Monday, October 6, 2008

Roots of Premillenial Theory

I was reading the book "Lives of the Popes" written in the 15th Century today. Very interestingly, the author had this to say:

What shall I say about the most foul teaching of Cerinthus? He said Christ's Kingdom would come after a thousand years and would be on Earth; hence in Greek he was called a "chiliast". Since he was intolerant of lusts and desires, he held out the prospect of sensual pleasures, an abundance of food and plenty of women, in the holy promises of the kingdom to come. Nepos, a Bishop in parts of Egypt, also believed this. He said that the saints would reign on Earth with Christ amid every delight and pleasure of the body. the followers of this filthy sect were called Nepotians.

Now, even if there is no direct link between these heretics and the premillenial theology that we hear today, it is very interesting that this worldly Kingdom and 1000 year reign of Christ was given no merit at all among the Early Church, and by the 15th Century, it seemed to be a very perverse idea indeed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was one of the "biggies" for me. As I started to go back in search of "true" Reformed theology and practice, I learned that the "Left Behind" craze was a recent phenomenon with much older heretical roots. Good stuff.

~Joseph the Worker said...

Yep, much like many Protestant doctrines, they don't really know what the true roots are. Especially denial of the real presence in the Eucharist.

Maggie said...

I swallowed the Left Behind stuff too for a while... until I started the long process of becoming Catholic (I was stubborn; it took me about two years to admit I was called to come home).

It seems utterly ridiculous, looking back, that millions of Evangelical Protestants are willing to swallow a non-Biblical teaching like the Rapture (which was actually first postulated in the mid-1800s) while still thumping "sola scriptura" and denying things the Church had believed since its inception! (ie, Eucharist, the apostolic Church, the Immaculate Conception/other Mary-related things, sacraments...ect).

gah.

Also, Paul Thigpen (another convert) has written a great book about this stuff called "The Rapture Trap." Check it out.

http://www.amazon.com/Rapture-Trap-Catholic-Response-Times/dp/0965922898/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223666758&sr=8-1

~Joseph the Worker said...

I've heard of that book. I need to read it sometime. I added your blog maggie! Nice to hear from you.