III. Spiritualizes Second Advent, End of World, and Millennium

1. SECOND ADVENT MYSTICIZED INTO “DAILY” COMING

Turning now to specific basic doctrines, we find that the Bible-promised second advent of Christ in power and glory, visible to every eye as our Lord returns in the clouds of heaven, is spiritualized away by Origen, as Christ is made to come “daily” in “prophetic clouds” to “every believer.” He likens to children those who naively hold to a literal or “corporeal” understanding of such passages. Though prolix, note it:CFF1 1017.4

“With much power, however, there comes daily, to the soul of every believer, the second advent of the Word in the prophetic clouds, that is, in the writings of the prophets and apostles, which reveal Him and in all their words disclose the light of truth, and declare Him as coming forth in their significations [which are] divine and above human nature. Thus, moreover, to those who recognize the revealer of doctrines in the prophets and apostles, we say that much glory also appears, which is seen in the second advent of the Word.” ^{2424) Translated from Series Commentariorum Origenis in Mattheum (A Series of Commentaries on Matthew), chap. 50, in Migne, PC, vol. 13, col. 1678.}CFF1 1018.1

Thus the hope of the Early Church, the supreme event of the ages, is mysticized and allegorized away, as being only for the “simple.”CFF1 1018.2

2. “END OF WORLD” LOCALIZED AND INDIVIDUALIZED

Not only does Origen mysticize and localize the Second Advent, by making it Christ’s entry into the soul, but he combines with it the “end of the world,” or “end of the age,” making it the end of the world’s dominance over the soul. Thus he completely sets aside the historic apostolic concept of the cataclysmic end of the cosmic world. This mystic “end,” according to Origen, is for the “mature” Christian who “comes to perfection.” Thus another of the Early Church teachings is submerged under the relentless tide of allegorization. Here are his wordy words:CFF1 1018.3

“The second advent of Christ, however, in mature men, concerning whom a dispenser of His word says: ‘However we speak wisdom among the perfect.’ Moreover these mature ones ... praise the beauty and comeliness of the Word; and to this second advent is joined the end of the world in the man who comes to perfection and says, ‘Far be it from me that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world.’ For if the world is crucified to the righteous, it has become the end of the age for those to whom the world is crucified. Necessarily, therefore, let those who have the faith to come separately to Christ, if they wish to learn the sign of the advent of Christ and the end of the world, show themselves worthy to see His second advent and the second end of the world which we have taught to you.” ^{2525) Ibid., chap. 32, col. 1642.}CFF1 1018.4

3. SUBSTITUTES “GRADUAL ADVANCE” FOR CATACLYSMIC END

As just noted, while Origen speaks of the Second Advent, he neither connects it with the resurrection nor recognizes it as marking the cataclysmic end of human history nor even as inaugurating the reign of Christ. Rather, he avers, the ultimate subjection of all things to Christ as king is brought about by a “gradual advance” through successive worlds and long ages of purification. In this way, he says, will God become “all in all.” Thus:CFF1 1019.1

“At the consummation and restoration of all things, those who make a gradual advance, and who ascend (in the scale of improvement), will arrive in due measure and order at that land, and at that training which is contained in it, where they may be prepared for those better institutions to which no addition can be made. For, after His agents and servants, the Lord Christ, who is King of all, will Himself assume the kingdom; i.e., after instruction in the holy virtues, He will Himself instruct those who are capable of receiving Him in respect of His being wisdom, reigning in them until He has subjected them to the Father, who has subdued all things to Himself, i.e., that when they shall have been made capable of receiving God, God may be to them all in all.” ^{2626) Origen, De Principiis, book 3, chap. 6, sec. 8, in ANF, vol. 4, p. 348.}CFF1 1019.2

Just before this he had stated that God will be “all in all” when; “death shall no longer anywhere exist, nor sting of death, nor any evil at all.” Then “verily God will be ‘all in all.’” ^{2727) Ibid., sec. 3 p. 345.}CFF1 1019.3

4. DENIED MILLENNIUM BECAUSE INCOMPATIBLE WITH HIS SCHEME

Origen opposed the millennial concept because it was incompatible with his scheme of things. Prior to his day, belief in the second, personal, premillennial coming of Christ had been the general view, together with the millennial reign of the saints with Christ, after their literal resurrection from the dead at the Advent. But Origen never spoke of the millennium except to condemn it, ^{2828) Ibid., book 2, chap. 11, sec. 2, p. 297.} and millennialism began to wane from his day onward. ^{2929) Farrar History of Interpretation, p. 196; Hagenbach, A History of Christian Doctrine, vol. 1, pp. 305, 306.}CFF1 1019.4

5. PROPHECIES DEPRIVED OF ALL FORCE

Origen dismisses the Bible prophecies by declaring them to be “filled with enigmas and dark sayings,” ^{3030) Origen, De Principiis, book 4, chap. 1, sec. 10 (from the Greek), in ANF, vol. 4, p. 358.} and offers the explanation, for example, that the gates of the New Jerusalem (of Ezekiel 48 and Revelation 21) are the “different modes” by which “souls enter the better world.” ^{3131) Origen, Against Celsus, book 6, chap. 23, in ANF, vol 4, p, 583.}CFF1 1020.1