The Preter-Prater of Little Feats Past Preterism

The Preter-Prater of Little Feats Past Preterism – What is it? Session 1 IFCA Northern California Regional, Fall 2008 Galt Bible Church Pastor Eric Peterman copyright 2006 Eric@Valley. Bible. Fellowship. org - www. Valley. Bible. Fellowship. org www. brainybetty. com; All Rights

Preterism – a definition Preterism, from the Latin praeter – “past” or “gone beyond”. Holds that most (in one view, all) of the prophetic events of the Old and New Testaments have already been fulfilled (thus – praeter – past). Is a system of interpretation that sees the Olivet Discourse events as having been fulfilled in 70 AD and John’s Revelation as having been completely or mostly fulfilled in those events.

Preterism – a definition “Matthew 24: 1 -34 (and parallels) in the Olivet Discourse was fulfilled in the events surrounding the fall of Jerusalem in A. D. 70. In Revelation, most of the prophecies before Revelation 20 find fulfillment in the fall of Jerusalem (A. D. 70). ” Moderate preterist Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

What’s the big deal anyway? The crux of the issue between Preterism and Futurism is neither trivial nor inconsequential to the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. At issue is whether the prophetic events in the Scriptures, and more specifically the Olivet Discourse and the bulk or all of the Revelation of John are… • All or almost all Past • Not about any Second Coming • Christ coming spiritually by means of the Roman Armies to destroy his Jewish enemies (Providential), ushering in a triumphal (present) age • Spiritual/Providential (invisible) • The end of God’s dealing with Israel • Issuing in the Kingdom in church

What’s the big deal anyway? Or… the Olivet Discourse and the bulk or all of the Revelation of John are… • Mostly Future • About the Second Coming of Christ • Christ coming substantially, really & Personally to purge Israel and preserve His remnant, destroying both unbelieving Jews and the present Gentile world system • Physical/Immanent (visible) direct intervention • The resumption of God’s dealing with Israel, according to covenant

Or, as one Church of Christ preterist declared… Biblical prophesy? Stick a fork in it! It’s done!

Preterism – A reason for, um. . . hope

Futurism – by contrast Futurism, by contrast, sees in Scripture that the literal fulfillment of OT prophesies in Christ’s first advent are sufficient reason to prove both his claims to be who He claimed to be, and to take His prophetic teaching likewise, in the normal, literal sense. Thus, both most all of the Olivet Discourse and the Revelation will find their fulfillment in the future from us, with particular focus on the Tribulation, in the regal Kingdom of Christ in the Millennium, with a final transfer into the eternal state.

Preterist contention Preterists contend that Jesus’ use of the term, “this generation” in Matthew 24: 34 requires fulfillment in the first century. RC Sproul argues that it is impossible to refute the charge of skeptics like Bertrand Russell that Christ’s prophesy in Matt 24: 34 failed, unless a preteristic fulfillment occurred(in that immediate generation that was alive when Jesus spoke). Thus, preterists see their interpretation as necessary to defend Christ as being able to prophesy future events.

Preterist contention In fact, much is made of the fact that Christian apologist C. S. Lewis called Matt 24: 34, “…certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible. ” I might point out that this quote is taken out of Lewis’ overall discussion context, nor is Lewis allowed to explain himself.

Two varieties of Preterism Two varieties of preterism exist today: • Partial or Moderate preterism • Often calls itself, “orthodox preterism” • Also can accurately be called “inconsistent preterism” for reasons that will become obvious later

Moderate/Partial Preterism Holds that most prophesy, including the Tribulation, was fulfilled in 70 AD or thereabouts by the coming of General Titus to destroy Jerusalem, etc. Still hold that some texts teach a future Second Coming of Christ and About Hanegraaf, Norm Geisler writes, that there will be a future bodily resurrection It is sad thus man who has fought so Moderate Preterismthat a teaches essentially two “second comings”: hard for in 70 AD as a parousia and 1. The first occurredso long against cults and as a “Day of the aberrant teachings has himself Lord” for the purpose of judging the Jewish nation and ending succumbed to a method of interpreting God’s program with Israel utterly. the Bible that is not significantly 2. The second will occur at the climax of human history as the final different from those used by the cults and ultimate “Day of the Lord”. (Classical Second Coming). which he so vigorously opposes. Also, the elements have already melted with fervent heat (2 Peter 3 has already happened) This view is propounded by such popular teachers as RC Sproul, Ken Gentry, Gary De. Mar, and now Hank Hanegraaff

Extreme/Full Preterism Holds that all prophesy, including not only the Tribulation, was fulfilled in 70 AD or thereabouts by the coming of General Titus to destroy Jerusalem, etc, and shortly thereafter. Hold that the Bible does not comprehend any climax of human events such as a Second Coming or end of the present Earth system. Full Preterism thus teaches essentially no “second coming”: 1. The only coming of Christ after he ascended occurred in 70 AD as a parousia and as the “Day of the Lord” for the purpose of judging the Jewish nation and ending God’s program with Israel utterly.

