3. Preterism (from Latin praeteritum, “the thing that is past”) thinks that the fulfillment of most of Revelation’s visions already occurred in the distant past, during the early years of the Christian church. Preterists think these events—either the destruction of Jerusalem or the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, or both—would “soon take place” only from the standpoint of John and the churches of Asia. Some preterists interpret the order of the visions as reflecting the chronological succession of the events they signify, but others recognize the presence of recapitulation (that is, that distinct, successive visions sometimes symbolize the same historical events or forces from complementary perspectives; see Structure and Outline). Full preterism—which insists that every prophecy and promise in the NT was fulfilled by a.d. 70—is not a legitimate evangelical option, for it denies Jesus’ future bodily return, denies the physical resurrection of believers at the end of history, and denies the physical renewal/re-creation of the present heavens and earth (or their replacement by a “new heaven and earth”). However, preterists who (rightly) insist that these events are still future are called “partial preterists.” (p. 2457, Introduction to Rev.)

11/16/9:

• Josephus Bibliography/Free Online Books: A.L.O.E. - Stories of the Wars of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity to the Destruction of Jerusalem (1884) "The Lord had foretold that false prophets should arise and deceive many, and that fearful sights and great signs should be from heaven; and these words were literally fulfilled. The miserable Jews desperately grasped at the hope of a coming Messiah, and eagerly listened to deceivers, who only lured them to ruin. A wonder in the sky, resembling a fiery sword, hung over the devoted city ; appearances as of chariots and assembling armies in the clouds terrified the astonished beholders ; and one night the priests in the temple were alarmed by a quaking of the earth, accompanied by a strange sound, and a voice which uttered the mysterious words, "Let us depart !"

• Audio: Charles H. Roberts, Th.M. D.Min - A Comprehensive Study of the Book of Revelation (2003) "The Book of Revelation is one of the most controversial and difficult books of the Bible. Its rich and dramatic apocalyptic language continues to be the subject of widely divergent interpretations. In this series, originally done in 2003, Rev. Charles H Roberts, Th.M. D.Min., takes the listener through a verse by verse study to prove that the events described in this much misunderstood book are in our past, having been fulfilled in the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in AD 70." (Not sure the proper classification for this ... unfamiliar with Roberts.)

• Charles Kassel - The Fall of the Temple: A Study in the History of Dogma (1905) "Those whose views have been molded by theology may still cling to the belief that the Maker of all. to revenge the kindly and forgiving Galilean for the fate suffered at the hands of a corrupt priesthood whose prestige and privileges He threatened, brought low with sword and flame the great common people of Judea who "heard him gladly." The partisans of ancient Israel, on the other hand, who deem the acts of Titus mere wanton ruin and murder, may still see in the catastrophes of his reign unmistakable evidences of divine displeasure. The more thoughtful, however, who refuse to believe that the Creator contrives afflictions to scourge His erring children, will decline to attribute to the anger of God either the horrors that Titus wrought or the horrors that Titus suffered. "

• Preterist Universalism: Discussion on: Adam and “Death” to “all” men (2009) "Thus the above being true, God has no more enemies – and THIS makes logical sense with a consistent prêteristic hermeneutic.     Thus if as Pantelism contends – that in the AD70 Parousia of Christ the "last enemy" to be destroyed was "the death", and if along with this death the venom of "the sin" duly empowered by "the law" likewise suffered demise; and if further, God having reconciled all things in heaven and on earth to Himself through the blood of Christ's cross [Col 1:20]; THEN regardless of what you or I or anybody else thinks or reasons – God has no more enemies. Now even if in the ignorance or arrogance of some men's feeble thinking they consider themselves enemies of God, from HIS perspective they are not [Col 1:21].  Thus if we agree that "the last enemy to be destroyed was death" then consistency dictates God has no more enemies, period! And so… IF God has made peace, and the Scriptures testify He has, then who are we to question His gracious will?" (http://preterismdebate.ning.com/profiles/blogs/adam-and-death-to-all-men)

11/15/9:

• Added to Former Full Preterists,Futurism,Hyper-Regressive: Brian Simmons - Why Hyper Preterism Teaches a Different Gospel (2009) "Firstly, the concept of “salvation” endorsed by Hyper-Preterism is radically different from that which Futurists espouse. Historically, Christians have always believed that salvation involves redemption from the consequences of Adam’s fall. These include moral and physical death as well as indwelling sin. That is, we see the results of Adam’s fall as being not simply moral in nature, but physical and anthropological as well. Paul writes, again and again, that the “entire man” is covered by Christ’s redemptive plan (see 1 Thessalonians 5: 23; Romans 8: 11; 1 Corinthians 6: 13-20; Ephesians 1: 14)."

• Former Full Preterists: John Anderson has added a second weekly radio show of "The Voice of Reason Live!", which is simulcast on Paltalk on Thursday nights. 

• Vespasian: Vespasian - Roman Emperor of Toilets, and Humour

11/11/9:

• Israel displays coins from AD69 "The coins sit inside a glass case, some melted down to unrecognizable chunks of pockmarked and carbonized bronze from the flames that destroyed the Temple. "These really show us the impact of the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century," said Gabriela Bijovsky, an antique coin expert from Israel Antiquities Authority. "These are a very vivid, dramatic example of that destruction."

• Why Was Temple Destroyed?: Michel Wex Haaretz Interview - Scholar and popularizer of Yiddish, whose latest offering draws from two millennia of Jewish tradition to serve as a primer for being a mentsh "You look at something like the story in the Talmud about the destruction of Jerusalem, about Kamtso and Bar Kamtso. Ultimately it turned on a piece of khnoykishkayt [hypocritical sanctimoniousness]" // Wex focuses on the Talmudic explanation for the destruction of the Second Temple, which is attributed to a feud between two Jews of firstcentury C.E. Jerusalem. The servant of a man throwing a party mistakenly invites Bar Kamtso, an enemy of his boss, instead of his friend Kamtso. The host, rather than making the best of an awkward situation, pointedly refuses to admit Bar Kamtso when he shows up at the gathering. An embarrassed Bar Kamtso offers to cover the cost of the entire party if he is only allowed to stay, but the host kicks him out, humiliating him before his peers, none of whom bothers to come to his defense. Bar Kamtso decides to take his revenge by sabotaging an offering of a calf that the Roman emperor has sent to the Temple. In a fatal display of small-minded pettiness, the Temple’s priests refuse to accept the blemished offering, thereby insulting the emperor, who then orders the city attacked and the Temple destroyed.  In Michael Wex’s − and the Talmud’s − eyes, everyone involved in the tale behaved badly, schmuckishly in fact, and with devastating consequences. Each character allows his anger to get the better of him − and self-control, the author argues, is one of the most basic lessons of Judaism.

• Former Full Preterists: Vince Krivda - Preterism and the Estate of Man after Death | Part Two (2009 Video) // Full Preterism and Reformed Theology

11/10/9:

• Futurism: Charles Finney - Salvation Difficult to the Christian, Impossible to the Sinner (1852) "For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?" This may refer to the destruction of the city and temple of God's ancient people, yet the evidence for the opinion does not seem to be decisive. "

• Historical: Gottesblog: The Abomination of Desolation (2009) "Jesus was a prophet (He was the Prophet, actually), and as such, He did what all prophets do, gave a microcosm of the ultimate fulfillment of His prophecy within the immediate context of His first hearers. So when the microcosm occurs, or, as it were, the 'down-payment' on the final fulfillment, that is, when the 'type' is fulfilled, then that which it typifies or foretells may be the more confidently believed.   So therefore, since Jerusalem was destroyed in ad 70, and since this is a matter of record, therefore it is clear that the End of all things shall indeed come to pass."

11/5/9:

• William Price: Prophecy, Eschatology, and Reformed Theology (2009) "This is why, in short form, why I have come back to a past fulfillment view of eschatology. I feel this view is indeed in alignment with the teachings of scripture. Either we take the Lord at His word, or we do not."

11/3/9:

• Hyper/Regressive: Sam Frost - “We deny that any man receives a new body - or new bodily form - or receives glorification upon the death of his physical body. His life in Christ is so made one with Christ and the Father by the Spirit that such essentials as pertains to this unity are not to be seen as lacking in any way for the believer. To say essentials are added to the believer as it pertains to the Gospel promises when their physical bodies expires takes away, we believe, from what God has fully and entirely accomplished for the explicit purpose of having “all things” apply to our life in this fallen world, so that upon death there is nothing lacking, but only a forward expectation of continued blessings under the Grace and Righteousness of God.” (From Kelly Nelson Birks: "Here’s Sam’s latest statement concerning the resurrection from RoC website. If this doesn’t sound like a cult-leader-type statement i don’t know what is. And people actually wonder about why I am not a FP")

11/2/9:

• Former Full Preterists/Hyper: PaulT: Gnostic Ties to Hyperpreterism - A Review of Sam Frost's "Essay's on the Resurrection of the Dead" (2009) "Sam Frost, a leading proponent of hyperpreterism has redefined the nature of the resurrection of the dead along Gnostic lines.. For Wright, the passages of Mk 13, and Mt 24, 25 are fulfilled by the time of A.D.70, the ‘end of the age’….Amazingly, however, Wright does not include the resurrection of the dead in any of the above passages. It is clear that in his analysis of 1 Co 15 the resurrection, parousia, and ultimate defeat of death (which he takes as physical death), are yet still future events.. After making this comment, he never reviews any of Wright’s exegesis of 1 Cor 15 to determine why it is Wright doesn’t make the connection between the Olivet discourse and 1 Cor 15. I think I know why, Wright’s argument is too solid for Frost to attack in his glossed over “analysis” of the text. I recommend the reader examine Wright’s argument to see why I believe that this is the case."

10/24/9:

• Israeli police storm Jerusalem's holiest site/Flashpoint...

HERE'S A BIG ONE FOR YOU READERS OF LATIN:

• Hugo Grotius - Annotations on the New Testament (1641-45 Latin) First Scholar of Reputation to Openly Embrace Systematic Preterist Eschatology ; Reverend Father Louis from the Palace Theological Society in Seville, Spain doesn't count among Protestant theologians because he's a Jesuit, it seems.

10/20/9:

• What Did The Moon Scientist Want To Tell The Israelis? Some Clues (2009)

• Ariel Sharon's Twilight Zone (2009)

10/17/9:

• Genea/Critical: Bob DeWaay - "This Generation" and its Preterist Exegetical Misuse (2007) "The term genea is used most often in the New Testament in a pejorative sense. In those cases when “generation” is used pejoratively (often with modifiers like “evil, unbelieving, perverse,” etc.) it functions as a qualitative statement about a group of people. Though often, but not always, addressed to people then living, the key idea is the spiritual condition of the people, not the number of their years or the time of their living. The meaning in these cases is “an ethnic group exhibiting cultural similarities—‘people of the same kind.’”³ When used this way in the New Testament, the similarities are always bad characteristics. There are some cases where the ideas of “people of the same time” and “people of the same kind” are combined."

10/16/9:

• Quote of the day by Dr. Kelly Nelson Birks - On the doctrines of Hyper Preterism: "It’s the modern day version of the Sibylline Oracle."

10/15/9:

• Ed Hindson message: Can we still believe in the Rapture? "After giving examples from Scripture that explain the rapture and Christ’s triumphal return, Hindson gave students 10 reasons for why Liberty is committed to a pre-tribulation rapture. They included knowing that the Church — the Bride of Christ — is not the object of divine wrath (so Christians aren’t meant to experience the tribulation period), and knowing that the rapture is imminent, instantaneous and unique."

10/13/9:

• Frank Schaeffer - Why Republicans Are in the Grip of an Apocalyptic Rapture Cult Centered on Revenge and Vindication (2009)

10/12/9:

• -Sanctification, Justification, and Glorification were completed at the AD70 Parousia/Last Judgment (From the article "Justification", 2009, parenthesis mine)

  • "Justification is not a “process”, but sets into motion a “process” that climaxes at the (AD70) parousia."

