The only reason I would “trot out” some early church father, is not to “support my view” but to counter the charge coming from your crowd that “nobody ever in the history of the whole church believed any aspect of this ‘new doctrine’ that John Darby ‘made up’ out of thin air” Aside from that, you know quite well topcat, that I and the pre-millenialists on this forum use Scripture to support our views. On the other side, I have heard creeds and “the beliefs of all the church for hundreds and hundreds of years” appealed to as proof that your views are right. Frankly, I’m getting tired of trying to counter charges because I see that when I do my counter claim, rather than being even remotely considered as being proof that the initial charge was incorrect, is now twisted into something such as “the like to trot out some early church father to support their views.” Also, in the case of Preterism, I would think that one would find it relevant to see what the church living after 70 AD believed about the end times (had all of the prophecy been fulfilled or were the vast majority of the church looking for a future fulfillment?) But that’s just me. You are going to believe what you want to believe. It has become clear that none of our Scripture and no quoting for sources contra to your view will stop that. As such, I figure, why bother even trying to reason with you. You aren’t after a dialogue, but rather a lecture. If you sense any hesitancy on my behalf to answer your posts, it is not because you have made this unsurmountable case that destroys anything that the pre-millenialists have said; but rather, it is because in spite of two threads and hundreds of posts of trying to reason with you from Scripture, we are still getting charges thrown out at us that are simply untrue. We have been cooperative in answering your posts to this point, but I simply do not have time to type out detailed answers to someone who is not going to listen to a word that is being said.
If that was ever your purpose, you have failed in your attempt.
None of Darby's uniquely dispensational views on the pre-trib rapture or radical distinction between Israel and the Church are found anywhere in the early church fathers. Mainly because they are nowhere to be found in the Bible.
But I think you already know that.
As such, I figure, why bother even trying to reason with you. You aren’t after a dialogue, but rather a lecture.
Methinks thou dost protest too much, eapecially when your "arguments" have continued to move from the Scriptures to cutesy one liners. You have not responded recently with any substance to my numerous arguments from the Bible. You've been reduced to babbling because your (and Darby's) theories cannot stand up to a plain examination from the Word of God.
Stick to the Bible and we can talk.
We have been cooperative in answering your posts to this point, but I simply do not have time to type out detailed answers to someone who is not going to listen to a word that is being said.
I have never purposely refused to respond to any question or argument. I started another thread at your suggestion to focus on the dispensational theory of the pre-trib rapture. You refused to stick to that topic and have been all over them map, mainly, I think, to hide from the real subject. Your most recent act of desperation has been a series of one-liners.
Te facts as we have seen them do not speak well to your theories.