Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

MILLENNIALISM • 429southern border, several militia groups have shifted their public effortsinto vigilante efforts to patrol the U.S.-Mexican border, includinga new group calling itself the Minutemen, which is not directlyaffiliated with the group active in the period 1961–1970 founded byRobert dePugh.MILLENNIALISM. In its more general sense, millennialism refersto any religious or secular belief in the eminent establishment of adivine or earthly utopian social order. Specifically, it refers to thebelief in the establishment of a thousand-year earthly kingdom underthe rule of Christ in accordance with a literal reading of the book ofRevelation. The “Thousand Year” kingdom is inferred from Revelation20:2–7, in conjunction with other scriptures in both the Old andNew Testaments. Nonetheless, millennialist ideas are found not onlyamong Christians but also among Muslims, Jews, and other religiousgroups as well as adherents of purely secular ideologies.According to various postmillennialist views, Christians wouldeither have to undergo trials of persecution during a prophesiedperiod of tribulation or else must themselves help to bring about thethousand-year kingdom by resisting the forces of the Antichrist, aprophesied evil world ruler who would appear during the tribulationpreceding the millennium. The political implication is that during thetribulation period the true believers must be prepared to resist the ungodlypolitical, social, and economic order that is under God’s wrath.Collaboration with the regime of the Antichrist, or acknowledgmentof its legitimacy, would lead to the believers’ loss of salvation andconsequent eternal damnation. Those who held this belief, such asRandy and Vicki Weaver or the Branch Davidians, would naturallytake such measures as seeking an isolated place in which to set up afortified home stocked with food supplies, guns, and ammunition tolast them through the tribulation period. By contrast, premillennialistsbelieve that true believers will not be present during the tribulationperiod, implying that existing governments are legitimate anddeserve support as both a civil and a religious obligation.The defining event marking the coming millennium is to be aclimatic battle involving “the kings of the Earth and of the wholeworld” at a location called Armageddon (Revelation 16:16), whichbiblical scholars believe to be the site of the ancient city of Megiddoin the valley of Jezreel in modern Israel. Although in the biblical