  • "Therefore, I defined sanctification, for us living in the (post-AD70) “age to come” now, as that which is entirely complete..  However, since we view the “age to come” as already here, it is perfectly logical to insist that we are not longer, as a Church, as the Wife of the Lamb, no the Bride, are “being sanctified.”

  • "Righteousness, or 'justification' was, in some sense, although already obtained, was “about to be” imputed to those who believed (at AD70). Hope is mixed with the present reality, but the fact remains, Justification is, in some sense, connected to the  (AD70)  Final Judgment."

  • "I conclude that whatever link or connection justification has to the (AD70) Final Judgment, we believe that it has, in its fullness of salvation, been completed. That Christians are not in a relationship, regardless of their believing that they are, with God that “hopes” for righteousness. They are, upon the apprehension of God, and upon that free gift and ability to trust in God, immediately and entirely justified in the fullest measure of that term possible. They are sanctified in the same measure, and are also glorified by their union with the Glorious Body of Christ. This is how God sees the Church today, post (AD70) judgment, and how He relates to the Church today."

  • "The Gospel and salvation are not realities in which the believer enter into a “struggle” that is in tension between “already” and “not yet. He does not enter into a relationship with God in which he is being “put to death” and “made alive.” In Christ, upon believing the Gospel, the sinner is immediately and entirely “declared” righteous. He awaits no future standing before God to hear this declaration. He has already heard it."

“For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified." Romans 2:13 / "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment."  Hebrews 9:27

10/11/9:

• 2012 isn't end of the world, Mayans insist Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff."

• Hyper/Defined: An Open Letter to Theology Debate Dr. Kelly Nelson Birks, Roderick Edwards & Sharon Nichols (2009)

Former Full Preterists - New Addition!  Dr. Kelly Nelson Birks  (the pastor who ordained Sam Frost)

• "As one who made it clear back in '04 in print in one of my books, that I am not a FP, I have nothing to "come out from", as I have never since then espoused any type of a FP view, as it must of necessity contradict many scriptures that state an on-going nature to the things stated past AD 70, as well as the "resurrection issue" with CBV."

• "Hyper-Preterism, which I also see as “full” preterism"

• "For many years I have tried to work from “within” in order to safeguard against where some factions within this movement are now headed. Some here on this site who have been engaging them, I believe, are right to do so. I believe i have unmasked some of the problems along with those within who have formally come out and admitted that FP or HP cannot co-exist within reformed theology. This has been so direct and prevelent as of late, that there should be no squirming away from it by them.

• "I have come to the conclusion that it is correct at this juncture, to continue to draw the line as to what is and is not tolerable within the FP camp. I see no working definable difference between hyper and full preteism. The things I have stated here as to “problems” within the movement, are just the beginning. Cult-like tendencies of theological manipulation have begun to evidence themselves more and more from within. Consequently, I am more and more delimited as to the actual affiliations i can maintain in the formal sense." 

• "And so we all have/will (in our futures), experience the event of the parousia together. I hold to the experience of this event as a future event."

  • Full Preterist Response: "Kelly Birks is a doctor. Barack Obama is a Nobel peace laureate. It is difficult to determine who is more undeserving." Dave Green (PretCoz)

Roderick Edwards (2009)

• "With the hyperpreterists telling us justification and sanctification are instantaneous, and telling us to believe in a future resurrection means we’re not yet saved; hyperpreterism can no longer pretend their belief is a minor “tweak”."

• "What you have described above is exactly the phase ALL of us former-hyperpreterist went through — first seeing the corruption all around, but wanting to do all we could to retain some sense of “orthodoxy” within the movement — eventually we began to see, it is the nature of heresy to continue to degrade."

Sharon Nichols (2009)

• “Now, to conclude my short comment here, let me say to those who have been speaking quite openly about what the intentions of this group are (as if they know), stating that I’ve been duped by the Heterodox Preterists (as if I am completely clueless), and wondering out loud if my renouncement of Heterodox Preterism is real, let me assure them that I HAVE renounced Heterodox Preterism. I have a good support base, I have found a wonderful Reformed Presbyterian Church to attend and am currently enrolled in the Introductory class in order to become a member.

• Oh, and don’t let me forget to say that, Yes, I believe Heterodox Preterism ultimately teaches a different Gospel. As far as not associating with them? Well, to take a cue from one of the tag lines of T.D., “Sitting next to a Heterodox Preterist doesn’t make me one. What I do to them CAN.”

10/10/9:

• Critical/Hyper: Richard Pratt, Reformed Theological Seminary - Hyperpreterism and Unfolding Biblical Eschatology (2005) "In a word, hyper-preterists miss the central concern of biblical prophecies about the eschaton. They reduce the nature of Christ's return to a nebulous, relatively inconsequential spiritual return in order to defend a misconceived notion of the integrity of biblical prophecy. As a result, they fail to see the crucial fact that the radically cosmic, physical, cataclysmic eschatological vision of the Old and New Testaments calls believers in every century to serve Christ faithfully in order to hurry the day when he will return and renew all things. The eschatological hope of Christ's glorious, physical return has rightly inspired Christians throughout the centuries as they have suffered sickness, temptations, trials, prosecutions, and death. This hope still inspires us to remain faithful to our Lord today. As in the first century, Christ's imminent return is offered to us, and we too pray that he will fulfill that promise in our day."

• Modern/Gary DeMar: Charisma Magazine Debunking 'Last Days Fever' (2009) “Peter Wagner, president of Global Harvest Ministries, is an adherent of partial preterism, believing most end-times prophecies were fulfilled with the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.” Wagner is the author of Dominion! How Kingdom Action Can Change the World published by Chosen Book in 2008. There are better representatives for the partial preterist position than Wagner, but at least it’s a start."

• Critical: Preterism is a form of mental illness "Of course, when Christianity itself inculcates delusional thinking in a fundamental way, we should not be surprised when a faction within Christianity, a small and justly derided one, concocts their own new wrinkle to the entire delusional tableau."

10/9/9:

• Free Online Books/Modern: Douglas Wilson - Heaven Misplaced: Christ's Kingdom on Earth (2008) "The position argued here holds that the book of Revelation, with the exception of the last three chapters, was fulfilled two thousand years ago."

• Free Online Books/Hyper: Thomas Rattray - The Regal Advent and the Resurrection, of the Past (1878) "The subject of the regal advent as accomplished in A.D.70 is not a novelty. The learned Grotius of the seventeenth century, and some others of note in that and subsequent times advocated it.

10/3/9:

• "Orthodox Preterist": Gary DeMar and Hyperpreterism (2009) "DeMar finally answers, twice saying he doesn’t think “all forms of full preterism” are heretical, but only the “goofy” kind. Frost, as is DOCUMENTED once again throws some of his fellow full preterists under the bus by referring to them as “low-rent” and up there with “Charles Manson and Jim Jones”."

10/2/9:

• Alexander Tilloch: Dissertations introductory to the study and right understanding of the Apocalypse (1823) "I think with Grotius, and with Michaelis, (if that continued to be his opinion,) that it was written in the time of Claudius;—-or, at all events, not later than the reign of Nero, as maintained by Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, and others." (HIGHLY recommended text on the study of John's Apocalypse)

10/1/9:

• Happy 13th Birthday, PreteristArchive.com!

• Gary DeMar: Gary DeMar Show: It is Time to Dump Dispensationalism

• An Interview with Keith Mathison

• Nero's rotating room discovered "Archaeologist Maria Antonietta Tomei told how it was the circular shape of the building and the stone spheres that led the team to believe they had found the rotating dining room.  She said: 'This discovery has no equal among ancient Roman architectural finds.' The find was made during excavation of the Domus Aurea or 'Golden House' on the Palatine Hill - one of Ancient Rome's fabled Seven Hills."

9/30/9:

• Hyper/Gary DeMar: Is Gary DeMar Secretly a Friend to Hyperpreterists? (2009) "The tendency of full preterists is to fit everything into an A.D. 70 matrix. They do this with 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18, 1 Corinthians 15, and Revelation 20. A similar approach is followed with a number of Old Testament prophecies (e.g., Ezek 38–39 and Zech 12). I am willing to listen to their arguments since preterism in its present form is only now coming to its own as we shake off the dust of dispensationalism that has so distorted our interpretation of prophecy."

  • Discussion at American Vision

9/29/9:

• Gary DeMar: Eschatology informs your worldview (YouTube video)

9/22/9:

• Former Full Preterist/Grace: Vince Krivda: Can Full Preterism Be Considered Reformed Theology? (2009) "I wanted to give some of the reasons why I left full preterism.. ; full preterism is "semi-pelagianism" which is "unsatisfactory to the Reformed position"

  • Hyper/Divisions: Virgil Vaduva: Full Preterism and Calvinism Not Theologically Compatible "a few years ago I wrote a series of articles in which I hope I demonstrated that Full Preterism and Calvinism cannot be theologically compatible" (2009) "Because predestination and election deny the concept of self, and because Calvinism establishes a premise of a totally corrupt physical creation, it must be rejected by Preterists. Since we now understand the nature of Death occurring in Genesis 2, and since we understand the true nature of the curse, we can safely reject Calvinism together with all its points as just another piece of man-made doctrine which has no place in one’s heart. It is understandable why futurists would want to adopt Calvinism in the context of their eschatology, but there is no sense in Preterists teaching and adopting it, an especially making it into an issue of salvation and fellowship. If recognizing the Parousia of Christ as past or future is not an issue of salvation and fellowship for Preterists, why would predestination and election divide us Preterists? Only a fool would use predestination and election to split believers and create controversy."

9/19/9:

• Historical Pret: Hank Hanegraaff: The Apocalypse Code Podcast Series

9/9/9:

• Stephen Douglas: My love affair with theology (2009) "So why haven’t I been blogging? My love affair with theology is on the rocks. I know, the base definition of “theology” is what we believe about God, and I’m certainly always looking to having a better understanding of Him and His ways. ..You can contrive an internally consistent history and theology as gleaned from the information in the Lord of the Rings or the Star Trek universe, but your systematization of them is going to be nothing more than a clever fiction unless you can find correspondence in the real world."

9/7/9:

• Stephen Watson Fullom: The Last Days of Jerusalem (1871 pdf)

"To cut her off, and on the breakers thrust ?
While thus forlorn he waits, a nearer doom
Seems in a quicksand on his course to loom :
And threat'ning cloud and breakers are forgot
In fears by fate so imminent begot.
Just thus did waiting Zion now espy
A blazing Comet burst upon the sky :
In shape a sword, sword o'er the city hung,
A portent too significant is flung
And memories of all before expire
In view of this presentiment in fire!"
 

Martin Goodman "The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 was the product of no long-term policy on either side. It had come about through a combination of accidents, most of them unrelated in origin to the conflict: the death of Nero, leading to Vespasian’s bid for power in Rome and Titus’ quest for the propaganda coup of a rapid conquest of Jerusalem, and the devastating effect in the summer heat of a firebrand thrown by a soldier into the Temple of God." (Rome and Jerusalem, 423)
 

9/6/9:

• Bleek's History of the Use of the Apocalypse - Starting with Grotius "(Herder) expresses himself to the effect that he viewed the entire destruction of Jerusalem only as a sign, pledge, type of the final and greater end of things, and that the proper object of prophecy is to develop this end in such sign and pledge. Yet this point of view does not appear definitely in the interpretation itself. But he gives prominence to the practical particulars whereby the Apocalypse is a book for all hearts and for all times."

9/3/9:

• Hyper: Dave Green: If Futurism Is True, Are Preterists Anathema? (2009) "If preterists today are wrong when they say “the resurrection” of 2 Timothy 2:16-18 is past, are preterists under the condemnation of Hymenaeus and Philetus?   Absolutely."

Two New Classifications within Preterism Offered :

• Sam Frost's "Biblical Preterism" - "This is an inclusive term. It allows, where we are in these studies, for a lot of room in the working out of what we all agree on: the soteriological implications of the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70 as it regards the history of The Redemption of the Body of Christ."

