I had a debunking of the claim that Irenaeus was talking about a pretribulational rapture. If you actually read through his 'Against Heresies' eschatology, Irenaeus uses the term 'Anti-Christ' for the beast figure, and writes about the beast making war on the church. I think this guy is trying to redefine that as Israel. Oh brother.
He's trying to explain away this from chapter 26.
" “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet, but shall receive power as if kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and give their strength and power to the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, because He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings.” 228 It is manifest, therefore, that of these [potentates], he who is to come shall slay three, and subject the remainder to his power, and that he shall be himself the eighth among them. And they shall lay Babylon waste, and burn her with fire, and shall give their kingdom to the beast, and put the Church to flight. After that they shall be destroyed by the coming of our Lord. For that the kingdom must be divided, and thus come to ruin, the Lord [declares when He] says: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.” "
Notice the beast puts the CHURCH to flight.
Let's look at the passage he quotes, available here: https://catholiclibrary.org/library...e church shall be caught up;chunk.id=00000171
"as stubble conduces towards the growth of the wheat, and its straw, by means of combustion, serves for working gold. And therefore, when in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said, “There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be.” For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when they overcome they are crowned with incorruption.
2. And there is therefore in this beast, when he comes, a recapitulation made of all sorts of iniquity and of every deceit, in order that all apostate power, flowing into and being shut up in him, may be sent into the furnace of fire"
The tribulation is the last contest of the righteous. the church will be caught up from it. They overcome the last contest.
i'm a little suspcious of the Greek scholarship of someone who pronounces the name Eye reneaus. I mean, that's not an option. I mean it's Εἰρηναῖος so it's either something like 'ee' in English with no dipthong but short or something like Fonzi saying 'ey' with his thumbs up. It's not 'eye' on that first syllabus.
I am a bit suspicious also, because I believe some of portions of this book survive in ___Latin__ not in Greek, if he is reading the Greek texts. And to treat this like this is such a great secret discovery, some secret document.
It is not realistic to think that Irenaeus was pretrib. I mean, where would he have gotten the idea? it's not in the Bible. In II Thessalonians 2, the man of sin is destroyed at the brightness of the Lord's coming... which is also mentioned in verse 1. And the rapture occurs at Jesus' coming in I Thessalonians 4.
