THE MILLENNIUM AND

MILLENARISM—¡THE TRUTH OF A
FUTURE KINGDOM ON EARTH THAT
SCHOLAR CATHOLICS CAN NOT
DENY!

Generally, it is considered that the doctrine of Christ’s Millenarian reign on

earth is a heretical doctrine. However, based in 2 Peter and Revelation, the
doctrine enjoyed in ancient times not only of great approval but was in a bigger
grade, according to illustrious and very highly considerate Church Fathers,
orthodox. We have amongst the first millenarians to the apostle John,
Polycarp of Smyrna, Papias of Hierapolis, Lactantius, Ireneus of Lyons and an
innumerable list of Christian believers of the first centuries. Finally, the
Catholic Church, in spite of having refused the doctrine appealing to the pen of
notable Gnostics writers, such as Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea and Augustine of
Hippo, amongst many, never dared to propose it heretical, because that was
what the Church Fathers’ believe and taught, even the more venerated and most
authoritative martyrs of the faith as Justin Martyr, for example, and illustrious
authors as the very apostle John, who entrusts the doctrine in his Revelation. It
is clear that if the Catholic Church has dared to cancel millenarianism they
would incur in a total breaking with the Church Fathers of the primitive Church,
and with the very same apostolic Church, because that was the way they
believed, and that was what they were preaching: Christ's millenarian literal
reign on the earth, and that's why they faced the Roman State's hostilities and
they did not fear suffering the death as witnesses. That is what the word martyr
signifies.

Only when the Church aspired to be a part of this world and to assume royal,
riches, titles, honors and domination, and only then, she denied her true call,
and denied the literalness and the truthfulness of Christ's millenarian reign on

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earth and the restoration of all things in the re-creation that the biblical
inspired writers talk. One of the main millenarian documents of the primitive
Church, at present acquaintance as the Epistle of Barnabas, talk precisely about
this spiritual hope, taking his argumentation from the same source of the book
of Revelation, whose writer was the apostle John. The Gnostics that filtered into
the primitive Church started by denying the authenticity of second epistle of
Peter and the book of Revelation, as well as Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, as a
way to attack it more directly possible and thus to defeat those who believed in
the reality of Christ's millenarian reign on earth. However, among the Catholics
there were illustrious millenarians, as the Chilean priest Manuel Lacunza, who
wrote a monumental and very well-informed work, entitled “The Coming of the
Messiah in Glory And Majesty, under the pseudonym of Juan Josafat and
directed to the priest Christophilus.
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