Extreme/Full Preterism Other things you didn’t realize: • The bodily resurrection occurred in the past • You’ve been resurrected already • We’re in the New Heavens and the New Earth • The church exists in the eternal state now • The creation has been restored spiritually • There is no physical resurrection of the body • Many would say it is wrong to ask forgiveness from God because that was a Jewish thing Of course the denial of the Second Coming and of the resurrection of the body are specifically heterodox. Thus according to historical & Biblical orthodoxy, Full Preterists are in fact heretics.

More fun and exciting ideas of FP Other things you didn’t realize: • The Law is totally destroyed by Christ (for all men) • Romans 5: 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. • Therefore, since the law is destroyed, sin is not taken into account, thus there is no sin. -> Universalism • 1 Corinthians 15 is about mankind having a New Covenant, spiritual body -> Universalism

Rejection of Creeds Characteristic of Full Preterists: Just a word of caution about being the Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold made ü Distain for creeds to for confessions “close-minded”: feel you’re traditions which you were taught, whether by ü Distain word or our epistle. ü Distain for traditional anything Don’t be so 2 open-minded that your ü Appeal for their Thessalonians“have an open mind” about listeners to 2: 15 what they’re brains fall out! proposing The questions to be asked are, “Is this what the apostles and prophets taught? ” and secondly “Is this what was transmitted to and by the early church? ”

Extreme/Full Preterism & Sola Scriptura Accordingly, my experience and that of many brothers, is that Full Preterists (aka, Consistent Preterists) are extremely, adamantly, and vehemently aggressive in attacking any appeal to the creeds of the early church. The reason for this is that the creeds are specific about the resurrection of the dead and the future return of Did I and so to fatal to that they’ll Christ, neglectarementiontheir view. get aggressive? Any appeal to the creeds or beliefs of the early church to contradict their view will be met with a well rehearsed, acidic, and deliberate attack on you for not relying on “Sola Scriptura”. You’ll be accused of relying on “the traditions of men” over and against the Scriptures.

Important thoughts about Sola Scriptura If you’ve notthis is a true proposition, then: need to spend some time If already done so, you really do studying and thinking aboutbelievers? of Sola Scriptura. • why do you disciple this concept If one has • why do we have pastors? the wrong concept, they become vulnerable to attack, not only from am convinced but also Roman Catholic and Eastern “Unless I do we have seminaries and Bible institutes? • why. Full Preterists, Orthodox apologists (for different reasons). from the we have conferences such as this? • why do Holy often make the mistake of thinking that Bible believing Christians Scriptures and means Sola Scriptura evident that an individual needs only the reason…” Scriptures in hand to apprehend/understand God’s self- Martin Luther revelation, ofwithout reference to the history of the church, Diet Worms history of interpretation, without reference to history/culture/geography, and without reference to conclusions reached by brothers and sisters in past generations. “The Holy Spirit and the Bible is all I need”, as if it were the Holy Spirit’s duty to build anew and afresh a systematic theology for each individual. This is not Sola Scriptura, this is Solo Scriptura!… and it is the at the root of many novel, weird doctrines

Extreme/Full Preterists The modern rise of Full/Consistent/Extreme Preterism is very recent and is associated with the push of the Churches of Christ. One of their pastors, Max King developed and popularized the teaching in the ’ 70’s-’ 90’s, followed by such disciples as Don K. Preston, John L. Bray and John Noe.

