Chiliasm

The belief, once held with great enthusiasm in the early Church, that Christ would return to Earth and reign visibly for one thousand years. That return was commonly held to be imminent. In its various forms, it provided the early Church with one of the great motivations for ethical living. This is evident in the writings, e.g., of three of the great leaders of the early Church:

Papias, quoted in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, III.39.

"I shall not hesitate, also, to set in order for you with my interpretations whatsoever things I have ever learned carefully from the elders and carefully remembered, guaranteeing the truth of them. . . For I did not think that what was to be gotten from the books would profit me as much as what came from the living and abiding voice. . ." The same writer gives also other accounts which he says came to him through unwritten traditions, certain strange parables and teachings of the Saviour and some other more mythical things. Among these he says that there will be a period of some thousand years after the resurrection of the dead, when the kingdom of Christ will be set up in a material form on this very earth. I suppose he got these ideas through a misunderstanding of the apostolic accounts, not perceiving that the things said by them were spoken mystically in figures. For he appears to have been of very limited understanding, as one can see from his discourses, though so many of the Church Fathers after him adopted a like opinion, urging in their support the antiquity of the man; as, for instance, Irenaeus and any one else that may have proclaimed similar views.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies, V.33.

The elders who saw John, the disciple of the Lord, relate that they heard from him how the Lord used to teach in regard to those times, and say: "The days will come in which vines shall grow, each having ten thousand branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each twig ten thousand shoots, and in each one of the shoots ten thousand clusters, and on every cluster ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed will yield five-and-twenty metretes of wine. And when any one of the saints shall lay hold of a cluster, another shall cry out, 'I am better cluster, take me; bless the Lord through me.' In like manner [the Lord declared] that a grain of wheat would produce ten thousand ears, and that every ear would produce ten thousand grains, and every grain would yield ten pounds of clear, pure, fine flour; and that all other fruit-bearing trees, and seeds and grass would produce similar proportions, and that all animals feeding [only] on the productions of the earth would [in those days] become peaceful and harmonious with each other and be in perfect subjection to men." And these things are borne witness to in writing by Papias, the hearer of John, and a companion of Polycarp, in his fourth book; for there were five books compiled by him. And he says in addition: “Now these things are credible to believers.

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 80 & 81.

Although you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this truth [the resurrection] and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, and who say that there is no resurrection of the dead and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven, be careful not to regard them as Christians. . . But I and whoever are on all points right-minded Christians know that there will be a resurrection of the dead and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged as the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and the others declare.

And, further, a certain man with us, named John, one of the Apostles of Christ, predicted by a revelation that was made to him that those who believed in our Christ would spend a thousand years in Jerusalem, and thereafter the general, or to speak briefly, the eternal resurrection and judgment of all men would likewise take place.

The influence of chiliasm began to wane from about 4th Cent onwards. Chiliastic expectations led the early Christians to see himself as a stranger and a pilgrim in the world, and that his real home was the Kingdom of God that would soon be established on Earth. As these expectations of Christ's return were not soon met, chiliasm began to lose its influence and was replaced by the view that the Kingdom of God was not a future world-order but was to be worked out in the life of the individual and the Church, a thought that was the key to Augustine's City of God.