Researched by the Ignaria Editorial Team · Published 2026-03-12
The dominant eschatological expectation in the second century was what the Fathers themselves called chiliasm — a literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth following the resurrection. Irenaeus drew on prophetic imagery of abundant creation in the millennial age, citing Isaiah's vision of water running on every high mountain. The decisive shift came with Augustine's spiritual reading of Revelation 20 in The City of God: he argued that the devil was bound not at the millennium's future start but already, from the time the Church spread among the nations, and remains bound until the end of the world — identifying the thousand years with the present Church age. Augustine's reading displaced chiliasm as the dominant Western position and shaped medieval and Reformed eschatology alike.
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What the primary sources show
"The whole creation shall, according to God's will, obtain a vast increase, that it may bring forth and sustain fruits such as we have mentioned, Isaiah declares: And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every prominent hill, water running everywhere" — Irenaeus's chiliast reading of Isaiah's millennial imagery as describing a literal, earthly renewal.
"The devil was thus bound not only when the Church began to be more and more widely extended among the nations beyond Judea, but is now and shall be bound till the end of the world, when he is to be loosed" — Augustine's amillennial reinterpretation: the binding of Satan and the millennium are already underway in the present Church age.