millennium

Period of 1,000 years. Some quasi-Christian sects, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, believe that Jesus will return to govern the Earth in person at the next millennium, the 6001st year after the creation (as located by Archbishop Usher at 4004 BC).

This belief, millenarianism, also called chiliasm (from the Greek for 1,000), was widespread in the early days of Christianity. As hopes were disappointed, belief in the imminence of the second coming tended to fade, but millenarian views have been expressed at periods of great religious excitement, such as the Reformation.

The Royal Geographical Society calculated in 1997 that the first dawn of the third millennium AD would be seen on the summit of Mount Hakepa, on Pitt Island in the Chatham Islands, 680 mi east of New Zealand.