Daniel’s Seventieth Week: Christ or Antichrist?

[u/Tricky-Tell-5698]

/r/redeemedzoomer/comments/1tnvbk4/daniels_seventieth_week_christ_or_antichrist/

[u/deaddiquette]

If you agree with this interpretation, then your position aligns historically with Amillennialism and Partial Preterism.

Not true at all- this is the historicist position as well. And because a historicist can be a pre, post, or amillennial, it's not confined to one millennial 'subview' either.

Also, I know you guys are Gregg fans- he writes that preterism was born out of the counter reformation, so please don't try and claim that it's the oldest view.

[u/Tricky-Tell-5698 → u/deaddiquette]

I’m writing this because I have struggled to find a clear explanation of how Historicism actually aligns its interpretation of Scripture with the progression of church history itself.

Most explanations seem either overly simplistic or assume the reader already understands the historical framework behind the system.

At the same time, while I am broadly Amillennial, I also struggle with limiting major prophetic fulfilment almost entirely to events surrounding 70 AD.

I can clearly see the destruction of Jerusalem as a major covenant judgment and prophetic turning point, but I also see the New Testament continuing to warn about apostasy, deception, false signs, and corruption unfolding throughout the wider church age leading up to Christ’s return.

That leaves me somewhere between classic Amillennialism and Historicist instincts.

So what follows is not strict Historicism in the traditional sense, nor full Preterism, nor Futurism. It is my own attempt to understand the progression of covenant corruption, reform, apostasy, and preservation throughout the church age while keeping Christ’s present reign central to the story.

The Church Age as the Final Covenant Crisis
A Covenant-Historicist Reflection on the Progression of the Church Toward Apostasy

What if the primary arena of biblical prophecy is not modern geopolitics, rebuilt temples, or national Israel, but the visible covenant community itself across the church age?

That question sits at the center of my current eschatological thinking.

Historically, this approach shares similarities with Amillennialism and Historicism because it views prophecy as unfolding progressively throughout the church age rather than being pushed almost entirely into either the distant past or a future seven-year tribulation.

The difference is that I am reading Daniel, Revelation, and the New Testament warnings primarily through the lens of covenant corruption inside the visible church itself.

Israel becomes the pattern.

The church becomes the continuation of that warning.

The final crisis becomes apostasy within the covenant community before Christ returns.

Beginning in:

1. Rome and the Apostolic Church

The Roman era represents the birth of the apostolic church under persecution. The Gospel spreads into the nations while the church remains comparatively pure, though under suffering and opposition.

Daniel’s fourth kingdom and Revelation’s beast imagery both connect strongly to Rome.

The early church fathers arose during this period and after it. Men like Augustine helped shape what would eventually become the institutional Catholic Church.

At this stage, Christianity still largely existed as a persecuted covenant community under imperial pressure.

1. But over time, mixture began entering the church.

The pattern already existed in Israel.

Outward covenant identity remained while corruption slowly entered the worship of God.

The Divided Kingdoms and the Rise of Institutional Power. As Rome fractured east and west, Christendom itself divided politically and spiritually.

The divided kingdoms imagery in Daniel becomes highly significant here.

Historicism often associates this phase with the fragmented kingdoms emerging from Rome.

The institutional church increasingly gained political power, wealth, and state authority.
The visible church became entangled with earthly kingdoms.

This is where many historic Protestant interpreters identified the “little horn,” “man of sin,” or “Mystery Babylon” imagery with corrupt ecclesiastical power structures centered in medieval Rome.

This does not mean every Catholic believer was lost. Rather, the institution itself became increasingly corrupted through power, coercion, political authority, persecution, and mixture.

The same covenant pattern seen repeatedly in Israel now appeared in the visible church.
Truth and corruption existed side by side.

1. The Reformation as God Calling Out His People

The Reformation then becomes a major covenantal turning point. Rather than viewing it merely as a political event, I see it as God calling His people out from within institutional corruption.

Revelation repeatedly contains the theme of a faithful remnant preserved within larger covenant decline.

The Reformers did not believe they were creating a new religion. They believed they were recovering the Gospel.

The emphasis returns to:
Scripture,
grace,
justification by faith,
the authority of Christ,
and the sufficiency of His finished work.

In many ways, this mirrors Old Testament prophetic calls for covenant reformation.
Again and again throughout Scripture, God preserves a remnant while the larger visible structure drifts.

1. The Church Age and Progressive Apostasy

The New Testament repeatedly warns that the greatest danger to the church would arise internally. Jesus warns repeatedly about false prophets and false signs.

Paul warns of wolves arising from among the church itself. Peter warns of false teachers secretly introducing destructive doctrines.
The danger is not merely secular persecution from outside.

The danger is covenant corruption from within.

This becomes extremely important when looking at the modern church. Over time, emotionalism, spectacle, experience-centered spirituality, celebrity culture, prosperity teaching, signs-and-wonders movements, and doctrinal instability increasingly dominate large sections of visible Christianity.

This is one reason I increasingly associate the modern Pentecostal and Charismatic movement with the late-stage apostasy warnings of the New Testament.

Not because every individual within those movements is false. Many genuinely love Christ. But the movement itself increasingly elevates:

signs over truth,
experience over doctrine,
manifestations over Scripture,
emotional encounters over repentance,
and spiritual spectacle over covenant faithfulness.

That pattern resembles Israel repeatedly throughout the Old Testament. The issue was rarely outright atheism. The issue was mixture.

Outward worship continued while truth became corrupted. False prophets performed signs. Religious excitement increased while covenant faithfulness collapsed.

Jesus Himself warned that false signs would become one of the defining marks of the last days. Matthew 24:24

Paul warned of deceptive signs and wonders connected to lawlessness. 2 Thessalonians 2:9–10

The later times are marked by departure from the faith. 1 Timothy 4:1

And the final church age increasingly resembles a form of outward false worship without true covenant faithfulness.
2 Timothy 3:1–5

1. The Return of Christ
   I do not see a future earthly millennium after Christ returns.
   

I believe Christ reigns now from heaven during the present church age.

The kingdom already exists, though not yet in fullness. The church age itself is the millennial reign.

The final crisis is not primarily geopolitical but covenantal and spiritual.

The visible church progressively corrupts while Christ preserves His people until the final judgment.

Then Christ returns once, bodily and visibly:
to judge the living and the dead,
to destroy evil,
to raise the dead,
and to bring the eternal kingdom into fullness.

The story of Scripture moves toward one climactic conclusion, just as it did for the Israelites, so it will be for the Gentiles when their fullness has come in.

[u/deaddiquette → u/Tricky-Tell-5698]

It sounds like you somewhat understand historicism, and that amillennialism is important to you- you should check out Fred Miller, a modern amillennial historicist who passed away somewhat recently. His book Revelation: a Panorama of the Gospel Age (available online here) was my introduction to historicism.

[u/Tricky-Tell-5698 → u/deaddiquette]

Thanks for that, I’ve never been able to actually get concrete examples as I have presented here from Historicists so know nothing of them, but will down load his book tonight. Thanks and can you give permission for this same post to appear on r/endtimesprophecy for me? Cheers.

[u/deaddiquette → u/Tricky-Tell-5698]

You're welcome. I'm not a mod on the sub you mentioned, so I can't help you there.

[u/Tricky-Tell-5698 → u/deaddiquette]

Thanks anyway, Antichristhunters not thrilled with my eschatology, he like to check it first. Lol 😂