10
savage men, both of different nations and various habits, who come to believe, and when
they have believed, act in harmony with the righteous." He goes on to say that though the
allegory does hold, the prophecy will nevertheless also be fulfilled literally in the age to
come. Irenaeus continues, pressing his argument in support of the fact that "God
truly...raises up man, and not allegorically, as I have shown repeatedly." Throughout this
section Irenaeus emphasizes the point that these conditions will be fulfilled literally,
regardless of any apparent accidental "fulfillment" in an allegorical sense.
15
It is this point of literal versus allegorical interpretation that led to disputes
between the proponents of chiliasm and those who opposed them.
The Perspective of Opponents
As is seen in the example of Irenaeus, the early church champions of chiliasm
readily admitted that their view was not held by all. First, there were some within the
church who did not hold the view, and some of these were clearly antagonistic to it.
Second, some without allegiance to the church ridiculed Christians for holding such an
outlandish view.
Critics Inside the Church
One example, and probably the best example of a Christian who opposed
chiliasm was Origen. His writing is extremely valuable in that it describes the belief of
those who held it in his day even while he criticized it. In lengthy discourse, he berates
those Christians who
refusing the labor of thinking, and adopting a superficial view of the letter of the
law, and yielding rather in some measure to the indulgence of their own desires and
15
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Against Heresies. Vol.1, 563.