Back Chiliasme Afrikaans ألفية (مسيحية) Arabic Xiliazm Azerbaijani Milenyalismo BCL Хіліязм Byelorussian Mil·lenarisme Catalan Chiliasmus Czech Chiliasme Danish Χιλιασμός Greek Milenarismo Spanish
| Part of a series on |
| Eschatology |
|---|
Millennialism (from Latin mille 'thousand', annus 'year', and -ism) or chiliasm (from the Greek equivalent) is a belief which is held by some religious denominations. According to this belief, a Messianic Age will be established on Earth prior to the Last Judgment and the future permanent state of the "eternity".[1]
Christianity and Judaism have both produced messianic movements which featured millennialist teachings—such as the notion that an earthly kingdom of God was at hand. These millenarian movements often led to considerable social unrest.[2]
Similarities to millennialism also exist in Zoroastrianism, which identified successive thousand-year periods, each of which will end in a cataclysm of heresy and destruction, until the final destruction of evil and the final destruction of the spirit of evil by a triumphant king of peace at the end of the final millennial age. "Then Saoshyant makes the creatures again pure, and the resurrection and future existence occur" (Zand-i Vohuman Yasht 3:62).
Scholars have also linked various other social and political movements, both religious and secular, to millennialist metaphors.
- ^ "9145 Messianic age - Dictionary of Bible Themes - Bible Gateway". www.biblegateway.com. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
- ^ Some examples are given by Gerschom Scholem in Sabbatai Sevi, the mystical messiah (London: Routledge, 1973). The whole book profiles a Jewish group of this kind centered on the person of Sabbatai Zevi, but in part 1 Scholem also gives a number of comparable Christian examples, e.g. pp. 100–101.