In Reply to: Thanks for the response posted by Donny on November 15, 2002 at 08:59:44:
Here's the link to Irenaeus, "Against Heresies." http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103525.htm
Start reading in part 25, then go to the top left corner of the text where it says "Adversaus Haeresus" and continue reading in the next chapters, 26 all the way to 33.
This old guy had it all "figured out," he thought. He expected the Roman empire to break up in his day, the ten kings to rise, then the Antichrist to show up. He even (very cautiously) dabbled in trying to figure out who the AC was by using numerical values on famous Roman names of his day, then covering himself by saying, "Now, I never really outright said this..." Ha!
Of course he was wrong (just as so many people today are in trying to nail down their theories and say history has to unfold exactly the way they've worked out a timeline) but it does show there were very strong views in the early church by leading theologians who did not believe the Preterist postion of Endtime events being all fulfilled in 70 AD.
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