Augustine in his City of God refers to “Chiliasts” or the “Millenarians” as those who believe in a literal future 1000 years enjoyed by those who are raised in the first resurrection. Augustine rejects this view because the “Chiliasts” and “Millenarians” have carnal and not a spiritual view of the 1000 years: “They assert that those who then rise again shall enjoy the leisure of immoderate carnal banquets, furnished with an amount of meat and drink such as not only to shock the feeling of the temperate.”[2] Ryrie counters this false accusation: “Since when is the church only spiritual and the kingdom only carnal?”[3] In 1 Corinthians 3:3, Paul accused the church at Corinth of being “carnal.”
Read more