I know the little punk Chucky Cheeze won't 'fess up to this,
because he's too much of an egomaniac, but here it is,
none-the-less, for those interested in truth:
To see all of the information, please go to:
http://www.preteristarchive.com/ChurchHistory/index.html
HISTORICAL CATEGORIZATION OF CHRISTIAN ESCHATOLOGY
Viewing the Olivet Discourse specifically, we can divide
Christian History into three distinct evolutionary trends.
These three positions are separated by the prevailing
Christian beliefs of the time, and don't intend to imply
unanimity of thought, throughout Christianity. They
are as follows (including those representative, and
their period of 'supremacy'):
1) Complete fulfillment in the first century
(Early Christianity - 1st to 15th Century)
2) Primary fulfillment in the first century;
Secondary fulfillment in the future
(Reformed Partial Preterism 16th to
19th Century)
3) No fulfillment in the first century; obscure
references to future fulfillments.
(Dispensationalist Futurism - 19th - 20th Century)
Through an examination of these three doctrinal trends,
and the underlying hermeneutics, within the respective
centuries of Christian theology, we can see the increasing
consistencies -- or lack thereof -- in each. The desire
for scriptural consistency can be seen as a driving force
leading to a much more developed approach to the view
of fulfilled prophecy. The ultimate goal of this study is
to present the uninterrupted rise of fulfilled eschatology
throughout the centuries, in order to display why today's
highly developed preterist views are the natural result of
Christianity's theological development.
EARLY CHURCH
The First 1,000 Years of Christian History
EARLY CHURCH (EC):
A) Views espoused by all Christian sources during
the first thousand years of church history, during
which the only systematizing was being done in
the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
B) This class includes all the earliest church fathers,
historians and pseudepigraphic writers.
C) Sources could be considered "Historicist" or
"Futurist" but very rarely "Preterist" in a developed
way (Eusebius would be the most likely to be
considered Preterist) (Broad Range of Years,
Broad in Doctrine - First Thousand Years of Church
History - Pret-related comments color-coded with
"historical pret")
"With the first destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and the
expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem as a result of the second
Jewish revolt in AD 132-135, the early Christians began to
see these defeats as evidence of not only God's displeasure
on Judaism, but also God's vindication of Christianity. The
early Christians thus abandoned any hope for the restoration
of the nation of Israel.. "
CHRISTIAN WRITERS SPLIT BETWEEN THE SPIRITUAL,
SEEING TOTAL REDEMPTIVE AND OLIVET FULFILLMENT,
AND THE CARNAL, WITH CONFUSIONS OF "NON-FULFILLMENT"
The prevailing eschatology of Christianity has changed
numerous times during the centuries. To state that any
position has been held throughout the history of Christian
exegesis is a falsehood. However, we can see that some
form of Preterism has been held throughout the centuries,
regardless of which belief system reigned supreme.
The following tables will display the constant stream of
Preteristic thought through each period in Christian
history.
We will see the maturation and development of these
doctrines throughout the centuries to its widespread revival
among scholars in the late 19th Century and its popular
acceptance today.
It takes a lot of careful study to determine the eschatology
of early Christians. The end-times beliefs varied greatly
from one writer to the next. The consistency of today's
developed systems were nowhere to be found, and many
Christian writers even held to some of the most dramatic
Preterist doctrines in their day (such as the defeat of the
devil, the destruction of death, and the rising of the
dead), while still holding to futuristic expectations.
Perhaps the most primary "Preterist" interpretation in the
early church regarded the identity of the people of God.
Naturally, the main controversy in Judea prior to the end
of the nation centered around who were God's true covenant
people. Throughout the New Testament the case is made
that only those in Christ are God's chosen people
(Gal. 3:16, Rom. 2:28-29 ; 9:6-8; Rev. 2:9 ; 3:9, etc.).
This apologetic case is continued into the earliest
post-biblical writings as well. As stated in Harvard
Theological Review's "Peri Pascha and Its Israel".
"The battle between Christians and Jews over possession
of the name "Israel" goes back to the earliest days of
Christianity.. the past-tense verbs found in (Melito's)
Peri Pascha 99 may indicate that the author is referring
to the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Analogously,
in the late fourth century Chrysostom, in his apologetic
works on Christianity and Hellenism, again uses the
Temple's destruction as proof of Judaism's illegitimacy."
