Randy Kluth
Well-Known Member
We cannot base anything on speculation and silence.
There is more than silence and speculation. For example, Lactantius Divine Institutions ch. 72:
Then the heaven shall be opened in a tempest, and Christ shall descend with great power, and there shall go before Him a fiery brightness and a countless host of angels, and all that multitude of the wicked shall be destroyed, and torrents of blood shall flow, and the leader himself shall escape, and having often renewed his army, shall for the fourth time engage in battle, in which, being taken, with all the other tyrants, he shall be delivered up to be burnt. But the prince also of the demons himself, the author and contriver of evils, being bound with fiery chains, shall be imprisoned, that the world may receive peace, and the earth, harassed through so many years, may rest. Therefore peace being made, and every evil suppressed, that righteous King and Conqueror will institute a great judgment on the earth respecting the living and the dead, and will deliver all the nations into subjection to the righteous who are alive, and will raise the righteous dead to eternal life, and will Himself reign with them on the earth, and will build the holy city, and this kingdom of the righteous shall be for a thousand years. Throughout that time the stars shall be more brilliant, and the brightness of the sun shall be increased, and the moon shall not be subject to decrease. Then the rain of blessing shall descend from God at morning and evening, and the earth shall bring forth all her fruit without the labour of men. Honey shall drop from rocks, fountains of milk and wine shall abound. The beasts shall lay aside their ferocity and become mild, the wolf shall roam among the flocks without doing harm, the calf shall feed with the lion, the dove shall be united with the hawk, the serpent shall have no poison; no animal shall live by bloodshed. For God shall supply to all abundant and harmless food. But when the thousand years shall be fulfilled, and the prince of the demons loosed, the nations will rebel against the righteous, and an innumerable multitude will come to storm the city of the saints. Then the last judgment of God will come to pass against the nations. For He will shake the earth from its foundations, and the cities shall be overthrown, and He shall rain upon the wicked fire with brimstone and hail, and they shall be on fire, and slay each other. But the righteous shall for a little space be concealed under the earth, until the destruction of the nations is accomplished, and after the third day they shall come forth, and see the plains covered with carcasses. Then there shall be an earthquake, and the mountains shall be rent, and valleys shall sink down to a profound depth, and into this the bodies of the dead shall be heaped together, and its name shall be called Polyandrion. After these things God will renew the world, and transform the righteous into the forms of angels, that, being presented with the garment of immortality, they may serve God for ever; and this will be the kingdom of God, which shall have no end. Then also the wicked shall rise again, not to life but to punishment; for God shall raise these also, when the second resurrection takes place, that, being condemned to eternal torments and delivered to eternal fires, they may suffer the punishments which they deserve for their crimes.
It is not speculation to admit that Lactantius got this understanding from somewhere, and to trace his beliefs through previous teachings, both among the Church Fathers and in the Scriptures. We must ask ourselves:
Where did he get the "thousand year Millennium" if not from Rev 20?
Where did he get the idea that the continuation of sin and mortality on earth is not irreconcilable with a thousand years of general blessedness on earth, particularly on behalf of the righteous?
Where did he get the idea that evil is suppressed during the Millennium if not from Rev 20 and perhaps from the Church Fathers before him?
Where did he get the idea that the great destruction of wickedness at the Coming of Christ is not irreconcilable with a continuation of mortal humanity on earth? Clearly, belief in widespread and final judgment against the forces of Antichrist does not necessarily mean the end of humanity? He had to have gotten this from Revelation and perhaps from previous Chiliasts.
Where did he get the idea that Christ will reign with his glorified saints on earth during the Millennium if not from Rev 20 and from earlier Chiliasts.
Where did he get the idea that the judgment of the whole world under Antichrist at the 2nd Coming is not incompatible with another full cleansing of the earth at the end of the Millennium if not from Rev 20 and perhaps from earlier Chiliasts.
To stand alone with all of these thoughts, with not a peep from Amils claiming this is a twist on other previous Chiliast versions is telling. And it is not unduly speculative to think that Lactantius had access to earlier Chiliast works. Some think he learned from Irenaeus' works.
They do believe these very old covenant sin sacrifices will literally return. They are either efficacious or they are a circus.
I'll go with "circus."
Not ‘Replacement Theology’ but ‘Expansion Theology’. As we have already established: it is you that promotes Replacement Theology by your replacement of ethnic Israel with the ethnic Gentile nations. Amils see the NT Church as the expansion of true faithful believing Israel.
We're playing "pin the tag on the donkey." RT has a set definition, and cannot be "turned around" and applied differently. If you think the Church has superseded Israel, then you're a super-secessionist, or RT advocate.
The sad fact is: most Premillennialists today promote the return of the old covenant arrangement.
I don't believe you've proved that in doing so they are cancelling out the atoning death of Christ for their sins, and replacing it with OT sacrifices.
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