Bernard Pyron

The man made theology called dispensationalism has been around for at

least a hundred and fifty years and has influenced American

Christians for over a century. Dispensationalism has become

pervasive as an influence upon Christians. Its influence remains

largely unexamined for most believers, so that many do not connect

the word "dispensationalism" with what they have learned from their

preachers, or from books, articles, other people, and now from the

Internet. This theology has become a kind of lens, filter or grid by

which Christians interpret Scripture - and this theology has been

exported to many other nations by American dispensationalist

evangelists. A woman in India who is a member of a Yahoo Group I am

in has pointed out that American Christians have exported their

apostate doctrines to many other nations, including American

prosperity teachings.

I want to deal now with a different theological system. Again, a

long and abstract term is used for this theological system of

interpretation. It is called Amillennialism, or no millennium.

Allegorizing Revelation 20: 1-6 - the thousand year reign of Christ

on earth with his saints - into the entire Church Period is only one

part of Amillennialism. Many other specific predictions in

Revelation and elsewhere in Scripture are allegorized away by the

Amillennialists.

Harold Camping has been broadcasting to this country and to the world

for many years over Family Radio which he controls and largely owns.

Ignoring all the end time Bible prophecies, Camping in 1992-94

predicted that the world would end in September of 1994. Instead of

making use of specific Bible prophecy of the end times, he used his

Old Testament time spans and his numerology. His Amillennialist

theology appeared to allow him to ignore the many specific end time

Bible prophecies.

Recently Camping has been teaching annihilation, that those who are

unsaved are not punished forever, but are annihilated. Earlier he

developed a theory that God is calling Christians to come out of the

organized churches. But he appears not to have been very interested

in showing the various false theologies taught in the churches which

would justify leaving them.

Camping's theology - coming out of strict Dutch Calvinism and

Catholic and Reformed Amillennialism - is different from that of some

other present day false teachers like John Hagee or Rick Warren.

Hagee follows classical dispensationalism. Warren is or was in the

Southern Baptist Convention, but has been influenced by the New Age

Occult and makes use of pop psychology, methods of small group brain

washing - called the dialectic - and marketing techniques which are

inconsistent with Bible teachings. And there are many other false

Christian teachers all over the theological landscape.

For years Harold Camping alone has hosted a call-in radio program

over Family Radio called Open Forum. Here is Camping's response to a

question about the 144,000 of Revelation 7: 1-8.

621A OPEN FORUM With Harold Camping

Who are the 144,000 of Revelation 7?

HC: "Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.

CALLER: Hi. I have a question from Revelation. I've heard someone

refer to the 144,000 sealed, who are mentioned in Chapter 7, verse 4,

as being the people who are saved. And I'm confused on this. I've

also been told that this wasn't true. And I'd also like to know if

those mentioned there in verse 4 are the same ones mentioned in verse

9.

HC: The question is, who are the 144,000 of Revelation 7? We read in

Revelation 7 that they are the ones who are to be sealed on their

foreheads before the events described in Revelation 8 and 9 take

place. We find the same 144,000 emphasized in Revelation 14, where it

speaks of them in verse 1, "one hundred and forty-four thousand,

having the Father's name written in their foreheads," and they, we

read in verse 3, were those who were "redeemed from the earth, they

which were not defiled with women, they are virgins. These are they

which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goest. These were redeemed

from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb. And in

their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the

throne of God."

Incidentally, in Revelation 7 God speaks of them as being 12,000 from

each of 12 tribes of Israel. Now we know of course that the company

of those who will be saved is a vast company which no man can number,

according to the language in various places. Abraham was told, for

example, that his seed would be as the sand of the seashore. And

actually, the information in Revelation 7:9 is talking about a vast

company who are saved: "After this I beheld and lo, a great multitude

which no man can number, of all nations and kindreds and people and

tongues, who stood before the Throne and before the Lamb, clothed

with white robes and palms in their hands." This is the number of the

people who are saved. And so we know that 144,000 literally could not

signify the number of saved people although in Revelation 14 it is

talking about all those who were redeemed from the earth.

