Did Early Church Fathers Reject Postmillennialism? The speaker asserts postmillennialism is biblical, citing Isaiah 65 and Revelation 1, while noting historic premillennialism traces to Irenaeus. He dismisses dispensational premillennialism as a harmful 150-year-old invention by Darby, contrasting it with Eusebius, Origen, Athanasius, and Augustine, who all expected the gospel's global dominion and Christ's peaceful rule before the saints' rest. Ultimately, the discussion promotes an upcoming Right Response Conference featuring Dr. James White and others to further explore these theological foundations. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Early Church Fathers Reject Postmillennialism00:08:25
Is it true that the early church fathers rejected post millennialism?
The answer is no.
Yes, in a sense, but ultimately no.
Okay, so let me read real quick.
Let me read a couple excerpts that I have highlighted here, okay?
As far as our preserved writings go, I just did all that because I first wanted you to see who cares about the church fathers if we're comparing that to the witness of scripture.
First, I wanted you to see.
That post millennialism, I believe, is in the Bible.
And there are multiple other places we could go Isaiah chapter 65, 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
There are many different other things that we could look at.
Revelation chapter 1, we'll look at that here in a moment.
First, I want you to see it's biblical.
Second, I want you to see that it does bear the witness of church history and the early church fathers as well.
Here we go.
Some things that I want to highlight.
As far as our preserved writings go, premillennialism finds a slightly earlier development than post millennialism.
So anybody who says that premillennialism is the Earliest in terms of church history is the earliest eschatology, they are correct.
That's true.
However, dispensational premillennialism is not the earliest.
In fact, dispensational premillennialism is only about 150 years old.
No one had even heard of that before Darby and the Schofield Bible and these kinds of things.
So, when people say premillennialism, you need to specify with them, clarify, and say, Do you mean a historic premill view?
Okay.
Yeah, there's validity there.
I think it's wrong, but it's well underneath the banner of Christian orthodoxy.
We can agree to disagree, and it does have early roots in the witness of church history, a historic premillennialism.
Dispensational premillennialism, like money, is the root of all kinds of evil.
The love of money, I should say, is the root of all kinds of evil.
And no, I'm not going to dignify dispensational premillennialism.
I'm not.
And that is not within church history.
That is 150 years.
It's a very novel.
And I think that it is unhelpful and harmful, and most importantly, not rooted in the scripture.
So, the first eschatology that we see in church history is technically premillennialism, but it is historic premillennialism, not dispensational premillennialism.
So, premillennialism finds a slightly, and it's not much, but a slightly earlier development than postmillennialism, primarily in the writings of Irenaeus.
His lifespan was AD 130 to AD 202.
AD 130 to AD 202.
Okay, let me skip forward here a little bit.
But post millennialism was already anticipated, you could argue, in the early church father Eusebius of Caesarea.
Okay, let me skip a little further now.
Let's see.
And then, origin is probably the earliest that we find the post mill eschatology.
This would be AD 185 to AD 254.
So, if we want to just simplify it, historic premillennialism, AD 130 to AD 202, the life of Irenaeus.
Okay, but then later you have origin, which would be AD 185.
So that's only about 55 years afterwards to AD 254.
He expected, and this is a quote from him, expected that Christianity by continual growth would gain the dominion over the world.
All right, let's continue a little bit further.
I've got some more notes here.
Two other prominent church fathers whose historical confidence appears to express a post millennial view would be Athanasius and Augustine.
Athanasius, still very early on, a giant in terms of church fathers, 8296 to 8372.
That was his life, 8296 to 8372.
And Augustine being 8354 to 8430.
AD 354 to 8430.
Consider one statement from Athanasius.
The gospel's great progress is expected according to Athanasius' view of Scripture.
Isaiah chapter 11, verse 9.
Matthew chapter 28, verse 19.
John chapter 6, verse 45.
Here's the statement from Athanasius.
And then from Dan to Beersheba was the law proclaimed, and in Judea.
Only was God known, but now unto all the earth has gone forth their voice, and all the earth has been filled with the knowledge of God.
And the disciples have made disciples of all the nations, and now is fulfilled what is written, They shall all be taught of God.
That's from Athanasius, four discourses against the Arians.
Okay, that's a post millennial sentiment.
Okay, Augustine now, turning to Augustine.
Augustine teaches that history here's a quote.
would be marked by the ever increasing influence of the church and overturning evil in the world before the lord's return this would eventually end of quote this would eventually issue forth a future rest of the saints on earth that is a quote from augustine sermon 259 2.
okay it would eventually this would eventually the great commission would eventually bring about a future rest of the saints on earth when continuing the quote now when the church will be purged of all the wicked elements now mixed among its members and christ will rule rule Peacefully in its midst.
All right, again, that is a post millennial idea, and that comes from Augustine.
We may also reference, continuing, Augustine's comments on Psalm chapter 2 that I referenced earlier regarding the Lord laughing or mocking the nations.
Augustine writes this, commentating on Psalm chapter 2, verse 4 It is to be understood of that power which he giveth to his saints that they, seeing things to come, namely, that the name and rule of Christ is to pervade posterity and possess all.
All nations.
At verse 7 of Psalm chapter 2, Augustine adds, Ask of me may be referred to all this temporal dispensation.
That just means time period.
All ask of me, the command that ask of me and I will give the nations to you.
Ask of me may be referred to all this temporal dispensation which has been instituted for mankind, namely that the nations should be joined to the name of Christ and so be redeemed from death and possessed by God.
I shall give thee the nations for thine inheritance, which so possesses them for their salvation and to bear unto thee spiritual fruit.
That's Augustine in the post Nicene Fathers.
All right, in his writings there.
We'll continue here in a moment, but the point is this Irenaeus, being probably the earliest that we see within the witness of church history, very clear, not dispensational, but a classic, a historic pre mill view.
He predates, but only by about 50 years.
8030 is when he was born.
8050, uh, 8085, 185, so just about 55 years later, we have Origen, and then what we see there is a post millennial sentiment.
I've already given you some of the quotes from him, and then about 150 years later, and then 200 years later, with Athanasius and Augustine, we definitely see a much clearer post millennial sentiment.
These would be two giants within the church fathers, still in early church history.
So, my point is this.
For anybody who says that postmillennialism doesn't have any rooting in the church fathers, that it doesn't have really a strong, clear witness within church history, that it's really just a novel, a novel idea, something that came about recently, that's simply not true.
First, and most importantly, it is biblical.
Second, it does have the witness of church history.
It is not the earliest eschatology to come onto the scene, but the latest eschatology to come on the scene that doesn't have biblical support and doesn't have the witness of church history is not postmillennialism, but postmillennialism.
But dispensational pre millennialism.
Big news, really big news.
Right Response Conference on Postmillennialism00:00:37
Our next Right Response Conference is in the works.
We've got a number of things already lined up and organized.
This is what we've got so far the whole conference, three days long on post millennialism and theonomy.
And the speakers Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot, Gary DeMar, and of course, yours truly, Pastor Joel Webbin.
We've got a great lineup.
We've got great topics.
If you want to find out dates and location and registration and anything else, go and visit our website, rightresponseconference.com.