John Chrysostom on the millennium & Christ's return
None of the stances fits without misdescribing the figure
Every listed stance was tested against the sources, and each asserts something the figure does not. The reasoning is recorded in full, and it is the content.
As the one was the forerunner of His first Coming, so will the other be of His second and glorious Coming, and for this he is reserved.
THE POSITION
Never framed in these terms. He left no commentary on Revelation — the book was still disputed in the Greek East of his day — so Revelation 20 has no exposition from him at all. What he does have is a single future coming with nothing between: Antichrist arises when the restraining power is removed, Elijah comes as forerunner of the second coming as John came before the first, and Christ destroys the lawless one simply by appearing.
6 And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now restrains it will continue until he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival.
WHAT OTHERS HOLD HERE
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Archbishop of Constantinople and the most prolific preacher of the patristic era — the largest surviving body of Greek expository preaching is his. This entry rests on the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers translations of his homilies on Romans, 1 Corinthians, John, Hebrews and 2 Thessalonians, together with the Instructions to Catechumens.
Cite this page
"John Chrysostom on the millennium & Christ's return", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/chrysostom/millennium (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/chrysostom/millennium).