When we look at this number 12, however (or the number 144, which, is

12 times 12), we find that particularly in Revelation (although it

could be in other parts of the Bible, also).God is using it as a

symbolical number to illustrate the wonderful truth of the fullness

of whatever God has in view. And because it's talking about people

here, it would be the fullness of all believers. We find this

dramatically in Revelation 21, where it talks about "the Holy City,

the New Jerusalem." It has 12 foundations, it has 12 gates. Its walls

are 144 cubits. Now that's not a real wall. You can't build a wall

144 cubits. It doesn't say whether it was 144 cubits long or wide or

high. It's just 144 cubits. And so we know that the number is

symbolical. It's emphasizing the fullness of all believers.

And so in Revelation 7, where it talks about 144,000, God is simply

saying, this is the fullness of all believers. All who are to be

saved must be saved before the account of Revelation 8 and 9 will

begin - before the final Tribulation will begin. And so indeed they

are the same group of people spoken of in verse 9, these who have

come out of great tribulation, out of the Great Tribulation. It's the

totality of all the believers that will ever believe on the Lord

Jesus Christ.

Thank you for sharing that question. Good night." This is from the

records of Open Forum compiled by Leon Kolberg.

In saying the 144,000 are "...the totality of all the believers that

will ever believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" Camping is following the

Augustine interpretation of Revelation 7: 1-8. Camping here may

emphasize the numerology of 12 x 12 and the 144,000 more than

Augustine may have done. However, Origen who influenced the broad

Amillennial allegorical method of interpretation used by Augustine

did make use of numerology in his allegories.

In the

Augustine interpretation of metaphors, visions, and symbols in the

Book of Revelation an event that is predicted to happen in the future

is made into a broad sweeping timeless allegory. In the Amillennial

view the creation by the Lord of the 144,000 right before the "four

winds" are allowed to blow (Revelation 7: 1) is made to represent all

the saved people of all ages. So for Augustine, Calvin, Harold

Camping and Camping's followers the 144,000 can have no function

during the period Christ called the great tribulation in Matthew 24:

21. In fact, in strict Amillennialism, there is to be no period of

the tribulation. In Revelation 7: 1 the "four winds of the earth"

represent the tribulation period. Also, in Amillennialism there is to

be no

millennial reign of Christ on earth, the theory from Augustine which

gives the name to this view of end time prophecy, still followed by

the Catholic Church and still one of the views followed by the

Calvinists.

Before going into Amillennialism I want to cite a couple of

scriptures.

Daniel 11: 33 says "And they that understand among the people shall

instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by

captivity, and by spoil, many days."

They that understand are the 144,000, while the many who are

instructed are the Multitude of Revelation 7: 9.

Zephaniah 3: 13 says "The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity,

nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their

mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them

afraid."

Rather than being a representation of all who have been

saved in all ages, the 144,000 represent the remnant of Israel in the

last days.

Harold Camping and Amillennialism

Harold Camping recently said that the return of

Jesus Christ to earth will not be literal and visible, but will be

spiritual in some way.

This look at II

Thessalonians 2: 11 in terms of the over-use of broad allegorization

of

Scripture is concerned with Harold Camping's errors and with the

problems of Amillennial theology within the Calvinist churches or in

other theological camps.

II Thessalonians 2: 10-12 says: "And with all deceivableness of

unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the

love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God

shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had

pleasure in unrighteousness."

Strong Delusion is from the Greek "energeian planes."

Planes, where the 'e" is a Greek eta, is Strong's number 4106,

which means:

"a wandering, a straying about, one led astray from the right way,

roams hither and thither, mental straying, error, wrong opinion

relative to morals or religion,

error which shows itself in action, a wrong mode of acting, error,

that which leads into error, deceit or fraud"

In the New Testament Strong's number 4106 is translated as error in

seven texts, deceive once and deceit once. Only in II Thessalonians

2: 11 is it translated as delusion.

Energeian is Strong's number 1753, which means a working, "in the NT

used only of superhuman power, whether of God or of the Devil."

Those who receive from God this delusion or error are said to be

damned. The implication is that God sends them this "strong delusion"

as judgment.

The text does not say that they cannot come out from this delusion or

error, but we have to assume that if they stay in it they will be

damned. In fact, Zechariah 13: 8-9, in dividing the people of God into

three groups, says "And it shall come to pass, that in all the land,

saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the

third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through

the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them

as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I

will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my

God."

The Reformation did not "reform" Catholic end time Bible prophecy

interpretation. Calvinist theology accepted Catholic Amillennialism,

that the millennium was not literal. Later Preterism and Dominionism

developed within Calvinist camps.

