Date:   1/16/2017 12:28:55 PM ( 7 y ago)
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URL:   https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=2350861

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Such clearness in the Bible provides the likely reason why the early church fathers who spoke on this matter were all premillennialists.

A demonstrably false claim, made by an author who clearly has an eschatological axe to grind. He cites Kelly, who I also cited specifically in relation to what the apostles themselves actually taught on the subject. That some form of chiliasm or another had some currency among some of the church fathers is not in question. That it was a universally held belief is a claim too far. Even Justin Martyr, a chiliast, admitted that he knew of christians who disagreed with him:

Justin writes in a kindred strain of the idyllic millennium, when Jerusalem will be rebuilt and enlarged and Christians, along with the patriarchs and prophets, will dwell there with Christ in perfect felicity. He confesses that he knows pious, pure-minded Christians who do not share this belief, but like others he considers it plainly authorized by the predictions of Isaiah, Zechariah and the prophets, not to mention Revelation, and it clearly counts in his eyes as an unquestioned article of orthodoxy.

Op. cit. p466

Furthermore, since we're now citing sources who have axes to grind:

'...it is not correct to say, as premillennialists do, that [the millennial doctrine] was generally accpeted in the first three centuries. The truth of the matter is that the adherents of this doctrine were a rather limited number. There is no trace of it in Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, [MY COMMENT HERE: I always thought these last two were chiliasts, so their inclusion here begs the question whether premillennialists have simply claimed them on the basis of unfounded assumptions, or whether Berkhof is himself mistaken. It would be interesting to investigate this point further, which I hope to do some day, time permitting], Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Dionysius, and other important Church Fathers.'

Louis Berkhof, The History of Christian Doctrines p262  

We could continue in similar vein 'trading blows' over who was or was not a chiliast in the early church, but such debates are ultimately fruitless, and opposing camps rarely reach a consensus. Vested interests will always trump objectivity, and the sooner we admit that the final arbiter of revealed truth is the Bible alone, the better. 

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