The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1
II. Prophecies of Revelation Belatedly Expounded 3
1. CONSTITUTES THE COMPLEMENT TO DANIEL
The Apocalypse, written centuries later, came gradually to be seen to constitute the complement of the earlier prophecies of Daniel, amplifying the details of the career of the Roman fourth empire in the prophetic series, and spanning the Christian Era from the first to the second advent, emphasizing particularly the events of the latter days. PFF1 891.1
2. SAME CHARACTERISTICS OF REPETITION IN TIME APPEAR
And, as in Daniel, the same characteristic of repetitive lines begins to appear in the interpretation of Revelation these seven churches representing the church in general, but the seven seals apparently spanning the Christian Era, and the seven trumpets and vials repeating each other, as seen by Victorinus. PFF1 891.2
The dragon of Revelation 12 was commonly accepted as pagan Rome—the fourth in the series of four world powers of Daniel. The first three had come and gone, and the powerful fourth kingdom in the series was now ruling with an iron hand, to be followed by the emergence of the Antichrist, whoever he would be. The woman in white, of Revelation 12, was commonly understood as representing the pure church, and the unchaste woman in scarlet, of Revelation 17, Rome. The Beast of Revelation 13 was generally regarded as one of the multiple symbols of Antichrist that would cruelly persecute the saints. On these points there is essential unity. PFF1 891.3
3. THE CONTROVERSY OVER CHILIASM
It was chiefly around chiliasm—the doctrine of a thousand-year reign of the saints with Christ on earth after His second advent—that the conflict raged. 4 The extravagance, grossness, and materializing of the interpretation by many of the chiliasts caused the Apocalypse itself to be temporarily discredited. Consequently the exposition of the outline prophecies of the Apocalypse was tardy in development, but during the early medieval period it began to receive much careful attention, and the sevenfold outline was minutely worked out from the time of Joachim onward. PFF1 891.4
According to the belief of the early church, the millennium is a thousand-year transition period in the process of earth’s restoration, consequent upon the second advent, and in turn succeeded by the everlasting state. PFF1 892.1
That some in early, as in modern, times abused the doctrine of the millennium, does not vitiate the fact that it was for centuries the common faith of the primitive church in its purest days. Reflecting the concepts of the age, some extreme chiliasts taught that the first resurrection was followed by a thousand years of eating, drinking, and being merry on earth in an unregenerated state. But the name “chiliasts,” simply derived from “thousand years,” was indiscriminately applied to both extremists and moderates. The doctrine of a millennium after the first resurrection must not be denied as an early Christian belief because perverted by some of its friends and grossly misrepresented by its enemies. PFF1 892.2
4. RELATIONSHIP OF MILLENNIAL PERIOD TO ADVENT
The early church followed the Apocalypse when it regarded the thousand years as that measure of time dividing the great events of a vast transition period, lying between the close of the present dispensation and the eternal ages to come, but made mistakes in the nature of the event. The beginning was to be marked by four events: (a) The first resurrection, of the blessed and holy dead, at the second advent. (b) Satan bound, shut up, and sealed for a thousand years. (c) The nations deceived no more till the thousand years are finished. (d) Thrones and judgment given to the saints. PFF1 892.3
The close of the thousand years is similarly marked by a corresponding quartet of events: (a) The resurrection of the rest of the dead, the wicked, after the thousand years are finished. (b) Satan loosed when the thousand years are expired. (c) The nations of the resurrected again deceived by false prospects. (d) The camp of the beloved city compassed about. PFF1 892.4
Evidently certain events, combined in one and the same scene in Daniel’s general outline, were by the same revealing Spirit sundered one thousand years apart in the amplified visions of John, which opened a new and expanded vista. PFF1 893.1
But the chiliasts went beyond Revelation 20 to apply to the millennium a number of unrelated Old Testament texts; also many of them added certain elements derived from non Christian sources concerning a fabulous golden age of carnal and material prosperity which disgusted the expositors who were seeking a spiritual or allegorical meaning for the prophecy. Indeed, the cruder concepts of extreme chiliasm, based unconsciously on Jewish and pagan traditions, reacted, with the opposite philosophical and allegorical tendency also derived from outside Christianity, to cause all belief in a future millennium to be labeled heresy and to hasten the trend toward allegorizing the Scriptures. Although the doubts concerning the Apocalypse were neither universal nor permanent, the antimillenarian reaction led to the most far-reaching prophetic departures from the early church position. These trends are visualized in the two tabular charts on pages 894-897. PFF1 893.2