# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1857_S384
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

[p. 384]

§ 8. For more than a thousand years an almost universal silence prevailed
over this dream. Only at the time of the Reformation did it resurface
among the so-called Enthusiasts and fanatics. In particular it is the
Anabaptists whom Article 17 of the Augustana [Augsburg Confession] has in
view. But when the apologist of Chiliasm, Hebart ("The Second Visible
Coming of Christ"), remarks that it is doubtful whether this article means
to polemicize at all against a future glorious kingdom of Christ on
earth — and that the words "Jewish teachings" suggest the conjecture that
only the crude theories of the thousand-year kingdom are meant to be
rejected here — we answer: however slight a degree this kingdom may be
represented as an earthly one, if one understands by it anything other
than the already-existing spiritual kingdom of grace or the
yet-to-be-expected eternal kingdom of glory, then it is nothing other than
just such a kingdom as the Jews once expected, and whose hope is condemned
in our Confession. If, then, by "subtle" or "refined" Chiliasm one means
nothing other than this latter hope, then judgment has likewise been
pronounced upon it by Article 17 of the Augustana.

§ 9. Not a few even like to call this an innocent, subtle Chiliasm, when
one assumes a twofold visible second coming of Christ, a twofold bodily
resurrection of the dead, and a still-to-be-expected glorious kingdom of
Christ on earth. But by this, quite evidently, as a necessary consequence,
chief articles of the Christian faith are overturned — namely the articles
on the kingdom of Christ, on the coming of Christ to judgment, and on the
resurrection of the dead.

§ 10. First, then, the article of the kingdom of Christ is thereby
assailed. Our Lord Christ does indeed have a kingdom of power, since all
power in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. Matt. 28:18. Psalm
8:7-10. But insofar as He is considered as Savior and Redeemer, the church
is His kingdom — here as the kingdom of grace, there [in eternity] as the
kingdom of glory. Against both of these the supposed thousand-year kingdom
contends, and it cannot be granted without harm to both. For the kingdom
of grace is indeed in the world, but as regards its nature, not of the
world; it possesses no worldly goods, nor is it administered in a worldly
manner, nor does it come with outward show, nor does it strike the eye as
something outwardly resplendent, such that one could say: "Behold, here it
is, or there." John 18:36. Luke 17:20-21. It is "not eating and drinking,
but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." Rom. 14:17. Never
and nowhere has the Lord Christ comforted His own with an outward, visible
kingdom; rather, He has completely cut off all hope of such a thing.
According to the opinion of the Chiliasts, the mother of the sons of
Zebedee, Matt. 20:20, could not have asked anything better for her sons
than what she asked. For what moved her to her request was nothing other
than genuine chiliastic hopes of a glorious, visible kingdom of Christ on
earth. But with the stern word the Lord turns her away: "Ye know not what
ye ask." We thus draw the conclusion here: whatever kingdom is visible and
is administered in an outward, worldly, visible manner (not solely through
the means of grace and the impulse of the Holy Spirit) — that is not the
true kingdom of grace of Christ on earth, to which He has directed and
comforted His own. The supposed thousand-year kingdom is [meant] to come
in a visible,