The Rise of Millennialism.
(especially premillennialism.)
A several years ago, I began to reevaluate the teachings of premillennialism. In Churches of Christ, I had always been taught that premillennialism was just a false doctrine that was taught by the denominations. The interesting thing, to me, was that it made a lot of sense. It allowed scriptures to be taken a face value rather than having to be interpreted to fit the nothings of amillennialism (or no millennium). In my early years, I spent a lot of time studying the book of Revelation. As a youngster, under the age of twelve, I remember being fascinated by the book of Revelation.
As I grew older, I began to restudy this book, but the views of premillennialism seemed to make a lot of sense. Then in course of time, I began to find that premillennialism was the teaching of the early church. There are many sources that support this idea. One of the books that first caught my attention was the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. I highly recommend that you read the entire article. At one time, I had permission to reproduce the entire article on my website, but the permission was for one year. After asking once to have my year extended, I decided not to ask again, but to cut my quotations to the 250 word limit.
Below are excerpts from this article which I think make it clear that amillennialism, which is the accepted teaching of most Church of Christ preachers, is actually the product of the Roman Catholic Church. Examine the excerpts below--check out the entire article, and I think you will have to admit that we cannot cling to the amillennial point of view because it was the teaching of the early church. For more articles, go to Articles About the Millennial Reign of Christ
Taken from: Views of the Millennium by R. C. Clouse
from Evangelical Dictionary of Theology
"The Rise of Millennialism. Early millennial teaching was characterized by an apocalyptic emphasis. In this view the future kingdom of God would be established through a series of dramatic, unusual events. Such teaching has been kept alive throughout the Christian era by certain types of premillennialism.. . . . The early Christians also embraced this outlook.
". . . Expressed in a form that has been called historic premillennialism, this hope seems to have been the prevailing eschatology during the first three centuries of the Christian era, and is found in the works of Papias, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Methodius, Commodianus, and Lactantius. .
"Several forces worked to undermine the millennialism of the early church. . . . Another influence which encouraged a change of eschatological views was the emphasis of Origen upon the manifestation of the kingdom within the soul of the believer rather than in the world.
Medieval and Reformation Millennialism.
"In the new age, brought in by the acceptance of Christianity as the main religion of the Roman Empire, it was Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, who articulated the amillennial view which dominated Western Christian thought during the Middle Ages. The millennium, according to his interpretation, referred to the church in which Christ reigned with his saints. . . . Augustine's allegorical interpretation became the official doctrine of the church during the medieval period." (Emphasis added by Harley Pinon)
Articles About the Millennial Reign of Christ