The thousand year itch

Millennial fever has begun to take hold in a big way as the start of a new year brings us nearer to the magic year 2000.

Of course it's been building for a while. For a few years now, every restaurant in central London has been fully booked for late dinners on 31 December 1999; and predictions of worldwide economic collapse, as the 'millennium' bug makes millions of computerised businesses a hundred years out of date, has practically entered modern folklore. Artists and architects argue endlessly over the Millennium Dome; there is grief and glory in dozens of planning offices as applications to the Lottery Fund for millennium projects are granted or denied; and quite a few of us older people are wondering exactly what is in the Blue Peter time capsule.

Fundamental problem

The fundamental problem in all this is much too academic to give pause for thought. It is that nobody actually knows when the millennium is going to be. Mathematicians and calendar-buffs argue the relative merits of 2000 and 2001; anyone with a smattering of biblical background knows that the birth of Jesus has already passed its 2,000th anniversary; and people who care nothing for maths or Bibles, but want to maximise the celebrations, are already planning complicated journeys across international date-lines so they can have a new millennium every hour or so.
It's all a great deal of fun, and coming after a decade that has had its bleak moments, it should create a sense of bonhomie and fun that will see us through well into the early 21st century. The Festival of Britain did the same and is still fondly remembered. Whether or not the date is right, any excuse is good enough for a celebration, and whatever political party is in power, it will be doing all it can to maximise the feel-good factor. If I were you, I wouldn't plan to stay in and wash your hair on the evening of December 31 1999.
As Christians, we might feel that our particular celebration has been somewhat hijacked; that there could usefully be more emphasis laid upon the One whose birth the millennium is supposed, rightly or wrongly, to mark. We'd be right.

Historical phenomenon

But once one moves from the millennium to its various Christian 'isms', there are murky waters indeed. Back in college days, at the same time that my generation was swapping arguments about 'a-mill', 'pre-mill' and 'post-mill', a brilliant book, already over 10 years old, was published in a trendy paperback series and immediately became a major (and not often-read) best-seller. Norman Cohn's The Pursuit of the Millennium (1957) was somewhat of A Brief History of Time of its day. It dealt, not with the theological vagaries of millennialism, but with the historical phenomenon of 'millenarianism'. Originally a term that identified those who believed in a literal thousand-year reign of the returned Christ, it broadened out into a term denoting collective, terrestrial, imminent, total and miraculous salvation ('collective' meaning the faithful; millenarianism doesn't necessary mean universalism).
Cohn's chapter titles tell a sorry tale of movements marked by demonic emphases, flagellants, amorality, mystical anarchy and much more. Though not linked to a calendar millennium, most of them have some ominous resonances with our own society at the end of our millennium.

False Messiahs

I thought of some of these as I read the recent announcement by New Age guru Benjamin Creme, announcing the long-awaited public self-revelation of the Lord Maitreya, currently living in the London Asian community and planning an imminent public interview to proclaim his messianic message of hope. Creme foresees a future with peace and plenty for all. A technology of light will give us unlimited power; medical advances will make transplants redundant; an anti-AIDS serum will be developed. There will be a Day of Declaration, when Maitreya will telepathically give his message to the whole world. In fact, Creme confides, Maitreya masterminded the outpouring of grief over the death of Princess Diana as a rehearsal for the global outpouring of love that will soon be directed at the Lord Maitreya himself (useful ammo, perhaps, for those evangelicals who felt there was something distinctly suspicious about so many people feeling so sad about the same thing . ..)
It's all blasphemy, of course. Just as Benjamin Creme will probably think me blasphemous if I speculate on how well he might be currently living and eating as the messenger of this new 'messiah'. Few people, in this wonderful pre-millennial rapturous holiday atmosphere, seem to remember how many false hopes have been cruelly dashed lately, how many dates have been announced and passed (February 14 1997 was the last I heard, and that was to be the date of the Rapture) - indeed, how many have died for these dreams.
And few seem to reflect how strange it is to believe on the promises of a well-publicised man with messianic ambitions, when one could, with rather more credibility, believe in the Author of the book that actually predicts the appearance of Mr. Creme, the Lord Maitreya and others like him. Sometimes it seems that people will believe anything provided it is bizarre enough. Sadly, I think we are due for a lot more of the same before we dig up the Blue Peter time capsule.

The build-up to the Year 2000

Fundamental problem

Historical phenomenon

False Messiahs

David Porter

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