CHILDREN, SONG OF THE THREE

The idea of sonship as a Divinely conferred status is expressed by St. Paul under the Roman custom of 'adoption' (wh. see), by which a stranger could be legally adopted as 'son' and endowed with all the privileges of the 'child' by birth CEph 1'-", cf. Ro 8^=). The figure suggests fresh points of analogy. To the Romans, St. Paul makes moral appeal on the ground that in exchange for the 'spirit of bondage' they had received the ' spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father' (Ro S'*). In the passage Gal 32»-4' he likens the state of the faithful under the Law to that of ' young children' needing a 'tutor'; 'heirs,' yet, because under guardians, differing nothing from ' bondservants.' The Law as 'tutor' has led them to Christ, in whom they are now 'sons of God'; Christ has 'redeemed' them from the bondage of Law that they might ' receive the adoption of sons,' and, because they are sons, ' God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' The spiritual sonship, open to all believers, should be no stumbling-block to Israel, though to them specially belonged 'the adoption' (Ro 9'). It fulfils the typical distinction within Israel itself of ' children of the flesh ' and ' children of the promise': by Divine election alone men become 'children of God,' 'sons of the living God' (Gal 4?', Ro 98- 26).

St. Paul further conceives of sonship as looking forward for its full realization. We are ' waiting for our adoption, to wit the redemption of our body ' (Ro S'^). As Christ was Son of God, yet was by His resurrection 'declared to be the Son of God with power' (Ro 1*), so will deliverance from the 'bondage of corruption' reveal the 'sons of God,' and all creation shall share in 'the liberty of the glory of the chUdren of God' (Ro 8"-^). This ultimate realization of sonship is ' to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren' (Ro 8^», cf. 1 Jn 3f). Finally, the greatness and the certainty of the future glory are set forth under the thought of the son as 'heir' (Ro 8", Gal 4i-'; cf. Eph I"-").

4. Other NT writers. — The opening chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews emphasize the greatness and finality of a revelation through the Son, who in stooping to redeem men is not ashamed to call them 'brethren'; they are 'children' whose nature He shares, 'sons' who through Him are brought to glory (He 2'-"). And at the close of the Epistle the readers are exhorted to regard suffering as the Divine chastening, which marks them out as ' sons ' and comes from ' the Father of spirits' (12<-").

If the Ep. of St. James suggests a universal view of the Fatherhood of God in the phrases ' the God and Father,' 'the Lord and Father,' 'the Father of lights' (Ja 1" 3' 1"), it also endorses the deeper spiritual sonship under the figure, ' Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth' (1'*). The same metaphor of spiritual birth is used by St. Peter. In 1 P l^s this birth, as in James, is through the 'word' of God; in 1' it is attributed to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and is joined with the Pauline thought of an inheritance yet to be fully revealed. The name ' Father ' appears as the distinctively Christian name for God — 'if ye call on him as Father' (1"). But the idea of sonship is not developed: the thought does not occur in the enumeration of Christian privileges in 2i-"i, where the phrase 'sons of the Uving God' is absent from the reference to Hosea, though found in the corresponding reference by St. Paul (cf. 1 P 2'" with Ro 9»i- »).

Finally, in Revelation we meet with this figure of sonship, with emphasis on its ethical side, in the vision of the new heaven and the new earth: 'He that overcometh shall inherit these things: and I will be his God, and he shall be my son' (Rev 21', cf. v.*).

S. W. Geben.

CHILDREN, SONG OP THE THREE.— See Apoc-rypha, p. 42'>.

CHILMAD

CHILEAB.— The second son of David by Abigail, the widow of Nabal the Carmelite (2 S 3^). In 1 Ch 3' he is called Daniel.

CHILIARCH (Rev 19" RVm).— See Band.

CHILIASM. — A peculiar doctrine of the future, based upon a developed and literalized exposition of the eschatologioal pictures of the NT. It includes the doctrine of the Millennium (whence its name tr. Gr. chilioi), that is to say, the period of 1000 years between the resurrection of the saints and that of the rest of the dead, of the visible appearance of Christ to establish His Kingdom of risen saints and defeat an equally literal Antichrist, and of the Last Judgment.

The germ of developed Chiliasm is to be found in the teaching of the Apostles, and particularly in Rev. 20; but it seems to have had no great prominence in doctrinal development until the middle of the 2nd cent., when it spread from Asia Minor, particularly among the Jewish Ebionites. Justin Martyr believed in the earthly reign of Christ, but knew that some orthodox Christians did not. Papias describes the coming King-dom with the extravagant imagery of the Jewish Apocalyptic. The Montanists were extreme chiliasts, but Origen opposed the doctrine. Augustine may be said to have given the death-blow to the chiliastic expectation in the early Church by his identification of the Church with the Kingdom of God on earth: and throughout the Middle Ages his view obtained.

A revival of chiliastic conceptions came with the Reformation, when attention was again concentrated on NT teaching. The fanatics among the reforming sects, particularly the Anabaptists at Mtlnster, expected the speedy establishment of Christ on earth, apparently taking some steps towards preparation therefor. The Augsburg and Helvetic Confessions, however, condemn Chiliasm, and the leading Reformers, while they ex-pected the speedy coming of Christ, did not attempt to hteralize descriptions of this event. Throughout the 17th cent, the chiliastic views again appear — a fact doubtless due, as in the time of the early Church and of the Reformation, to persecution. The view, however, was never regarded as strictly orthodox, although advocated by prominent writers on both the Continent and in England.

In modern times Chiliasm has been championed by a number of prominent theologians, but particularly by sects like the Mormons, the Second Adventists, and, as pre-millenarians, by many professional evangelists. There is, however, no uniformity in these chiliastic views, except as to the belief in the coming of the Millennium (see Millennium), in which all share. The opinions as to the nature of the Kingdom also range from extremely sensuous views like those of certain of the early Church Fathers to the highly socialistic views of men lilte Oetinger. At the present time, outside of the circle of the pre-millenarians, chiUastic views have little influence, and the tendency is strong to substitute belief in social evolution, under the in-spiration of Christianity, for the cataclysmic establish-ment of a literal kingdom by Jesus at His second Advent. Shaileh Mathews.

CHILION and Mahlon were the two sons of Elimelech and Naomi (Ru l'- 2). They married women of the Moabites — Mahlon marrsdng Ruth, and ChiUon Orpah (Ru 4") — and after a sojourn of ten years in Moabite territory died there. Chilion means 'wasting away.' Mahlon means 'sickly.' Neither of these names occurs elsewhere in the Bible. The two names occur in varying order in Ru I'' and 4', so that no conclusion can be drawn as to which was the elder.

CHILKIAD occurs in Ezk 27^8 at the close of the list of nations that traded with Tyre. The name has been thought to be the Aram, form of Charmande, a town on the Euphrates mentioned by Xenophon (.Anab. 1. 5. 10). George Smith identified Chilmad with the

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