Puritan Eschatology: 1600–1648
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PURITAN ESCHATOLOGY: 1600–1648
Peter Toon
Various fathers of the early Church taught that Jesus Christ would reign on earth either in person or through His saints for one thousand years at the end of the present age. Among the men who interpreted the 1,000 years of Revelation 20 literally were such famous fathers as Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Hippolytus. Yet at the Council of Ephesus in 431 belief in a literal millennium was condemned as superstition. The reason for this apparent reversal of belief was the powerful influence of the great Augustine of Hippo, whose explanation of Revelation 20 may be found in book 20 of the City of God. He understood the 1,000 years as a perfect number representing the whole period of years from the time of Christ’s first coming to the time of His second coming when the Last Judgment would occur. The binding of the devil in this period is the power of God restraining Satan from using his powers to prevent the elect believing in Christ for salvation. The Bishop of Hippo held that Satan would tempt and test the elect but not stop them from accepting God’s offer of salvation. Just before the Second Coming Satan will be loosed for a brief period (Rev. 20:3). This means that there will be a period of intense persecution of the Church at the end of the present age by Gog and Magog (worldly powers and rulers), and though the devil will stop more people entering the kingdom of God he will not be able to cause those who are true Christians to fall from grace or from eternal salvation. While the Church remains on earth the saints and martyrs who died in Christ reign with Him in heaven (20:4). The “first resurrection” is thus to be understood spiritually, that is, being made spiritually alive through regeneration. But the resurrection mentioned in verses 12–13 is to be understood literally as referring to the resurrection of the dead before the Last Judgment.
This Augustinian eschatology which taught that the present gospel age is the millennium and that it is to come to an end with a brief period of persecution, the Second Coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the Last Judgment, reigned supreme in the Church from 431 to the time of the Reformation. From time to time millenarian movements (described by N. Cohn in The Pursuit of the Millennium1) burst into life but they never achieved respectability either in the medieval Catholic Church or in the Lutheran or Reformed Churches of the sixteenth century. John Calvin followed the Augustinian eschatology and had some strong words to say against millenarianism:
Those who assign the children of God a thousand years in which to enjoy the inheritance of the life to come do not realize how much reproach they are casting upon Christ and His kingdom. For if they do not put on immortality, then Christ Himself, to whose glory they shall be transformed, has not been received into undying glory (1 Cor. 15:13ff.). If their blessedness is to have an end, then Christ’s Kingdom, on which firmness it depends, is but temporary. In short, either such persons are utterly ignorant of everything divine or they are trying by a devious malice to bring to nought all the grace of God and power of Christ, the fulfilment of which is realized only when sin is blotted out, death swallowed up, and everlasting life fully restored.2
(It is necessary to state at this point that there was a distinct tendency after Calvin’s death to think of the 1,000 years of Revelation 20 as the literal 1,000 years stretching from about the year A.D. 300 to about the year A.D. 1300—this point of view is expressed by Bullinger, Foxe, and Junius in the later editions of the Geneva Bible. Thus the loosing of Satan “for a little season” was being experienced in Europe from about 1300. For the purposes of this article, we shall use the term “Augustinian eschatology” to describe both the authentic view of Augustine and that slightly modified view of his followers in the sixteenth century.)
Against this background of the denial of the future millennium, the remarkable fact is that in 1643, when the Westminster Assembly first met, and even more so from 1648 to 1660, millennial teaching was both common and respectable in England even though a good number of learned divines continued to teach the traditional Augustinian doctrine. William Twisse, the prolucator of the Assembly in its first sessions, was himself a millenarian and so also were the majority of the Independent divines who attended. The influence of these millenarians was, however, insufficient to affect the final wording of the Confession of Faith, which gives the impression of following the Augustinian teaching. Faced with the fact of the popularity of millenarianism in 1643 the historian of dogma is bound to ask the question, “Why did the belief in a future millennium become popular?” And, “What were the factors which helped to make millennial teaching apparently respectable?”
