Abstract

Nathan Hatch distinguished Jonathan Edwards from other apocalyptic writers as being apolitical in his millennialism. Millennialism is the belief that in the future there will be a golden age on the earth that will last one-thousand years. Just prior to the American Revolution, the clergy believed that this golden age would commence in America and that it would be characterized as an age of religious and civil liberty. To promote the emergence of the millennial age, the clergy justified taking up arms against England by elevating America's cause to a sacred cause of liberty. Jonathan Edwards, according to Nathan Hatch, differed from the Revolutionary clergy by expressing his millennialism in apolitical terms. It is my thesis that Jonathan Edwards also politicized millennialism and that his politicization of millennialism served as a bridge to the Revolutionary clergy's elevation of America's cause as a sacred cause of liberty. ;By tracing Edwards apocalyptic development, chapter one shows how Edwards shifted emphasis during the later years of his life from revivalist means to military means of millennial fulfillment. Chapter two explains how Edwards's millennialism contributed to the development of a revolutionary ideology. Chapter three traces the development of the identification of the Pope as the Antichrist and shows how Jonathan Edwards justified taking up arms to destroy Roman Catholics. Chapter four shows how Edwards applied his apocalypticism during King George's War by encouraging his parishioners to fight a temporal battle against the French as against the Antichrist. ;Without denying that Edwards promoted the millennium through prayer, it will be shown that he also politicized millennialism to justify fighting to destroy the Antichrist so the millennium could commence in America