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The Kingdom of Israel
John Shepard
April 8, 2002
Nepos
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The Kingdom of Israel
The purpose of this article is to show the end-time viewpoint in the writing of Nepos who lived around 280 A.D.
Nepos evidently believed in a 1,000 year millennium in which Christ would rule on the earth.
Nepos
Church historian Eusebius writes that Nepos "taught that the promise to the holy men in the Divine Scriptures should be understood in a more Jewish manner, and that there would be a certain millennium of bodily luxury upon this earth. As he thought that he could establish his private opinion by the Revelation of John, he wrote a book on this subject, entitled Refutation of Allegorist."
- That there will someday be a millennium (presumably 1,000 years) of bodily luxury on the earth. That this idea is of Jewish origin.
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The Works Of Dionysius
Extant Fragments
Part I — Containing Various Sections Of The Works
I — From The Two Books On The Promises
I. But as they produce a certain composition by Nepos, on which they insist very strongly, as if it demonstrated incontestably that there will be a (temporal) reign of Christ upon the earth, I have to say, that in many other respects I accept the opinion of Nepos, and love him at once for his faith, and his laboriousness, and his patient study in the Scriptures, as also for his great efforts in psalmody, by which even now many of the brethren are delighted. I hold the man, too, in deep respect still more, inasmuch as he has gone to his rest before us. Nevertheless the truth is to be prized and reverenced above all things else. And while it is indeed proper to praise and approve ungrudgingly anything that is said aright, it is no less proper to examine and correct anything which may appear to have been written unsoundly. If he had been present then himself, and had been stating his opinions orally, it would have been sufficient to discuss the question together without the use of writing, and to endeavour to convince the opponents, and carry them along by interrogation and reply. But the work is published, and is, as it seems to some, of a very persuasive character; and there are unquestionably some teachers, who hold that the law and the prophets are of no importance, and who decline to follow the Gospels, and who depreciate the epistles of the apostles, and who have also made large promises regarding the doctrine of this composition, as though it were some great and hidden mystery, and who, at the same time, do not allow that our simpler brethren have any sublime and elevated conceptions either of our Lord's appearing in His glory and His true divinity, or of our own resurrection from the dead, and of our being gathered together to Him, and assimilated to Him, but, on the contrary, endeavour to lead them to hope for things which are trivial and corruptible, and only such as what we find at present in the kingdom of God. And since this is the case, it becomes necessary for us to discuss this subject with our brother Nepos just as if he were present.
- That Christ will reign on the earth.
- That Christ will appear in glory, that believers will rise from the dead and be gathered to Him. These things are contrasted with others who believe that the kingdom of God is limited to the benefits of the present church age.
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© Copyright 2007 by John Shepard
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