Thus it will be our task first of all briefly to suggest seven factors at work between 1550 and 1650 which helped to create conditions favorable to the growth of a belief in a future period of bliss on earth. After this we shall describe three types of eschatology popular in England between 1600 and 1648 in which belief in the millennium occurs, and then we shall bring our discussion to a close with a reminder that the traditional Augustinian approach never lost total favor during these years.
An Increasing Interest in the Millennium
1. The view that individual books of the Bible are of equal importance, since all the books are in fact the Word of God, led to careful examination of the books of Revelation and Daniel and to the ascribing to them of as much authority as, for example, the Gospel of Matthew.
2. The Reformation principle that Scripture is to be interpreted according to its plain, literal sense led some to apply this principle to Revelation 20.
3. A revived interest in the writings of the early fathers of the Church (e.g., Irenaeus) led to the discovery that they believed in a future, literal millennium.
4. The view that the Pope was the Anti-Christ, the beast of Revelation 18, and the growing historicist interpretation of Revelation, led to the notion that the millennium of Revelation 20 should follow the events (e.g., destruction of papacy) described in Revelation 17–19.
5. The hope of better days ahead engendered by the social, economic, and religious conditions in Europe in the early seventeenth century. This was the period of the horrors of the Thirty Years War in Europe and the persecution of Puritans by Archbishop Laud in England.
6. The discovery of vast new areas of the world led to the belief that the peoples living there would soon be evangelized and Christ’s promise fulfilled (Mark 13:10).
7. The conviction that the loosing of Satan for a little season could not have taken place (as some Augustinians held) in 1300 since, if this were so, the Second Coming of Christ would have occurred before 1600.
Of course those who advocated a literal millennium would not have been conscious of all, or even any, of these religious, social, and psychological factors in their experience; but to some extent we are all children of the age in which we live and we cannot but absorb in large or small degree the ethos of the times in which we live.
Revised Augustinianism
The first type of Puritan eschatology at which we shall look was made popular by Thomas Brightman (1562–1607), a graduate of Queen’s College, Cambridge, and rector of Hawnes in Bedfordshire. His commentary on the Book of Revelation was first printed in Latin at Frankfort in 1609 and an English translation of about 1,000 pages appeared in Amsterdam in 1615. It was entitled A Revelation of the Revelation and was written to expound a Protestant position in reply to the futurist interpretation of Francis Ribera (1537–1591), a Roman Catholic scholar from Salamanca. Brightman’s book went through at least six editions within forty years and its influence was great. His exposition of Daniel was also popular. The exposition of the Apocalypse is prefaced by an epistle “to the Holy Reformed Churches of Britain, Germany, and France.” In it Brightman stated:
Hearken diligently a while and receive out of this Prophecy not some obscure signs, but most evident signs that thy Husband is about to arise even now for the answering of thy grief . . . and that thou mayest more fully rejoice, receive withall tidings of the final destruction of the Turks after the subversion of Rome . . . and least anything should yet be wanting to the full heap of joy, here thou mayest know that the calling of the Jews to be a Christian nation is hereunto joyned and withal a most happy tranquility from thence to the end of the world.
Before we look at Brightman’s exegesis of Revelation 20, let us notice how in general he interpreted some of the other chapters. He saw the letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor as symbolizing seven periods of Church history. The letter to the church in Ephesus depicted the Church from the apostolic period to the time of Constantine the Great, the letter to Smyrna the Church from then to A.D. 380, the letter to Pergamos from 380 to 1300, and the letter to Thyatira from 1300 to 1520. The letter to Sardis was a prophecy of the Lutheran Churches and the letter to Philadelphia a prophecy of the Calvinist Churches while the last letter to Laodicea described the Church of England which was “neither hot nor cold.”
