Virtually everyone who wrote on this topic for the first two to three hundred years of the church's history was a Millennialist. The list would include individuals like: Clement of Rome, who wrote a letter to an early church around AD 95; (13) Ignatius of Antioch, who is said to have been a disciple of the Apostles John and Peter. Early church tradition tells us that he was thrown to lions in AD 107); 14) Theophilus of Antioch (AD 115-181), who wrote one of the first accounts of primitive church history; (15) Tatian of Assyria, who died in AD 167; Melito, Bishop of Sardis, who died in AD 170; Clemens Alexandrinus, who was a contemporary of Justin Martyr; Hippolytus, a disciple of Irenaeus was martyred in AD 230 for his faith. Victorinus, Bishop of Pettau who died in AD 303; Methodius, Bishop of Tyre died in AD 311; an Egyptian bishop named Nepos of the third century; Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage was martyred in AD 258; and Commodians, a Christian historian, who wrote about AD 250. (16) Others could be added to the list.
"BUT WE DO CONFESS THAT A KINGDOM IS PROMISED TO US ON EARTH, ALTHOUGH BEFORE HEAVEN, ONLY IN ANOTHER STATE OF EXISTENCE..."
-- Tertullian (c. 155-230)
CONCLUSION
It is generally recognized within the scholarly world of early church historians that premillennialism was the most widely held view of the earliest church tradition. One of the leading experts on the doctrine of the early church is J. N. D. Kelly, who says, "millenarianism, or the theory that the returned Christ would reign on earth for a thousand years came to find increasing support among Christian teachers...This millenarian, or 'chiliastic' doctrine was widely popular at this time." (17) "The great theologians who followed the Apologists, lrenaeus, Tertullian and Hippolytus, were primarily concerned to defend the traditional eschatological scheme against Gnosticism," explains Kelly. "They are all exponents of millenarianism." (18)