Pretorism, futurism and prophecy?

[kclapp]

I'm rather confused on the issue of prophecy with respect to the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Revelation. With ideas like pretorism, futurism, and some of the others I'm not so familiar with, all abounding out here, could someone tell me whether or not there was a consensus within the early church (lets say second or third century) on whether the prophecies in the Olivet Discourse and Revelation had occurred? If there was some consensus, what was it? When did the ideas of pretorism and futurism actually come about?

Any recommendations on reading materials with respect to these ideas would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Karl

[dizzle]

Hi Karl. I am a preterist (orthodox). No there is no consensus in the early church though there was not (that I can see) anything close to the systemized preterism of today. The most common eschatology in the very early church seems close to what we would call historic premillennialism. The one thing that we can say is that the early church was definitively non-dispensational. There is evidence that there were differences on the millennium very early and that certain portions of the Discourse and Revelation were preterized - for that matter, futurized and historicized. The early church was not terribly consistent in some points except for the certainty of Christ's victory, the certainty of His return, and the certainty of the bodily resurrection - the three things that we must be certain of today.

If you would like further reading on the preterist side of things, I would recommend my site, http://www.preteristsite.com

And get your baloney detector out when listening to anyone, preterist, futurist, or historicist. When one side tries to claim the ECF as exclusively their own, they are generally full of it.

[Secretary of Education - Colin the Cat]

I'm rather confused on the issue of prophecy with respect to the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Revelation. With ideas like pretorism, futurism, and some of the others I'm not so familiar with, all abounding out here, could someone tell me whether or not there was a consensus within the early church (lets say second or third century) on whether the prophecies in the Olivet Discourse and Revelation had occurred? If there was some consensus, what was it? When did the ideas of pretorism and futurism actually come about?

Any recommendations on reading materials with respect to these ideas would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Karl
Dee Dee is correct, although I find more chilliasm (a type of futurism) in some of the early fathers. It was not a systematic thing for them, as Dee Dee also said. They were certain that Christ ascended in victory, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and that He would return to judge the world in Glory. The certainty of the future bodily resurrection was also a central tenet of their belief. There were elements of preterism too, as some of the fathers thought most of the prophecies of Daniel were fulfilled, yet there were also some distinctly futurist ideas too. I always found chapter 16 of the Didache to be interesting. Read it here: http://ministries.tliquest.net/theology/apocryphas/nt/didache.htm

This is a touchy topic, and one that should not trouble you too much. Just study the resources andmake your mind up when you feel convinced of one of the positions. Eschatology is not a salvation issue, unless it denies one of the essentials, like the bodily resurrection of Jesus or the future resurrection of man.

[National Intelligence Director Phoenix]

I'd like to thank DeeDee (Darth Xena) and Bill for coming seeing as they are both recognized in their eschatological views. I also agree that you should go to the eschatology forum and just hear the different views as well as if this is a subject that really interests you, read books about them.