The opening of the seals (chap. 6) and the sounding of the seven trumpets (chap. 8) referred to specific historical events between the Day of Pentecost and 1696. For example, the sixth trumpet referred to the revival of the power of the Ottoman Turks in 1300. The Turkish armaments were represented by John in his reference to fire, smoke, and brimstone (Rev. 9:13–21). Working on the theory that a prophetic day equals one literal year, Brightman deduced from Revelation 9:15 that the power of the Turks would last until 1696. Moving on to chapter 13 we find that the two beasts are seen as two phases of the papacy, before Charlemagne and after him. God’s judgment on the papacy is to be found in Revelation 16 where seven vials are described as being poured out by God. The first three vials were fulfilled in the action of Queen Elizabeth turning Roman Catholics out of the Church livings in 1560, the confutation of the doctrines of the Council of Trent by Martin Chemnitius,3 and the work of William Cecil in making laws against Jesuits in England. Brightman believed that the pouring out of the last four vials was yet to come but he seemed to have little difficulty in predicting what they would be. He interpreted the fourth (v. 8) as referring to the power of the Reformed exegesis of Scripture confusing and confuting the Roman Catholics, the fifth as the destruction of Rome and the Roman Church system, the sixth as the conversion of the Jews and their subsequent restoration to Palestine, and the seventh as the destruction of the enemies of the people of God (i.e., Catholics and Turks). Let us return for a moment to the sixth vial where Brightman felt that it was the Jews whom John called “the kings of the East.” Commenting on verse 12 he wrote:
The Holy Ghost gives the Jews this magnificent name because it shall be an honourable thing for them in a special manner to return again at last unto this truth to which they had been like dead men before, as also to love and honour that truth with great godliness, holiness, and reverent homage having their unbelieving and obstinate hearts subdued and mollified and all this after so many ages and after such obdurate contumacy of that nation. And besides all this the whole East shall be in obedience and subjection unto them, so that this people are not called kings unworthily.
He emphasized that the Jews were to return to Palestine not to restore their ceremonial worship but to “worship Christ purely and sincerely according to His will and commandment alone.”
Turning our attention to his comments on chapter 20 we find that Brightman understood the 1,000 years of verse 2 as a literal millennium which began when Constantine the Great began to reign (early fourth century) until about 1300. In this period Satan was bound in that he was not allowed to make use of the rulers of the Roman Empire to persecute the Church. The loosing of Satan for “a little season” (v. 3) referred to the Turks invading Europe and causing havoc among some churches in the early fourteenth century. The “first resurrection” (v. 5) was the revival of true biblical doctrine immediately after the Turkish invasion; in particular Brightman referred to such early reformers as John Wycliffe, Marsilius of Padua, and John of Jandun. The second 1,000 years (v. 5) began where the first one ended, that is 1300, and therefore stretched forward until the year 2300. During this second millennium (in which Brightman of course lived) biblical truth was to increase in strength and influence throughout the world. Within its years he confidently expected the collapse of the Papacy and its power over Europe (seen in the fifth vial of chapter 16) followed by the conversion of the Jews, the destruction of the Turkish power and empire (Gog and Magog), and then the glorious state of the Church in the latter days before the end of the millennium. He believed that this period of latter day glory on earth described in Revelation 21 was very near and he could write that “we wait every day while the Anti-Christ of Rome and the Turke shall be utterly destroyed.” Only at the end of the period of the latter-day glory when, as it were, there would be a “new heaven and earth,” would Christ return to earth, the dead be raised, and the Last Judgment occur. Brightman understood the resurrection of the dead in verse 12 of Revelation 20 as meaning the restoration of the Jewish nation. Although he expected the conversion of the Jews to take place before the destruction of Gog and Magog (Turkish power) he seemed to believe that the restoration of the Jews to Palestine would only take place after the destruction of Gog and Magog. Then Jerusalem would become the religious center of the world again, the center of a glorious Church of Christ, in which there would be no tears, no mourning, only peace and bliss. In this time the saints would enjoy close fellowship with Christ and would pray “Come Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).
