None

• Messages sorted by:[ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]

From: Joe Chancellor <browser@wt.net>
To: higher-fire@prairienet.org
Subject: Revelations questions

 JC> After Mr Lacunza wrote his book on the subject and it was trans-
 JC> lated into english in the late 1700s the pre and mid trib theo-
 JC> ries gained prominence when the Plymouth Brethren got hold of it
 JC> and some of those men...Darby...Dakes....Scofield...put this
 JC> theory as foot notes in their bibles...and EVERYONE knwos that
 JC> footnotes are as good as scripture...:)

     Do you know the name of Mr. Lacunza's book? I have access to the
library at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (some quarter
million books). I would be most interested in reading it.

     CHILIASM, so named from....[CHILIOI]--meaning "one thousand"--refers in
a general sense to the doctrine of the millennium, or kingdom age that is
yet to be, and as stated in the ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA (14th. ed., s.v.) is
"the belief that Christ will return to reign for a thousand years...." The
distinctive feature of this doctrine is that He will return BEFORE the
thousand years and therefore will characterize those years by His personal
presence and by the exercise of His rightful authority, securing and
sustaining all the blessings on the earth which are ascribed to that period.
The term CHILIASM has been superseded by the designation PREMILLENNIALISM;
and...more is implied in the term than a mere reference to a thousand years.
it is a thousand years which is said to intervene between the first and
second of humanity's resurrections....In this thousand years...every earthly
covenant with Israel will be fulfilled....The entire Old Testament
expectation is involved, with its earthly kingdom, the glory of Israel, and
the promised Messiah seated on David's throne in Jerusalem [Lewis Sperry
Chafer, SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, IV, pp. 264-65].

     It is generally agreed that the view of the church for the centuries
immediately following the Apostolic era was the premillennial view of the
return of Christ. Allis, an amillenarian, says:

[Premillennialism] was extensively held in the Early Church, how extensively
is not definitely known. But the stress which many of its advocates placed
on earthly rewards and carnal delights aroused widespread opposition to it;
and it was largely replaced by the "spiritual" view of Augustine. It
reappeared in extravagant forms at the time of the Reformation, notably
among the Anabaptists. Bengel and Mede were among the first modern scholars
of distinction to advocate it. But it was not until early in the last
century that it became at all widely influential in modern times. Since then
it has become increasingly popular; and the claim is frequently made that
most of the leaders in the Church today, who are evangelical, are
Premillennialists [Oswald T. Allis, PROPHECY AND THE CHURCH, p. 7].

Whitby, generally held to be the founder of postmillennialism, writes:

The doctrine of the Millennium, or the reign of saints on earth for a
thousand years, is now rejected by all Roman Catholics, and by the greatest
part of Protestants; and yet it passed among the best Christians, for two
hundred and fifty years, for a tradition apostolical; and, as such, is
delivered by many Fathers of the second and third century, who speak of it
as the tradition of our Lord and His apostles, and of all the ancients who
lived before them; who tell us the very words in which it was delivered, the
Scriptures which were then so interpreted; and say that it was held by all
Christians that were exactly orthodox. It was received not only in the
Eastern parts of the Church, by Papias (in Phrygia), Justin (in Palestine),
but by Irenaeus (in Gaul), Nepos (in Egypt), Apollinaris, Methodius (in the
West and South), Cyprian, Victrinus (in Germany), by Tertullian (in Africa),
Lactantius (in Italy), and Severus, and by the Council of Nice (about A.D.
323) [G. N. H. Peters, THEOCRATIC KINGDOM, I, pp. 482-83].

     That such concessions should be made by anti-premillenarians is only
because history records the fact that such a premillennial belief was the
UNIVERSAL belief of the church for two hundred and fifty years after the
death of Christ. Schaff writes:

The most striking point in the eschatology of the ante-Nicene age is the
prominent chiliasm, or millenarianism, that is the belief of a visible reign
of Christ in glory on earth with the risen saints for a thousand years,
before the general resurrection and judgment. It was indeed not the doctrine
of the church embodied in any creed or form of devotion, but a widely
current opinion of distinguished teachers [Philip Schaff, HISTORY OF THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH, II. 614].

Harnack says:

The doctrine of Christ's second advent, and the kingdom, appears so early
that it might be questioned whether it ought not to be regarded as an
essential part of the Christian religion [Cited by Lewis Sperry Chafer,
SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, iv, P. 277].

     Perhaps the most extensive compilation of premillennial advocates of
the first centuries in that made by Peters, He lists as follows:

1. PRE-MIL. ADVOCATES OF THE 1ST CENTURY

a. (1) ANDREW, (2) PETER, (3) PHILIP, (4) THOMAS, (5) JAMES, (6) JOHN, (7)
MATTHEW, (8) ARISTIO, (9) JOHN THE PRESBYTER-- all these are cited by
Papias, who according to Irenaeus, was one of John's hearers, and intimate
with Polycarp....Now this reference to the apostles AGREES with the facts
that we HAVE PROVEN: (a) that the disciples of Jesus did hold the Jewish
views of the Messianic reign in the first part of this century, and (b)
that, instead of discarding them, they linked them with the Sec. Advent.
Next (100 CLEMENT OF ROME (Phil. 4:3), who existed about A.D. 40-100....(11)
BARNABAS, about A.D. 40-100....(12) HERMAS, from A.D. 40 to 140.... (13)
IGNATIUS, Bh. of Smyrna, a disciple of the Apostle John, who lived about
A.D. 70-167....(15) PAPIAS, Bh. of Hierapolis, lived between A.D. 80-163...

b Now on the other side, not a single name can be presented, which (1) can
be quoted as positively against us, or (2) which can be cited as teaching,
in any shape or sense, the doctrine of our opponents.

