Remember, the ECFs after AD 70 were not inspired in their writings as were the apostles. We must prefer the apostolic teaching over later inventions where they are shown to be in contradiction.
Proximity to an apostle hardly guarantees correctness of doctrine.
Even the apostles' own congregations were making many errors, as we read all through the NT. How much more have later generations made errors? And remember, both Amillennialism and Millennialism grew up together within 100 years after the death of the apostles--these two teachings are entirely opposed to one another. The ECFs of AD 30-70 alone were inspired.
The apostles and Christ unanimously taught a first-century return, and confirmed it when the tribulation, apostasy, man of sin, antichrist, and return to the Asia Minor churches took place. There is no way to make the bible say otherwise. We have the apostolic confirmation of it in the Holy Bible.
The ECFs were not inspired, and unfortunately we are hard pressed to see them agree on much of anything. We can't find agreement from the ECFs on the nature of Christ, on the ministries and fate of the early apostles, on the canon of scripture, on the Trinity, on the Millennium, on much of anything. It took the councils and creeds of the 300s-400s to begin to establish unity in what we now think of as "essentials of doctrine." All those things were discussed for three centuries, but the broad diversity of opinion and disagreement on those topics among beloved ECFs is dizzying.
In contrast, Preterists hold that the "ECFs" of the years AD 30-70 were authoritative, consistent, and inspired of the Holy Spirit in their doctrine and scriptures. While preterists love the later ECFs as much as futurists do--and find much support for strong partial preterism among the ECFs as well--we still recognize that they were not inspired nor reliable from any consensus standpoint.
If you want the truth, you must trust the ECFs of AD 30-70 that wrote the New Testament letters.
Indeed, the ECFs were not inspired, for their interpretations of eschatological passages in regards to the end of the world in association with the dissolution of the Roman Empire never came to pass.
it’s not hard to see, considering the ecfs interpretation of Daniel 7, as to why the ecfs would associate the end of the world with the end of the Roman Empire, as they actually lived during the Roman Empire….. BUT that has come and gone.
(Interestingly enough while the vision of Daniel 7 has the 4th beast destroyed, the angels interpretation of said vision does not)
So….do we continue to push the goal posts back, and if so, what scriptural evidence do we base it on considering the ecfs beliefs failed to come to pass?
"...
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, ..." - st Jerome
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“ However, it is not absurd to believe that these words of the apostle, "Only he who now holdeth, let him hold until he be taken out of the way,"
refer to the Roman empire, as if it were said, "Only he who now reigneth, let him reign until he be taken out of the way." "And then shall the wicked be revealed:" no one doubts that this means Antichrist.” - st. Augustine
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“Only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way,"
that is, when the Roman empire is taken out of the way, then he shall come. And naturally. For as long as the fear of this empire lasts, no one will willingly exit himself, but when that is dissolved, he will attack the anarchy, and endeavor to seize upon the government both of man and of God.
For as the kingdoms before this were destroyed, for example, that of the Medes by the Babylonians, that of the Babylonians by the Persians, that of the Persians by the Macedonians, that of the Macedonians by the Romans: so will this also be by the Antichrist, and he by Christ, and it will no longer withhold. And these things Daniel delivered to us with great clearness.” - chrysostom
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“But this aforesaid Antichrist is to come
when the times of the Roman empire shall have been fulfilled, and the end of the world is now drawing near. There shall rise up together ten kings of the Romans, reigning in different parts perhaps, but all about the same time; and after these an eleventh, the Antichrist, who by his magical craft shall seize upon the Roman power; and of the kings who reigned before him, three he shall humble, and the remaining seven he shall keep in subjection to himself.” - Cyril of Jerusalem
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“These are the things which are spoken of by the prophets as about to happen hereafter: ...
The subject itself declares that the fall and ruin of the world will shortly take place; except that while the city of Rome remains it appears that nothing of this kind is to be feared. But when that capital of the world shall have fallen, and shall have begun to be a street, which the Sibyls say shall come to pass, who can doubt that the end has now arrived to the affairs of men and the whole world?” - lactantius
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“The golden head of the image and the lioness denoted the Babylonians; the shoulders and arms of silver, and the bear, represented the Persians and Medes; the belly and thighs of brass, and the leopard, meant the Greeks, who held the sovereignty from Alexander's time; the legs of iron,
and the beast dreadful and terrible, expressed the Romans, who hold the sovereignty at present; the toes of the feet which were part clay and part iron, and the ten horns, were emblems of the kingdoms that are yet to rise; the other little horn that grows up among them meant the Antichrist in their midst; the stone that smites the earth and brings judgment upon the world was Christ.” Hippolytus
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“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now hinders must hinder, until he be taken out of the way."
What obstacle is there but the Roman state, the falling away of which, by being scattered into ten kingdoms, shall introduce Antichrist upon (its own ruins)? "And then shall be revealed the wicked one, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish."- tertullian
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“John and Daniel have predicted the
dissolution and desolation of the Roman Empire, which shall precede the end of the world and the eternal Kingdom of Christ. The Gnostics are refuted, those tools of Satan, who invent another Father different from the Creator.
In a still clearer light has John, in the Apocalypse, indicated to the Lord's disciples what shall happen in the last times, and
concerning the ten kings who shall then arise, among whom the empire which now rules [the earth] shall be partitioned. He teaches us what the ten horns shall be which were seen by Daniel”- irenaeus
