Justin Martyr - not a posterboy for Dispie Premills
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by dee dee on 20-09-2007
Tagged Under : book excerpts, Early Church Fathers
JUSTIN MARTYR - NOT A POSTERBOY FOR DISPIE PREMILLS (pages 350-351 of David B. Currie’s Rapture: The End-Times Error that Leaves the Bible Behind)
Justin Martyr, too, is supposed by some rapturists to have been an early example of premillennialism. But listen to his words, “The Spirit of Prophecy speaks… in this way: ‘For out of Zion shall go forth the law…. And He shall judge among the nations… and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.’ And it did so come to pass, we can convince you. For out of Jerusalem there went out into the world, men, twelve in number, and these illiterate, of no ability in speaking: but by the power of God they proclaimed to every race of men that they were sent by Christ to teach to all the word of God.” Justin Martyr makes it clear that he believed the peace promises of the Old Testament were a present reality.
How do we reconcile this very amillennial (Catholic) statement of Justin Martyr with his supposed reputation as a premillennialist? Actually, I think he was being inconsistent. His basic view is definitely amillennial, because he clearly believed the Kingdom’s benefits were readily available in the Church. Yet the idea that the Messiah would “reign on earth for one thousand years… is rooted deeply in early Jewish apocalyptic tradition.” He adopted the prevailing mindset of the Jewish apocalyptic tradition without thoroughly Christianizing it. As a result, he ended up with a belief system that at points contradicted itself.
Tell that to Jack Van Impe,Hal Lindsay and others they would have you believing that It was the early teachings of the Church Fathers,Justin Martyr in his dialogue with Typho the Jew admitted that many Christians never held his Premillinnial View.He goes as far as admitting that Christians are the true Israel race.He and other Christians held the replacement theology in their own day.I believe that Papias was the first person who is responsible for bringing the Premillennial view into the church according to Eusebius.