PRETERISM AND THE EARLY CHURCH Part l by Charles S. Meek Some say that there were no preterists in the early church. That is incorrect. Eusebius, for example, was an important witness. I read all of Eusebius’ books in researching my own book. Here are my conclusions about the eschatological views of Eusebius: One prominent preterist commentator from the early church was the historian and church leader Eusebius of Caesarea (born c. AD 260/263; died c. AD 339/341). He is considered the Father of Church History and became the Bishop of Caesarea in about the year 314. Given his testimony and influence as an historian, it is likely that there were other preterists in the early church. In his work Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius specifically belittled the millennialist views of certain early writers, thoroughly rejecting the idea of a corporeal reign of Christ on earth during a literal millennium. Among Eusebius’ other writings are these two works, The Proof of the Gospel (“Demonstratio Evangelica”) and Theophania. In these books he touched on various aspects of fulfilled prophecy. By tracking the thread of eschatological comments throughout his writing, we can reasonably conclude that Eusebius believed that at least all of the following things were fulfilled by AD 70: • the Second Coming of Christ (at least in some sense) • the Great Tribulation • the Abomination of Desolation • the Day of the Lord • the Days of Vengeance and judgment upon Israel • the “time of the end”/ “end of the world” • the ushering in of the new covenant/kingdom of heaven • the Great Commission (gospel having been preached to the whole world) Other writers in the early church expressed beliefs that certain events associated with the Second Coming were fulfilled by AD 70, such as the abomination of desolation, the great tribulation, the last days, the end of the age, the arrival of the kingdom, the arrival of the new heaven and new earth, the arrival of the New Jerusalem, the preaching of the gospel to the whole world, the general resurrection of the dead, the destruction of death, Daniel’s 70th week, and the cessation of charismatic gifts. So, the basic outline of full preterism is found in many writings of the apostolic fathers. We preterists argue that our views are completely consistent with Jesus and his disciples. That is, the ideas which are represented by preterists were the views of the New Testament writers themselves, who expected the fulfillment of all biblical prophecy to take place in their generation. So we preterists feel that we are in good company! (For more about this, see our Facebook site Evangelical Preterism.)
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 13:30:08 +0000
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