The Millennium and Narrative Closure

Summary

The religious phenomenon of millennialism is counter-intuitive to most people: believers not only expect that the end of the world is at hand, they often desperately desire for that to be the case. The reasons for this sociological reaction to contemporary events are manifold; millennialists are frequently persecuted and almost always ridiculed for their beliefs, and they anticipate to be not only vindicated but also to have their oppressors punished at the apocalypse. The state of the world is often seen as corrupt beyond repair, and its dissolution is not a matter to be mourned but rather a purging of sin to be celebrated. And while often terrifying, the events of the final days are momentous ones that will culminate in the arrival of the messiah and the elimination of suffering for the true believers.

In addition to these sociological and psychological responses to the end of time, I will be arguing that another force is also at work—narrative understanding. Millennialists understand themselves as the protagonists in a plot authored by God, and they not only witness the calamitous events of the last days, it is often their responsibility to usher them in. I will argue that millennialism is a form of religious sense-making; by foregrounding the coming end of time, millennial groups adopt a narrative understanding of history. History itself is seen as having a distinct beginning, middle, and end, with all historical vagaries subsumed into necessary events for the plot of time.