CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Similar Expositions in Various Protestant Groups

The Reformers had had little time to devote to the study of the millennium, so fully were they occupied in their warfare against Rome’s apostasy and externalism, and in the restatement and defense of the great doctrines of grace, the reorganization of the church, and the repulsion of the papal claims. Most of them had remained hampered, however, with the Augustinian view and reckoning of the millennium. They deemed the end of the world nearing, and looked for the speedy advent of Christ to destroy the papal Antichrist, and introduce the state of eternal glory. But they thought the thousand years were past, and that Satan had been loosed for a little season.PFF2 559.1

Now that Mede had led the way back to premillennialism, others took up this and other corrections and improvements, as well as establishing the Historical view against the attacks of the Futurists and Preterists. Often there were battles royal between the three groups. The beliefs of several lesser and greater lights in the Protestant ranks will be scanned, and then the Fifth Monarchy expositors will be dealt with.PFF2 559.2