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Dialogue with Trypho
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Chapter 80: Justin's Views on the Thousand-Year Reign and Its Rejection by Many Catholics.
AND TRYPHO REPLIED: "I noted, sir, that you are very keen to be secure in all respects, since you hold fast to the Scriptures. But tell me, do you truly believe that this place, Jerusalem, will be rebuilt? Do you expect your people to be gathered together and made joyful with Christ, the patriarchs, and the prophets, both the men of our nation and other proselytes who joined them before your Christ came? Or have you conceded this point just to seem to have the upper hand in our debates?"
THEN I REPLIED: “I’m not so miserable a fellow, Trypho, as to say one thing and think another. I previously admitted to you that I and many others hold this belief, which you are certainly aware of; but, on the other hand, I indicated to you that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think differently.
Moreover, I pointed out to you that some who are called Christians, but are godless, impious heretics, teach doctrines that are completely blasphemous, atheistical, and foolish.
But to show that I’m not saying this just to you, I will prepare a statement of all the arguments that have passed between us, as best as I can, in which I will record myself as admitting the same things I admit to you. For I choose to follow not humans or human doctrines, but God and the doctrines delivered by Him. For if you have encountered some who are called Christians, but do not admit this truth, and dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, go to heaven; do not think they are Christians—just as one, if he would rightly consider it, would not accept that the Sadducees, or similar sects like the Genistæ, Meristæ, Galilæans, Hellenists, Pharisees, and Baptists, are Jews (do not listen impatiently when I tell you my thoughts), but are only called Jews and children of Abraham, worshipping God with their lips, as God Himself declared, but their hearts were far from Him.
But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are sure that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be rebuilt, adorned, and expanded, as the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare.