I just read over this thread for the first time. And found that an old falsehood that has already been thoroughly disproved has again risen its ugly head. This is the totally false claim, here first stated by JRG in post # 146. That “futurism” has “its roots in the Roman counter-reformation.”
This was started by a long post (#139) by JRG, listing eight writers, including one from the church’s first two centuries and two from the fourth century, and then a very long skip to the Reformers, finally ending up with just one from the nineteenth century.
To this, A71 embarrassed himself by answering in post #141 “Fantastic to see how much consensus there is JGR. Matthew Henry even recognizes that the last week of Daniel is the Roman Judean war. The Victorians really knew their bible.”
This shows how well the “historicists” study history, considering that Queen Victoria was born 105 years after Matthew Henry died.
Then, he falsehood was finalized by JRG in post #151, saying “The cited brethren unanimously conclude that the required position which is the most consistent with the available evidence is that of historical fulfillment rather than futurized fulfillment.
“These brethren represent the prevailing view of the historical true Christian Church until the 19th century.”
This could not even possibly be further from the truth.
While JRG was indeed able to find one man with at least some historicist teachings in the church’s first two centuries, and two from the fourth century, This was the minority opinion up to at least the fifth century. For in the fifth century the very famous Jerome, who wrote in the fifth century that, "We should therefore concur with the traditional interpretation of all the commentators of the Christian Church, that at the end of the world, when the Roman Empire is to be destroyed, there shall be ten kings who will partition the Roman world amongst themselves. Then an insignificant eleventh king will arise, who will overcome three of the ten kings, ..." (Jerome’s comments on Daniel 7:8, as found in “Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel,” translated by Gleason L. Archer, Jr., published by Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1958.)
So here we find one of the best known of the highly respected early Church writers, flatly stating in the fifth century, that futurism is “the traditional interpretation of all the commentators of the Christian Church.” This, in and by itself, is the death knell to this false claim. For according to Jerome, futurism was so universally accepted in the fifth century, that the few exceptions that existed were not even worth mentioning.
And based entirely on comments I have personally found in the works of early Church writers, I can assuredly say that:
A future millennium was clearly taught at least by Papias, Justyn Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertulian, Hyppolytus, Commodianus, Lactantius, Nepos, Apollinaris and Victorinus of Petau.
A future coming of a personal Antichrist was taught at least by the unknown writer of the “Epistle of Barnabas,” as well as by Justyn Martyr, Irenaeus, Hyppolytus, Tertullian, Commodianus, Cyprian of Carthage, John of Damascus, Cyril of Jerusalem, John of Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine of Hippo.
A future dissolution of the Roman Empire into ten kingdoms was taught at least by Justyn Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hyppolytus, Victorinus, Commodianus, Lactantius, and Jerome.
God's dealing with mankind in various dispensations (yes, they used that word) was clearly taught by at least by Irenaeus, Hermas, and Ignatius.
A delayed fulfillment of Daniel's seventieth week was taught at least by the unkown writer of the so-called "Epistle of Barnabas," as well as by Irenaeus and Hyppolytus.
And William C Watson, a University Professor of seventeenth abd eighteenth century English Literature, identified more than 40 English writers between the years 1585 and 1797, who taught a future rebirth of the nation of Israel. And 26 of these wrote before the year 1700. So all of them wrote before Darby was born in 1800, and 26 of them wrote more than 100 years before he was born. (“Dispensationalism Before Darby” by William C. Watson, pg. 280.)
And, as a side note, he also listed, on page 130 of the same book, more than forty English writers on Bible prophecy who used the word “Dispensations” between the years 1538 and 1797, and on page 178, sixteen between the years 1641 and 1761, each of whom taught that the saints would be removed from the earth well before the Lord came to judge the world for its evil.