• Dr. Kenneth Talbot's "Realized Preterism" - "more consistent with the Scripture and Reformed theology.. neither Full or Partial Preterist.  ..fully complimentary to Reformed theology and Postmillennial eschatology."

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS FROM GERMANY. "August: 1800.—On the morning before Eatisbonne was taken, a grand and solemn ceremony was performed in the cathedral, of which the band and organ are reckoned the best in Germany. At one passage of the Latin service, the fears of the inhabitants of a siege and bombardment seemed to be expressed in the words, ' Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou shalt be made desolate!' The prophecy was chanted by a shrill single voice, like one from the dead, at the further end of the long echoing cathedral. A dreadfully sublime pause succeeded, and then the whole thunder of the organ, drums, and trumpets, broke in. I never thought terrific music could have reached so high. Two hours after an alarm was given, and the Hungarian infantry were called out to support their defeated countrymen. This music, though less sacred, was also perfect in its kind. Its effect was heightened by the sound of artillery coming nearer and nearer, and the flash of carbines from the neighbouring wood, where they were skirmishing in small parties. The sight of men and horses passing, gave a serious aspect to the scene, and convinced the spectator that he was not hearing the drums of a holiday parade." (Diary of a Lady of Quality, pp. 26,27)

William Revell Moody (1900)  "In Christ Came Again Dr. Urmy labors with zeal and diligence to establish the old theory, discredited by every evangelical creed, every catholic creed, and every generally acknowledged exegete of Christendom, that Christ came before the close of the apostolic age in a sense which completely fulfilled all predictions concerning His parousia and apokalupsis. His utter variance, not only from the pre-millennial bat also from the post-millennial view of the second advent, is fully confessed by himself. He says: "The system of eschatology which this work presents requires that certain changes be made not only in the current thought of the day concerning the second coming of Christ, but in creeds, articles of faith, rituals, and hymns, where they refer to this and kindred eschatological subjects." We wish Dr. Urmy joy of this task!" (Record of Christian work, Volume 19, p. 381)

9/1/9:

• Critical ("A must read!"): Lewis Sperry Chafer - The Second Advent of Christ Incarnate (1947) On earlier theology of Wm. Clarke "This work of fiction which does not even draw its material from the Bible -- though for remote identification it must introduce Christ and His disciples - is one mass of impossible error in doctrine from its beginning to its end ; yet this work on theology has had acceptance with, and commendation from, an unusually large company of ministers and professors of note.  Its fallacies should be noted briefly: (a) The entire assumption that Christ's coming is fulfilled by a "spiritual and invisible" program ignores every event connected with His return.  (b) The writer confuses Christ's personal coming with His omnipresence.  He is in the midst when two or three are gathered unto Him, but that fact does not imply that His promise to come as Bridegroom and Judge has been, or is now, being fulfilled. " // "How different would have been the histroy of theology in the past three centuries and its fruits today, had theologians accepted the chiliasm of the apostles and the early church instead of the Federal or Covenant theories introduced by Johannes Cocceius and the postmillennialism of Daniel Whitby -- both living a century after the Reformation!" (pp. 280-287)

• The Significance of A.D. 312 & 325 (the Roman Conversion) in Bible Prophecy - Latest Study Archive!

• Constantine the Great... Preterist Emperor - Eusebius Pamphilius: "I am filled with wonder at the intellectual greatness of the emperor, who as if by divine inspiration thus expressed what the prophets had foretold concerning this monster" (Oration in Praise of Constantine)

• Robert Arakaki: Constantine The Great: Roman Emperor, Christian Saint, History's Turning Point "Constantine's legacy can be seen in Christianity's transformation from a private sect into a public church that encompassed the whole of society. He put it on an institutional footing, which enabled the Church to be the leading cultural force in the ancient world. The Christianization of Roman society can be seen as a partial fulfillment of Revelation 21:24: "The nations . . . shall walk in its [New Jerusalem] light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it." The Church is the New Jerusalem—replacing the Jerusalem of the Old Testament—which brings spiritual enlightenment to the pagan nations throughout the Roman Empire."

8/31/9:

• David Hocking: What is Preterism? (2005) "Preterists believe that the promise of our Lord’s Second Coming began to be fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Some believe that the prophecies mentioned above were fulfilled in the Second Century AD at the time of the Second Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire at the time of Emperor Hadrian. Some preterists hold that the prophecies were fulfilled during the first three centuries AD as God wages war on the enemies of the Church (which they argue include Israel and Rome!) resulting in the “Christianization” of the Roman Empire under Constantine."

• "Hyper-preterism" Defined / Divided Against Itself: Added to Matthew 26:64 Not a "Preterist Time Indicator" Pointing to AD70 - Dave Green on Jesus' Parousia being "from now on" at his trial: "6. Jesus told Caiaphas, the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, and the whole Sanhedrin that "from now on," they would be seeing the Parousia (Matt. 26:64; Mk. 14:62; Lk. 22:69)." (Theology Today, August 30, 2009).  Green's Typically Strict AD70 Parousia Date : "Today the condemning old covenant is ancient history and we dwell securely in the heavenly places in our Redeemer. These things are realities today because of Jesus' once-for-all Appearing "for salvation" in A. D. 70." (Q&A 17) | "Thus were the saints "manifested" with Christ in His Parousia, when the worldly sanctuary fell." (Q&A 102)  |  "Today, since the Parousia in 70, the Gospel is fulfilled and all believers in heaven and on earth are the living, spiritual Body of Christ and the eternal Tabernacle of God." (Response to McLaren)

• Joseph Wood (1906) "Inspiration is that which is of universal application. If any utterance is only for an age, and local in its interpretation, we do not regard it as inspired. The Psalms, for instance, were mostly suggested by local considerations, the trials, the joys, the experiences of David and others, under peculiar circumstances. But, nevertheless, we feel as we read them that they pass beyond the limits of the local and the individual— they belong to humanity—they are true of human nature and life everywhere. Or take Christ's prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. It was spoken at Jerusalem about Jerusalem, and in a manner which seemed limited to Jerusalem. But had the prophecy been true only of that city of sorrows, it would never have been regarded as inspired. Whereas Christ's principle was this : that the doom pronounced on Jerusalem was universally applicable, and that it was but a style and specimen of God's judgment everywhere. The judgment comes wherever there is evil grown ripe for judgment, wherever corruption is complete. And the gathering of the Roman eagles to the carcase is but a specimen of the way in which judgment at last overtakes any city, any country, and any man in whom evil has reached the point where there is no possibility of cure. We who have lived through the last fifty years have seen the eagles gathered together in Naples, in America, in France, in Bulgaria. The Lord's judgment on Jerusalem has been fulfilled many times—it was not simply of local but of universal application." (The Bible, what it is and is not [lects.], p. 97)

8/30/9:

• Frederic W. Farrar: Christ Wails Over Jerusalem (1899) "This incident is an allegory. The soul of each one amongst us is such a Jerusalem. The soul has its history of shame or of faithfulness, and its prophecy of triumph or of doom, just as Jerusalem had. Jerusalem had warnings..  Jerusalem found that it was so, and so shall all men who persist in defying the mercy of God which calleth us to repentance." / Jerusalem as a visible representation of the "Heart" - Revealed hermeneutic is to see invisible in light of the visible (2 Cor. 4:18)

• "Hyper" Preterism Defined / Divided Against Itself: Sam Frost (2009) “Um especially - and I don’t mean to bring this up and I don’t want to discuss it but the Beyond Creation Science stuff - um definitely goes further than - see I would call - in fact I have an article where I do refer to that and then the universalizing tendency, I refer to that as hyper - I call that hyperpreterism. I think a couple of years ago I started saying this stuff is going so far out into - I don’t know where anymore” (August 2009 podcast)

• "Hyper" Preterism Divided Against Itself: Mike Sullivan Rebuts Sam Frost's Theology (2009) "Beloved, do not be deceived, is not biblical “preterism” rightly being taught concerning the timing and nature of God’s completed redemptive plan for man that many of us have come to know and love. It is carnal futurism both in the timing and nature of fulfillment – plain and simple. ""There is no more weeping, because God’s people have been forgiven of their sins. For all Partial Preterists and even some “Full Preterists,” this is a “Gnostic” and a shallow view of the passage. However, this is the NT’s eschatological goal of redemption, and we must reject their “literal phases” propped up with their invented “not yet” and “ongoing fulfillments” which the NT authors know nothing of taught  (sic)."

8/29/9:

• Johann Peter Lange: The Life of the Lord : Olivet Discourse (1844) "As soon as Christ comes to the destruction of Jerusalem, He conceives it in the prophetic importance which it has to His disciples. He assumes that they will live to see the destruction themselves. He then points out to them the sign by which they were to recognise that the judgment was about to break over Jerusalem."

• Free Online Books: Patrick Fairbairn: Prophecy Viewed in Respect to its Distinctive Character; its Special Function and its Proper Interpretation (1856) "During the time that the temple and Jerusalem stood, and formed the centre of the divine kingdom and worship, the predictions, which were of the nature of promises, received a measure of fulfilment in the case of the true covenant- people to whom alone they properly referred. But from the moment that Christ was glorified, as the temple and Jerusalem lost their original character—as the Jerusalem and the temple, which thenceforth constituted the real habitation of God and the seat of worship, rose heavenwards with its Divine Head (Gal. iv. 26, Rev. xxi. 2), it is in connection with that higher region that we are to look for what yet remains to be fulfilled of the predictions."

• Critical: Thomas Scott:  Predictions Respecting the Second Advent of Jesus (1869) "The first attempt to assign all to the destruction of Jerusalem until we reach Matt. xxv. 31, is utterly untenable and indeed absurd. No words can be plainer than those of Matt. xxiv. 29, 30, 31. If they do not denote the visible coming of the Son of man in heaven to exercise judgment over all the tribes of earth, no words whatever suffice to enunciate this doctrine. Nothing but the extreme stress of the difficulty, extreme reluctance to admit the ignominious failure of prophecy, could ever drive a sensible man to pretend that these three verses mean nothing but the overthrow of one city—the dissolution of one nation."

• Book Excerpt: Hank Hanegraaff - The Apocalypse Code (2007)

• Critical Articles: Norman L. Geisler - A Friendly Response to Hank Hanegraaff's Book, The Last Disciple (2006) "Of course even partial preterists are "futurists" regarding the Second Coming and Resurrection. But they reject the futurist understanding of the bulk of Book of Revelation. "

• Critical Articles: Norman L. Geisler - A Response to Steve Gregg's Defense of Hanegraaff (2007) "In brief, Gregg’s attempt to rescue the partial preterist position he shares with Hank Hanegraaff is a failure. It rests upon a methodologically unorthodox way of interpreting Scripture. If this same method were used on the Gospel narratives of the resurrection of Christ, the preterist would also be theologically unorthodox. Thus, while partial preterism itself is not heretical, its hermeneutic is unorthodox, and if applied consistently, would lead to heresy, as indeed it does in full preterism."

Steve Gregg's Eschatology Series (.mp3 files)
1.  Introduction and definitions (ESC-01)
2.  Methods of  Interpretation(ESC-02)
3.  The millennium as the fulfillment of Israel’s Hope (ESC-03)
4.  The Millennium in Revelation (ESC-04)
5.  Revelation 20:4 and the historyof  millennial thinking (ESC- 05)
6.  When will the rapture be? (ESC-06)
7.  The pretribulational rapture defended (ESC-07)
8.  The pretribulational rapture refuted (ESC-08)
9.  Is the future tribulation taught in scripture? Part 1 (ESC-09)
10.  Is the future tribulation taught in scripture? Part 2  (ESC-10)
11.  The Olivet Discourse Part 1 (ESC-11)
12.  The Olivet Discourse Part 2 (ESC-12)
13.  The future of  the Church, Part1(ESC-13)
14.  The future of  the Church, Part2(ESC-14)

8/28/9:

• 4 Percent of Israelis Think Obama is Pro-Israel - The May poll found that Israelis' views of Obama's predecessor in the White House, George W. Bush, were nearly the opposite. Some 88% of Israelis considered Bush's administration pro-Israel, 7% said he was neutral and just 2% labeled him pro-Palestinian.

