Editing Puritans (section)

=== Millennialism ===
{{See|Christian eschatology}}
Puritan [[millennialism]] has been placed in the broader context of European Reformed beliefs about the millennium and interpretation of [[biblical prophecy]], for which representative figures of the period were [[Johannes Piscator]], [[Thomas Brightman]], [[Joseph Mede]], [[Johannes Heinrich Alsted]], and [[John Amos Comenius]].{{sfn|Hotson|2000|p=173}} Like most English Protestants of the time, Puritans based their eschatological views on an [[Historicism (Christianity)|historicist]] interpretation of the [[Book of Revelation]] and the [[Book of Daniel]]. Protestant theologians identified the sequential phases the world must pass through before the [[Last Judgment]] could occur and tended to place their own time period near the end. It was expected that tribulation and persecution would increase but eventually the church's enemies—the [[Antichrist]] (identified with the Roman Catholic Church) and the [[Ottoman Empire]]—would be defeated.{{sfn|Maclear|1975|pp=225–226}} Based on [[Revelation 20]], it was believed that a thousand-year period (the millennium) would occur, during which the saints would rule with Christ on earth.{{sfn|Bremer|2009|p=76}}

In contrast to other Protestants who tended to view eschatology as an explanation for "God's remote plans for the world and man", Puritans understood it to describe "the cosmic environment in which the regenerate soldier of Christ was now to do battle against the power of sin".{{sfn|Maclear|1975|p=226}} On a personal level, eschatology was related to sanctification, assurance of salvation, and the conversion experience. On a larger level, eschatology was the lens through which events such as the English Civil War and the [[Thirty Years' War]] were interpreted. There was also an optimistic aspect to Puritan millennianism: Puritans anticipated a future worldwide religious revival before the [[Second Coming]] of Christ.{{sfn|Maclear|1975|p=227}}{{sfn|Bremer|2009|p=76}} Another departure from other Protestants was the widespread belief among Puritans that the [[Conversion of the Jews (future event)|conversion of the Jews]] to Christianity was an important sign of the [[Apocalypticism|apocalypse]].{{sfn|Maclear|1975|p=229}}