Origen's (185"254 AD) Over Use of Allegorical Bible Interpretation and

the Development of Amillennialism (no millennium)

The use of broad sweeping allegorical interpretations of Scripture is

important in the change from the Historical Premillenialism of the

early church fathers to the Amillennialism of Augustine and the

Catholic Church. This is because the allegorical method of Bible

interpretation originating with the Alexandra, Egypt school,

especially in Origen, allegorized the thousand year reign of Christ on

earth found only in Revelation 20: 1-6. And the same method of

over-allegorizing was applied to almost all end time Bible prophecy,

making it into broad timeless teachings. In the Book of Revelation

there are many specific types which are used that should not be made

into broad, general allegories.

I tried to find examples on the Internet of allegories used by Origen,

especially for end time prophecy. Here is what I found from one

search on Google:

"Results 1 - 10 of about 43,100 for Origen book of Revelation"

Or "Results 1 - 10 of about 48,400 for Origen Apocalypse of John. "

What I found on many sites are just brief abstract summaries about

Origen's

allegorizing, and most seemed to be copies of some other web sites.

There are at least two sites that do have online many English

translations of Origen's writings, many hundreds of pages. But the

writings are not broken down by topics and its real time consuming to

find anything relevant in Origen's online stuff to his allegories.

He goes on and on but doesn't do as much sweeping metaphoric

interpretation as those who present abstract summaries imply. But I

did find a few of his metaphoric interpretations that do suggest he

was interpreting end time prophecy as being merely the presentation of

abstract teachings and not prophecy as prediction of happenings.

For example, for Origen the

seven heads of the dragon of Revelation 17: 7 became the seven deadly

sins.

Origen had no interest in identifying the time or the place of the

battle

of Armageddon (Revelation 19:11-21), since he claimed that the text

dealt

with the triumph of God over sin.

On the 144,000 Origen says ". It is clear,

therefore, that the hundred and forty-four thousand who have not

defiled themselves with women must be made up of those who have come

to the divine word out of the Gentile world. In this way the truth of

the statement may be upheld that the first fruits of each tribe are

its virgins." Although Origen here does not expound on the Amillennial

idea that the 144,000 are saints from all ages, later Amillennialists

have interpretated Revelation 7: 1-8 and 14: 1-5

in this way, which would see no role for these people during the

Tribulation period.

On the feeding of the multitude in Matthew 14: 1-21: The people who

were

refreshed by (= resting in, ) the food that Jesus gave them had to be

in groups of a hundred - which is a sacred number, dedicated to God

because of the monad in it - or in groups of fifty, a number

signifying remission, as you can see from Pentecost and the mystery of

the Jubilee, which took place every fifty years."

The sitting down of the multitude in companies of fifty is in Luke 9:

14.

Here is a brief summary of the early development of the allegorical

method of Bible interpretation from

http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/article.aspx?id=1113:

"Christian allegorical interpretation first took hold in the early

third century with the writings of Clement of Alexandria and Origen, a

fellow student with Plotinus who subsequently formalized Neoplatonism.

The result was the emergence of the Alexandrian School, whose views

were opposed for a period of time by the School of Antioch in Syria.

Antioch was noted for its preference for the literal interpretation of

Scripture as practiced by Jewish commentators over the centuries and

followed by the New Testament apostles. The use of the term literal

did not deny the use of allegory or typology in Scripture so much as

it rejected the Alexandrian approach, which was based on the

Neoplatonic worldview. But in Augustine the Alexandrian School found a

new advocate. He boldly added his weight to its interpretative

approach.

Augustine's most famous contribution was his work The City of God (De

Civitate Dei), in which he subjected all of God's activity in human

history"past, present and future"to an allegorical interpretation.

Philosophy and Scripture were blended together. The future ethereal

New Jerusalem was where all would be fulfilled, rather than in any

renewed version of this world."

Not only did Amillennialism say that the thousand year reign of Christ

on earth was not to happen literally, but it also said the same about

much else in end time prophecy.. After centuries of reading about the

broad allegories that Amillennialism made of end time Bible prophecy,

most followers of this

theology just seemed to lose interest

in studying end time Bible prophecy. In strict Amillennialism, nothing

much is predicted and end time prophecy is seen as being just broad

metaphors for basic teachings.