8/27/9:

• "Hyper" Preterism Defined: Jason Bradfield, Keith Mathison (2009) "If the debate here is whether or not John Noyes was a hyper-preterist, then obviously our first and most important task is to define what is meant by hyper-preterist. We certainly can’t answer our question if we don’t know what we are looking for.  So what is hyper-preterism according to Mathison? Mathison tells us:

  While differing among themselves on numerous details, proponents of this doctrine are united in teaching the most basic thesis of hyper-preterism, namely that the Second Coming of Christ and the events associated with it (e.g. the general resurrection and the final judgment) occurred during the first century

  The next obvious step is to then examine the writings of Noyes and find out if he taught the above, namely, that the Second Coming of Christ, the general resurrection, and the final judgment occurred during the first century. With that clear definition before us, let us now examine quotes that Mathison provided and ask if it fits that definition" (The Oneida Community and Hyper Preterism )

Escape From Tribulation: Pella/Jerusalem as a Type
Jerusalem as a Picture of the Heart

8/26/9:

• Rabbi Irwin Kula: Inglorious Basterds, Vengeance and Redemption "If the film proves anything, it is that we have barely begun to clean up the toxic waste of the Holocaust. There is still plenty of rage and anger that has not risen to the surface. Presently, liberals and conservatives, hawks and doves have a nice happy arrangement. One side makes believe they feel no anger or fear and see evil simply as a social construction to be dealt with by understanding and diplomacy. The other side makes believe it is not nightmares from the past that have made it appropriate to see the Nazi specter in every enemy, to confuse real politic with metaphysical evil. So we become each other's containers for all our repressed and disassociated rage and humiliation and fear - with everyone seeing each other as Nazis - a cornucopia of Nazis.   Jews see Palestinians, Palestinians see Jews, Americans see Arabs, Arabs see Americans, even opponents of health care reform see Barack Obama, and supporters of health care reform see noisy town-hall opponents as Nazis. That which seems so unique has become common. No wonder Inglorious Basterds feels so good to watch."

• Charles Dickens on the Fall of Jerusalem "the siege that seems to epitomise all the horrors of such contests, forming, as it were, the last crowning scene of a nation's tragedy, was the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, A.d. 70. "

8/25/9:

• Free Online Books: Douglas Wilson: Heaven Misplaced: Christ's Kingdom on Earth (2008)

• Scholarship: Early Definition of "Preterist", Applied to Stuart in The Churchman's Monthly Review (1847) "The Professor has found a key, whereby to disprove, as he thinks, the two rival forms of the Preterist expositions, and unlock the whole prophecy. This key is the numerosity, and above all, the trichotomy of the Apocalypse. This proves that there must be three catastrophes, the fall of Jerusalem, ch. xi., the death of Nero, ch. xvi., and the destruction of Gog and Magog, ch. xx. " The trichotomy of the Apocalypse," he says, " stands pre-eminent in important consequences as to the interpretation. It settles the question whether there is more than one catastrophe in the book. This is a great question. ... It is plain that the writer's main object has been completed antecedently to this last scene (xx. 7—10). Yet the trichotomy of the book, and the nature of the case, both demanded a rounding off of the whole in such a manner! " ' (January, p. 120)

• Scholarship: Early Identification of "Hyper Preterism": Quarterly Journal of Prophecy (1856) "The author (P.S. Desprez) maintains that the key to the Apocalypse is, that the destruction of Jerusalem was the second coming of Christ, and that there is no other advent of Christ to be expected (Lecture xvi.) He is an ultra-preterist. Those who believe in a literal coming of the Lord to judgment, yet to take place, he condemns in language sufficiently strong. Any system (millenarian or not) that takes for granted a future advent of Christ, is founded on " strained interpretations"— " patchings of the Word of God"—" positions plainly untenable." Whereas, his own doctrine (that there is no advent) is written as with a sunbeam, and the whole body of the Scriptures coincides with it (p. 431). " (vol. 22, p. 98)

• Scholarship: Early Identification of "Hyper Preterism": W. Collingwood (1893) "Though it necessarily sets aside the extreme preterist view - that all did take place in the first century - it doesn't interfere with any other system of prophetic study, either the historic or the futurist, but would accord alike with either." (The Homiletic Review, Vol. 26, p. 448)

8/24/9:

• Dr. Kenneth G. Talbot: Samuel Frost and the Westminster Confession (2009) "Here Mr. Frost acknowledges himself as rightfully being a ‘heretic’ in light of Reformed theology. We also read in: The Constitution of Christ Covenant Church, Organized by Samuel Frost, in Section 1:A 1:2, Frost and others where they wrote: “We are fully aware of the opinion by many that preterism is regarded as a “damnable heresy.”

  Dr. Talbot continues:  Again, Mr. Frost clearly understands the implications of his doctrine in light of both Reformed and Evangelical Christianity. Why would he acknowledge that he is rightfully being called a ‘heretic’ and a ‘damnable heretic’ (not my words, but Mr. Frost’s and Mr. Green’s), and then complain about being called a ‘heretic’ and a ‘damnable heretic’ at that? Let’s see if this is logical."

8/23/9:

• Hyper: Larry Siegle - New Wine, Old Wineskins (2009) "I do believe that some statement must be made to provide a sense of balance to the recent departure from (full) Preterism of some, back from whence they came. These actions are neither new, nor are they surprising as often is the case when the strongholds of “tradition” are neither broken, nor forsaken. .   The greatest error of Preterism is in our reluctance to “kill the beast” of allegiance in the hearts and minds of the people to their vain “traditions” and obsessions with conformity to the doctrines and practices of those who created the corpses of denominations that are dying all around us today... When I heard of the recent departure of some within the community my honest reaction was a deep sense of sadness in the very depth of my being."

  • comments：”Our Standing is based upon the finished work of Christ in 33AD, and not on the urban renewal project of 70AD.“ // "I used to take great comfort in the "process of sanctification" and now that all has been fulfilled I also struggle with how UN-sanctified I feel every day" //

8/21/9:

• Former Full Preterist: Sharon Nichols and Minna Hill - A Choice: Full Preterism or Reformed Theology (2009) Congratulations to two more "Former Full Preterists" - "We have come to realize that Full-preterism and Reformed theology are antithetical to each other. We greatly appreciate the honesty from Sam who has admitted as much. After much prayer and study, we have determined to change our view on Full Preterism."

  • Comments: "I don’t think there is any logical explanation for Sharon and Mina’s sudden flip flop.  Because it isn’t logical I attribute it to emotional confusion" .. "The other problem I have with Sharon is now she has to run everything by Dr. Talbot. That really strikes me the wrong way and just reinforces that Sharon just isn’t theologically astute enough to dig these things out for herself and own them."
     

• Free Online Books: Jack Fruchtman: Apocalyptic Politics of Richard Price and Joseph Priestley: A Study in Late Eighteenth-Century English Republican Millennialism (2007) / R.C. Sproul - The Last Days According to Jesus (1998)

• Prophetic Shocker: Romans didn't destroy Jerusalem "Richardson's research found the army that destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem was actually overwhelmingly comprised of Middle Eastern peoples, not Europeans. Explicit accounts cited come from Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Titus Flavius Josephus as well as more modern scholars and historians."

8/20/9:

• Futurism: Jesus Prophetically Pronounced Judgment On His Own Generation (2007) "Why would a Futurist like myself even want to bring this point up? Answer: It’s the truth that so many Futurists try to brush under the carpet when dealing with Preterism. We need to be honest about 70 A.D. fulfillment, then we can be honest about all the things that were not fulfilled in 70 A.D. Futurists need to appreciate this aspect of Preterism. Preterism basically means "in the past". The part that Futurists disagree with is in saying that the return of Christ, the new heavens and new earth, the abomination of desolation, Daniel’s seventieth week, etc. are all in the past. But we need to concede up front the things that actually are in the past."

8/19/9:

• Dave Bussard: Are Matthew 24 and Luke 21 the Same? "Even though Matthew 24 and Luke 21 contain strong similarities, I contend that the bulk of these two sections of scripture are different teachings given at separate times. Both passages teach of the future return of Christ, but I believe the “tribulation” described in Matt. 24:9-22 is the period of time where the abomination of desolation will stand in the holy place at the midpoint of the yet-to-happen 70th Week of Daniel. The “persecution” described in Luke 21:12-24 speaks of the historical attack on Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. Continue and see if the following evidence is enough persuade you." (The Pre-Wrath Tribune)

8/16/9:

• Dr. John Gill: The Prophecies of the Old Testament, Respecting Messiah "The next thing to be inquired into, is the exact and precise time of the Messiah’s coming, and cutting off, as fixed in Daniel’s weeks; the whole prophecy we have at large in Daniel 9:24-27.   The occasion of this prophecy is manifestly this; The prophet Daniel now being in captivity, and understanding by books, especially by the prophecy of Jeremy, that it would be a seventy years captivity, falls into a very great concern of mind for the people of the Jews, the city of Jerusalem, and the holy temple; and therefore sets apart some time in fasting and prayer to God on the account thereof; whose prayers were very quickly heard, he being a person greatly beloved; for even at the beginning of his supplications, the commandment came forth, orders were given and the angel Gabriel immediately dispatched, as a messenger, to give him an account of those things which he was so very solicitous about; and the things which the angel had a commission to give him skill and understanding in, were of very considerable importance; as that there would be a royal edict issued forth in favor of the Jews; by virtue of which they would have full liberty to rebuild Jerusalem, the streets and wall thereof, though it would be attended with a great deal of trouble and opposition; that after a certain space of time, here specified, was elapsed, the Messiah, the prince, whom he, and those of his nation expected, would be cut off; and that upon the cutting off of this great person, would very quickly ensue the utter ruin and destruction of the Jewish nation, city, and temple."

• Free Online Books/Futurism: Benjamin Wills Newton - The Prophecy of the Lord Jesus as Contained in Matthew 24 and 25 (1879 PDF) Early disciple of Darby

• Hyper Preterism: Alexander Brown: The Great Day of the Lord: A Survey of New Testament Teaching on Christ's Coming in His Kingdom, the Resurrection, and the Judgement of the Living and the Dead (1890)  "To sum the whole into a sentence — with the fall of Jerusalem, the then existing age was ended, the dead were judged, the saints were raised to heaven, and a new dispensation of a world-wide order instituted, of which Christ is everlasting King, and ever present with His people, whether living here or dead beyond." (p. 257)    - A simple but fundamental mistake, confining the new aion within the brackets of carnal chronology.   It is the same exact mistake of Futurism, except that the incorrect HyP AD70 dispensational line in history past has immense theological consequences with which Futurists will never have to deal, placing their dispensational line as they do in history future (thereby not ever having to deal with the myriad complications of living in a global change of spiritual economy -- which yields theological Universalism of some sort.. hence the high concentration of Universalist/Pantelist/Comprehensive Grace teachers within full preterism). 

• Hyper: William Bell: Do You Pray For The Kingdom to Come? (2009) "As a third grade student, we had devotionals in our public school classroom everyone morning which involved the class singing in unison what is typically known as the Lord’s prayer, See Matt 6:9–13.after studying the prayer, I discovered that I could not conscientiously pray that prayer as Jesus taught his disciples to pray it...  We no longer live in expectation. We therefore should no longer pray, your kingdom come, but rather, offer gratitude and thanks for the kingdom and live as it demands." (Full Preterist Dispensational line in AD70 )

5/15/9:

• Preterist Idealism : Donald James Perry: Redirectionalism: Absolute Orthodox Idealism and the Revelation of Jesus Christ(2001)  FREE DOWNLOAD "When Christians are tempted to abandon the apostolic hope for a fulfilled apostolic eschatological hope, the Church is faced with dangers. Where man is accountable to know what the second coming means in the Bible, Preterism can move men to question its relevancy. Many questions therefore confront the believer, who abandon the apostolic hope. First, men ask themselves: Shall we speak those same words today? Are we still allowed to do so? Were those of days gone by of another age, a different time from ours that is now fulfilled? To what extent are we now in the new Jerusalem? To what extent did Christ accomplish the end of some redemptive age in A.D. 70? Does God Himself or does His way and salvation change?"

