaganda on the media of the USA and the most western countries, the generous support for all those who promote these ideas using this sovereignty , with their generous support for the printed books, the magazines ,the videos and the CD's to offer and distribute their thoughts for free of charge or, at a little cost , also because they did not find answers by the enlightened writers before it had accepted in the minds of a large numbers of the simple ordinary people .
Bibliography:-
All the references are Arabic books :-
(21) - Tadrous Yaakoub Malati, Fr.,” The Revelation “ ., p 210
(22) - Methew Elmiskeen ., Fr “ The Millennium “ P 6 .
(23)Gregory , Anba ,” The second Advent of The Lord , The Christ “ pp 33 – 34 .
(24)Metthew Elmiskeen , Fr., “ The Millennium “ . p 8.
