Introduction

The Introduction defines the scope of the work, defining the key terms “millennialism” and “apocalypticism,” as well as clarifying the meaning of eschatology as a field of inquiry. It then goes on to establish the foundations of eschatological thought in Judaism and Christianity, which were deeply influenced by Zoroastrianism. The prophetic books of the Old and New Testaments are discussed, specifically the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and the New Testament Book of Revelation, to establish the fundamentally apocalyptic and millenarian nature of Christianity. The concept of the Antichrist is also introduced and defined.

“I Will Multiply Them and They Shall not be Few”

The communal impulse has been a feature of Christianity since its inception, one model for which was the apocalyptic Essene community at Qumran on the shore of the Dead Sea. The Gospels and the Book of Revelation put forth a vision of heaven on Earth that Christians have sought to create in microcosm ever since, convinced that it will ultimately come to pass according to prophecy. The English Puritans who migrated to America did so in the hopes of creating a holy commonwealth, which the Bay Colony pious called the “city on a hill.” Small and nascent denominations, as well as sectarian movements, emerged and grew without fear of legal repercussions and the 1790s and early 1800s saw an explosion in Christian diversity. One idea in particular—perfectionism—which had once been equated with dangerous fanaticism, gained respectability and fueled campaigns for the perfection of American society.

“Groaning for the Latter Day”

Two new religious movements, Mormonism and Millerism, established a foundation upon which a heretofore invisible, gloomy eschatology that had long occupied the margins of American Protestantism stepped out into the limelight in the late nineteenth century. Gaining popularity during and after the Civil War, dispensationalist premillennialism posited that the world is fundamentally fallen, and that only Christ’s personal intervention could bring on the Millennium. To some among this growing band of radical evangelicals, the United States’ spiritual failings, political corruption, and social inequities meant that it was beyond redemption. Others still clung to the belief in America’s millennial destiny, arguing that only the United States may stand against the Antichrist at the latter day, joining with Christ and his angels in the final assault against Satan in the inevitable Battle of Armageddon.

“The Glorious Day is Coming On”

Anxious that God was preparing them for Christ’s second coming, Euro-Americans experienced an unprecedented revival known as the First Great Awakening—an intercolonial phenomenon that infused Protestantism in America with extraordinary heights of millenarianism and apocalypticism. The Awakening was a watershed event in the formation of a distinctive Anglo-American identity. While this identity was not always deeply pious, as economic and political concerns occasionally eclipsed religious matters, there is no doubt that the “vital piety” that had defined radical Protestantism in Europe found new and vibrant expression in America, particularly in its eschatological aspects. These came into sharpest focus when the Seven Years’ War broke out between Britain and France in 1754. Usually considered only in military and geopolitical terms, this war was also a war of religion in which the Anglo-Americans cast themselves in the heroic role of God’s chosen people striving against the forces of the Catholic Antichrist.

The Woman in the Wilderness

Medieval and early modern Christianity wrestled uncomfortably with Christianity’s fundamentally chiliastic nature. Just as first-century Christians strove to dissociate their religion from its radical Jewish roots in order to cultivate legitimacy, so did theologians of subsequent centuries strive to downplay apocalypticism in favor of vague millennialism. The magnetic imagery of the Book of Revelation gripped the popular imagination, with its compelling imagery of seven-headed beasts, Christ’s glorious return armed for the final battle with Satan, and descriptions of signs presaging the dawning of the Latter Day. Some theologians could not resist the lure of apocalyptic analysis, and many laypeople yearned to witness the events of Revelation, while others sought to play leading roles in bringing it on. The Reformation refreshed apocalyptic millennialism, and Calvinist Puritans from England transplanted this to the “New World,” which Massachusetts Bay–founder John Winthrop predicted would be a “city on a hill.”

“Lightnings and Thunderings, and Voices”

The egalitarian energy of the American Revolution powered a wave of popular anti-authoritarianism reacting against Federalist influence in the Washington and Adams administrations. Egalitarian evangelicalism constituted a rebuttal to Enlightenment republicanism. The same process transformed American Christianity into a populist, radically egalitarian and anticlerical religion. Dramatically increased numbers of Baptists and Methodists gave these denominations legitimacy, and many new sects appeared throughout the post-revolutionary period. Against the vocal concerns of established clergymen, evangelical itinerants urged people to read the Scriptures for themselves and come to their own conclusions of what it means to be a Christian, and that no formal education was necessary to understand divine truth. Taking Christ as their example, men and especially women from old and new denominations let their individualistic readings of the Bible, visions, and dreams guide them toward Truth, and convinced many that the Second Coming was near at hand.

“The Prophecy of Daniel is Now Literally Fulfilling”

Contrary to the espoused rationalism of the leaders of the American Revolution, popular perceptions of the violent detachment from Great Britain and the creation of a new republic filled the public with apocalyptic anxiety and millenarian expectation. For some, the rapidly unfolding drama heralded the dawn of a new nation preordained by God and populated by his chosen people. For others, the recent wars and accompanying social upheaval confirmed the irretrievably depraved nature of humanity, and when compared to contemporaneous supernatural occurrences, displayed terrifying symptoms of the tribulation foretold in the biblical Books of Daniel and the Revelation of John.

Conclusion

“Perilous times are coming,” William Blackstone warned readers of Jesus Is Coming, “this wicked world, which is so radically opposed to God, and under the present control of His arch enemy, is not growing better. On the contrary, judgment, fire and perdition are before it.” This sentiment, omnipresent but subdued in early American Christianity, gained ascendance and increasingly defined its expression in the years immediately surrounding the Civil War, achieving dominance by the early twentieth century. Apocalypticism comforts its believers that there is nobility in the suffering of injustice at the hands of an evil oppressor, and that endurance will bring vindication. The righteous shall triumph over the wicked and unholy in a war to end all wars, and the meek shall inherit a sweeping creation of a perfected new world that will be the recreation of that lost paradise.

“The Earth Would Become as New Again”

North America’s indigenous peoples already dwelled in an apocalyptic nightmare by the time of French, Dutch, and English colonization in the 1600s. Epidemic diseases had begun wiping out vast numbers of people, especially in areas of direct contact between natives and newcomers, which triggered agricultural failures that brought privation and attendant intratribal and intertribal conflicts later exploited and exacerbated by the colonizers. What had once been robust populations of many hundreds of Indian cultures and burgeoning nations had by the 1600s been reduced to near shadows of past glories. This chapter explores the intermittent movements for pan-Indian unity grounded in apocalyptic predictions of Indian extinction absent a complete reformation and revitalization of the old traditional religions.

“The Nation’s Hoop is Broken and Scattered”

The bulk of American Indian resistance to Euro-American colonialism and territorial cessions took two primary forms: offensive military action and unsuccessful political maneuvers in the form of petitions to state and federal authorities. Religion was sometimes enlisted to make a case against displacement from tribal homelands or against the pressures to assimilate to an alien way of life, but the appeals were to Christian senses of charity and decency—not apocalypticism. For many of the Indians who surrendered to inevitable defeat and submitted to living on “reservations” in the West, traditional religions provided a means to cope, but they slowly gave way to Christianity. The idea of pan-Indian unity proved too compelling to fade away entirely, and in the 1870s there emerged two would-be messiahs who each predicted not just the restoration of ancient Indian landholdings and power, but the apocalyptic wiping of the white race from all Indian lands, past and present.