OFFICIAL TERM FOR AD70 / 135
"The ‘destruction of Israel’"

"A historic document that can be definitely dated based on a reference to a historical event such as
 the ‘destruction of Israel’ has never been discovered."

NEW SPECIES OF "JUDEAN DESERT" FRAGMENT.    SEEMS CERTAIN TO POST-DATE ENTIRE DSS CORPUS, SO SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN RECOVERED FROM A DIFFERENT CACHE

• Fragment from AD 74 or 139 Discovered in police bust "Unusually, the first line of the document indicates a precise date, the IAA said - "Year 4 [AD] to the destruction of Israel", which could indicate either AD74, when Jerusalem's Second Temple was destroyed, or AD139, the date of a Jewish revolt violently put down by Rome.

5/1/9:

• HyP-Critical: Dear Hyperpreterist Readers... School is open for Full Pret n00bs  ;)

4/28/9:

• Paul Copan: When God Goes to Starbucks: A Guide to Everyday Apologetics (2009) TY RR

  • Did Jesus Get it Wrong? (2009) "Yesterday I came across an intriguing chapter in a book by Paul Copan (When God Goes to Starbucks). The author starts by quoting from Bertrand Russell, the famous atheist, who said Jesus got things wrong about the second coming: "For one thing, he certainly thought his second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all the people who were living at that time." He is referring to Matthew 10:23 ("you shall not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes”), Matthew 16:28 ("There are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom"), and Mark 14:62 ("you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven"). It seems obvious in these passages that the "coming" is expected within the near future of Jesus’ time. The author, Paul Copan, presents a solution he calls a dual position -- that Jesus "comes" up to God's throne for vindication/judgment during "this generation" (in 70 A.D.) and that he will ultimately arrive (the "parousia"-- his return to Earth) at an unknown time in the future. He says Jesus was speaking of two distinct events -- answering two questions -- in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. Copan admits this approach may seem odd to today’s Christians, but he claims many biblical scholars hold to it."

4/26/9:

• Former Full Preterists: Brian Simmons - Full Preterism: A Building on Fire (2009) "Within just two years, I have witnessed a spectacle truly amazing. A theology which was formerly one of the great wonders of the internet world has caught fire, and is now burning to cinders.. When did this conflagration start? It began in 2006, when Todd Dennis, curator of PreteristArchive.com, announced his rejection of the Hyper-Preterist position. Almost immediately the solidarity of the movement showed signs of weakening. A furious wave of attack was launched against Todd and others who began defecting from the Hyper-Preterist scene."/ (it seems like such a long time ago now... it is a shame that the reaction to challenges from peers is so often 'attack' instead of 'explore'.)

• Free Online Books: Elder Charles Taylor (Primitive Baptist) A Commentary on Revelation (1996) "The author moves forward from the foundational position that John was inspired to write the Revelation prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman legions in 70 A.D. This is an equally tenable position as that held by most people who place John’s writing after 90 A.D. In fact, in many aspects it is a more tenable position. (Refer to the article, "Tenable dates of John’s writing Revelation," page vii). Based upon that interpretive foundation, the mystery of the figurative language opens up like a flower after a refreshing Spring rain. "

• Apocalypse: G.K. Beale Audio Series on the Apocalypse (thanks to ad70.org for link)

4/16/9:

• Covenant Radio: Hyperpreterism and Heterodoxy

4/15/9:

• Bookstacks: Margaret Barker - The revelation of Jesus Christ: which God gave to him to show to his servants what must soon take place  (2000) "There is a remarkable similarity between the portents and oracles reported by Josephus and those in the Book of Revelation"

4/14/9:

• Audio/Pretblogging: OrthodoxPreterist.Blogspot.Com - A worthy archive of pret-related vids. (Latest post: Ken Gentry on Hyper-preterism)

• Iran complains to the UN about Israel's "threats"

4/13/9:

• Roderick Edwards: A Review and Response to WSTTB (2009) "Since 2004, hyperpreterists have sought to respond to the response but as of yet the hyperpreterists have been unsuccessful in not only publishing a response but even in getting together in enough unity to write a response.  At this present time, there are at least 3 separate teams by hyperpreterists that seek to publish a response."

• Dee Dee Warren on "The Bible Answer Man" in 2004  "They are extraordinarily obsessive and so many people, Hank, are getting swallowed whole by this particular heresy. I personally struggled with it to the point of almost renouncing my faith. I know other people that have. I honestly believe Hank that you're in such a position that God could have raised you up to save people from this error, and  I'm just praying for you in this endeavor."

4/12/9:

• Jpost: Peres makes rare hint at possible strike on Iran (2009) "President Shimon Peres had some unusually aggressive words for Iran Sunday, seemingly threatening military action if US President Barack Obama's overtures to the Islamic republic fail to bear fruit."

4/10/9:

• Critical: Regarding the Preterist Error (2009) "The individual in question is a “partial preterist,” who believes that all Bible prophecy has been fulfilled except the return of Christ with immediate judgement and bodily resurrection. That does separates him from the “hyper-preterist” position often described in the anti-preterist’s blog, and makes a world of difference between Christian and heretic. Yet I must agree that the same hermeneutical error, of spiritualizing the Bible to mean whatever one wants it to mean, is behind both forms of preterism. When we leave the path of solid biblical interpretation, we might as well just throw out the Bible since it has no objective meaning."

4/7/9:

• Critical: Scot McKnight the Full Preterist (2009) "Scot makes 70 AD the focal point of not only many of Jesus’ prophecies, but the eternal things that He spoke of as well.  That is the point where I feel Scot crosses the line into full preterism and unorthodoxy.  Yet Scot still concedes that not everything is fulfilled which really puzzles me.  How can someone believe that Matthew 25:31-46 has been fulfilled?Or is Scot saying that this is not part of the eternal things?  That would make even less sense.  The section above remains unchanged in his recently published series so he obviously still believes this doctrine of full preterism, but this following quote from the original has been changed."

  • Scot McKnight: The Future of Eschatology (2009) "This is a 5-part series we will post this entire week at about this time. It will unpack a "partial preterist" view of Jesus' eschatology."

4/5/9:

• Former Full Preterists: Brian Simmons: Why Christ didn't return in AD70 (2009) "The unconditional promises were never made under the Mosaic Covenant.  They were made under the Abrahamic covenant.  This was demonstrated when God, in ratifying the promised blessings, Himself passed through the pieces of the sacrifice (Genesis 15: 17-18), showing that the covenant would be secured by one contracting party alone.  // This failure of Israel to acknowledge John’s mission explains why his baptism was still being administered twenty-six years after the ascension of Christ (Acts 19: 3)..  Now, if the nation failed to acknowledge John Baptist as the “Elijah” of Malachi’s prophecy, then it is absurd to claim that his mission was accomplished in the first century.  Malachi tells us that if the ministry was not fulfilled, the land would be smitten with a curse.  That is exactly what Preterists say happened in A.D. 70.  Therefore, they cannot claim that John the Baptist fulfilled the role of Elijah without contradicting themselves."

4/4/9:

• Jews to Recite Rare Sun Blessing at Masada's Ancient Synagogue (2009) "For the first time in two thousand years, the ancient synagogue atop the Judean desert fortress of Masada will ring out at dawn with the rare blessing of the sun." // World of the Sages: The Sun's New Cycle

3/29/9:

• Brian Simmons: How a Full Preterist Became a Dispensationalist (2009) "That later ages should have more insight on the issues than those who lived through the events I soon recognized as an old error of the scholastics, who make their living confuting the theories of their predecessors.  It is according to this rationale that the teachings of both evolutionism and Higher Criticism function.     Having identified historicity as an important concern, and one not to be brushed aside, I started studying the church fathers.  It was a blessing to find that Hyper-Preterist interpretations were unknown to the early church.  This knowledge was like a shot in the arm."

• Tertullian/666/Beast: Ad Nationes and Nero - I,7,8 (197) "This name of ours took its rise in the reign of Augustus; under Tiberius it was taught with all clearness and publicity; under Nero it was ruthlessly condemned, and you may weigh its worth and character even from the person of its persecutor. If that prince was a pious man, then the Christians are impious; if he was just, if he was pure, then the Christians are unjust and impure; if he was not a public enemy, we are enemies of our country: what sort of men we are, our persecutor himself shows, since he of course punished what produced hostility to himself. Now, although every other institution which existed under Nero has been destroyed, yet this of ours has firmly remained----righteous, it would seem, as being unlike the author (of its persecution)."  (Principe Augusto nomen hoc ortum est, Tiberio disciplina eius inluxit, Nerone damnatio inualuit, ut iam hinc de persona persecutoris ponderetis : si pius ille princeps, impii Christiani; si iustus, ¦si castus, iniusti et incesti Christiani; si non hostis publicus, nos publici hostes : quales simus, damnator ipse demonstrauit, utique aemula sibi puniens.)  Ad Nationes and Nero - I,7,8

  • "Melito connected the rise of Christianity with the development of the Roman Empire, and asserted that only the bad emperors Nero and Domitian had persecuted Christians.³ Tertullian borrowed the idea and coined the phrase 'institutum Neronianum' to stigmatize persecution."

  • "Persecution of the Christians goes back to the time of Nero who was notorious for his character defects. And to this day, 200 years after its origin, Christianity is still subject to persecution. Let us consider the reliability of these two Christian enemies -- Nero and rumor. Tongue in cheek, Tertullian raises the question of whether Nero was just and pure. The response of Nero’s contemporaries and historians ever after has been a resounding "no."
     

"A giant picture of a bust of Roman Emperor Vespasian is on display outside the Colosseum in Rome to highlight an exhibition being held inside the Colosseum marking the 2,000th anniversary of the emperor's birth. Construction of the Colosseum was started under Vespasian and completed in 80 AD. The exhibition opens on Friday and goes through Jan. 10, 2010."   (Domenico Stinellis / Associated Press) March 26, 2009

3/26/9:

• Hermeneutics: James Enfrid: The New Testament Writings (1980) / Front Cover "One of the most important categories, if not THE most important category, is that body of literature known as "apocalyptic." (p. 14)

• Henning Reventlow: Eschatology in the Bible and in Jewish and Christian tradition (1997) This is the fourth volume in the series of collaborations between the Department of Bible in Tel Aviv University, Israel, and the Faculty of Theology in the University of the Ruhr, Bochum, Germany. This symposium, held in Bochum in 1995, discussed a topic important for both communities of believers, starting with the Bible and tracking its role through the different stages of the respective tradition-histories. This time the theme was eschatology. The participants engaged in a lively discussion (from the Jewish side) on messianism and Zionism, Qumran, Mishnah and Kabbalah, and (from the Christian side) on the Bible, recent Protestant ethics and systematic theology. The volume concludes with the report of a panel discussion on the essence of eschatology in Jewish and Christian thinking: is it a spiritualized idea or a material expectation for the world?"

• MP/Gary DeMar: Left Behind: Separating Fact from Fiction- Will Any Actually Be Left Behind? (2009) This is a brand new version of End Times Fiction featuring a new chapter on '"The Remnant," updated statistics, and a larger easy-to-read format!

