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Thank you both for sharing your insights!

I cannot recall the last time I saw you, topcat54, posting on any subject other than end times prophesy and in particular, anti-dispensationalism. So I certainly do not expect to change your mind.

Nor can I recall you, Quix, taking anything less than an aggressive pro-dispensationalism and anti-[any degree of] preterism position. Likewise, I certainly do not expect to change your mind.

Nor do I want to. Each of us must follow the Spirit's leading.

After all, there is only one Great Commandment – and it is not exegesis.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. - Matt 22

Moreover, Christ tells us that knowing the Scriptures is not enough:

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. - Matthew 22:29

That said, on previous posts 714, 715, 716 and 718 – topcat54 raised certain questions to me which I’d like to address here to save time (I’m way behind on correspondence.)

First, the Epistle of Barnabas does indeed speak of the seventh 1,000 year interval as a Sabbath rest. Here is chapter 15:3-9 from the Epistle of Barnabas again:

Of the Sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; And God made the works of His hands in six days, and He ended on the seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it. Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years; and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end. And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day. .

Yea and furthermore He saith; Thou shalt hallow it with pure hands and with a pure heart. If therefore a man is able now to hallow the day which God hallowed, though he be pure in heart, we have gone utterly astray. But if after all then and not till then shall we truly rest and hallow it, when we shall ourselves be able to do so after being justified and receiving the promise, when iniquity is no more and all things have been made new by the Lord, we shall be able to hallow it then, because we ourselves shall have been hallowed first. Finally He saith to them; Your new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot away with. Ye see what is His meaning ; it is not your present Sabbaths that are acceptable [unto Me], but the Sabbath which I have made, in the which, when I have set all things at rest, I will make the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another world. Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which also Jesus rose from the dead, and having been manifested ascended into the heavens.

Also, the “all things” which will be finished in six thousand years preceding the 1,000 year rest is defined as Christ coming, abolishing “the time of the Lawless One” and judging the “ungodly” and changing the “sun and the moon and the stars”. Revelation 6 and 19 speak to these events as follows:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? – Revelation 6:12-17

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him [was] called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes [were] as a flame of fire, and on his head [were] many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he [was] clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies [which were] in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on [his] vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. – Revelation 19:11-16

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which [sword] proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. – Revelation 19:20-21

topcat54, you are proposing that the Epistle of Barnabas is speaking of the Sabbath rest as the new heaven and new earth. Please read the entire passage again. The new heaven and earth is the "another world" which is the "eighth day." Likewise in Scripture, that new heaven and earth (Revelation 21) does not arrive until after the 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth (Revelation 20):

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received [his] mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This [is] the first resurrection. – Revelation 20:1-5

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. – Rev 21:1

You continued:

I’m afraid you have not offered any evidence, just your "musings" on what these folks may have been saying. The rest of the early church fathers do not seem to support your limited interpretations.

Pardon me for finding this hilarious as by all appearances you are Protestant.

Somewhere around the beginning of the dark ages under Gelasius I (approx 490 A.D.) - the Church consolidated power under Rome, asserted papal supremacy and enlivened a practice dating back to at least St. Philastrius circa 380 of cataloguing heresies, dogging and condemning heretics and destroying documents, even ancient manuscripts containing things they hated even if they were loved by the earliest Christians. Earlier still is the evidence of the Papacy of Damasus I (circa 366) in this document, The “Decretum Gelasianum de Libris Recipiendis et non Recipiendis”:. Enoch is the best example as it was loved by the early Christians, quoted both directly and indirectly in the New Testament some 100 times but nevertheless rejected and destroyed by the Church and therefore lost until rediscovered in Ethiopia in 1775 and confirmed by the Dead Sea Scrolls with copies carbon-dated to 200 B.C.

For this very reason, whenever one of my Catholic brothers or sisters in Christ declares "the Church always believed.." I'm quick to say, "not so fast." The memory of the Catholic church is selective, to say the least.

Truly, the Reformers embraced a number of the doctrines and traditions of the councils of the Church – but certainly could not have been expected to arrive at a decision about doctrines the Church had subordinated or rejected, especially when affirmations of those ancient beliefs were contained in documents the Church intentionally sought to destroy.

And truly, if the indwelling Spirit had not led me to read ancient manuscripts, I would have no opinion of them either. The Spirit does not authenticate pseudepigrapha to me in the same way He authenticates the canon, which is to say that the Scriptures are pure albeit incomplete (Daniel 12, Revelation 10). But He does lead me to gather insights from them, much like He leads me to the writings or words of other people, having them “ring true” in the spirit. The insights I’ve gathered so far from the pseudepigraphal documents: events preceding Abraham’s being called, how Job got into trouble with Satan, the background of Genesis 6 and the 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth. All of these amplify Truths revealed by the Spirit and confirmed in Scripture. None of them “stand alone” nor are they equal to Scripture.

No doubt many on the ping list also experience the spirit “ringing true” when reading the writings of certain religious leaders, catechisms etc. – listening to sermons, etc. I have the same experience from some of the postings on this forum. One of my favorite examples of “ringing true” is when a little blue-haired lady commented in church just after the preacher had delivered a sermon on Peter’s sinking on his way to Jesus that, “sinking wasn’t his job.”

Likewise, the Epistle of Barnabas merely underscores certain Truth which is in Scripture – connecting dots much like the Westminster Confession of Faith connects dots. In this case, the dots include: God appointed a Sabbath (Genesis) God’s day is one thousand years to man (Genesis 2:17 and 5:5; Psalms 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8) Christ will reign on earth for a thousand years (Revelation 20.) It connects those dots, very noticeably, in the early years of the church. Moreover, the belief in a 7,000 year allotment of time to Adamic man is Jewish - ancient by any definition.

Truly, if a doctrine doesn't pass the Berean test (Acts 17) - you should ignore it. If it declares Jesus Christ is not Lord - you should ignore it (I John 4). And if all of the fruits of the Spirit are not evident in the speaker (Galatians 5, Matthew 7) - you should ignore it.

Likewise here, whether ancient manuscripts, catechisms, commentaries, correspondence, sermons or conversation - if the insights of others do not “ring true” by the Spirit’s leading, you should ignore them, too.

Jesus says "follow me." We must, each and every one of us, go where He leads us. That's the important part.

[There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace. Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. – Romans 8:1-9

Pray without ceasing. - I Th 5:17

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. – Proverbs 3:5-6

To God be the glory, not man!