The Ancient Witnesses

274 • The Ancient Witnesses: A Journey to Discover Our Sacred Roots

The Millennium Another debate was stirring among several witnesses who had gathered around Mentor and were demanding to be heard on the subject of the thousand-year reign of Christ spoken of in Revelation 20. This was related to Cesar’s question, and he knew a lot about it. “There are two groups,” he explained, “the Chiliasts believe in a literal, thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth, but the Alexandrians interpret the thousand years symbolically. 18 Mentor granted a hearing to the Chiliasts first, inviting Irenaeus of Lyon, who was respected by all, to represent their point of view. “There are those among us,” began Irenaeus, “who, though they seem to be true believers, are unaware of how we become equipped for eternity.” The Alexandrians murmured loudly at these words, and Mentor called for order. “Ignoring the divine plan for the exaltation of the righteous,” Irenaeus continued, “these men prefer to play around with certain heretical ideas. Like the heretics, they deny the salvation of the flesh and claim that immediately following death we shall pass directly through the heavens to the Father. In this way, they deny the resurrection of the body, and forget that our Lord Himself, after dying on the cross, did not rise until the third day. Indeed, during those days He dwelt in the place where the dead were, as the Prophet says concerning Him: ‘And the Lord remembered His dead saints who

18 Chiliast is taken from chiliasmos which is the Greek number for 1000, and Alexandrians from the famous school of biblical interpretation in Alexandria, Egypt.