Dear friends:

Do you know what a "preterist" is?  Surprisingly, many Christians do not.  I hope you are not one!  You might be surprised to learn the names of Christian leaders to are preterists.  If you are on my mailing list, you probably are not, but you need to know what it means.

Jan Markell has an excellent newsletter on the subject I am including below.  Thanks, Jan.

Jim
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Bible Prophecy: Looking in a Rear-View Mirror?
By Jan Markell
 
Aberrant theology flourishes today, but one that has to be the toughest to believe is called Preterism.  This view holds that either all or most of the book of Revelation was fulfilled in the First Century!  According to prophecy scholar Dr. David Reagan, the view was developed in the 17th Century by a Jesuit priest named Luis de Alcazar (1554-1613). His purpose was to defend the Catholic Church against the attacks of the Reformers.
 
Reagan continues, "A more radical form of Preterism gained popularity in the latter part of the 20th Century and is today the most widely held version of this interpretive approach. It sees nearly all the prophecies of Revelation as fulfilled in the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem, except for the resurrection of believers and the Second Coming of Jesus. It assigns the Tribulation to the fall of Israel, the great apostasy to the First Century Church, and the last days to the period between Jesus' ascension and the destruction of Jerusalem. The beast is viewed as a symbol of Nero in particular and the Roman Empire in general. The False Prophet is equated with the leadership of apostate Israel."
 
Dr. Thomas Ice and Dr. Mark Hitchcock also address this issue brilliantly. Ice states, "Preterists argue that major prophetic portions of Scripture such as the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Revelation were fulfilled in events surrounding the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Preterists believe that they are compelled to take such a view because Matthew 24:34 and its parallel passages say that 'this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.' This means it had to take place in the first century, they argue. Revelation, they advocate, says something similar in the passages that say Christ is coming 'quickly' or that His return is 'at hand.' Having settled in their mind that these prophecies had to take place in the First Century, they believe they are justified in making the rest of the language fit into a local (Jerusalem) instead of a worldwide fulfillment.
 
"Most preterists believe that we are currently living in at least an inaugurated new heavens and new earth, since all the Book of Revelation had to have a First Century fulfillment."
 
Here are some quick bullet points:
 
· The Great Tribulation took place in the fall of Israel. It will not be repeated and thus is not a future event.
 
· The Great Apostasy happened in the First Century. We therefore have no biblical warrant to expect increasing apostasy as history progresses; instead, we should expect the increasing Christianization of the world.
 
· The Last Days is a biblical expression for the period between Christ's Advent and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the "last days" of Israel.
 
· The Antichrist  is a term used by John to describe the widespread apostasy of the Christian Church prior to the fall of Jerusalem. In general, any apostate teacher or system can be called "antichrist"; but the word does not refer to some "future Fuhrer".
 
· The Beast of Revelation was a symbol of both Nero in particular and the Roman Empire in general.
 
· The False Prophet of Revelation was none other than the leadership of apostate Israel, who rejected Christ and worshiped the Beast.
 
· The Millennium is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, which He established at His First Advent. . . . the period between the First and Second Advents of Christ; the Millennium is going on now, with Christians reigning as kings on earth.
 
· The New Jerusalem is the church, now and forever.
 
Much more could be said so to do your own study, visit the Web sites of Dr. David Reagan and Dr. Thomas Ice.  This theology gained ground in the late 20th and 21st Centuries thanks to men like Gary North, Gary DeMar, Hank Hanegraaff, R.C. Sproul, Ken Gentry, David Chilton, and others.
 
We now carry two products refuting this false teaching and they are pictured to the left (not included -- but see http://www.olivetreeviews.org/catalog.shtml#others).  The three-DVD set captures a debate between Dr. Mark Hitchcock and Hank Hanegraaff just last December, Hitchcock representing Pre-Millennial Dispensationalism and Hannegraaff representing Preterism. The book by Ice and Hitchcock is an attempt to refute the false claims in Hannegraaff's book Apocalypse Code, which takes a swipe at Dr. Tim LaHaye over 440 times.
 
If we are to contend for the faith (Jude 3), we need to understand these issues as bizarre as they may sound. Sadly, new believers or those just trying to figure the ramifications of eschatology (end-times) are greatly confused when men with large radio audiences send such pathetic theology over the air waves to millions.
 
Also visit our Web category of "Prophecy Watch" for information related to this.
 
Awaiting His return,
 
Jan Markell
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