# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1857_S383
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

[p. 383]

Is one, then, entitled to interpret this life and reigning of the souls of
the beheaded as [referring to] a bodily resurrection? Is it enough for such
an interpretation that Scripture calls it "the first resurrection"? — But
this chapter says nothing at all about Christ coming again visibly, let
alone that He would come again twice. Likewise, nowhere else in the whole
New or Old Testament is it written, in a single word, that Christ should
come again visibly a second time. It is, moreover, evidently a mere evasion
to invent a twofold visible second coming of Christ — one for the so-called
thousand-year kingdom and another for the Last Judgment. For regarding
this supposed thousand-year kingdom, people form the notion that Christ
remains on earth and does not withdraw again, because they cite from the
Old Testament passages for the thousand-year kingdom in which the words
"eternal" and "without end" and the like occur. Therefore the Chiliasts,
unless they wish to strike the Old Testament Scripture in the face, must
claim that this blessed state is followed, without interruption, by the
kingdom of glory. But if that is the case: where, how, and when is the
second visible coming supposed to happen? If the Lord does not withdraw
again, how can he come again a second time? But enough. As long as this
doctrine of a thousand-year kingdom of Christ on earth cannot be proven
by clear, unambiguous, plain passages, we must declare it to be an
Agraphon.

§ 5. But we wish to prove still more: the chiliastic doctrine mentioned is
nothing other than an old Jewish fable, which existed long before the
writing of the Revelation of St. John and of the New Testament altogether,
and in which even the holy Apostles themselves were caught up before they
had received [full] illumination — a Jewish fable which also resurfaced
after the apostolic age and was finally condemned in Article 17 of our
Augsburg Confession.

§ 6. The Jewish Talmud furnishes proof, and many passages of the New
Testament confirm, that the Jews from ancient times cherished the hope
that the Messiah would establish an earthly kingdom in which they would
rule over the kingdoms of the heathen; that he would raise up the
patriarchs, prophets, and other deceased Jews, lead them together with the
living into the land of Canaan, fully rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem and
the Levitical worship, and so bring in the kingdom of God with "outward
show" [äußerlichen Gebärden] (Luke 17:20). And where people did not hold
such crude notions, they still cherished the hope that the Messianic
kingdom would at least be a visibly glorious one. In this sense the
beloved Apostles still asked (Acts 1:6): "Wilt thou at this time restore
again the kingdom to Israel?" How greatly this delusion hindered the
Lord's own beloved disciples from a right understanding of the kingdom of
God and from faith — and how many millions of Jews have, for the sake of
this very delusion, remained far from Christ! It is well known enough. —

§ 7. This Jewish dream was, according to numerous testimonies of the
ancient church fathers (see Joh. Gerhard's *Loci Theologici*, Locus XXX),
brought into the Christian church by the arch-heretic Cerinthus, who
thereby infected the good Papias — a simple-minded man, as Eusebius calls
him — and through him, subsequently, also several excellent teachers of
the church, such as Justin [Martyr], Tertullian, Lactantius, and Irenaeus;
although these did not hold such crude and carnal notions as Cerinthus
did.