What Augustine (354-430 AD) did was to make Catholic

and later Calvinist doctrine out of his metaphoric interpretation of

Revelation 20: 1-6. He was following Origen and the Alexandarian

School in emphasizing

an allegorical view of prophecy. The organized Church became for

Augustine and later

Catholic leaders the Kingdom of God. The millennium of Revelation

20: 1-6

then became an allegory of the entire period from Pentecost to the

return of Christ.

Some of the theologians like Origen and Augustine after the overthrow

of historical premillennialism of the early fathers may have come

close to allegorizing away the literal return of Christ to earth.

Early fathers who were historical premillennialists included

Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus and Lactanius. The

term "historical premillennialism" is used to distinguish this view

from that of dispensationalist premillennialism which originated in

the 19th century. See

http://persweb.wabash.edu/facstaff/royaltyr/chiliaug.html

Augustine argued "the first

resurrection has already been accomplished by the coming of Christ and

establishment of his Church". He saw the second resurrection as the

resurrection of the physical body of believers at the end of the

world. But the text of Revelation 20: 4-6 does not suggest a

spiritualizing of the first resurrection, which is that described by

Paul in I Corinthians 15: 51-55 and in I Thessalonians 4: 16-17. The

source for this argument by Augustine is:

http://www.utoronto.ca/stmikes/saeculum/journal-

issues/iss_1_vol1/intellectual-tradition.htmlOne

If this web site is accurately quoting Augustine, what he is doing is

trying to deal with the two resurrections described in Revelation 20:

1-8 while maintaining his allegorical view of the text, that there is

to be no literal thousand year reign of Christ on earth.

He seems to twist Scriptures in saying that the first resurrection

found in Revelation 20: 4-5 was just spiritual and not bodily, and

the second resurrection, he seems to say, is the bodily resurrection

found in I Corinthians 15: 51-55 and I Thessalonians 4: 16-17.

Here is the text of Revelation 20: 1-8: "And I saw an angel come down

from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in

his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is

the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him

into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him,

that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years

should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given

unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the

witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not

worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark

upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned

with Christ a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead lived not

again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first

resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first

resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall

be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand

years. 7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be

loosed out of his prison, 8 And shall go out to deceive the nations

which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather

them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the

sea."

One problem Augustine and his Amillennial followers - including

traditionalist Calvinists - get into is Revelation 20: 5: "But the

rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were

finished. This is the first resurrection." John just said in verse 4

that he saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of

Jesus and that they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Any interpretation of Revelation 20: 1-8 needs to be harmonized with

other scriptures on the resurrection of the saints and that of the

unsaved.

Daniel 12: 2 says "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the

earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and

everlasting contempt."

John 5: 29 says "And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto

the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the

resurrection of damnation."

In Revelation 20: 11- 15 the great white throne judgment is for the

unsaved, and corresponds to the statement of Revelation 20: 5 that the

rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were

finished.

The second resurrection is that for the unsaved, not the bodily

resurrection of the saved following a thousand years interpreted to be

the entire period of the church as the Kingdom of God on earth.

Saying one is certain that there will be no literal reign of Christ on

earth following the Tribulation and the resurrection of the saved gets

into problems with the two resurrections mentioned in Revelation 20.

To get around this problem, one of these resurrections could be

allegorized away, but this does injustice to Scripture.

Finally, can allegorizing away texts on end time Bible prophecy be

considered under II Thessalonians 2: 11 to an error, in which God

gives those in error over to strong delusion? Allegorizing away the

specific meanings of many end time Bible prophecies could be

considered a theological approach that is contrary to Scripture and

therefore an error. The error or strong delusion of II Thessalonians

2: 11 is about

getting Biblical doctrine very wrong. The strong delusion is not

about

something that is not doctrine, such as the claim of a few

dispensationalists

that it is a spectacular flying object that will fool people into

thinking this is

the appearing of Christ.

If one persists in getting several doctrines wrong, he could be a

candidate

for the strong delusion. In fact, it is quite possible that now many

believers

have fallen into strong delusion because they have believed false

doctrines.

Revelation 22: 15 warns that "For without are dogs and sorcerers,

and whoremongers, and murderers and idolaters, and whosoever loveth

and maketh a lie."

"Without" refers to those who are not within the new heaven and new

earth.

Those who loveth a lie are those who persist in getting doctrines of

the Bible

wrong because they believed false teachers, and those who loveth a

lie

will be outside the heavenly city with those who lied to them about

doctrine.