  • Paul L. Maier: “It started with The Late Great Planet Earth and continues with the Left Behind series, books on prophecy and the end-times that seem to hold the public in thrall. Never mind that none of the things predicted in these books will ever take place—except the Second Coming of Christ—because they are based on faulty interpretations of Scripture. In Left Behind: Separating Fact From Fiction, Gary DeMar brilliantly skewers all the current pretentious prophecy claims, showing how they have no biblical support, and returns sanity to Christian hopes for the future.” —Paul L. Maier, Professor of Ancient History, Western Michigan University, and bestselling author of the novel Skeleton in God’s Closet

• Bill at Covenant Radio has guts for tearing down the idols of hyper preterism at his site and on his show.  Consider supporting him somehow.   Perhaps join the networking site, CovenantRadio.ning  / Covenant Radio has released a 7 minute audio statement on the eschatological paradigm known as Hyper-Preterism. You can listen to the .mp3 by clicking here or by visiting CovenantRadio.ning

  • William F. Hill, Jr. -- born and raised a dispensational baptist for many years, Mr. Hill came to the Reformed faith in 1995 and has never looked back. He is currently the host of the Reformed Theology Resource Center one of the busiest and most visited Reformed sites on the web.

3/25/9:

• Guardian.uk: Israel caught red-handed using white phosphorous "Israel's military fired white phosphorus over crowded areas of Gaza repeatedly and indiscriminately in its three-week war, killing and injuring civilians and committing war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. In a 71-page report, the rights group said the repeated use of air-burst white phosphorus artillery shells in populated areas of Gaza was not incidental or accidental, but revealed "a pattern or policy of conduct"

3/24/9:

• MP/Adams: Pretblogging: Jay Adams' Blog - Eschatology "If you look carefully, you’ll see that the warnings that Christ’s kingdom could come at any time, day or night, in their lifetime had to do with the Destruction of Jerusalem rather than the second coming. And, of course, it happened in that Generation, as Jesus said it would. They were to look for it—but would not be told the exact time it would occur."

• Audio: Former Full Preterists: Roderick Edwards appearing on Covenant Radio - "to discuss the eschatological paradigm known as “hyper-preterism”. Mr . Edwards, a former hyper-preterist is well versed in this topic and this will be a good discussion dealing with the in’s and out’s of this system of eschatology." Covenant Radio

3/23/9:

• Former Full Preterists: Brian Simmons: Up or Down? (2009) "Preterists do not generally recognize that Christ had already been exalted to the highest position in the heavenlies at His ascension in A.D. 30.  A look at New Testament terminology confirms this.  ..and so these verses tell us that Christ is now seated in the “above heavens,” exalted above the highest aristocracy of glory — not merely angels, but principalities and powers (Eph. 1: 20-22; 1 Peter 3: 22).  If we take this exaltation as having been achieved in A.D. 30, then it is clear that upon His ascension there was no place higher for Him to go. "

• Hot dog not licensed as kosher incites rage at diner "The popular spot on 13th Avenue was shut down for several days as rabbis examined the premises for non-Kosher food, and threw out equipment that came in contact with the uncertified meat.. The restaurant's owner says that, in addition to throwing out equipment, utensils were cleansed with a flame to purge any pieces of the non-Kosher food."

• Jeremy Swist: Calm down, the sky is not falling (2009) "Faith in a world to come is a death wish for the present one. Since the dawn of Christendom, each generation believed theirs would be the last. All have pointed to the Book of Revelation, a bizarre fantasy filled with dragons and crowns. Likely, it was a metaphor for the fall of Rome, cloaked in symbols by a subversive Greek. Yet a Time Magazine poll warns that 59 percent of the electorate still takes Revelation seriously, handing the reins of empire to those who would hasten its fulfillment."

3/21/9:

• William Hill: Covenant Radio statement on Hyper Preterism (2009 .mp3)

• Preteristblog on Covenant Radio's recent split from "full preterism"

3/20/9:

• Soldier says rabbis pushed "religious war" in Gaza (2009) "Rabbis in the Israeli army told battlefield troops in January's Gaza offensive they were fighting a "religious war" against gentiles, according to one army commander's account published on Friday.  "Their message was very clear: we are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land," he said"

• Free Online Books/MP: Daniel Whitby (Developed Systematic Postmillennialism): Additional Annotations to the New Testament (1710)  With Seven Discourses; and an Appendix Entituled Examen Variantium Lectionum Johannis Millii, S.T.P. in Novum Testamentum / The Treatifes added to this Addition are these:

1. A Differtation concerning the Baptism of Infants, on Matth. xxviii. 19. p. 15.

2. An Answer to Mr. Whifton's Difcourfe, on Matth. xxiv. p. 25.

3. An Examination of his Difcourfe concerning Abiathar the High Priest, on Mark ii. 36.

4. A Difcourfe concerning the Imputation of Chrift's perfect Righteoufnefs to us for Righteoufness or Juftification, p. 68

5. A Defence of a Paffage in the Preface to the Epiflle to the Galatians.

6. A Difcourfe enquiring whether the Apoftles, in their Writings, spake as conceiving that the Day of Judgment might be in their Days, p. 113.

7.  A Parallel betwixt the Apoftacy of the Jewifh and the Papal Antichrift, p. 119.

3/19/9:

• MP: Mike F. Blume: The Demonic Possession of an Entire Generation (2009) "So the Jews of every generation since, regardless of their troubles, have never been judged by God due to that act of the forefathers in the crucifixion of Jesus, no matter what anybody has claimed. This is another reason dispensationalism’s claim that blindness is upon national Israel to this day due to the sins of their forefathers is simply not true. It can’t be true according to Ezekiel 18. 

  "A lot of us were open enough to walk away from the teachings of Dispensationalism and futurism, but we ought to ensure we will always remain open for correction to the Lord. "

• On the Essene Hypothesis controversy stirring around the Internet "This post contains links to all the blog posts that I have come across regarding Rachel Elior and the Essenes."

For Garret per Q/A on how AD70 is only a shadow to Jesus:

A "Preterist-Idealism" POV would recognize the "covenant shift" from old to new elements/stoicheia as being focused on the personal exodus out of sin and into ultimate aionian perfection promised to those in Jesus Christ. This personal transition period from darkness to Light conforms to the experiential history of probably every true disciple of the Lord and has to do with the very real struggle that continues against sin and death in the post AD70 world.   This is opposed to the HyP idea that the old elements/stoicheia were destroyed along with the temple in Jerusalem (which fundamentally changes things by flipping shadow & Substance into opposite positions).  Futurism makes the same mistake of chronological limitation.. except that its historical eschaton has not yet come.  Underlined text emphasizes the salvific work of Son and Spirit in translating the redeemed from old to new:

Peter J. Leithart: "Paul expresses amazement that the Galatians could return to the “weak and poor elements” after being liberated by Christ (Galatians 4:9). But were the elements always so weak and beggarly?  It seems not.  They were powerful enough to enslave (4:3).  To be sure, they enslaved children, but that does take some power.  Further, Paul describes the former life of the Galatians as a life under (hupo) the stoicheia, an expression that parallels Paul’s talk of enslavement under the law (3:23) and under guardians and managers (4:2).  Again, this suggests that the stoicheia have some power.

Or, they did.  God sent His Son and then His Spirit to redeem from the stoicheia and elevate us to sons (4:4-6).  Paul is drawing on the exodus story, placing the stoicheia and the law in the position of defeated Pharaoh [the representative of the power of sin - td].  Once Pharaoh was powerful; but after the plagues and the exodus he was “weak and beggarly.”  So too the “elements.” But this means, of course, that the elements exercised some genuine power prior to the missions of the Son and Spirit."  (Weak Elements) 

The Eschaton separating the old heavens and earth from the new is passable only through the Door, Jesus Christ.  This idea is expressed by Paul's declaration that "if any be in Christ they are a new creation.. all things become new" (II Cor. 5:17)   Crossing a historical mark is not sufficient to leave the elements behind and enter into the Messianic Age.   One must be "found worthy" to enter (Lk. 20:35).  Conversely, those not in the sheepfold are still weak children and are slaves to Pharaoh, the King of Sin (Egypt).  Once Preterism is replaced with Idealism in Leithart's quote he perfectly describes this biblical worldview.  As an example, removing the 'd' at the end of the word exercise in his final sentence reveals: "But this means, of course, that the elements exercise some genuine power prior to the missions of the Son and Spirit."  (This covenant blessing is only available for those of the Covenant.  I believe that making the fulfillment of these things universal among all mankind is one of the pathways into heresy naturally built into HyP; Futurism would probably do the same with its eschaton, but it benefits from this being yet future, allowing that body to maintain the posture of "earnest expectation" seen (without fail, except for perhaps Theophany) throughout Christian history ; HyP does not allow this posture of faith, sense of nearness, nor earnest expectation for the blessed hope.)   Now try replacing 'sent' with 'sends': "God sent His Son and then His Spirit to redeem from the stoicheia and elevate us to sons (4:4-6)" - call me anytime. TD

3/18/9:

• HyP - Critical: Hyperpreterism: A Chronic Hysteresis (2009) "Hyperpreterism truncates Revelation 20 into the first century and so denies a future resurrection. The last few years have shown that many who hold this view end up swallowing universalism and some even deny the faith.. Hyperpreterism results in an endless cycle - a chronic hysteresis - and leaves little to spur us on to victory. The history of the Bible does contain repeated patterns, but there is always a progression from childhood to maturity. Our history will have an end, and it will be glorious victory."

3/17/9:

• Antisemitism: Western Wall rabbi says pope should not wear cross at site "Rabinovitch told the Post that "crosses are a symbol that hurt Jewish feelings."

3/16/9:

• Quo Vadis Now Available on Blu-ray / BD Review on DVDTalk - In "top 3" of most preteristic movies  "The narration starts out In the 10th year of the antichrist Nero … firmly establishing the film's pro-Christian perspective. The camera reveals proud commander, General Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor) driving his chariot at the head of his legions, marching back to the eternal city from his conquests in Britannia. Before reaching the city limits, he is met by a herald who forbids his army to enter the city in the name of Emperor Nero."

• Former Full Preterists: PaulT interviewed by Brian Simmons - Hyper Preterism is an "ally of the enemy"

• Former Full Preterists: Dee Dee Warren / Frost

3/10/9:

• Audio/Video/Critical: Covenant Radio Release on Hyper-Preterism (2009) "It is the position of Covenant Radio, including its host, that this paradigm of hyper preterism needs to be called for what it is. It is a heterodox movement and position. We realize that this will annoy some people that are followers of this theological movement and that is not the intention of this official statement. The intention is to make clear to all the listeners and potential guests where Covenant Radio sees this paradigm and why it is to be rejected as a viable position eschatologically."

  • Response: "Yep, and I see the same old lie about Noyes is still being served up. Disinformation. That tactic won't work. Preterists are too smart. I love this bit of idiocy: "We realize that this will annoy some people that are followers of this theological movement and that is not the intention of this official statement. The intention is to make clear to all the listeners and potential guests where Covenant Radio sees this paradigm and why it is to be rejected as a viable position eschatologically." Translation: "We don't mean to annoy you heretics, like Jason, who helped me build my webpage, and helped promote Covenant Radio with good faith. We just want to be bigger and more popular so that we have big names like Kenneth Gentry on the show." (sam)

3/8/9:

• So you think you know the Bible? (2009) "A great place to start is Jordan's lecture series Garden of God. Once slightly inebriated, you will progress to his lectures on Revelation, which are a secret storeroom of single malt. If you claim to be a preterist (of any description) and you haven't heard these, you haven't seen the forest for the trees. David Chilton's The Days of Vengeance gets downloaded from my site over 30 times a day (add that up for three years!). It's a great commentary, but Jordan's lectures use the Bible instead of Josephus to interpret Revelation. Chilton was peeping through the keyhole. Jordan throws open the door. These are cutting edge and, I believe, indispensable for anyone with an interest in preterism."

