TheosGuy

The Apostolic Fathers and the early church were definitely premillennial in their thinking. In fact, Church historian, Phillip Schaff, wrote the following:

The most striking point in the eschatology of the ante-Nicene age is the prominent chiliasm, or millennarianism, that is the belief of a visible reign of Christ in glory on earth with the risen saints for a thousand years, before the general resurrection and judgment. It was indeed not the doctrine of the church embodied in any creed or form of devotion, but a widely current opinion of distinguished teachers, such as Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Methodius, and Lactantius; while Caius, Origen, Dionysius the Great, Eusebius (as afterwards Jerome and Augustin) opposed it.¹

In addition, Thomas Burnet, Royal Chaplain to king William III of England, wrote,

And to make few words of it, we will lay down this conclusion, that the Millennial kingdom of Christ was the general doctrine of the Primitive Church, from the times of the Apostles to the Nicene Council; inclusively.²

Notes:
1. Phillip Schaff. The History of the Christian Church, Vol. 2 (New York: Charles Scribner & Company, 1884), p. 482.

2. Gary Vaterlaus, “Amillennialism vs Premillennialism,” http://rapturenotes.com/amillennialism.html (last visited December 6, 2010), quoting Thomas Burnet, The Sacred Theory of the Earth (London: J. McGowan, 1681), 346.

Tags: Premillennialism