{"id":11144,"date":"2013-05-03T03:07:12","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T09:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=11144"},"modified":"2023-11-14T12:07:43","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T17:07:43","slug":"millenarianism-what-it-is-and-is-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/millenarianism-what-it-is-and-is-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Millenarianism \u2014 What it is, and is Not","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nArtist Unknown
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I<\/strong> WANT<\/strong> to conclude my thoughts on the “era of peace” based on my letter to Pope Francis<\/a> in hopes that it will benefit at least some who are fearful of falling into the heresy of Millenarianism.<\/p>\n

The Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/em> states:<\/p>\n

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The Antichrist\u2019s 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 judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism,(577) especially the \u201cintrinsically perverse\u201d political form of a secular messianism.(578)\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span>\u2014n. 676<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I deliberately left in the footnote references above because they are crucial in helping us understand what is meant by “millenarianism”, and secondly, “secular messianism” in the Catechism.<\/p>\n

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WHAT IT IS…<\/p>\n

Footnote 577 is a reference to Denzinger-Schonnmetzer<\/a>‘s work (Enchiridion Symbolorum, definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum<\/i>). <\/i>Denzinger’s work traces the development of doctrine and Dogma in the Catholic Church from its earliest times, and is obviously seen as a credible enough source for the Catechism to quote. The footnote to “millenarianism” leads us to Denzinger’s work, which states:<\/p>\n

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…the system of mitigated Millenarianism, which teaches, for example, that Christ the Lord before the final judgment, whether or not preceded by the resurrection of the many just, will come visibly to rule over this world. The answer is: The system of mitigated Millenarianism cannot be taught safely.<\/span><\/b> \u2014DS 2296\/3839, Decree of the Holy Office, July 21, 1944<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Millenarianism, writes Leo J. Trese in The Faith Explained, <\/i>pertains to those who take Revelation 20:6 literally.<\/i><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/strong><\/span>St. John, describing a prophetic vision (Rev 20:1-6), says that the devil will be bound and imprisoned for a thousand years, during which the dead will come to life and reign with Christ; at the end of the thousand years the devil will be released and finally vanquished forever, and then will come the second resurrection… Those who do take this passage literally and believe that Jesus will come to reign upon earth for a thousand years<\/em> before the end of the world are called millenarists.<\/strong> \u2014p. 153-154, Sinag-Tala Publishers, Inc. (with the Nihil Obstat<\/em> and Imprimatur<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Renowned Catholic theologian, Cardinal Jean Dani\u00e9lou, also explains that:<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

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Millenarianism, the belief that there will be an earthly<\/i> reign of the Messiah before the end of time, is the Jewish-Christian doctrine which has aroused and continues to arouse more argument than any other.<\/strong><\/span> \u2014A History of Early Christian Doctrine<\/i>, p. 377<\/span> (as cited in The Splendor of Creation,<\/em> p. 198-199, Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He adds, “The reason for this, however, is probably a failure to distinguish between the various elements of doctrine,” \u2014which is what we are doing here. <\/span><\/p>\n

So in summary, Millenarianism in its root form was the belief that Jesus would return in the flesh<\/i> to earth and reign for a literal<\/i> thousand years before the end of time, an error initiated primarily by the first Jewish converts. There came from this heresy several offshoots such as the “carnal millenarians” whom St. Augustine identified as those who believe that…<\/span><\/p>\n

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…those who then rise again shall enjoy the leisure of immoderate carnal banquets, furnished with an amount of meat and drink such as not only to shock the feeling of the temperate, but even to surpass the measure of credulity…. They who believe them are called by the spiritual Chiliasts, which we may reproduce by the name of Millenarians…<\/span><\/b>” (from De Civitate Dei, <\/i>Book 10, Ch. 7)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From this form of Millenarianism came the offshoots of modified<\/i>, mitigated<\/i> and spiritual<\/i> Millenarianism under various sects whereby the carnal indulgences were excluded and yet some form of Christ returning to earth to reign and establish a definitive<\/em> kingdom was still held. In all these forms, the Church has explicitly, once and for all, defined that this “system of mitigated Millenarianism cannot be taught safely.” The return of Jesus in glory and definitive\u00a0\"\"<\/span><\/strong><\/span>establishment of the Kingdom will only occur at the end of time.<\/p>\n

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On Judgment Day at the end of the world, Christ will come in glory to achieve the definitive triumph of good over evil which, like the wheat and the tares, have grown up together in the course of history.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> \u2014Catechism of the Catholic Church,<\/em> n. 681<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Footnote 578 brings us to the document Divini Redemptoris<\/i>, Pope Pius XI’s Encyclical against Atheistic Communism. While the millenarians held to some form of a utopian earthly-spiritual kingdom, secular messianists <\/i>hold to a utopian political kingdom.<\/p>\n

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The Communism of today, more emphatically than similar movements in the past, conceals in itself a false messianic idea.<\/span><\/b> \u2014POPE PIUS XI, Divini Redemptoris, <\/i>n. 8, www.vatican.va<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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…WHAT IT’S NOT<\/p>\n

St. Augustine clarified that, were it not for the Chiliasts’ beliefs attached to the millenium, that a period of peace or “sabbath\u00a0rest” is indeed a valid interpretation<\/i> of Revelation 20. This is what the Church Fathers taught and was confirmed again by the Church’s Theological Commission in 1952. [1]<\/sup><\/a>Inasmuch as the cited\u00a0work bears the Church’s seals of approval, i.e., the\u00a0imprimatur\u00a0<\/em>and the\u00a0nihil obstat,<\/em>\u00a0it is an exercise of the Magisterium.\u00a0 When an individual\u00a0bishop grants\u00a0the Church’s official\u00a0imprimatur, and neither the Pope nor\u00a0the body of\u00a0bishops oppose the conferral of this seal, it is an exercise of the ordinary Magisterium.<\/span><\/span>