The point is that Augustine over-allegorized and should not have been

followed in his end time prophecy interpretations by Christians of

the Reformation.

Dispensationalist theology is different in several ways from

historical premillennialism. In dispensationalism God is said to

have two redemptive plans, one for national, physical and unsaved

Israel, and one for Gentiles during the "church age." John Walvoord

says, "Pretribulationism distinguishes clearly between Israel and the

church and their respective programs."

Historical premillennialism teaches that Christ will return to earth

at the end of the tribulation to set up his kingdom on earth and will

rule for a thousand years. Saved people are resurrected at the end

of the tribulation and the unsaved are resurrected at the Great White

Throne Judgment after the end of the 1000 years. There is no

distinction between physical Israel and the Christian Church in

historical premillennialism, nor is there a pre-tribulation rapture.

According to the web site

http://www.geocities.com/pvrosman/Dispensationalism_03_Is_PreMilDisp_D

ifferent_From_Historic_Premil.html historical premillennialism

taught that

"... the Second Advent was to be one event; Dispensationalism holds

that the Second Advent will be in two sections - "the Rapture"

and "the Revelation." Between these two events they put the (to them)

unfulfilled seventieth week (seven years) of Daniel 9:23-27, which

they call "the Great Tribulation."

· Historical premillennialism taught "... that certain signs

must precede the Second Advent; Dispensationalism teaches that no

sign precedes the "rapture-stage" of the Second Advent, which may

occur "at any moment." However, there are signs that precede

the "revelation-stage" of the Second Advent. The "Rapture" could

occur "at any moment," but the "Revelation" must take place after the

seven years of the Great Tribulation. The first stage is undated and

unannounced; the second stage is dated and announced.

· Historical premillennialism "... had two resurrections-the

righteous before the Millennium; the unrighteous after the

Millennium. Dispensationalism has introduced a third resurrection -

"tribulation-saints" at the "revelation-stage" of the Second Advent"

However this site also says that historical

premillennialism "...usually held what is called the "historical

symbolic" view of the book of Revelation. This view makes Revelation

a picture in symbolic form of the main events in the present age.

Dispensationalism holds generally to the "futurist" view of the book

of Revelation, which view makes almost the whole book (especially

chapters 4 to 19) a literal description of events to take place

during "the Great Tribulation" or Daniel's seventieth week, which

Dispensationalism considers as yet unfulfilled."

I would have to see actual quotes from early Church Fathers to accept

the idea that they did not see the Book of Revelation as predicting

future events.

Contemporary historical premillennialists include David Dockery, John

Warwick Montgomery, George R. Beasley-Murray, Robert Gundry, George

E. Ladd, Walter Martin, Wayne Grudem, Theodore Zahn, J. Barton

Payne, Henry Alford, and Robert Duncan Culver.

I have seen Francis Schaeffer's name included among historical

premillennialists. But Schaeffer didn't do much with end time

prophecy. Also R.C. Sproul was once an advocate of historical

premillennialism, but later became a post-millennialist, another

Reformed end time view, along with preterism, the belief that all end

time prophecy was fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

George Eldon Ladd of Fuller Theological Seminary wrote several books

on historical premillenialism, as follows: A Commentary on the

Revelation (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1987), The Presence of

the Future (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1981), The Last Things

(Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1982), and The Gospel of the

Kingdom (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1981).

There is Robert Duncan Culver's book, Daniel and the Latter Days

(Chicago: The Moody Press, 1977. It is a defense of historic

premillennialism against Catholic and Calvinist Amillennialism.

On historical premillennialism see also J. Barton Payne's

Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House,

1980).

On the web site http://www.biblicist.org/bible/adrift.shtml there

are some quotes about historical premillennialism from early church

fathers.

"Barnabas, an early member of the Alexandrian school who otherwise

spiritualized the Old Testament, expressly taught a millennial reign

of Christ on the earth:

And

God made in six days the works of His hands, and made an end on the

seventh day, and rested on it, and sanctified it. Attend, my children,

to the meaning of this expression, He finished in six days. This

implieth that the Lord will finish all things in six thousand years,

for a day is with Him a thousand years. And He Himself testifieth,

saying, Behold, to-day will be as a thousand years. Therefore, my

children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, all things will

be finished. And He rested on the seventh day. This meaneth: when His

Son, coming [again], shall destroy the time of the wicked man, and

judge the ungodly, and change the-sun, and the moon, and the stars,

then shall He truly rest on the seventh day. 61 "