We are now able to see how Brightman revised Augustinian teaching. Whereas Augustine took the first reference (and the second) to the millennium to refer to the whole of Church history, Brightman took it to refer to the years from Constantine the Great until 1300. Further Brightman understood the second reference to the millennium to be a second millennium, 1300 to 2300, while the Bishop of Hippo had taken it to mean the same millennium as in the first reference. Thus with Brightman we can see how the Reformation principle of the interpreting of Scripture according to its literal sense is working out the reference to eschatology, and in particular, to Revelation 20.
Looking critically at Brightman’s interpretation of Revelation 20, we are bound to state that there seems to be only one millennium recorded there. Furthermore verses 11–15 seem to refer to the Last Judgment, not the rebirth of the Jewish nation in Palestine. However, his poor exegesis did not prevent his commentary being very influential. Those for example who read John Cotton’s three books of sermons based on Revelation and printed between 1642 and 1655 cannot but be impressed by his dependence on Brightman, and those who study John Owen’s sermons before Parliament preached in the years 1648 to 1652 also realize that his interpretation of Revelation follows Brightman’s scheme. The attraction of this revised Augustinian eschatology to seventeenth-century divines was that it seemed to preserve the best of the old and also supply a glorious hope for the future without indulging in talk of a future, literal millennial kingdom, a notion often connected with “wild Anabaptism.”
Conservative Millenarianism
The two men who more than any others, between the Synod of Dort and the Westminster Assembly, popularized a cautious or conservative millenarianism were John Henry Alsted and Joseph Mede. They taught that there would be a future literal millennium but their descriptions of the nature of this kingdom of God on earth were restrained.
John Henry Alsted was born in 1588 in Herborn, a town in the province of Hesse-Nassau. As part of his education he attended classes at Marburg, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Strassburg, and Basel universities. In 1615 he became a professor in Herborn University and was chosen to represent the local prince at the Synod of Dort in 1618. On his return from Dort he replaced John Piscator as head of the faculty of theology in Herborn. Unfortunately, due to the effects of war and the plague, he had to move to Transylvania for safety and here he eventually died. He was famous in the seventeenth century for his great Encyclopaedia which was used in many universities.
Before the effects of the Thirty Years War were felt in Herborn, Alsted taught a fairly orthodox Augustinian eschatology but by 1627 he had written his Diatribe de mille annis Apocalypticis, which was an interpretation of Revelation 20. It first appeared in English in 1643 as The Beloved City.
In agreement with most modern interpreters Alsted suggested A.D. 94 as the date of the composition of Revelation. He divided the book into seven basic parts. The first vision of chapters 1–3 was of concern to the seven contemporary churches of Asia Minor. The second vision of the scroll dealt with seven seals, chapters 4–6, related to the history of the Church in Europe until A.D. 606. The third vision of the seven trumpets in chapters 8–11 described the state of the Church from 606 until 1517, the year of Martin Luther’s rise to fame. The fourth vision of the woman bearing the child in chapters 12–14 described the Church from the birth of Christ until the year 1517. The fifth vision of the vials in chapters 15–16 related to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Alsted held that three of these vials had been poured out by 1627 and the other four would be poured out by 1694, when the millennium would begin. The sixth vision of chapters 17–20 referred to both judgment on the enemies of Christ and the bliss of the Church. The seventh vision of chapters 21–22 was of the heavenly city where the Church will spend eternity.
Alsted’s understanding of chapter 20 may be summarized in a few words. He believed in a future millennium which God would inaugurate by binding Satan and by raising dead martyrs (vv.2–4). During this period of peace on earth (of which Jewish prophets had spoken) the Jews would be converted as well as multitudes of Gentiles. At the end of the millennium of joy and peace the residue of heathen still on earth would make a final attempt to crush the Church but God would intervene and marvelously crush this heathen Gog and Magog. Then would Christ come, the dead be raised, and the Last Judgment occur. Alsted felt able to set the date 1694 for the beginning of the 1,000 year reign of the saints by calculations based on Daniel 12:11–12. The date of the taking away of the daily sacrifice was, he believed, A.D. 69. To this he added 1290 years (one prophetic day equals one year) and then another 1335 years. This gave the date 2694 which was the end of the millennium, and so 1694 was the date for its beginning.
