THROUGH TRIBULATION
TO
EVERLASTING LIFE: HISTORICAL PREMILLENNIALISM
Church Fathers’ Views On the Millennium Papias % Born before AD 70
% “After the resurrection of the dead, there will be a Millennium, when the personal reign of the Messiah will be established on this earth. … All animals, feeding only on what the earth itself produces, will become peaceable and harmonious, submitting themselves to humanity.”169 % Disciple of the % Papias did not expect deceased Christians to be raised from the dead by Apostle John means of a pre-tribulation rapture; he expected the resurrection to take place immediately before the millennium, after every tribulation ends. Justin Martyr % Born around AD 103 % Christian philosopher and apologist
% “The man of apostasy, who speaks strange things against the Most High, will venture to do unlawful deeds on the earth against us, the Christians. … I and others—who are right-minded Christians on all points—are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and one thousand years in Jerusalem, which will at that time be built, adorned, and enlarged.”170 % Justin expected “us, the Christians” to be on earth during the great tribulation.
Irenaeus of Lyons % Born in the AD 100’s
% “Ten kings shall give their kingdom to the beast and cause the church to flee. … After the Antichrist has devastated all things in this world, he will reign for three years and six months.”171
% Irenaeus was certain that the church would be on the earth during the forty-two months of tribulation described by John in Revelation % Student of (11:2; 13:5). Polycarp, who was a disciple % He also clearly anticipated an earthly millennial kingdom. Irenaeus of the recorded this tradition that he received through Polycarp from the apostle Apostle John. John: “In those days, vines will grow with ten thousand branches. In each true twig will be ten thousand shoots, and in each cluster will be ten thousand grapes. Every pressed grape will produce twenty-five measures of wine. When any of the holy ones takes hold of a cluster, another will cry out, ‘I am a better cluster, take me! Bless the Lord through me.’”172 Although the idea of talking grape vines is a little strange—to be fair, it’s almost certainly symbolic language—it is clear that, for Irenaeus, the millennium was future and physical. Tertullian of Carthage
% A generation after Irenaeus, Tertullian of Carthage declared that, near the end of time, “the beast antichrist will wage war on the church of God. … We agree that a kingdom is promised to us on earth, before heaven.”173 % Born in AD 160 % According to Tertullian, the Antichrist would persecute the church prior to % Christian an earthly millennial kingdom. theologian and apologist 327