Date:   1/15/2017 12:22:58 PM ( 7 y ago)
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URL:   https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=2350742

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Fortunately for us, revealed truth is not determined by a plebiscite of US fundamentalists. If it were, we would all be pre-tribulational dispensational premillennialists. Bearing in mind the first two labels represent 'doctrines' that were unknown in Christendom until around the middle of the 19thC, their late and dubious provenance alone is more than enough reason to treat them with a healthy dose of skepticism. 

The fact that they have since taken over most eschatological preaching in the US is neither here nor there, and if anything, provides even more reason to regard them as suspect at the very least. It is surely the height of arrogance to believe that all those Christians who preceded these relatively recent 'revelations' had little or no understanding of the subject until John Nelson Darby (the father of dispensationalism) and Margaret McDonald (the source of the so-called 'secret rapture' that Darby then adopted) appeared on the scene. Only a simple chiliasm can claim to have had any currency in the early church, and even then, it never made it into the historic creeds of our faith. It is therefore a misrepresentation of the facts to claim that it has ever been the majority view of the church.

As for the CofE teaching partial preterism, put simply, it teaches no such thing. You could argue that it teaches some things that approximate to some aspects of pp, but it is by no means defined by this label. If the evangelical wing of the CofE teaches anything at all, it is credal Christianity as defined by the first 4 major statements of our faith (ie the Apostles Creed, the Nicean Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Chalcedonian Creed), which are for all practical purposes incorporated and elaborated in the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is itself largely based on the Augsburg Confession. All these creeds, insofar as they touch on the subject of eschatology, are either explicitly or implicitly 'amillennial' in outlook. 

For example:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
      creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
      who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
      and born of the virgin Mary.
      He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
      was crucified, died, and was buried;
      he descended to hell.
      The third day he rose again from the dead.
      He ascended to heaven
      and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
      From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
      the holy catholic* church,
      the communion of saints,
      the forgiveness of sins,
      the resurrection of the body,
      and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Apostles' Creed

Simple, unadorned, uncomplicated, and utterly faithful to the tenor and spirit of the entire body of revealed truth concerning the end. Second Advent - General Resurrection - Judgment - Eternal Age. That is all that Scripture teaches on the subject, and anything else is man's invention. It is American eschatology that is out of step with historic Christianity, not the other way round. The onus is on you to prove your case, not on me to prove mine. 

As for how we got to this state of affairs, you might like to read the likes of Dave MacPherson:

http://www.moresureword.com/MacPherson.htm

Ernest R Sandeen:

http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo8929990.html

Or Joseph M Canfield:

http://www.preteristarchive.com/Books/pdf/1988_canfield_scofield-and-book.pdf

There are many more excellent sources of course, but I know your study time is limited, as is mine. 

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