ABSTRACT
This chapter intends to define millenarianism and explores a limited history of its expression in the early Christian tradition, utilizing a survey of modern biblical and theological literature. It shows how millenarianism is considered by many respected scholars to be a valid biblical principle, while at the same time exegetically critiquing the amillennial view. Next, the chapter illustrates how millennialism was both the normative and orthodox eschatology of the early Church, and was held by numerous early Church Fathers. It briefly discusses some of millenarianism's earliest retractors (beginning in the middle of the third century) and gives an account as to why they refuted the eschatology. The chapter argues that a massive shift occurred in the eschatology of the Roman Catholic Church during the era and work of Eusebius and Augustine- primarily due to political reasons. With Augustine, the "Thousand Years Reign" of Revelation 20 became associated explicitly with the Roman Catholic Church, and the amillennial view became more dominant.