61 Barnabas, "Epistle of Barnabas" in A. Roberts and J. Donaldson,

eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers [CD-ROM] (Albany, OR: Sage Software,

1996), 279

In Against Heresies, Irenaeus extolled the virtues of the millennium

in terms reminiscent of the Old Testament prophets. He also marshalled

statements from Papias in support of his literal millennial views:

The predicted blessing, therefore, belongs unquestionably to the times

of the kingdom, when the righteous shall bear rule upon their rising

from the dead; when also the creation, having been renovated and set

free, shall fructify with an abundance of all kinds of food, from the

dew of heaven, and from the fertility of the earth: as the elders who

saw John, the disciple of the Lord, related that they had heard from

him how the Lord used to teach in regard to these times, and say: The

days will come, in which vines shall grow, each having ten thousand

branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each true twig

ten thousand shoots, and in each one of the shoots ten thousand

dusters, and on every one of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and

every grape when pressed will give five and twenty metretes of wine.

And when any one of the saints shall lay hold of a cluster, another

shall cry out, I am a better cluster, take me; bless the Lord through

me. In like manner [the Lord declared] that . . . all animals feeding

[only] on the productions of the earth, should [in those days] become

peaceful and harmonious among each other, and be in perfect subjection

to man.

And these things are bone witness to in writing by Papias, the hearer

of John, and a companion of Polycarp, in his fourth book; for there

were five books compiled . . . by him. And he says in addition, Now

these things are credible to believers." 62

62 Irenaeus, "Against Heresies" in The Ante-Nicene Fathers , 1165.

Justin Martyr was an enthusiastic premillennialist, although by his

day, premillennialism had at least some opponents:

And Trypho to this replied, I remarked to you sir, that you are very

anxious to be safe in all respects, since you cling to the Scriptures.

But tell me, do you really admit that this place, Jerusalem, shall be

rebuilt; and do you expect your people to be gathered together, and

made joyful with Christ and the patriarchs, and the prophets, both the

men of our nation, and other proselytes who joined them before your

Christ came? or have you given way, and admitted this in order to have

the appearance of worsting us in the controversies?

Then I answered, I am not so miserable a fellow, Trypho, as to say one

thing and think another. I admitted to you formerly, that I and many

others are of this opinion, and [believe] that such will take place,

as you assuredly are aware; but, on the other hand, I signified to you

that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true

Christians, think otherwise. . . . But I and others, who are

fight-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be

a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which

will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, [as] the prophets Ezekiel

and Isaiah and others declare.". 64

64 Justin Martyr, "Dialogue with Trypho" in The Ante-Nicene Fathers ,

479-480

"Constantine's Edict of Milan, issued in AD 313, constituted the

formal beginning of a major paradigm shift that signaled the end of

the ancient world and the beginning of the medieval period."

My comment: When Constantine made Christianity the official religion

of the Roman Empire the iron mingled with the clay as seen in Daniel

2: 43. The iron is government and the clay is the Christian faith or

is Christians. Augustinian Amillennialism became a part of this

mingling.

"Augustinian amillennialism was the dominant eschatology for

centuries. Premillennialism, with few exceptions, soon became the

view only of

outcasts and heretics. The paradigm shift was complete. The

marginalization of the premillennialism of the Bible and the early

church fathers was so successful that even the reformers dismissed it

as a "fable of Jewish dotage."

Historical premillennialism was

"...suppressed by the dominant Catholic Church, but survived through

various "fringe" groups of Christians during the mediaeval period."

During the time of the Reformation, Waldensians and Hugenots helped

to revive

premillennialism and it was adopted by a few New England Puritans

during the

Post-Reformation era." Cotton Mather, and Increase Mather, among the

New England Puritans were into historical premillennialism.

At the council of Ephesus in 431, belief in the millennium was

condemned as superstitious. See Robert G. Clouse, "Introduction" in

The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views , Robert Clouse, ed.

(Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1977), 9.

The Forty-First of the Anglical Articles drawn up by Cramner

described the millennium in this fashion. See Schaff, 619, n.4.

Similarly, the Augsburg Confession, Art. XVII., condemned those "who

now scatter Jewish opinions that, before the resurrection of the dead,

the godly shall occupy the kingdom of the world, the wicked being

everywhere suppressed." See Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom

(Harper and Row, 1931, reprinted, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996),