Contemporary Extreme/Full Preterism has a very active and assertive presence online at www. Planet. Preterist. com (Virgil Vaduva – editor) In addition to the Churches of Christ, Preterism is naturally attractive to the Emergent church movement. Vaduva is this are The reasons for a Romanian immigrant who married the daughter of Terry Hall on spirituality being a –The present, or realized eschatology, with its emphasis right-here, right-now thing including King, pastor was the associate pastor of Maxpolitics and social aspects of –The de-emphasis of future things and the associated need to carefully Parkman Road Church of Christ in Warren articulate prophetic doctrine, and living in active anticipation of “our blessed Ohio. hope”. (The slippery slope of, “Prophesy doesn’t matter, what matters is Despite all claimstoday. ”) contrary, the “face” walking with Christ to the of–The emphasis of Jesus’ Kingdom existing in theand rather than as a future full Preterism is substantially shaped heart, actual the with scepter of iron. Virgil emphasis under reignhandaof Emergent, Natural Vaduva on Kingdom behavior now in church and society. (I might add that Emergent ideas would allow individuals to internalize and personalize what this means to them) –The right-now existential ideal, its emphasis on social justice, perfecting political and environmental and social systems as the logical extensions of the present New Heavens and New Earth (postmillennial triumphalism)

Virgil Vaduva Here’s Vaduva clearing land for his straw-bale homestead, 9/2008. The future of to do so as a deliberate outcome of his “realized Preterism He is trying Kingdom living” principles (I’m not kidding). Here’s Eric Peterman felling a redwood, living out his premillennial, “trying to pay the bills” principles. The fact that Vaduva is using a Stihl Farm. Boss 290 and Peterman is using a Husqvarna 372 xp is proof-positive that futurism is the correct view

The Trend of Extreme/Full Preterism Because of these tendencies, FP is theologically unstable in the direction of universalism and socially unstable in the direction of a social gospel and/or Dominionism And Partial/Moderate Preterism is hermeneutically unstable in the direction of Full/Extreme Preterism! There is no hermeneutical control to keep it from gravitating to Full Preterism. The only control putting the brakes on is historical orthodoxy… the desire to remain orthodox

Some very sad facts A significant number of extreme/full Preterists come from the ranks of, and grew up in Premil Dispensational churches Many of these were taught premillennialism, but not properly grounded in normal, literal, historicalgrammatical hermeneutics They are bright, intense people that wanted answers, and didn’t get them from the people and resources around them, including from pastors Their journey to FP was usually long, painful and at the cost of relationships and fellowship. They are finally driven into the welcoming arms of fellow FP desperados In order to maintain a sense of belonging, they become obsessed with study of, and promulgation of their new

My own view of Consistent/Full Preterism It is an hermeneutical, systematic and worldview system that is at once highly rationalistic (“you don’t really believe that water will flow in a river under the threshold of some millennial temple where animal sacrifices are performed, do you”? ) yet mystical (Christ’s coming was spiritual, we’re in the New Heavens and New Earth, etc). It is attractive to certain “Brights” in our churches It is in some ways an inevitable synergistic confluence of the spirit of our times, and miserable failure on the part of our churches to promulgate Dispensationalism as a comprehensive, consistent systematic theology rather than as an eschatology consisting primarily of interest in future events It is both subtly seductive and deadly poisonous to Christian faith

A Delicious…

Full Preterism’s Sociological Roots Full Preterism grew out of roots in the Churches of Christ movement whose waters flow out of theological/social stream of Restorationism is the concept that the true Church and the true Gospel were lost and only recently recovered. So FP sees itself as a restoration of true Christianity and everything else as a total apostasy The Restorationist main river channel produced Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Pentecostalism and SDA, and a bevy of cults Yet Christ promised in Matt 16: 18 that, “I will build my church, and the Gates of Hades will not prevail…” How can it be that Christ’s words utterly failed for 2, 000 years and now pops up the true church in the

Preterism & Reconstructionism Preterism is strongly associated with Christian Reconstructionism Proponents include(d) R J Rushdoony, Gary North, David Chilton, Gary De. Mar, Andrew Sandlin, Greg Bahnsen and many more. You can get a taste of Reconstructionism in it’s pretty form at www. American. Vision. org and www. Chalcedon. edu

Mild Preterism It should be noted that there has been a form of Preterism called “mild Preterism” (is that like a mild fever, or is it more like being just a little bit pregnant? ). It viewed the events of prophesy as having been fulfilled in the first few centuries of church history until Constantine. I know of no modern adherents to the mild form so will not mention it again.