We must leave Alsted’s book now to notice his influence on English divines. According to Robert Baillie, the learned Scotsman, this was considerable. In his A Dissuasive from the Errours of the Time (1645), Baillie lamented that in recent years there had been a rapid growth of millenarian teaching. Indeed, Augustinian teaching prevailed until:
Only Alsted, after his abode in Transylvania, began in his last times to fall into liking with some parts [of ancient millenarianism], pretending Piscator for his encouragement. Alsted’s heterodox writings were not long abroad when Mr. Mede at Cambridge was gained to follow him; yet both these divines were far from dreaming of any personal reign of Christ upon earth; only Mr. [Henry] Archer, and his colleague, Thomas Goodwin at Arnheim, were bold to set up the whole fabric of Chiliasm, which Mr. [Jeremiah] Burroughs in his London lectures on Hosea doth press as a necessary and most comfortable ground of the Christian Religion.4
Of the names mentioned by Baillie we shall first notice Joseph Mede as a representative of conservative millenarianism and then Henry Archer as a representative of extreme millenarianism.
Joseph Mede (1586–1638) was professor of Greek at Cambridge. His great claim to fame was his Clavis Apocalypticae (The Key of the Revelation), first published in 1627 but reprinted with many additions in 1632 and 1642 and translated into English in 1643. It proved to be one of the most influential theological books of the century. Alsted’s influence upon Mede was between 1627 and 1632 for in the latter year Mede’s second edition of the Clavis taught an uncompromising millenarianism.
Mede’s belief in a future millennium was firmly rooted in the fact that the Book of Revelation is part of canonical Scripture. “If the Apocalypse be Canonical Scripture, it must needs be granted,” he wrote, “that there is such a time to come; or we must deny either Rome, which now is, to be Babylon or the Beast to be Anti-Christ or Antichristendom.” He was also well aware that “this dogma of the 1,000 year Regnum was the general opinion of all orthodox Christians in the Age immediately following the Apostles.” He equated the millennium of Revelation 20 with the “Day of Jehovah” spoken of by Jewish prophets. “The seventh trumpet and the thousand years contained therein is that Great Day of the Lord, the Great Day of Judgment, so much celebrated amongst the Jews in all their Writings, and from them taken up by our Saviour and His Apostles. Not a Day of a few hours, as we commonly suppose, but a continued space of many years, wherein Christ shall destroy all His Enemies, and at length Death itself.”5
At the beginning and the end of the millennium a resurrection will occur. The first resurrection will be that of deceased martyrs who will be raised in order either to reign with Christ in heaven in their resurrection bodies, or, as Mede later affirmed, to reign with the saints on earth. He was confident that the belief in this particular resurrection was in no way contrary to the teaching of the Apostles’ or Nicene Creeds. He reminded his readers that there was a resurrection of saints in Jerusalem when Christ rose from the dead (Matt. 27:52–53). The millennium would be preceded by the collapse of the power (although not the total destruction) of Anti-Christ (that is, of the Papal influence in religion and politics) and the beginning of the conversion and restoration of the Jews. Just as Christ appeared from heaven to Saul on the road to Damascus so, held Mede, He would appear from heaven for the conversion of the Jews. He regarded the conversion of Saul as a type of the future conversion of the Jews. Also, like Brightman, he understood the pouring out of the sixth vial (Rev. 16:12) as a reference to the conversion and restoration of the Jews. With regard to the presence of Christ in the millennial kingdom, Mede had the following to say: “The presence of Christ in this kingdom shall no doubt be glorious and evident, yet I dare not so much as imagine that it should be a visible converse upon earth. For the kingdom of Christ ever hath been and shall be a Regnum Caelorum, a kingdom whose throne and kingly residence is in heaven.” Although Mede entered into little description of the nature of the millennial kingdom, he did believe that at its close Gog and Magog (the combined forces of the enemies of Christ throughout the world who still are unconverted) will make a final attempt to crush the people of Christ. Their attempt will fail, the dead will be raised, and the glorious Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment will occur.
