PS One more quote on this subject - my last I promise - offered only coz it's from an objective source:
'[Irenaeus] affirms the millenarian hope of a thousand year reign by Christ on a renewed and rejuvenated earth, which finds expression in the Book of Revelation and was a popular idea with many 2ndC Christians. But this was not a notion which established itself in the consciousness of the Church as a whole after this time'