Preterism and Israel Preterism teaches that Jesus came in 70 AD, and the purpose of Jesus’ parousia (coming) was to judge the apostate nation of Israel and to make an end to their age. Israel is the enemy of Christ and their overthrow by the Roman army, sent by Christ, is the triumph in establishing the New Covenant temple. Preterists reject any aspect of a future for ethnic Israel and its temple and further hold that any eschatological system that does hold such a future is heretical (both historic as well as dispensational premillennialism). They would say that belief in these would be equal to rejecting Christ and restoring blasphemy

Preterism and Israel Preterists along with many amillennialists therefore generally distain the present nation of Israel, Zionism, and also utterly reject any future in a coming earthly millennial reign of Christ from Zion. While not a necessary or logical extension of Preterism (and certainly disavowed by most, Preterism is part of the worldview of many “Christian” white supremacist groups.

The Development of Preterism in History Preterists attempt to show that Preterism was present in the writings of the early church fathers However, Dr. Tommy Ice indicates the lack of evidence of Preteristic interpretation of any significance until after the Reformation 1 1“The History of Preterism”, The End Times Controversy Ice/La. Haye eds. pp 42 -46 Preteristic proofs to the contrary tend to either utterly fall apart on careful investigation (I smell either deception at worst or self-deception at best), or demonstrate only the mildest form of Preterism in a few passages 2 2 “Preterism and Antiquity: Was Preterism a View of the Early Church? ”, Journal of Dispensational Theology, March 2008, Vol 12, No. 35, Ron Bigalke Jr.

The Development of Preterism in History The first appearance of a developed Preteristic interpretation was by Jesuit Luis Alcazar (1554 -1613), who Preterized Revelation. It should be noted that this was welcomed by Roman Catholics who suffered under the historicist interpretation of Protestants/Reformers that saw the Popes as “very Anti-Christ” throughout the church age! Cornelius Lapide (Roman Catholic exegete) (1567 -1637) ripped Alcazar’s interpretation as, “new and against the usual interpretations”, “mystical rather than literal”, “allegorical” and it “makes assertions without

Post-Reformation Preterism Hugo Grotius (1538 -1645) was the first Protestant Preterist. A Dutch Arminian, Grotius also was the originator of the heretical Governmental View of the Atonement (echoed later by evangelist Charles Finney). Henry Hammond (1605 -1660) introduced Grotius’ ideas to Great Britain However, both these were actually more Historicist rather than Preteristic and their ideas largely ignored during their time The Huguenots attacked and denounced the teaching of Grotius and Hammond stating that, Preterism “dishonors its authors” and constitutes “a shame and disgrace not only for the Reformation, but also to the name Christian. ”

Post-Reformation Preterism Even so, the Preterism up to this time was of the Mild sort. British scholar John Lightfoot (1602 -1675) taught a mild Preterism

Modern Era Preterism Preteristic interpretation was not present in any great significance in Protestant scholarship until the 1800’s when it blossomed as a fruit of German Rationalism (Preterists like to claim Charles Spurgeon, but that is a questionable claim) German Rationalism rejected supernatural revelation and spawned Higher Criticism of the Bible (Schliermacher, et al) It adopted Preterism as a means to avoid the concept of predictive prophesy (no supernaturalism), and to give a naturalistic, retrospective interpretation of the Book of Revelation It applied higher criticism to Revelation by a comparison with the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha German Rationalistic Preteristic interpretation then took root in Protestantism in the British Isles and the United States and greatly influenced later evangelical academics such as Preterist icons, J. Stuart Russell (1816 -1895) and Moses Stuart (17801852), and exegetical scholar Milton S. Terry (Biblical Hermeneutics, 1883, 1890, 1911)

Modern Era Preterism The popular rise of partial Preterism among American Protestants of the Reformed variety is traced to the ’ 70’s and the Christian Reconstruction movement, Greg Bahnsen, and then Chilton, Gentry, De. Mar and Sproul The advance of full Preterism is credited to the Churches of Christ, Max King, Preston, Bray, Noe and now Virgil Vaduva Robert L. Thomas has this to say about the persistent attitude of Preterists: “This recently revived postmillennial outlook is very aggressive and will continue its efforts to win converts from among both premillennialists and amillennialists. ” Eric’s thoughts: I would even use the word “obsessive” in addition to Thomas’ “very aggressive”.

Trademarks of Preteristic Apologetics There are some trademark approaches that Preterist apologists take, and that they use to deflect counterapology from futurists Each of these approaches reveal both their own apparent strength and actual weakness Tune in to the next exciting episode of… Preterism: Everything that matters has already happened Or: See the Coming of Christ on the Roman re-runs

Now: Your questions and comments ---------