John who? I don't care what John Walvoord says. John Walvoord is not the pope. He's just some guy.
it is significant that the Apostolic Fathers, though posttribulational, at the same time just as clearly taught the pretribulational feature of imminence.
Yes, it is significant, because it specifically refutes your claim that Dispensationialism was taught by the Church fathers. You just made an own goal, my friend.
Since it was common in the early church to hold contradictory positions without even an awareness of inconsistency
LOL WUT
it would not be surprising to learn that their era supports both views. Larry Crutchfield notes, "This belief in the imminent return of Christ within the context of ongoing persecution has prompted us to broadly label the views of the earliest fathers, 'imminent intratribulationism.'"
Oh, well, who am I to disagree with Pope Larry Crutchfield the Great, infallible interpreter of God's Word?
Expressions of imminency abound in the Apostolic Fathers. Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, The Didache, The Epistle of Barnabas, and The Shepherd of Hermas all speak of imminency.
Yes, because the Lord can and could return at any time. What they do not speak of is Him coming down halfway, going back up, then returning a third time. Do you even know what "imminency" means?
It is believed that sects like the Albigenses, Lombards, and the Waldenses were attracted to premillennialism, but little is know of the details of their beliefs since the Catholics destroyed their works when they were found.
Yes, because the Albigenses, Lombards, the Waldenses, and the Dolicinites were all filthy heretics -- sworn enemies of Christ.
With the flowering of biblical interpretation during the late Reformation Period
... the dawn of Homemade Theology and Do-It-Yourself Christianity.
I have heard from another scholar who is reading through many Latin manuscripts of previously unpublished documents that he has found a number of previously unknown pre-trib rapture statements from pre-nineteenth century Christendom. He is planning on publishing his material in a few years.
And I heard from another scholar that Larry Crutchfield was reading through some old Aramaic cookbook fragments and found the Lord's favorite recipe for sponge cake. THAT'S RIGHT, THE LORD LIKED SPONGE CAKE!@!1!11!!
I'm sure Pope Benedict and the gang in Rome are trembling with fear at the thought of this scholar who is reading through many Latin manuscripts of previously unpublished documents full of previously unknown pre-trib rapture statements from pre-nineteenth century Christendom.
So, it turns out, people living long before John Darby and long before the 17th and 18th centuries read the Scriptures and believed what God said about the event of the Rapture.
Malarkey. Not one of the texts cited above said anything like that.
Friend, I'm done talking to you about this. Believe whatever you want. If it makes you happy to think that Jesus Christ is going to return, stop halfway down, grab a few guys, head back up, wait seven years, then come for a third time, all I can say is follow the yellow brick road, Dorothy -- there's no place like home.
And have a blessed Easter.
That explains it.