My friend, what you posted is not "hard proof". It is rather taking quotes out-of-context of Church theological history. Though it is true that some of the Church Fathers were premillennialists, including Irenaeus and Justin Martyr, they were not dispensationalists (which is the theory behind the rapture idea today, and which began with people like Darby). Irenaeus and Martyr viewed the Catholic Church as the New Israel. Perhaps most importantly, they did not understand the Church to be an invisible, spiritual entity that would be taken secretly from the earth before the final events of the world, which is the dispensational rapture theory. The idea of this kind of Rapture would have been completely foreign to them.
In addition, premillennialism was never a universal teaching of the Catholic Church, and by the fifth century it was no longer held by any of the Fathers.
Also, opinions of individual Church Fathers did not and does not necessarily constitute the official teaching of the Church at the time, nor now.
You are entirely correct in saying that the church ceased to teach premillennsm, although you are quite incorrect in saying that “by the fifth century it was no longer held by any of the Fathers.”
But you are misrepresenting church history in saying that “some of the Church Fathers were premillennialists.” The hard fact is that there is absolutely no Christian writer previous to Origen who denied a literal millennium, and whose works have been preserved. And you need to remember that Origen was originally condemned as an heretic.
So the hard fact is that every Christian writer who commented on the subject during the first two centuries of the church clearly taught premillennism. This included Papias (c.110-140) , Justyn Martyr (c. 150-160), Irenaeus (c.186-188), Tertullian (c. 207-208), and Hyppolytus (c.202-211). And after the church’s first two centuries, we find Commodianus (c. 240), Nepos (c. 250-260), Victorinus (c.270), Lactantius (c. 304-311), and Apollinaris (c.310-390).
Other early premillennists whose works I have not personally found, but have been referenced by others include Aviricius Marcellus (c.163), Methodius (died c. 311), and Gaudentius (c. 387-410).
(Note: I do not consider myself an expert on dates. All the dates I have given are approximate, and are strictly the opinions of others.)
Additionally, I most certainly did not say that any ancient Christian writer was a dispensationalist. But, although I did not say it in this thread, these early writers actually taught what would today be considered a strange mixture of Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology, their works containing most of the essential elements of both systems of doctrine.
But you are entirely incorrect that Irenaeus did not teach a rapture before the great tribulation. I did not go into it in this thread, but I have published detailed analyses of the entire end time scenario he constructed. And there can be zero doubt that:
1. Irenaeus saw only a 3-1/2 year tribulation, which he saw as the last half of Daniel’s seventieth week.
2. Irenaeus clearly taught that the church would be “suddenly caught up” before this “great tribulation.”
3. Irenaeus taught that this event would take place after the Antichrist came to power, and after he had “put the church to flight,” but that it would take place before the Antichrist began to destroy the world. And he called this period in which the Antichrist would destoy the world the “great tribuation.”
4. At the point in his scenario where Irenaeus said that the church would be “suddenly caught up,” he distinctly changed the nouns and pronouns he used in regard to those passing through these times. Up to that point he always used words such as “the church,” “we,” or “us.” But after this point in his scenario, he used only terms like “the righteous,” “they,” “them,” and “those.” This distinct change ih his use of nouns and pronouns proves that he really meant what he appeared to have been saying, when he spoke of the wickedness of the world in general terms, and then said, "And therefore, 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.'For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when they overcome they are crowned with incorruption.'"
