The 2 nd Coming of Christ Historical developments in eschatology 1 st -5 th Centuries (Roman Empire) Part 1 Part 2 6 th -16 th Centuries (Europe) Part 1 Part 2 17 th -18 th Centuries (England) 19 th -20 th Centuries (America)
Part 2: 4 th -5 th Centuries Roman Empire
100 AD 200 AD 300 AD 400 AD Hippolytus Papias Tertullian Origen Justin Martyr Cyprian Ignatius Irenaeus Lactantius Eusebius Tyconius Augustine Lyons -Irenaeus (130-202) Rome -Hippolytus (70-155) -Justin Martyr (100-165) -Lactantius (240-320) -Eusebius (263-339) Carthage -Tertullian (160-225) -Cyprian (200-258) -Tyconius (?) (370-400) Hippo Regis -Augustine (354-430) Hieropolis -Papias (70-155) Alexandria -Origen (184-253) Antioch -Ignatius (35-107)
the world is failing, passing away, and it witnesses to its ruin not now by the age, but by the end of things... Review Eschatological Characteristics of the 1 st -3 rd Centuries 1. Expectation of the immediacy of Christ s Return the world was dying from a general depletion of its natural forces, and so showing the cumulative effects of sin
We will not, however, incur the risk of pronouncing positively as to the name of Antichrist; for if it were necessary that his name should be distinctly revealed in this present time, it would have been announced by him who Review Eschatological Characteristics of the 1 st -3 rd Centuries 2. Christ s 2 nd coming would be preceded by the revelation of the Antichrist and the persecution of the Church
Review Eschatological Characteristics of the 1 st -3 rd Centuries 3. A literal 1,000 year reign of Christ would follow His return But we do confess that a kingdom is promised to us upon the earth, although before heaven, only in another state of existence; inasmuch as it will be after the resurrection for a thousand years in the divinely-built city of Jerusalem.
Review Eschatological Characteristics of the 1 st -3 rd Centuries 1. Expectation of the immediacy of Christ s Return 2. Christ s 2 nd coming would be preceded by the revelation of the Antichrist and the persecution of the Church [W]e [who have put our faith in Jesus Christ] are the true Israelitic -Post-tribulational race. -Pre-millennial -Not dispensational 3. A literal 1,000 year reign of Christ would follow His return
Jeremiah 31:10-14 Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare in the coastlands afar off, and say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock." For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, and they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD-- over the grain and the new wine and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; and their life will be like a watered garden, and they will never languish again. Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together, for I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow. I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness," declares the LORD.
Ezekiel 28:25, 26 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and will manifest My holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they will live in their land which I gave to My servant Jacob. They will live in it securely; and they will build houses, plant vineyards and live securely when I execute judgments upon all who scorn them round about them. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God."
Daniel 7:27 'Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.'
Revelation 20:1-6 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with
The Book of Rules by Tyconius 1 st Rule: Christ and His body Genesis 22:18 "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." Galatians 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, And to seeds, as referring to many, but rather to one, And to your seed, that is, Christ. Psalm 105:6 O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! Acts 3:25 "It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, 'AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.'
The Book of Rules by Tyconius 1 st Rule: Christ and His body 2 nd Rule: Mixed nature of the visible church
when God says of the good part of the Church, "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight: these things will I do unto them, and not forsake them;"[isaiah 42:16] He immediately adds in regard to the other part, the bad that is mixed with the good, "They shall be turned back." Now these words refer to a set of persons altogether different from the former; but as the two sets are for the present united in one body, He speaks as if there were no change in the subject of the sentence. They will not, however, always he in one body; for one of them is that wicked servant of whom we are told in the gospel, whose lord, when he comes, "shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites." (Christian Doctrine, Book 4, Chapter 32)
The Book of Rules by Tyconius 1 st Rule: Christ and His body 2 nd Rule: Mixed nature of the visible church 3 rd Rule: Law and grace
The Book of Rules by Tyconius 1 st Rule: Christ and His body 2 nd Rule: Mixed nature of the visible church 3 rd Rule: Law and grace 4 th Rule: The general and the specific
The Book of Rules by Tyconius 1 st Rule: Christ and His body 2 nd Rule: Mixed nature of the visible church 3 rd Rule: Law and grace 4 th Rule: The general and the specific 5 th Rule: On time Psalm 119:164 Seven times a day I praise You, Because of Your righteous ordinances.