Often both Alsted and Mede have been called premillennialists. This term is not quite accurate, for neither of them teach that Christ will personally appear on earth and be visible to all before the time of the Last Judgment. Mede’s reference to the appearance of Christ for the conversion of the Jews is to be seen as similar to Christ’s appearance on the Damascus Road. The exegesis of Revelation 20 by the conservative millenarians was superior to that of Brightman and wholly different from that of Augustine. They confidently believed that the millennium was future and held it would dawn after the events described in Revelation 4–19 had occurred. For them the millennium of Revelation 20:3 and 7 was one and the same period of a literal thousand years when God’s saints would reign on earth. As Augustine predicted a period of great persecution at the end of the world, so they predicted a similar period at the close of the millennium.
Mullinger in his History of the University of Cambridge states that Mede’s writings on eschatology “won for him the praise of nearly all learned Holland . . . and taking rank for more than a century, as a classic, it [the Key] exerted an influence on theological thought which no English writer of the period appears adequately to have recognized.”6 Earlier we mentioned the names of William Twisse, Thomas Goodwin, Jeremiah Burroughs, and William Bridge as members of the Westminster Assembly and as followers of Mede. To these can be added the majority of Independent ministers and many Presbyterians who lived and worked during the Commonwealth and Protectorate.
Extreme Millenarianism
As Baillie rightly remarked, an early exponent of extreme millennial views was John Archer (given in Dictionary of National Biography as John Aucher). He was pastor of the Independent congregation which moved back to London in 1640 from Arnhem where it had been in exile. Later he conformed to the Church of England and became incumbent of All Hallows, Lombard Street. In 1642 he published The Personall Reigne of Christ upon Earth, which became, as it were, an early textbook of the Fifth Monarchy men. It is interesting to observe that while Brightman, Alsted, and Mede give the impression of having a greater interest in, and seeing a greater relevance to, the Book of Revelation, rather than the Book of Daniel, the extreme millenarians give the opposite impression. This was probably because they believed that they found the doctrine of the Fifth Monarchy to follow the (supposed) Roman rule clearly revealed in Daniel.
Archer held that Christ will rule “in a worldly, visible glory not by tyranny, oppression, and sensually, but with honour, peace, riches, and whatsoever in and of the world is not sinful; having all nations and kingdoms doing homage to him, as the great monarchies of the world”7 had enjoyed homage. As Adam was given the garden of Eden for his dominion, so the Second Adam has the whole world for His dominion. The clearest teaching in Scripture of this future rule of Christ was, Archer believed, in Daniel 2:31–46. This vision of the image referred to four world empires which would be followed by the empire of Christ. The last of the empires was the Roman, and the monarchies existing in 1642 were represented in the vision by the toes of iron and clay. These monarchies, of which England was one, were the remnants of the Roman Empire. In the days of these monarchies the Fifth Monarchy will arise and this will be the kingdom of Christ. This is described by Daniel as “the stone which smote the image [and which] became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”
According to Archer’s scheme, Christ comes to earth three times: first, as the son of Mary, second, to set up His Fifth Monarchy, and third, to defeat Gog and Magog and judge the world. At His Second Coming Christ will destroy the armies of those who oppose His Church, but He will not destroy all wicked men. Also He will raise the bodies of all saints who have previously died. The kingdom thus inaugurated will last for 1,000 years in fulfillment of Revelation 20:4. Society during these years of bliss will not be, as the Marxists dream, classless. The senior citizens will be the apostles followed by Jewish Christians. Palestine will be the center of the world and Jerusalem the capital city. Converted Gentiles will form the next structure of society and will be given higher or lower placing according to their faithfulness while alive. At the bottom of society will be the godless who will act as slaves just as the Gibeonites served the Israelites. Archer stressed both the material and spiritual blessings of the millennium for the saints. At the close of the 1,000 years the godless will form an army (Gog and Magog) and make a last attempt to destroy the saints, but Christ will appear for the third time to destroy them and to judge the world. He also calculated that the Papacy would collapse in 1666, the Jews begin to be converted in large numbers in 1656, and the millennium begin in 1700.
