Re: Hey guys, I've finally found the antichrist!!

Indeed - if the Bible teaches us anything at all, it is that there is only one body that unites the saved of all ages, including the OT saints. The figure Paul uses of the olive tree in Rom. 11 is alone ample testimony to the fact. And.........

'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness' (Rom 4:3,) That chapter teaches us that they were saved on exactly the same basis as are we (vv 13-25). And if any doubt still remains, it should evaporate in light of Eph. 2:11-22. It could not be clearer - the 'dividing wall of hostility' that separates us from 'the commonwealth of Israel' is destroyed in Christ, so 'that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.......' etc. How anyone can read this passage and still maintain the fiction of a separate destiny for Israel and the Church simply defies all reason or logic, never mind the standard canons of interpretation.

As for why Christians disagree about eschatology while generally agreeing about the fundamentals of the faith, I think I can offer you two possible reasons:

Firstly, the idea of an earthly millennium panders to our baser instincts. We prefer and enjoy the physical/material aspects of life over the spiritual, and given the opportunity, we will always carnalise where remotely possible. See, for example, Jesus' answer to the Sadduces 'clever' question about their false assumptions concerning the perpetuation of marriage (and therefore presumably also sex) in the afterlife (Mt 22: 23-33). As an aside, those words of Jesus should also put all jihadists on notice that they are ploughing the wrong furrow.

Secondly, the only way millennialists can maintain their belief in earthly delights following the second advent is by mentally, emotionally and psychologically divorcing it from their soteriology. Why do you imagine, for example, that refreshed was so upset when I put it to her that 'second chancism' is the direct consequence of her beliefs regarding a future earthly kingdom? She had good cause to be disturbed, coz I'm pretty sure she has never seriously considered the soteriological implications of her eschatology.

Conversely, if advocates of millennialism judge their eschatology by the lights of the fundamental Gospel principles to which they otherwise adhere, they soon find their cherished millennium disappearing in a puff of smoke. But agreed, it's extremely difficult to let go of these beliefs, especially for the 'secret rapturists', and making that transition to a more Biblically consistent eschatology is one of the hardest roads to travel.