No wonder there should have been scoffers—as this writer calls them—the generation which was not to have passed away before his coming, had passed away; all those who stood there had been dead many years; the sun had not yet been darkened; the stars were still in the heavens, and the moon still continued to reflect light. None of the predictions had yet been fulfilled.
Some of the early Christian Fathers have tried to account for the words of Jesus, where he says: "Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom," by saying that he referred to John only, and that that Apostle was not dead, but sleeping. This fictitious story is related by Saint Augustin, "from the report," as he says, "of credible persons," and is to the effect that:
"At Ephesus, where St. John the Apostle lay buried, he was not believed to be dead, but to be sleeping only in the grave, which he had provided for himself till our Saviour's second coming: in proof of which, they affirm, that the earth, under which he lay, was seen to heave up and down perpetually, in conformity to the motion of his body, in the act of breathing."[235:4]
This story clearly illustrates the stupid credulity and superstition of the primitive age of the church, and the faculty of imposing any fictions upon the people, which their leaders saw fit to inculcate.
The doctrine of the millennium designates a certain period in the history of the world, lasting for a long, indefinite space (vaguely a thousand years, as the word "millennium" implies) during which the kingdom of Christ Jesus will be visibly established on the earth. The idea undoubtedly originated proximately in the Messianic expectation of the Jews (as Jesus did not sit on the throne of David and become an earthly ruler, it must be that he is coming again for this purpose), but more remotely in the Pagan doctrine of the final triumph of the several "Christs" over their adversaries.
In the first century of the Church, millenarianism was a whispered belief, to which the book of Daniel, and more particularly the predictions of the Apocalypse[236:1] gave an apostolical authority, but, when the church imbibed Paganism, their belief on this subject lent it a more vivid coloring and imagery.
The unanimity which the early Christian teachers exhibit in regard to millenarianism, proves how strongly it had laid hold of the imagination of the Church, to which, in this early stage, immortality and future rewards were to a great extent things of this world as yet. Not only did Cerinthus, but even the orthodox doctors—such as Papias (Bishop of Hierapolis), Irenæus, Justin Martyr and others—delighted themselves with dreams of the glory and magnificence of the millennial kingdom. Papias, in his collection of traditional sayings of Christ Jesus, indulges in the most monstrous representations of the re-building of Jerusalem, and the colossal vines and grapes of the millennial reign.
According to the general opinion, the millennium was to be preceded by great calamities, after which the Messiah, Christ Jesus, would appear, and would bind Satan for a thousand years, annihilate the godless heathen, or make them slaves of the believers, overturn the Roman empire, from the ruins of which a new order of things would spring forth, in which "the dead in Christ" would rise, and along with the surviving saints enjoy an incomparable felicity in the city of the "New Jerusalem." Finally, all nations would bend their knee to him, and acknowledge him only to be the Christ—his religion would reign supreme. This is the "Golden Age" of the future, which all nations of antiquity believed in and looked forward to.
We will first turn to India, and shall there find that the Hindoos believed their "Saviour," or "Preserver" Vishnu, who appeared in mortal form as Crishna, is to come again in the latter days. Their sacred books declare that in the last days, when the fixed stars have all apparently returned to the point whence they started, at the beginning of all things, in the month Scorpio, Vishnu will appear among mortals, in the form of an armed warrior, riding a winged white horse.[236:2] In one hand he will carry a scimitar, "blazing like a comet," to destroy all the impure who shall then dwell on the face of the earth. In the other hand he will carry a large shining ring, to signify that the great circle of Yugas (ages) is completed, and that the end has come. At his approach the sun and moon will be darkened, the earth will tremble, and the stars fall from the firmament.[237:1]
The Buddhists believe that Buddha has repeatedly assumed a human form to facilitate the reunion of men with his own universal soul, so they believe that "in the latter days" he will come again. Their sacred books predict this coming, and relate that his mission will be to restore the world to order and happiness.[237:2] This is exactly the Christian idea of the millennium.