Positive Press Regarding Preterism

1. Philadelphia Inquirer - Rejecting Doomsday Scenario - May 1999

Many conservative Christians believe that the prophecy was fulfilled in the church's first century. By Jim Remsen, Living Religion Editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer

In the distance, beyond the pounding bombs and mortal strife -- are those the sounds of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, hoffbeats thundering closer?

Indeed they are, according to millions of conservative Christians.   Apocalyptic thinking holds great currency in fundamentalist, Pentecostal, evangelical and other Bible-based communities, particularly as the millennium draws near. As Living Religion has reported over the last few months, legions of preachers and prophecy teachers are out and about, warning that the world events point toward the Last Days.

Premillennialist speakers lead the way. Through books, conferences and media ministries, they describe intense scenarios unfolding, that will include the Great Tribulation, the Rapture of the saved, the emergence of the Antichrist, Jesus' Second Coming, Armageddon and judgment day.

The general public and even moderate Christians may deride such visions as fearmongering folderol. What may not be known, though, is that the scenarios are being fiercely resisted by thousands of Conservative Christians as well.

These internal critics parse the same prophetic verses as end timers and find a fundamentally different message. Their message, simply put:

Calm down; Bible prophecy points to events already fulfilled in history;   Jesus came again and has established His kingdom of grace, a spiritual kingdom; and the "futurists" are frightening people without cause.  These critics go by the names "preterists" and "historicists."

Preterism (pronounced PREDDERISM and meaning PAST TIME) holds that all the prophetic events- even the resurrection of the dead - spiritually came to pass with the sacking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. (which preterists consider the Great Tribulation).

Bearing upbeat messages, the critics have formed fellowships and programs to counter futurism. Weston Bible Ministries of Croton-on Hudson, N.Y. generates books and speakers to "navigate" people away from the alarmism and shoddy literalism of the futurists and back toward a theology that focuses on spiritual, not physical life."  It's risky work, they argue. Several spokesmen said preterists are scattered through most Bible churches but have to stay closeted. 

Though the movement recently gained a prominent supporter, Reformed scholar R.C. Sproul, other preachers have been dismissed and professors reprimanded for advocating preterism, Mr. King said. One, the Rev. Joseph Lewis, said he got such official grief that he disassociated from his Baptist denomination and started a "full-preterist home church", the Fulfilled Bible Fellowship church in Pennsauken.

Mr. Lewis said he was a quick convert to preterism. "I saw we were clearly in error in looking for a return of the Lord," he said. "Jesus clearly told His followers the He'd return before they passed away."  Because he avowed that, he said, his superiors "treated me as though I were a heretic."   "Pastors have told us, "Gee, it's really scriptural, but if it goes against the creeds, we could lose our jobs," said Joanne Gerety, who runs the preterist Holy Ground Ministries in Riverside, N.J. "Some of the premillennial creeds have seven points (including) the literal, physical Second Coming and the literal, physical resurrection of the body."

The premillennialists and other futurists hold firm to their creeds and fire back at the critics. One return, as posed by Elwood McQuaid of the Deptford-based Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, is simple: "If Christ is reigning now, why is there still evil?" Mr. King's response is equally pointed "You have to have a world of both good and evil to have a world of free-will choice," he said. "For those who choose to come into the government of Christ, they come into the New Jerusalem where there is no sin."