2. PRE-MILL. ADVOCATES OF THE 2ND CENT.

a. POTHINUS, a martyr....A.D. 87-177....(2) JUSTYN MARTYR, about A.D.
100-168....(3) MELITO, Bh. of Sardis, about A.D. 100-170....(4) HEGISIPPUS,
between A.D. 130-190....(5) TATIAN, between A.D. 130-190....(6) IRENAEUS, a
martyr... about A.D. 140-202. (7) THE CHURCHES OF VIENNE AND LYONS.... (8)
TERTULLIAN, about A.D. 150-220....(9) HIPPOLYTUS, between A.D. 160-240.

b. Now on the other side, NOT A SINGLE WRITER can be presented, not even a
single name can be mentioned of any one cited, who opposed chiliasm in this
century....Now let the student reflect: here are TWO CENTURIES...in which
positively no direct opposition whatever arises against our doctrine, but it
is held by THE VERY MEN, leading and most eminent, THROUGH WHOM WE TRACE THE
CHURCH. What must we conclude? (1) that he common faith of the Church was
Chiliastic, and (2) that such a generality and unity of belief could only
have been introduced...by the founders of the Ch. Church and the Elders
appointed by them.

3. PRE-MIL. ADVOCATES OF THE 3RD CENT.

a. (1) CYPRIAN, about A.D. 200-258....(2) COMMODIAN, between A.D.
200-270....(3) NEPOS, Bh. of Arsinoe, about A.D. 230-280....(4) CORACION,
about A.D. 230-280....(5) VICTORINUS, about A.D. 240-303...(6 METHODIUS, Bh.
of Olympus, about A.D. 250-311....(7) LACTANTIUS...between A.d. 240-330....
[G. N. H. Peters, THEOCRATIC KINGDOM, I, pp. 494-96.]

     While the testimony of all the above men is not always equally clear,
certain of them spoke unequivocally for the pre-millennial position. Clement
of Rome wrote:

Of a truth, soon and suddenly shall His will be accomplished as the
Scripture also bear witness, saying, "Speedily will He come, and will not
tarry:" and "The Lord shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Holy One,
for whom ye look" [Cited by Charles C. Ryrie, THE BASIS OF THE PREMILLENNIAL
FAITH, p. 20].

Justin Martyr, in His Dialogue with Trypho, wrote:

But I and whoever are on all points right-minded Christians know that there
will be resurrection of the dead and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which
will then be build, adorned, and enlarged as the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah
and the other declare....

And, further, a certain man with us, named John, one of the Apostles of
Christ, predicted by a revelation that was made to him that those who
believed in Christ would spend a thousand years in Jerusalem, and thereafter
the general, or to speak briefly, the eternal resurrection and judgment of
all men would likewise take place [Cited by Charles C. Ryrie, THE BASIS OF
THE PREMILLENNIAL FAITH, P. 22].

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, gives a well developed Eschatology when he writes:

But when this Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, he
will reign for three years and six months, and sit in the temple at
Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds, in the
glory of the Father, sending this man and those who follow him into the lake
of fire; but bringing in for the righteous of the times of the kingdom, that
is, the rest, the hallowed seventh day; and restoring to Abraham the
promised inheritance, in which kingdom the Lord declared, that "many coming
from the east  and from the west should sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob...." 

The predicted blessing, therefore, belongs unquestionably to the times of
the kingdom, when the righteous shall bear rule upon their rising from the
dead [Cited by Charles C. Ryrie, THE BASIS OF THE PREMILLENNIAL FAITH, pp.
22-23].

Tertullian adds his testimony when he says:

But we do confess that a kingdom is promised to us upon the earth, although
before heaven, only in another state of existence; inasmuch as it will be
after their resurrection for a thousand years in the divinely-build city of
Jerusalem [Cited by Charles C. Ryrie, THE BASIS OF THE PREMILLENNIAL FAITH,
p. 23].

According to Justin and Irenaeus there were

...three classes of men: (1) The Heretics, denying the resurrection of the
flesh and the Millennium. (2) The exactly orthodox, asserting both the
resurrection and the Kingdom of Christ on the earth. (3) The believers, who
consented with the just, and yet endeavored to allegorize and turn into a
metaphor all those Scriptures produced for a proper reign of Christ, and who
had sentiments rather agreeing with those heretics who denied, than those
exactly orthodox who maintained, this reign of Christ on earth [Daniel
Whitby, TREATISE ON THE MILLENNIUM, Cited by G. N. H. Peters, THEOCRATIC
KINGDOM, I, p. 483].

Justin evidently recognized premillennialism as "the criterion of a perfect
orthodoxy." In his Dialogue with Trypho, where he writs: "some who are
called Christians but are godless, impious heretics, teach doctrines that
are in every way blasphemous, atheistical, and foolish," [Cited by D. H.
Dromminga, THE MILLENNIUM IN THE CHURCH, P. 45.] he shows he would include
any who denied premillennialism in this category, since he included in it
those that denied the resurrection, a companion teaching.

Walter Copes
The joy of the Lord is my strength
(wcopes@communique.net)
Walter L Copes