During the 1650s there were large groups of people who adopted and developed Archer’s scheme, and they proved a great problem to Oliver Cromwell and his administration since many of them decried human government and felt their own loyalty was to the forthcoming Fifth Monarchy. Indeed so great was their influence by 1653 that leading Congregational ministers, led by John Owen, sent out a letter to the churches warning them against the wild notions of the Fifth Monarchy movement. The Congregational leaders opposed the opposition to earthly government and the materialistic views of the millennium, not the doctrine of the millennium itself.8
Conclusion
Perhaps at this point we should summarize the main ingredients of the three types of Puritan eschatology we have examined. All agreed in the following:
1. That before the beginning of the “Last Days” the power and rule of the Papacy and the Turks will be broken.
2. That before or during the “Last Days” the Jews will be first converted and then restored to Palestine.
3. That during the “Last Days” there will be either a period of latter-day glory or a millennium of bliss.
4. That the world will end with the Second Coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the Last Judgment.
It was expected that the first three of these would occur in the seventeenth century.
Today, over three hundred years later, though the Turkish Empire has gone and a part of world Jewry has returned to Palestine, the Papacy remains, the Jews are unconverted to Christ, and the future time of glory seems improbable of fulfillment. Recently, since the last Jewish-Arab war, the suggestion has been made that the rebirth of the nation of Israel is a fulfillment of prophecy and a preliminary event before the conversion of the Jews to Christ. Our study has shown that this suggestion is in fact the reverse of the Puritan view, which held that the conversion precedes the restoration. Indeed the whole question as to whether the rebirth of an unconverted Israel nation is prophesied in the Bible is so difficult that we cannot look at it here. The future conversion of the Jews bringing in or accompanying a worldwide turning to Christ is also a complex subject which we cannot attempt to examine now. In both these matters so much depends upon one’s exegesis of such Old Testament passages as Ezekiel 36:16–38.
The great exegetical problems surrounding the hope of a time of latter-day glory or millennium leads us on to consider the Augustinian position. Such divines as Robert Baillie in his A Dissuasive from the Errours of the Time (1645) and Thomas Hayne in his Christ’s Kingdom on Earth (1645) firmly deny the idea of both a future millennium and the restoration of the (converted) Jewish nation. Nevertheless they do not deny the conversion of great numbers of Jews to Christ in fulfillment of Romans 11:25ff. Baillie wrote: “We grant willingly that the nation of the Jews shall be converted to the faith of Christ, and that the fullness of the Gentiles is to come in with them to the Christian Church, and also that the quickening of that dead and rotten member shall be a matter of exceeding joy to the whole Church.” This conversion of the Jews was to occur through the normal preaching of the gospel. Baillie never intimated that any period of latter-day glory would come in by the conversion of Jews; rather Hayne reminded his readers of Paul’s word in 2 Timothy 3:1–5, and Baillie advised them to read Augustine’s City of God.
We find that the Westminster Confession of Faith (chaps. 32–33) clearly follows the Augustinian teaching while the Larger Catechism, in the answer to question 191, calls upon people to pray for the conversion of Jews. Yet the call for prayer for the Jews is followed by the prayer that Christ would hasten the time of His Second Coming. This fact, and the actual scriptural references given, lead us to state that there is no suggestion of a period of latter-day glory or of a millennium connected with the conversion of the Jews. The idea seems to be that, though their conversion will certainly enrich the Church, the Church will remain in a world which hates Christ and His gospel. Thus we find that the Augustinian eschatology of some leading seventeenth century divines as well as certain divines of the previous century9 is expanded by the inclusion of the belief in the future conversion of the Jews, a doctrine which Augustine does not seem to have taught.10