To: Jovial

Had to go back and review my post that evoked your comment.  Its been almost a month but I did not forget.

As I stated, I was quoting from Philip Schaff's 'History of the Christian Church'.  Dr. Schaff was, himself, an opponent to the pre-millennial views; however, his balance in writing about church history has earned him the respect of men of his day, til the present, from all positions on the subject of the Rapture and Second Coming.

I am not a Latin scholar, and not about to challenge the meaning of the Latin definition.  I acccept your remarks to be true.  From your point of view or position, I would have to conclude likewise, however, there are others more qualified that have spoken extensively on behalf of the view that Irenaeus was a believer in millennialism or a 1,000 year reign of Christ on Earth.  I should have included the paragraph following of the one I quoted.

On page 614, he [Schaff] admits that Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Methodius, and Lactantius, who wrote from the second century to the fourth centuries, all held to a literal 1,000-year reign of Christ after His second coming.  In their writings they debate what the mark of the Beast might be, and what was the number of his name.  It was also generally held that just before Christ came there would be a time of Great Tribulation during which the Antichrist would reign.

Perhaps it would have been best to have included more from Irenaeus' writings; again an example where brevity did not do justice to Irenaues and his belief in Pre-millennialism.  The following excerpt, is an expanded portion of that page of Dr. Phillip Schaff's book.
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"When in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this,it is said, there shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be ... There is therefore in this beast, when he comes, a recapitulation made of all sorts of iniquity...

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 that follow him into the lake of fire; but bringing in for the righteous the time 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 west should sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob'."

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By examining the paragraph following my original quote from Dr. Schaff's book, it becomes obvious that Irenaeus firmly believed in the Pre-Millennial return of Christ Jesus, and it could be argued that he believed the Church would be caught up before the Tribulation.  My personal belief concerning Irenaeus is that he had incredible foresight into the future by hundreds of years to have had the kind of clarity he had of what we are seeing coming to pass in our day.  While not totally correct, he was nearly spot on about the End Time scenario.  Remember, it was Martin Luther that felt the book of Revelation should be ripped from the Bible.  Then we ought not to forget his choice words reserved for the Jewish people.

The issue of whether the Church would pass through the Tribulation did not seem to feature prominently in second and third century writings.  The fierce persecution of the post-apostolic period suggested that the Church would pass through that terrible time.  This was the period known to Church historians as the "ten pagan persecutions", and believers might well be excused for thinking the Tribulation had already begun.  In Paul's day, the Thessalonian Church thought that they were passing through the Tribulation and Paul had to correct that wrong teaching -(2nd Thessalonians 2:2-3).  The apostolic New Testament writings of the first century, however, clearly taught that the Rapture would occur before the Tribulation.

It was not until the fourth century that the literal interpretation of the Scripture was generally replaced by an allegorical interpretation which spiritualized the great promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David.  The nation of Israel was seen as the Church in the Old Testament, and all the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah, which foretold a literal Messianic kingdom ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ from the throne of David in Jerusalem, were applied in a symbolic way to the Church.  The allegorical reading of Scripture dominated the world for the next 1,300 years.  It wasn't until after the Reformation, when the Scriptures became available to the public at large and non-conformist scholars of the 1700's began to study the New Testament that we see a renewed focus on the literal reading of Scripture.  In the centuries before, Rome did not permit the public access to read the Scriptures, in fact, they kept the laity in the dark, whereas few could actually read.  Education was reserved only for those entering the professions of the law, medicine, or the church.  Samuel Waldron  states that as early as 1560 the Geneva Bible taught in the marginal notes on Romans 11 the future conversion of Israel.  While by today's standards, the Geneva Bible is a dog of a translation, but giving credit where due, it correctly noted that God had plans for Israel yet to be unveiled in the future. 

Critics of the Pre-Tribulational view need to be held accountable whenever and wherever they say that it was originated by men such as John Darby, and C.I. Scofield.  They merely recognized and revived the literal reading of the Biblical text for believers in their day.  The critics merely repeat the lies and, like, as President Obama, tell us things have never been better for Americans, attempt to deceive us by omission of the full facts of history.  I trust these words of clarity drives home the "nail into the coffin".

God bless,

Pastor Bob