Millenarianism

It is impossible to understand the Oneida Community without a firm grasp of its core theology. In the next few posts I will explore some key concepts, then return to the story of how exactly John Humphrey Noyes came to found the Oneida Community.

One of the central functions of any system of religious belief to make sense out of the fact that human beings are mortal. This branch of theology is called “eschatology.” Christian eschatology holds that after death an individual's life is judged by God. If the person led a good and holy life in accordance with the dictates of scripture, they are sent to heaven. If not, they go to hell. The Bible contains many passages that discuss life after death, especially the books of Isaiah and Daniel in the Old Testament and the book of Revelation in the New Testament. What sets Christian eschatology apart is its view of time. Christians believe that time is an arrow always speeding toward the destruction of the corrupt physical world and the creation of heaven on earth.

To be sure, various branches of Christian theology have significantly differing views on the details, but all roughly agree on these basics: 1) when a person dies their life is judged by God and they are dispatched to an intermediate state of being, i.e. Heaven or Hell; 2) a time will come when Jesus will return to earth in some form; 3) following the return of Jesus, according to prophecies in the Book of Revelation, the kingdom of God on Earth will last a thousand years, i.e. a millennium; 4) following this thousand years of peace, the world as we know it will come to an end in a Last Judgment where the dead will be resurrected, evil will be banished and a new heaven and new earth under God's command will be created.

Christian time, then, is lineal. It begins with the creation of the Universe by God and ends with the creation of a new Universe free from the corrupting influences of sin. The milestones along the way are the miraculous birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the second coming of Christ, the Last Judgment and finally the creation of the Kingdom of God.

Historically, the various elements of Christian eschatology have waxed and waned in importance. During Roman times, there was a great debate over the meaning of the Biblical passages that establish the outlines of Christian belief. Tertullian and a host of other thinkers in the early Christian churches attempted to understand the Biblical prophesies in the context their own time. For those who want to know more about this discussion see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism.

One artifact of this early Christian debate was the idea that the dates of the key elements could be calculated from scriptural sources. Specifically, some thinkers advanced the idea that the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 A.D. in some way marked the beginning of the millennium of Christ's rule on earth. As I pointed out in an earlier post [on 12/18/10], this view was current when John Humphrey Noyes attended Yale Theological School in the 1832 and he found it to be persuasive. Indeed, in his autobiography Noyes admits that for a time he was enamored by the teachings of the “Millerites” on this subject.

In 1832 a Central New York farmer and lay preacher named William Miller began to widely publish the claim that he had discovered Biblical sources which made it possible to accurately calculate the Second Coming and the time of the final judgment. The time was near. Over the next ten years Miller gathered a substantial following as a result of extensive publishing, revivals and tent-meetings. Pressed to release his calculations, he told his followers that judgment day would occur on October 22, 1844. On that day an estimated 100,000 people across New York and New England sold their possessions, dressed in white and stood on hillsides near their homes (including in Syracuse) to await the rapture that never occurred. The “Great Disappointment” caused Miller to stop preaching, but his followers went on to found a number of “Adventist” churches, some of which flourish to this day. See, http://www.fact-index.com/m/mi/millerites.html

Why, we might ask, in the period from 1825 – 1845 were so many people in America convinced that the end times were at hand? Whitney Cross, in his amazing book The Burned-over District, proposes an intriguing answer – American optimism. To be sure, there were major social changes happening as the western frontier opened. Masses of people joined the exodus to the growing urban areas or to new territory out west. The established churches seemed to many to be out of step with the changing times. Newer congregations, primarily Methodists, sent out circuit riding missionaries preaching personal salvation through good works. A wave of religious revivals crossed the land, centered in upstate New York. “Just as the American political system would lead the world to equality and justice, so would American revivals inaugurate the thousand years of Christ's reign on earth before the Second Coming and the end of the world.” (p. 79)

In this context, where all things seemed possible, including creating heaven on earth, John Humphrey Noyes started to gather a small group of believers.