A recent study sheet titled: Salem - The City of Peace - Controversial Moravians was prepared and distributed to the staff of Old Salem that interprets the history and buildings of this living history experience. It reminded the reader that “The name Salem points to the religious origin of this community and the utopian or millenarian hopes of the founders.” Let’s dig into that sentence - especially the word “millenarian”.
Millenarianism is the belief in a future millennium before or after the Second Coming of Christ during which he will reign on earth in peace for one thousand years. Millenarianism is based on Revelation 20:1–5.
More often than not there is a prefix before the word Millennium e.g., pre, post or a. Thus one might affirm Premillennialism, or PostMillennialism, or Amillennialism.
Premillennialism holds that the Second Coming of Christ will occur before the Millennium of Revelation 20:1-5. Postmillennialism sees the Second Coming after the Millennium. Amillennialism posits that the Millennium is a symbolic concept - not literal.
18th century Moravians held to Premillennialism - that Jesus Christ would return before the Millennium.
Who else affirmed Premillennialism?
Answer: The Church Fathers: Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, Tertullian, and Cyprian.
It was especially held by the 17th and 18th German Pietists such as the Moravians, and Mennonites. Puritan luminaries such as Jonathan Edwards as well as Increase and Cotton Mather believed this tenet. Other notables would include William Tyndale, Billy Graham, John Wesley, Albert Mohler, Chuck Swindoll and John MacArthur.
It is to be noted that several denominations overtly oppose Premillennialism - the Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, for example.
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