3/7/9:

• The Resurrection of the Dead (2009) "I have a few preterist friends who take the resurrection as a “spiritual” resurrection and that it already has taken place. They take this view in part by viewing that Jesus already returned “spiritually” in 70ad. I do consider myself as a partial preterist though I do not suppose that I fully understand the view so in part will not address the full preterist view directly. In the discussion though I want to look at what the Bible states specifically about the “bodily” resurrection as well as look at the early church fathers view on the topic."

• Definition-of Dictionary: Hypo-Preterism - "hypo-preterism rate this definition: (Noun) the belief that the prophecies of the Bible regarding the End of the World continue to be fulfilled today and in the future and were not fulfilled during the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. -- hypo-preterist, n..., adj. "

• Pret Press: Living library gives people chance to 'borrow' experiences of others "Maseruka continued to lean toward a version of Christianity called preterism, which holds that the Bible's prediction of end times in the Book of Revelation has already come to pass, bringing both good and bad to Earth. "I think heaven and hell are already here," Maseruka said. "The good thing is we have a choice where we want to live." He added he wants to explore various schools of thought on the world around us, so he can perfect his philosophy of life. It makes every day special for him. "Daily I'm being reincarnated as a new being," Maseruka said."

3/5/9:

• Vatican menorah called an urban myth "It was myth busting time in Hamilton as Yeshiva University historian, Dr. Stephen Fine, explained recently to an awestruck crowd filling the home of Rabbi Aaron and Leslie Selevan that no, the menorah from the Temple in Jerusalem is not being sequestered in the Vatican and that the pyramids of Egypt had already been built – at least 400 years earlier – by the time Joseph arrived and Moses led his people out. “But,” he declared, “We did build the Coliseum in Rome.” Fine describes himself as an archaeologist and artist in a world of rabbis at Yeshiva U."

3/4/9:

• Full Preterism: Internal Criticism: Studies Regarding the Errors & Cult of Max King - By Kurt Simmons, the full preterist most critical of the errors found within full preterism. (And author of new commentary on the book of Daniel)

3/3/9:

• Hillary Clinton puts America on collision course with Israel as she  pledges to press for Palestinian state "'During the conference, I emphasised President Obama's and my commitment to working to achieve a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and our support for the Palestinian Authority,' she said after meeting Israeli President Shimon Peres."

• Definition-of Dictionary: Hyper-Preterism - "(Noun) belief that all of the so-called End Times prophecies have been fulfilled, mainly during the AD70 destruction of the Jewish city of Jerusalem."

2/26/9:

• Jewish leaders blast Hillary Zuckerman, Lawmakers, Local Jews Say Secretary Of State Not The Hillary Clinton They Used To Know "Hillary had Mrs. Arafat here and she invited Mrs. Arafat for lunch when she was the first lady," added Babak Chafe of Great Neck. "She is pro-Palestinian 100 percent, really. Of course, we always knew it."

2/25/9:

• Netanyahu Set to Fight Israel's Recession With Repeat Dose of Tax-Cutting

2/23/9:

• US plans $900 million for Gaza rebuild "The money, which needs U.S. congressional approval, will be distributed through U.N. and other bodies and not via the militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, said one official."

2/22/9:

• Obama taps Israel critic for Intel post "The respected Foreign Policy magazine's Web site column "The Cable" reported last week that President Barack Obama is set to appoint a fierce critic of Israel to his National Intelligence Council."

2/18/9:

• AD30 Preterism: Was Pentecost the Regathering of Israel? (2009) "There is indeed an regathering of Israel, but it has happened through the Church and can only happen through the Church - as we have the word of the Apostles. It is a regathering through the cross. Our Apostolic foundation of epistles have already given us the correct interpretation as our covenant and our day . The day of Pentecost, the inauguration of the regathering as well as the ingathering of the Gentiles, is the fulfillment of the promises made to Israel, and to the Gentiles (Amos)."

2/15/9:

• MP: Gary DeMar: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association goes Apocalyptic (2009) "Does the good news of Jesus Christ have to be tied to speculation about the end times? Can’t the transforming power of the gospel rest on the promise of a new life in Christ on this side of the grave that results in the transformation of individuals, families, and nations? Must there always be fear of an imminent apocalypse to get the attention of sinners?"

• Former Full Preterists: NoHidingTheTruth.wordpress.com - Unmoderated discssions on Hyper-Preterism

• Former Full Preterists: Podcasts Exposing the Errors of Hyper-Preterism

2/13/9:

• Keith H. Meservy: Jesus and Josephus Told of The Destruction of Jerusalem (2008)  Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute "The views expressed in this article are the views of the author and do not represent the position of the Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young University, or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." (Reprinted by permission from The New Testament and the Latter-day Saints (Orem, Utah: Randall Book Company, 1987), 195—218.)

2/11/9:

• AntiSemitism: Interview with Bishop Richard Williamson (2009)

SPIEGEL: Are you actually aware that you are dividing the Church with your extreme views?

Williamson: Only violation of the dogmas, that is, the infallible principles, destroys faith. The Second Vatican Council declared that it would proclaim no new dogmas. Today the liberal bishops act as though it were some sort of all-encompassing super-dogma, and they use it as justification for a dictatorship of relativism. This contradicts the texts of the Council.

SPIEGEL: Your position on Judaism is consistently anti-Semitic.

Williamson: St. Paul put it this way: The Jews are beloved for the sake of Our Father, but our enemies for the sake of the gospel.

SPIEGEL: Do you seriously intend to use Catholic tradition and the Bible to justify your anti-Semitism?

Williamson: Anti-Semitism means many things today, for instance, when one criticizes the Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip. The Church has always understood the definition of anti-Semitism to be the rejection of Jews because of their Jewish roots. This is condemned by the Church. Incidentally, this is self-evident in a religion whose founders and all important individuals in its early history were Jews. But it was also clear, because of the large number of Jewish Christians in early Christianity, that all men need Christ for their salvation -- all men, including the Jews."

2/7/9:

• Former Full Preterists: Brian Simmons: Was Satan Really Destroyed in AD70? (2009) "As Scriptures indicate, Satan was free during the entire 40-year period that Hyper-Preterists call the Millennium. Let us look at some key texts in their chronological order, and we’ll see that all throughout this period, Satan was very much “in commission.”

2/4/9:

• Preterist-Idealism: Willibald Beyschlag, New Testament Theology (1895) "The common error.. of conceiving the parousia as a single historical event instead of the whole course of Christ's victory and triumph over the historical world, dominates also the writer of the Apocalypse. But this error marks simply the necessary limits of prophecy, which Paul describes in the words (1 Cor. xiii. 12): "Now we see (in our prophecy) through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face." To see the things of the future face to face is granted only to the after life ; to him who looks forward the future appears only in the mirror of the present ; the symbol of the future hovers before him in the signs of his time. Hence the conflict of Christian history and the hope of eternal victory were to the writer of the Apocalypse symbolically reflected in the confusions of his time ; and if he saw close at hand the eternal triumph of the kingdom of God, he simply erred in the same way as Isaiah or his greater post-Exilic successor, the former of whom expected that the Assyrian oppression and deliverance from it, and the latter that the Babylonian captivity and deliverance, alone separated them from the Messianic salvation."  (This is a "must read" for anyone investigating a hybrid preterist view of any sort)

• Pastor G. Reckart: Preterism: The Catholic Deception (2009) "We live in a time when idiots claim interpretation of prophecy is not salvational. That each person is entitled to believe what they want, even if it is all lies and falsehood. That believing lies and falsehoods is not salvational. Yet of this very event, Jesus warned not to be deceived. He warned of false Christs, false prophets, who would deceive many. If these deceptions are not false teachings, false doctrines, false interpretations: THEN WHAT ARE THEY? And to say these are not salvational issues, is borderline insanity. I will not fall for that liberal kool-aid."

2/2/9:

 "Professor Crosby is the victim of a system, which has taken him captive, and carries him whithersoever it will. He follows it wherever he can see it; and when it gets beyond his sight, he shuts his eyes, and still pursues it by the scent and the sound of its flying foot-steps."

• Hyper Preterism/Preterist Universalism: Alpheus Crosby - The Second Advent: Or, what do the Scriptures teach respecting the Second Coming of Christ, the End of the World, the Resurrection of the Dead, and the General Judgment? (1850) Taken from Universalist Historical Society | "This imperious theory, in audacity of interpretation, goes far beyond what we used to call ultra-Universalism." (Crosby was removed from a Dartmouth professorship due to writings supporting hyper preterism and opposing endless punishment)

• Critical: Baum's Church Review (1850) | The Christian Observatory Review (1850) | Theological and Literary Journal Review (1850) | The Christian Examiner and Religious Miscellany Review (1850) | Freewill Baptist Quarterly Review (1855)

2/1/9:

• Free Online Books: D. Ragan Ewing: The Identification Of Babylon The Harlot In The Book Of Revelation - A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of New Testament Studies Dallas Theological Seminary In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Theology (2002)

1/31/9:

• Free Online Books: James Vernon Bartlet The Apostolic Age: Its Life, Doctrine, Worship, and Polity (Edinburgh: 1899) "It is most important to distinguish in the Revelation things already past, or then in progress, and what was only imminent to the seer's vision. The surest evidence for the former are the Messages to the Churches in chapters ii.-iii.; and here there is, as yet, no sign of the death penalty for refusing Caesar-worship. On the other hand John recognizes the last hour to have begun" (Listed as "early date" advocate despite opinion of c. 75 dating for the Apocalypse of John)

• Free Online Books: Ferdinand Christian Baur, Church History of the First Three Centuries (Tubingen: 1863 ; Translated 1878)

• sEarly Date of Revelation: Separated Early Dating Advocacy Lists to "Prior to 20th Century" and "20th - 21st Centuries" (under construction)

1/30/9:

• C. H. Spurgeon: Spurgeon's End Times Words of Wisdom - "Here are a few jots and tittles on His views on the end times. Here be some good and sane common sense! I find myself saying amen to many of these sentiments. Maybe he did over react a little to the ‘prophecy-extremes‘ in his day, and we could clearly do the same if we are not careful (I also reacted to prophetic extremes by believing preterism for a season)."

  • "Only fools and madmen are positive in their interpretations of the Apocalypse."

  • "Guess not at the precise era for the destruction of Antichrist; go and destroy it yourself, fighting against it every day. But be looking forward and hastening unto the coming of the Son of Man, and let this be at once your comfort and excitement to diligence, that the Savior will soon come from Heaven."

1/29/9:

• Free Online Books: Dr. Karl August Auberlen: Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation of St. John in Their Mutual Relation (1856 PDF) Gabriel drops for a moment the chronological connection (to resume it in ver. 27), and inserts here, with the general intimation, "after threescore and two weeks," those leading events which were best calculated to rectify that erroneous hope,—the death of the Messiah and the destruction of Jerusalem. It is not hence to be inferred that these two events should coincide exactly with the close of the sixty-second week. We are told, on the contrary (ver. 25), that the coming of the Messiah was to be at the end of the sixty-second week, which, therefore, could not be marked also by His death. Nay, His death, as we shall see in (ver. 27), is half a week after, and the destruction is much later still. This last event is still indicated in the Messianic time as its negative judicial side, just as Christ Himself represents the destruction of Jerusalem as His Messianic coming (Matt. xvi. 28). "

1/28/9:

• Cornelius Lapide Study Archive (On Daniel's Seventy Weeks prophecy) "The gospel both is, and is called holy, because all the things which it contains are pre-eminently holy. Holy is the birth of Christ by the Holy Spirit, holy is His teaching, holy are His works, holy are His miracles, holy His passion, resurrection and ascension, holy the sending of the Holy Spirit. Daniel 9:24 alludes to this, where it is said that seventy weeks of years must be fulfilled until Christ, that the saint of saints (the holy of holies) may be anointed. That is to say, by this book and in this gospel the prophecy of Daniel about the coming of Christ, who is the holy of holies, is shown to be fulfilled." (Introduction to Matthew)

• Hyper Preterism: I. Darling - A New Commentary or Explanation of What is Commonly Called the Revelations of St. John the Divine - Adapted to Ordinary Minds; Showing the Fulfillment of Prophecies, in Establishing the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, and Destroying the Idol Kingly Government of Men (1849) "The Writer is of the opinion that all prophesy has been fulfilled, and that the visions of St John was a Revelation of the fulfillment of what was before written by the Prophets." (First Generation Full Preterist Commentary on Revelation!)