(Vol. 91, No. 4 (Oct., 1998), pp. 351-372)
Later on, an example of the recognition of the gathering of
God's covenant people is found in Alexander of Alexandia's
Epistle on the Arian heresy, circa A.D. 273:
"7. Then the Lord, the third day after His death, rose
again, thus bringing man to a knowledge of the Trinity.
Then all the nations of the human race were saved by Christ.
One submitted to the judgment, and many thousands were
absolved. Moreover, He being made like to man whom He
had saved, ascended to the height of heaven, to offer before
His Father, not gold or silver, or precious stones, but the
man whom He had formed after His own image and similitude;
and the Father, raising Him to His right hand, hath seated
Him upon a throne on high, and hath made Him to be judge
of the peoples, the leader of the angelic host, the
charioteer of the cherubim, the Son of the true Jerusalem,
the Virgin's spouse, and King for ever and ever. Amen."
These names assigned to the Lord display the body of Christ
as the spiritual Israel, presenting the wedding of the lamb
as a past event. Notice that Christ is called the spouse,
and not the bridegroom. This is a perfect example of early
Christianity's attempts to teach total and complete
fulfillment of Christ's mission regarding the gathering
of His people "Israel". To this, it seems that the
overwhelming majority of early Christian writers would
agree. Dallas Seminary dispensationalist Alan Patrick Boyd
stated the following: "The majority of the writers/writings
in this period [A.D. 70-165] completely identify Israel with
the Church." (Boyd, "Dispensational Premillennial Analysis,"
p. 47.)
The identification of the Church as the wedded covenant
people might be considered just a primary step in the realm
of prophetic fulfillment, but the examples do not end there.
In addition to the wide acceptance of this primary amount
of fulfillment in the identification of "Israel," the
overwhelming majority (if not totality) of early Christian
writings support a more the intermediate level of
fulfillment regarding the Olivet Discourse. Displaying the
universality of this intermediate belief in the in the first
few centuries of Christianity, consider what Chrysostom
stated in the fourth century:
"For I will ask them, Did He send the prophets and wise men?
Did they slay them in their synagogue? Was their house left
desolate? Did all the vengeance come upon that generation?
It is quite plain that it was so, and no man gainsays it."
(Homily LXXIV)
The power of such a statement cannot be overlooked.
This directly contradicts the irresponsible statements of
the many theological teachers who boldly declare that
the destruction of Jerusalem had little prophetic
significance. This is surely representative of a more
consistent and intermediate level of prophetic fulfillment.
More intermediate steps of prophetic fulfillment, such as
seeing the "breaking down of swords into plowshares,"
were considered to having reference to Christ's completed
work. Here are just a couple of examples displaying this
trend:
Irenaeus "If any one, however, advocating the cause of
the Jews, does maintain that this new covenant consisted in
the rearing of that temple which was built under Zerubbabel
after the emigration to Babylon, and in the departure of the
people from thence after the lapse of seventy years, let him
know that the temple constructed of stones was indeed then
rebuilt (for as yet that law was observed which had been
made upon tables of stone), yet no new covenant was given,
but they used the Mosaic law until the coming of the Lord;
but from the Lord's advent, the new covenant which brings
back peace, and the law which gives life, has gone forth
over the whole earth, as the prophets said: "For out of Zion
shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem ; and He shall rebuke many people; and they shall
break down their swords into ploughshares, and their spears
into pruninghooks, and they shall no longer learn to fight."
(Proof Against the Marcionites, that the Prophets Referred
in All Their Predictions to Our Christ, "Against Heresies,"
Book IV, Chapter 34)
Tertullian "among us, who have been called out of the
nations, -'and they shall join to beat their glaives into
ploughs, and their lances into sickles; and nations shall
not take up glaive against nation, and they shall no more
learn to fight.' Who else, therefore, are understood but
we, who, fully taught by the new law, observe these
practices, - the old law being obliterated, the coming
of whose abolition the action itself demonstrates?"
