premillenarianadj.n.

1845 G. S. Faber Eight Diss. I. Pref. p. x The usual argument of premillennarian expositors, deduced from a combination of Dan. vii. 9–14, 25–27..is wholly inconclusive.

1879 Princeton Rev. Mar. 419 The rejection of the pre-millenarian advent.

1961 B. R. Wilson Sects & Society Introd. 6–7 Premillenarian adventist sects.

1987 Amer. Q. 39 581 Given his belief in the cyclic course of empires and his premillenarian outlook on human history, he could never be optimistic about the ultimate outcome of this American drama.

2002 Sociol. Theory 20 387 The Christian right—those who believe that America was founded as a Christian nation and should, by law, remain that way—draws from both evangelicals and traditionally premillenarian fundamentalists.

1845 G. S. Faber Eight Diss. I. i. i. 8 His paraphrase..expresses my own view, though it stands opposed to that of the Premillennarians.

1883 R. W. Patterson in Chicago Advance 6 Sept. In some respects, these Adventists agree with the pre-millenarians.

1924 Philos. Rev. 33 419 That is the sort of thing one expects to find in a premillenarian's interpretation of the book of Daniel—not in an essay intended for sober philosophical readers.

1974 Amer. Q. 26 511 American Christians tended to be millenarians, although they split into two deeply opposed camps: premillenarians,..who believed that Christ himself would come to earth..at the start of the millennium to supervise its unfolding; postmillenarians who held that Christ would not appear until the end of the thousand-year period.

1997 Skeptical Inquirer Jan. 32/2 Premillenarians are Christians who believe that the Second Coming of Christ will begin the 1000-year period of righteousness.

1845 G. S. Faber Eight Diss. I. Pref. p. xvii The prediction of St. Peter is the millstone suspended from the neck of Premillennarianism, which no effort and no ingenuity can shake off.

1949 E. T. Clark Small Sects in Amer. in Amer. Sociol. Rev. (1959) 24 487/2 Premillenarianism is essentially a defense mechanism of the disinherited;..they..look to its [sc. the world's] destruction in a cosmic cataclysm which will exalt them.

1986 Notes & Queries Dec. 530/2 The extent to which Rossetti's poetry is rooted in a particular brand of adventism and premillennarianism.