Modern times
Amillennialism has been widely held in the
Eastern and
Oriental Orthodox Churches as well as in the
Roman Catholic Church, which generally embraces an
Augustinian eschatology and which has deemed that premillennialism "cannot safely be taught."
I just learned more on what Augustinian eschatology is and the history of Amillennialism..............
https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-15/augustines-millenial-views.html
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Many Roman citizens blamed the sack on Christianity, which had displaced paganism as the state religion. Angry pagans argued that the old religion had been betrayed.
Word spread quickly that defeat had come because the pagan deities were offended by all this Christianizing, and that Alaric was their chastisement.
To answer these accusations, Augustine composed his great treatise,
The City of God. In the first part he reminds pagan accusers that Rome had suffered catastrophes long before the advent of Christianity. He suggests it was not Christianity that brought Rome to her knees, but decadence within.
However, Augustine’s great work contains a good deal more than a simple response to accusations against Christianity. He seizes the opportunity to set forth a Christian philosophy of history. ...................
https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/1188/2335
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Abstract
This article dealt with the church father Augustine’s view on history and eschatology. After analysing the relevant material (especially his
City of God and the correspondence with a certain Hesyschius) it was concluded that, firstly, Augustine was no historian in the usual sense of the word; secondly, his concept of
historia sacra was the heuristic foundation for his idea of history; thirdly, the present is not to be described in the terms of
historia sacra, which implies that he took great care when pointing out any instances of ‘God’s hand in history’; fourthly, the end times have already started, with the advent of Jesus Christ; fifthly, because of the uniqueness of Christ’s coming, it runs counter to any cyclical worldview; sixthly, identifying any exact moment of the end of times is humanly impossible and seventhly, there is no room for any ‘chiliastic’ expectation.....................
https://bible.org/article/theology-adrift-early-church-fathers-and-their-views-eschatology
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Chapter Five:
The Paradigm Shift:
From Premillennialism to Amillennialism
Philip Schaff, no dispensational premillennialist, observed that "the most striking point in the eschatology of the ante-Nicene age is the prominent chiliasm, or millennarianism, that is the belief of a visible reign of Christ in glory on earth with the risen saints for a thousand years, before the general resurrection and judgment."
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Schaff noted that the hope of Christ's imminent return "through the whole age of persecution, was a copious fountain of encouragement and comfort under the pains of that martyrdom which sowed in blood the seed of a bountiful harvest for the church."
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Even church fathers who committed other errors discussed above, such as Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian, remained committed premillennialists. For example, Clement of Rome conspicuously combined premillennialism with a clear belief in the imminency of Christ's return. He wrote:
Of a truth, soon and suddenly shall His will be accomplished, as the Scripture also bears witness, saying, Speedily will He come, and will not tarry; and, The Lord shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Holy One, for whom ye look.
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Barnabas, an early member of the Alexandrian school who otherwise spiritualized the Old Testament, expressly taught a millennial reign of Christ on the earth:.............................