("Of Circumcision and the Supercession of the Old Law,"
An Answer to the Jews, Chapter III)
In addition to those who applied primary and intermediate
amounts of prophetic fulfillment to Christ's day, there also
were many who extended dramatic levels of fulfillment to
that time as well. "Very last things," such as the victory
over sin, death and the devil were also believed to have
found their accomplishment in that day. St. Athanasius was
an early champion of Christ as the light which defeated
death and the devil -- and he was not alone. Some of the
other examples of eschatological accomplishment are listed
below, including Melito of Sardis, who likewise taught that
death had been destroyed and that the dead had been raised:
Melito of Sardis "Who will contend against me? Let him
stand before me. It is I who delivered the condemned.
It is I who gave life to the dead. It is I who raised up the
buried. Who will argue with me? It is I, says Christ, who
destroyed death. It is I who triumphed over the enemy,
and having trod down Hades, and bound the Strong Man,
and have snatched mankind up to the heights of heaven."
St. Athanasius "Now, however, that the devil, that tyrant
against the whole world, is slain, we do not approach a
temporal feast, my beloved, but an eternal and heavenly.
Not in shadows do we shew it forth, but we come to it in
truth. For they being filled with the flesh of a dumb lamb,
accomplished the feast, and having anointed their door-posts
with the blood, implored aid against the destroyer. For no
more does death reign; but instead of death henceforth is
life, since our Lord said, 'I am the life;' so that
everything is filled with joy and gladness; as it is
written, 'The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice.'
For when death reigned, 'sitting down by the rivers of
Babylon, we wept,' and mourned, because we felt the
bitterness of captivity; but now that death and the kingdom
of the devil is abolished, everything is entirely filled
with joy and gladness. And God is no longer known only
in Judaea, but in all the earth, 'their voice hath gone
forth, and the knowledge of Him hath filled all the earth.'
(Letter 256, Part 3)
Odes of Solomon - "Because He is my Sun and His rays have
lifted me up and His light hath dispelled all darkness from
my face. In Him I have acquired eyes and have seen His holy
day: The way of error I have left, and have walked towards
Him and have received salvation from Him, without grudging.
I have put on incorruption through His name: and have put
off corruption by His grace. 9 Death hath been destroyed
before my face: and Sheol bath been abolished by my word"
There are many other similar examples of the earliest
Christians teaching a preteristic message with a dramatic
level of fulfillment. Even though these and other writers
stood firmly on the completeness of Christ's victory, their
approach was not systematic -- and still embraced futuristic
end-times scenarios. Unfortunately, the traditions
surrounding the return of Christ at the "end of the world"
were too strong to be dealt with consistently in this
earliest period of the Church. This almost schizophrenic
level of inconsistency is completely understandable,
however, in light of the extreme youth of Christian
scholarship at that time.
The first few centuries of Christianity saw few attempts
at doctrinal systematizing, and there is nothing like the
developed "denominational" structure we take for granted
today. Aside from what can be assembled from the
voluminous writings of men such as Augustine and Ignatius,
the doctrinal work of the earliest Christian era is
scattered like a shotgun blast. The work then is akin to a
newly born creature taking its first few wobbly steps. Only
recently have scholars been able to critically examine this
earliest era and mold it into shape using today's hindsight.
To this N. Nisbett not only agrees, but adds to their
deficiency:
"His argument, that the ancients are unanimously on
his side, has as little weight with me, as with the best
commentators in modern times; for as Mr. Dodwell long
ago observed; they fell far short of the solidity of the
moderns, who excel them, not only in philosophy and
learning, but in the knowledge of antiquity, and even
of their own languages." (Prophecy of the Destruction
of Jerusalem (1787))
FIRST CENTURY WRITERS (USING ROBINSON'S DATES)
NOTE: Naturally, pre-A.D.70 writings (such as the book
of Revelation) are still in the framework of prophecy,
and not fulfillment; However, I wish to show the time-frame
references of Scripture to show the apparent absolute
nearness of external fulfillment. Many precise dates are
not known by the Archive curator. In such cases, the time
will be listed as whether early (E), mid (M), or late (L) in
the appropriate century/centuries. Robinson's dates are
used for all first century Christian writings.
--
Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.
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