END OF DISCUSSION

Anyone who has thoroughly researched the issue of prophecy knows that the discussion is over, as to what the early church thought about premillennialism. Premillennialism says that Christ will come to establish the Davidic kingdom for one thousand years, as prophesied in Scripture. By taking the prophecies in their normal reading, this is the only view that the Bible gives. The Godly orthodox Jews, Christ and His disciples, held to a premillennial position. The Messiah "would come before (pre) the establishment of the millennium, or the promised Davidic, Jewish earthly kingdom.    Those who hold to another view are brainwashed by positions that are man-made and created by contrary theology for a purpose. They have a misguided agenda that violates common sense and the plain reading of the Word of God!    Those who hold to other positions have not done their homework, their research in history and theology. They have not researched the laborious and exhaustive four volumes entitled "The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers." This was researched over about thirty years and was published by Seven Day Adventists. No, their 7th Day Adventist views are not brought forth in the first three volumes, so one reading this work is getting pure history. Dr. John F. Walvoord had the four volumes in his office, located just behind his head in his bookcase. He shared with me personally that there were no works like this that proved beyond a doubt what the early church believed.    The editor, LeRoy Edwin Froom, led a research team of dozens of men who began the project from 1935 to 1938. World War II caused them to stop the project but it was renewed after the war, in 1948. The team surveyed dozens of libraries across Europe and Italy. They gleaned volume after volume of ancient texts to demonstrate that the early church, and even many of the churches during the Middle Ages held to literal interpretation when it came to Bible prophecy. They quote exhaustively the pre-Reformers and the Reformers to give to us what the best of scholarship was thinking at that time. Only a fool would ignore and misread what was said by so many concerning the literalness of Bible prophecy.    The covenant theologians of today, the postmillennialists and amillennialists, and the Replacement guys (those who believe that the church has replaced God's Plans with Israel) just can't deny this scholarship that is so understood today by premillennialists and dispensationalists. What is most interesting to me is that premillennialists came to the same conclusions without knowing about these volumes. They just read the Bible and let it speak for itself. And then over time, it was discovered what the early church and the most spiritual during the Middle Ages were thinking earlier. In other words, dispensationalists and premillennialists have always been right while the other guys are just dead wrong—and their wrong-ness can be proven with thorough research.    By the way, "The Prophetic Faith" volumes can be purchased online for only $400 for the complete set—but few can afford them! As a professor, with the urging of Dr. John Walvoord, I got my set some years ago and made sure that many of my students could also get them as well.    Sorry covenant guys, you have misled so many through the years and you really are out in the cold as to what the Bible says, and what church history tells us as well!    Dr. Mal Couch (11/10)