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End Time Prophecy
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Hippolytus
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This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened (Luke 21:32)
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The Kingdom of Israel
John Shepard
April 8, 2002
Hippolytus
Read it now | Early Church Fathers | Table of Contents | North Forest
The purpose of this article is to show the end-time viewpoint in the writing of Hippolytus who wrote around 236 A.D.
Martyr, presbyter and antipope; date of birth unknown; died about 236 A.D. Hippolytus was a presbyter of the Church of Rome at the beginning of the third century.
Hippolytus probably believed in a 1,000 year millennium after the Antichrist but he thought that it would begin in 500 A.D. (which didn't happen). He based is ideas on the formula "day = 1,000 years" which is wrong. Read more.
Early Church Fathers | Table of Contents | End Time Prophecy | North Forest | Top of page
Hippolytus
The interpretation by Hippolytus, (bishop) of Rome, of the visions of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, taken in conjunction.
4. But that we may not leave our subject at this point undemonstrated, we are obliged to discuss the matter of the times, of which a man should not speak hastily, because they are a light to him. For as the times are noted from the foundation of the world, and reckoned from Adam, they set clearly before us the matter with which our inquiry deals.
For the first appearance of our Lord in the flesh took place in Bethlehem, under Augustus, in the year 5500; and He suffered in the thirty-third year. And 6,000 years must needs be accomplished, in order that the Sabbath may come, the rest, the holy day "on which God rested from all His works."
For the Sabbath is the type and emblem of the future kingdom of the saints, when they "shall reign with Christ," when He comes from heaven, as John says in his Apocalypse: for "a day with the Lord is as a thousand years." Since, then, in six days God made all things, it follows that 6,000 years must be fulfilled. And they are not yet fulfilled, as John says: "five are fallen; one is," that is, the sixth; "the other is not yet come."
5. In mentioning the "other," moreover, he specifies the seventh, in which there is rest. But some one may be ready to say, How will you prove to me that the Saviour was born in the year 5500? Learn that easily, O man; for the things that took place of old in the wilderness, under Moses, in the case of the tabernacle, were constituted types and emblems of spiritual mysteries, in order that, when the truth came in Christ in these last days, you might be able to perceive that these things were fulfilled.
For He says to him, "And thou shalt make the ark of imperishable wood, and shalt overlay it with pure gold within and without; and thou shalt make the length of it two cubits and a half, and the breadth thereof one cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half the height;" which measures, when summed up together, make five cubits and a half, so that the 5500 years might be signified thereby.
6. At that time, then, the Saviour appeared and showed His own body to the world, (born) of the Virgin, who was the "ark overlaid with pure gold," with the Word within and the Holy Spirit without; so that the truth is demonstrated, and the "ark" made manifest. From the birth of Christ, then, we must reckon the 500 years that remain to make up the 6000, and thus the end shall be.
And that the Saviour appeared in the world, bearing the imperishable ark, His own body, at a time which was the fifth and half, John declares: "Now it was the sixth hour," he says, intimating by that, one-half of the day. But a day with the Lord is 10000 years; and the half of that, therefore, is 500 years.
For it was not meet that He should appear earlier, for the burden of the law still endured, nor yet when the sixth day was fulfilled (for the baptism is changed), but on the fifth and half, in order that in the remaining half time the gospel might be preached to the whole world, and that when the sixth day was completed He might end the present life.
7. Since, then, the Persians held the mastery for 330 years, and after them the Greeks, who were yet more glorious, held it for 300 years, of necessity the fourth beast, as being strong and mightier than all that were before it, will reign 500 years. When the times are fulfilled, and the ten horns spring from the beast in the last (times), then
Antichrist will appear among them. When he
makes war against the saints, and persecutes them, then may we expect the manifestation of the Lord from heaven.
40. "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days;" for when the abomination cometh and makes war upon the saints, whosoever shall survive his days, and reach the forty-five days, while the other period of fifty days advances, to him the kingdom of heaven comes.
Antichrist, indeed, enters even into part of the fifty days, but the
saints shall inherit the kingdom along with Christ.
- That the world will end in 500 AD (which didn't happen)
- That human history will last 6,000 years
- Antichrist comes immediately before the end of the world
- Implies a final 1,000 year period
- This passage assumes that human history will last exactly 6,000 years. This is false for two reasons:
(1) 6,000 years from 4,004 B.C. (Bishop Ussher's date and the earliest date anyone has ever proposed for the creation of Adam) plus 6,000 years results in the date 1997 A.D (using the solar year) or the early 1900's (using the lunar year of 360 days which is the year usually used for prophetic analysis). Most young-earth proponents usually allow for a date of 10,000 to 15,000 B.C. for the creation of Adam which makes the problem even worse.
(2) The scientific evidence testifies that the earth and the universe are very old. In this case Adam was created somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000 B.C.
- He doesn't say much about the conditions in the millennium.
Early Church Fathers | Table of Contents | End Time Prophecy | North Forest | Top of page
© Copyright 2007 by John Shepard
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Please feel free to email:
js16@northforest.org
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http://www.northforest.org/Eschatology/ecfHippolytus.html
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Revised:
May 14, 2001
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