the way you describe the man proves he's not "one of my own".
i am not a dispensationalist.
as far as I'm concerned, dispensationalism itself is the modern day counterpart to Marcionism, and is a heresy
one can be a futurist and not dispensational at the same time.
Irenaeus was a futurist, not a Dispensational futurist.
Irenaeus held to the patristic belief of the "six day theory", a theory that states the six days of creation are also a hidden eschatological symbol for six thousand years of human history, ending with a literal thousand year reign of Christ, constituting not just a literal interpretation, but also a prophetic interpretation fo the creation week:
"For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be concluded. And for this reason the Scripture says: "Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all their adornment. And God brought to a conclusion upon the sixth day the works that He had made; and God rested upon the seventh day from all His works." This is an account of the things formerly created, as also it is a prophecy of what is to come. For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years; and in six days created things were completed: it is evident, therefore, that they will come to an end at the sixth thousand year."
(Irenaeus, Against Heresies V. XXVIII, 3)
this not only proves the early church was premillenial, but also held to futurism.
furthermore:
“In which [temple] the enemy shall sit, endeavoring to show himself as Christ, as the Lord also declares: ‘When you shall see the Abomination of Desolation, which has been spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place’…He shall purpose to change times and laws; and [everything] will be given into his hands until a time, times and half a time: that is for three years and six months, during which time, when he [antichrist] comes, he will reign over the earth…The abomination of desolation [shall be brought] into the Temple; even until the consummation of the time shall the desolation be complete [Dan. 9:27]. Now three years and six months constitute the half-week”
(Against Heresies, Book 5, chs. 25, 26)
Irenaeus also taught that the great tribulation would last 3 1/2 years (contrary to what other certain futurists claim), but that there would be a literal temple built.
furthermore, Hippolytus, the student of Irenaeus, had this to say about the events of Revelation:
"As these things, then, are in the future, and as the ten toes of the image are equivalent to (so many) democracies, and the ten horns of the fourth beast are distributed over ten kingdoms, let us look at the subject a little more closely, and consider these matters as in the clear light of a personal survey. 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: Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, 27,28)
this teaching- that futurism is a Roman Catholic invention- is a lie, plain and simple. 300-400 years before the creation of the Roman Catholic Church, historic premillennialism, or chiliasm was taught
i have references to Lactantius, Victorinus, Hippolytus (whom i quoted earlier), Commodianus, and Justin Martyr... all who lived and died hundres of years prior to the creation of the Roman Catholic Church, who were ALL premillennial and futurist.
