The most prominent early millennialist was Irenaeus, who lived from 120 to 202 AD, not long after John, who died around 100 AD. Irenaeus wrote extensively on the nature of the millennial kingdom as being of the restored Genesis creation. His writings are geared toward refuting the Gnostic teachings of his day that devalued the human body and the material world and denied any resurrection of the body. These false teachers taught that only the spirit ascends to heaven. Irenaeus made his case for the inherent goodness of this Genesis creation by alluding to the fact that the Creator of this world will restore this cursed creation to its Edenic condition during Christ’s 1,000-year messianic kingdom, as described by the prophets and the apostles.
The departed saints will then inherit this restored paradise on earth through the “first resurrection” of the natural body at the beginning of the millennium. Why would God resurrect the natural body to a restored Edenic earth if the human body and the Genesis creation were so defective and evil? Irenaeus reasoned that God’s restoration of the natural human body of his people on the restored natural earth is absolute proof that the original Creator considers the human body good—and not an evil containment vessel that he intends to save our spirits from when we die, as asserted by the Gnostics.
In fact, God never abandons the good body he created for the spirits of his people. Irenaeus teaches that the saints will experience yet another real resurrection and also a transformation of the natural body into an eternal body not given in marriage at the final resurrection on Judgment Day, when the saints inherit the eternal new heavens and new earth.
