[mod. ad. L. chiliasta (Augustine), ad. Gr. χιλιαστής. In mod.F. chiliaste.] One who holds that Christ will reign in person on earth for a thousand years; a believer in the millennium; a millenarian.
1611. W. Sclater, Key (1629), 324. Agreed on all sides, except the Chiliasts.
1641. Sir E. Dering, Sp. on Relig., xiv. 64. These the new Chiliastes.
1647. Hist. Anabaptists, 152. All Anabaptists were and are still Chiliasts, expounding literally that Kingdome of a thousand years, of Revel.20.6. to be a temporall Kingdome.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), II. IV. i. 171. The Talmudic Jews and the Judaising Christians, the Chiliasts of the early ages.
1858. Masson, Milton, I. 103.
attrib. a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 90. The opinion of the Jews, and Chiliast Christians, who understand by the Last times, those Thousand yeares, in which, as they dreame, the Messias shall come and reigne, visibly, and temporally in Jerusalem.