The Book of Rules by Tyconius 1 st Rule: Christ and His body 2 nd Rule: Mixed nature of the visible church 3 rd Rule: Law and grace 4 th Rule: The general and the specific 5 th Rule: On time 6 th Rule: Recapitulation
The Book of Rules by Tyconius 1 st Rule: Christ and His body 2 nd Rule: Mixed nature of the visible church 3 rd Rule: Law and grace 4 th Rule: The general and the specific 5 th Rule: On time 6 th Rule: Recapitulation 7 th Rule: Satan and his body
Accordingly, as the first rule, which is called of the Lord and His body, directs us, when Scripture speaks of one and the same person, to take pains to understand which part of the statement applies to the head and which to the body; so this last rule shows us that statements are sometimes made about the devil, whose truth is not so evident in regard to himself as in regard to his body; and his body is made up not only of those who are manifestly out of the way, but of those also who, though they really belong to him, are for a time mixed up with the Church, until they depart from this life, or until the chaff is separated from the wheat at the last great winnowing. (Christian Doctrine, Book 4, Chapter 37)
He also explained the whole Apocalypse of John, understanding all of it in a spiritual sense, nothing carnally. In this exposition he said that the body [of man] is the dwelling-place of an angel. He denied the idea of a kingdom of the righteous on earth lasting a thousand years after the resurrection. Nor did he admit two future resurrections of the dead in the flesh, one of the good and one of the bad, but only one of all, in which the misbegotten and deformed will rise too, so that no part of the human race ever animated by a soul shall perish. He showed the distinction of the resurrection really to be that we must believe that there is a revelation of the righteous now in this world, when those justified by faith rise by baptism from the death of sin to the reward of the eternal life, and the second [resurrection] to be the general one of all flesh. (Of Famous Men, Chapter 18)
[His] moral-typological reading of Revelation frees him to deploy its rich imagery in the service of his major exegetical projects: to demonstrate the unity of Old and New Testament, to resolve seemingly contradictory scriptural passages, to guide the reading through the immense forest of prophecy. The use of an apocalyptic image therefore no longer indicates an apocalyptic message. Thus Tyconius can, for example, agree with his Donatist colleagues that their persecution was indeed foretold by Scripture. But is it then the End of the world? No. Surely, the raising of the Son of Man, the peace of the Church after 350 years of struggle, may have finally come. But for Tyconius, this event might indicate not the End of the Time, but the fortuitous accession of a sympathetic Roman official in a period of severe anti- Donatist legislation. In any case, it would not occasion millenarian calculations. (Paula Fredricksen, Tyconius and the End of the World, 73)
The City of God by Augustine Those who, on the strength of this passage, have suspected that the first resurrection is future and bodily, have been moved, among other things, specially by the number of a thousand years, as if it were a fit thing that the saints should thus enjoy a kind of Sabbath-rest during that period, a holy leisure after the labors of the six thousand years since man was created, and was on account of his great sin dismissed from the blessedness of paradise into the woes of this mortal life, so that thus, as it is written, "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," 2 Peter 3:8 there should follow on the completion of six thousand years, as of six days, a kind of seventh-day Sabbath in the succeeding thousand years; and that it is for this purpose the saints rise, viz., to celebrate this Sabbath. And this opinion would not be objectionable, if it were believed that the joys of the saints in that Sabbath shall be spiritual, and consequent on the presence of God; for I myself, too, once held this opinion. But, as they assert that those who then rise again shall enjoy the leisure of immoderate carnal banquets, furnished with an amount of meat and drink such as not only to shock the feeling of the temperate, but even to surpass the measure of credulity itself, such assertions can be believed only by the carnal. They who do believe them are called by the spiritual Chiliasts, which we may literally reproduce by the name Millenarians. It were a tedious process to refute these opinions point by point: we prefer proceeding to show how that passage of Scripture should be understood. (Book 20, Chapter 7)
The City of God by Augustine The binding of Satan Satan s power is restrained at Christ s 1 st coming 1,000 years the Church age between Christ s 1 st and 2 nd coming The reign of the saints the Church militant The 1 st resurrection the new birth The loosening Satan a brief tribulational period before the 2 nd coming of Christ