2008-05-01

Christian Hope and Christian

Millennialism

It’s Good to be CatholicCCRC

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Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.

-1 Peter 3:15

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Key Terms The Millennium Millenarian Millennialism Pre-millennialism Post-millennialism Amillennialism (antimillennialism) Rapture Tribulation Dispensation Preterism

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What is the millennium? The Olivet Discourse (Mt 24, Mk 13, Lk 21) Revelations, Ch. 20

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The view of the early Church "And I saw thrones, and men sat upon them and

judgement was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the word of God, and who did not worship the beast or his image, and did not accept his mark upon their heads or upon their hands. And they came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years...“

-Revelations 20:4 St. Irenaeus (ca. 2nd century), Adversus haereses St. Justin Martyr (†165) Dialogue with Trypho the

Jew

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Later developments Origen of Alexandria (185-253/4) St. Augustine (354-430)

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Medieval millennialism Joachim of Fiore St. Malachy

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Renaissance and Enlightenment Rosicrucians Puritains

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Modernity John Nelson Darby Scofield Reference Bible Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth

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Jewish Millennialism Destruction of the Temple Simon Bar-Kochba

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Islamic Millennialism Madhi

Shi’a Sunni

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What does all this have to do with Hope?

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Spe Salvi “SPE SALVI facti sumus”—in hope we were

saved, says Saint Paul to the Romans, and likewise to us (Rom 8:24).

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Spe Salvi Pope Benedict maintains that Hope is best

understood in relation to the Last Things, and that if we isolate merely human hope from the final end of all creation, then our hope becomes hopeless.

In order to make this point, Pope Benedict uses many of the same examples I have used discussing the history of millennialism.

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Spe Salvi St. Augustine’s view of history is one of

progress. But given human nature, what kind of

progress can we legitimately expect? Parable of the wheat and the tares Mt

13:24-43

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What can the Catechism tell us? Par. 676 "The Antichrist's deception

already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgement. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the 'intrinsically perverse' political form of secular messianism."

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St. Augustine’s Apocalypse Par. 677 CCC "...The kingdom will be

fulfilled...not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven...."

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Last Things Death Judgement Heaven Hell

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Death Tempus fugit, memento mori From the earliest times, the prospect of

the Judgement has influenced Christians in their daily living as a criterion by which to order their present life, as a summons to their conscience, and at the same time as hope in God's justice. Faith in Christ has never looked merely backwards or merely upwards, but always also forwards to the hour of justice that the Lord repeatedly proclaimed. (Spe Salvi 42)

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Judgement The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus -Luke 16:19-31 Tested by fire -1 Corinthians 3:12-15 A world which has to create its own justice

is a world without hope. No one and nothing can answer for centuries of suffering. (Spe Salvi 42)

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Heaven The term “eternal life” is intended to give a name

to this known “unknown”. Inevitably it is an inadequate term that creates confusion. “Eternal”, in fact, suggests to us the idea of something interminable, and this frightens us; “life” makes us think of the life that we know and love and do not want to lose, even though very often it brings more toil than satisfaction, so that while on the one hand we desire it, on the other hand we do not want it. (Spe Salvi 12)

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Hell Grace does not cancel out justice. It does not

make wrong into right. It is not a sponge which wipes everything away, so that whatever someone has done on earth ends up being of equal value. Dostoevsky, for example, was right to protest against this kind of Heaven and this kind of grace in his novel The Brothers Karamazov. Evildoers, in the end, do not sit at table at the eternal banquet beside their victims without distinction, as though nothing had happened. (Spe Salvi 44)

Gorgias

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The Brighter Side of Hell Judgement and freedom are inextricably

linked

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What does this mean for us? All serious and upright human conduct is

hope in action (Spe Salvi 35)

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Personal salvation and the duties of people acting in history To be in communion with Christ is to take

on some of the duties of fostering justice and good order in the world

However, no temporal state of things should be confused with final salvation, especially not with the Final judgement

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Human Freedom Let us ask once again: what may we hope? And what may

we not hope? First of all, we must acknowledge that incremental progress is possible only in the material sphere. Here, amid our growing knowledge of the structure of matter and in the light of ever more advanced inventions, we clearly see continuous progress towards an ever greater mastery of nature. Yet in the field of ethical awareness and moral decision-making, there is no similar possibility of accumulation for the simple reason that man's freedom is always new and he must always make his decisions anew. These decisions can never simply be made for us in advance by others—if that were the case, we would no longer be free. Freedom presupposes that in fundamental decisions, every person and every generation is a new beginning. (Spe Salvi 24)

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References and Resources Catechism of the Catholic Church The City of God, by St. Augustine http://www.newadvent.org http://www.johnreilly.info Holiest Wars, by Timothy Ferguson