The same method has been used by the later followers, who have largely held to a literal, corporeal reign of Christ on earth for a thousand years. There has often been coupled with this view—growing out of Christ’s teaching of the Imminency of his Second Coming—a belief in the Immediacy of that Coming.
2d. The usual or Catholic theory of the millennium has its basis in the spiritual, rather than literal, interpretation of the Scriptures on this subject. It rejects alike Jewish traditions and Patristic fancies.
According to this view, the number 1,000 is often employed in the Scriptures as “denoting a definite number for an indefinite.” It is so used manifestly in Psalm xc. 4, in 2 Peter iii. 8, and in Rev. xx. 1-7. In the last passage, as has been often remarked, it is “evidently a definite number for an indefinite,” indicating a long period. The entire passage is figurative, in keeping with the enigmatical book in which it is found. The angel with the key of the abyss, a chain and a seal to bind and confine the devil, thrones and the souls of martyrs seated upon them, and judgment given to them—these are all “pictorial representations of the circumscription of Satan’s power, the revival of the martyr spirit in the Church, and the general prevalence of truth and righteousness in the earth. This agrees with the figurative style of the Apocalypse, and corresponds with the predictions concerning the prosperity of the Church in the last days. In no other place is there any allusion to a millennium.”
This interpretation, it is held, is agreeable to the style of prophecy, that is elsewhere employed in the Revelation (compare Isa. xxvi. 19; Ezek. xxxvii. 13, 14; Hos. vi. 2; Rev. xi. 7, 11). This spiritual view also agrees with the paracletal work of Christ, while the Judaico-Christian does not; it is favorable to the efforts of the Church for the conversion of the world, and accords with the general teachings of the Scriptures concerning “the last things.”
But while the literal method has been to some extent followed, there has been a common or Catholic Church-doctrine which, as will be seen, has alone been embodied in the creeds of Christendom. That common, creedal, or Catholic doctrine embraces the teachings that—
1st. The Second Advent of Jesus is to be a personal, visible, and glorious advent as the Son of God.
2d. It is to be preceded by the universal diffusion of the Gospel, the conversion of the Jews and the coming of Antichrist.
3d. It is to be accompanied by the resurrection of the dead, just and unjust, the general judgment, the end of the world, and the consummation of Christ’s kingdom.
The cardinal passages of Scripture on this doctrine are Matthew xxiv. and the two Epistles to the Thessalonians—the latter of which was apparently rendered necessary by the development of the teachings in the former. It is not possible to enter here into a detailed interpretation of these passages. Had there been no extraneous influences at work, what is claimed to be the simple and natural interpretation of these Scriptures, which has always been in accord with the Catholic doctrine embodied in the creeds, would probably have continued to be the faith of all Christians.
The later-Jewish doctrine of the Messianic kingdom upon earth was a main influence in directing the new development. The disciples being Jews were naturally infected with this view, and did not rise above it till after the experiences of Pentecost.