The Syriac Version of the Apocalypse
Murdock Syriac (5th Century) "The Revelation, which was made by God to John the Evangelist, in the island of Patmos, to which he was banished by Nero the Emperor."	Etheridge Syriac (5th Century) THE REVELATION WHICH WAS MADE UNTO JUHANON THE EVANGELIST, FROM ALOHA, IN PATHAMON THE ISLAND, WHITHER HE HAD BEEN CAST BY NERO CAESAR.

1/27/9:

• C. Michael Patton: Top Theological Pickup Lines NOT To Use (2008) “Looking at you makes me reconsider preterism, because you are heaven on earth.” ("God may be the bread of life, but you are the butter")

• Free Online Books/Early Date: John Gwynn - The Syriac Version of the Apocalypse (1897) "I have endeavoured to lead to the conclusion that this Apocalypse is a portion of the original "Philoxenian" New Testament, as translated A.D. 508, for Philoxenus of Mabug, by Polycarpus "the Chorepiscopus." I have endeavoured to show, farther, that the other version of the Apocalypse, first printed by De Dieu in 1627, is a revision of this, and belongs probably to the Syriac New Testament of Thomas of Harkel, of A.D. 616." // "I would remark, in passing, that the number 666 (Rev. xiiu 18) is represented by Irenaeus (Proleg. v. 30, 1), on the authority of St. John himself, to have been the name Lateinos (meaning the sixth Roman Emperor, Nero, who was born in Latium), not Laetinos, as B. H. C. found it." (T.J. Buckton)

• Dartmouth Review: Rome and Jerusalem "Martin Goodman’s Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations investigates the history of the relationship between the Roman empire and the Jewish state and seeks to trace the roots of Western attitudes towards the Jewish people to the role played both culturally and politically by Jerusalem and its culture in the formulation of a Christian Roman empire."

• Universalism/Former Full Preterists:  Dorothy Anderson - Preterist Universalism: Global or Local? (2009) "(T)o claim the White Throne Judgment is past and Satan is cast into the lake of fire to no more deceive the nations along with ALL THOSE NOT WRITTEN IN THE LAMB’s BOOK OF LIFE, is not consistent with an AD70 judgment UNLESS universalism is the end result or the creation covenantal context is correct."

1/24/9:

• Free Online Books/Early Date: James Glasgow: The Apocalypse Translated and Expounded (1872) - Early Dating Advocate, Sets at AD 51.  "Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks presents an irrefragable proof that the whole of the New Testament, the Apocalypse included, must have been written before the fall of Jerusalem and the end of the Jewish kingdom." "When did the seventy weeks end ? No date later than that of the fall of Jerusalem (a.d. 70) can with any truth or plausibility be supposed, for these weeks were "determined on the holy city." But many say they ended earlier, — at the death of Christ. Against this, however, in the above, and some other particulars, there lie weighty objections, as Scaliger, Hales, and others have shown. Let us look at the objects which were to be accomplished before these weeks ran out. " // "Many of the visions and words of the prophets are still receiving fulfilment ; and not until the end of the gospel age is all prophecy fulfilled. Some were fulfilled at the death of Christ, some in the fall of the city and dispersion of the people, and some in the progressive influx of the Gentiles ; while many regarding Gentiles and outcast Jews are yet to pass into fulfilment."

• Free Online Books: HP: Arthur T. Pierson - Many Infallible Proofs (1886) "In this prophecy, there is no vague general prediction; but a startling array of minute particulars. Our Lord draws the portrait of the coming event in detail; time, place, persons, marked circumstances, all introducing peculiar features which leave no doubt as to our power to recognize the event, if it shall look like its portrait. We find some twenty-five distinct predictions, here, and, on the law of compound probability, the chance of their all meeting in one event, is as one in nearly twenty millions  i. e. the fraction that represents the chance of probability is one-half raised to its twenty-fourth power or about one twenty millionth chance!"

"Vindicta salcatoris - me Vengeaunce of Goddes deth or Bataile of Jerusalem"

• Free Online Books/Huchown: George Nielsen: Huchown of the Awle Ryale: The Alliterative Poet (1902 PDF) Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Glasgow Archaeological Society

• Free Online Books/Huchown: J.M. Arvidson - The Language of Titus and Vespasian, or, The Destruction of Jerusalem (1916 PDF) "Original Provenance Unknown ; Northamptonshire"  // Titus And Vespasian, or the Destruction of Jerusalem. In alliterative verse. Originally containing about 1300 lines, of which 1224 remain. English. // The present poem is headed :—"Hie Incepit Distruccio Jerrusalem [sic] Quomodo Titus et Vaspasianus obsederunt et distruxerunt Jerusalem et vi[n]dicarunt mortem domini Jhesu Christi. The Segge of Jerusalem off Tytus and Vaspasyaue."

1/23/9:

• Ben Johnson: The Parable of the Wicked Tenants in Context: Jesus’ Interpretation of the Song of the Vineyard in the Light of Second Temple Jewish Parallels (2009) "The Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Mk. 12:1-9/Mt. 21:33-46/Lk. 20:9-19; also GThom 65-66) is one of the most important and most variedly interpreted parables in the New Testament. Many commentators suggest that the only plausibly historical way of interpreting this parable is to strip it from its synoptic context (in the midst of Jesus’ Temple controversy) and to remove from it its reference to Isa. 5:1-7 which forces an allegorical interpretation of it. I suggest, however, that if we are looking for an historically plausible Jesus, then we are looking for one who both fits plausibly within the Judaism of his day, and yet is controversial enough within that Judaism to have been crucified and founded a community which later broke with that Judaism."

• Whitefield Theological Seminary President Dr. Kenneth Talbot clarifies stance on Hyper Preterism "WTS publically states that our Seminary holds to the Westminster Confession of Faith 1647, that it would be impossible for us to support Full (Hyper) Preterism. We have a published statement in our Confession that clearly opposes any theological views held by Full (Hyper) Preterism. That is what confessionalism is all about. You have the official statement from WTS as given by its President."

1/22/9:

• Obama urges Israel to open Gaza borders "The plea came in a speech that signalled the new US administration’s shift from Bush-era policy on the Middle East and the world as a whole. In a high-profile address on his second day in office, just hours after he signed an executive order to close the centre at Guantánamo Bay, Mr Obama proclaimed that the US would “actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians” in the wake of this month’s Gaza war."

1/21/9:

• Obama's first call "was to President Abbas" Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said that the talks with Middle East leaders underlined a “commitment to active engagement in pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace from the beginning of his term”. He added: “In the aftermath of the Gaza conflict, he emphasised his determination to work to help consolidate the ceasefire by establishing an effective anti-smuggling regime to prevent Hamas from rearming, and facilitating, in partnership with the Palestinian Authority, a major reconstruction effort.”

• NYT: For Obama, Choice Is Unified Palestinian Government or an Isolated Hamas

1/18/9:

TWO EARLY MODERN PRETERIST BOOKS!

• Free Online Books: Johann Gottfried von Herder - Mara-natha, das Buch von der Zukunft des Herrn, des Neuen Testaments Siegel [Maran-atha; the Book of the Coming of the Lord: the Seal of the New Testament.] (1799 German PDF) "The historical perspective of this book is, like that of Abauzit, barren and contracted in the extreme: it consists of Jerusalem and the Jewish war. The formal treatment of the Apocalyptic theme, on the contrary, is enthusiastic, full of idealization, and appreciation of the figurative language of the Orient (see Lucke's commendation). Herder called the Apocalypse : "A picture-book, setting forth the rise, the visible existence, and the future of Christ's Kingdom in figures and similitudes of His first Coming, to terrify and to console."  (Lange)

• Free Online Books: Firmin Abauzit: Discours Historique Sur L' Apocalypse (1770 French PDF) "Abauzit left behind him some writings, chiefly theological. Of these the principal was, an "Essay upon the Apocalypse," written to show that the canonical authority of the book of Revelation was doubtful, and to apply the predictions to the destruction of Jerusalem. This work was sent by the author to Dr. Twells, in London, who translated it from French into English, and added a refutation, - with which Abauzit was so well satisfied, that he desired his friend in Holland to stop an intended impression." (Lange)

1/15/9:

• dEmEnTiA: Bill Bramwell: Answering Pat Robertson/Hal Lindsey-Christian Zionism (2009) "One of the strangest teachings from proponents of dispensationalism is the assertion that the ancient Jewish temple will be rebuilt. It is understandable why some extremely conservative Orthodox Jews would desire to have a rebuilt temple, but logically it makes little sense why so many Christians are clamoring to see a third temple. Last week, Hal Lindsey wrote an excited column at WorldNetDaily titled “Revived Sanhedrin discusses temple” where he cites evidence of plans for a renewed temple in Israel. While Mr. Lindsey is a fine Christian and no doubt has done many good things for Christianity, his theological views on the “end-times” which he has been teaching for years are, I believe, full of errors and pose both theological and political concerns."

• William Thrasher: Parable of the fig tree (2009 St. Claire Times) "What is the lesson of the fig tree? First, it warns that just as it seems — that though things are going well and all will be well, don’t be comfortable, for destruction is at the door. Jesus further says that the current generation of Jews would see the destruction.  That doesn’t mean that everyone alive at the time Jesus spoke these words would see the temple destroyed, but the destruction would happen within the lifespan of some of those who were alive when He spoke the words. "

 

1/13/9:

• DNA Could Illuminate Origins of Medieval Manuscripts "Medieval manuscript identification could be a tough sell in today's economy, but Stinson believes that historical insight is still valuable. He gave the example of an undated poem he's currently translating, about the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. The poem, said Stinson, reflects anti-Semitic tendencies common in parts of medieval England. "

• MP: Gary DeMar: A Defense of Dispensationalism (2009) The same “hyper” argument can be applied to Calvinism. Seeing that MacArthur is a Calvinist, I can just hear some of his Arminian friends saying, “It is clear that the hermeneutical approach taken by Calvinists like John MacArthur is what laid the foundation for the hyper-Calvinism error.” Amillennialist David Engelsma, also a preterist critic, follows a similar slippery slope argument. Engelsma writes that partial “preterism will become consistent preterism.”[3] This is curious coming from Engelsma since he defends Calvinism against those who maintain that Calvinism inevitably leads to hyper-Calvinism or that Calvinism is in fact hyper-Calvinism. He writes in Hyper-Calvinism and the Call of the Gospel,

In most cases the charge “hyper-Calvinist” is nothing but a deceptive attack upon Calvinism itself. Someone who hates Calvinism, or the uncompromising, consistent defense of Calvinism; yet he hesitates to attack Calvinism openly and forthrightly, and therefore he disguises his attack as an attack on “hyper-Calvinism” and “hyper-Calvinists.”[4]

This is exactly what Engelsma does in his attack on preterism. Instead of dealing with the detailed arguments of preterists, he immediately attacks hyper-preterism as if partial and hyper-preterism are synonymous. Let’s modify the hyper-Calvinist paragraph above by substituting hyper-preterist for hyper-Calvinist.

In most cases the charge “hyper-preterist” is nothing but a deceptive attack upon preterism itself. Someone who hates preterism, or the uncompromising, consistent defense of preterism; yet he hesitates to attack preterism openly and forthrightly, and therefore he disguises his attack as an attack on “hyper-preterism” and “hyper-preterists.”

1/10/9:

• Former Full Preterists: Todd Dennis: Hyper Preterism's AD70 Focal Point is Fundamentally Different From Christianity's Focal Point of the Cross (2009) "When the life of Jesus was draining away on the cross, He Himself noted that the redemptive work had been accomplished, in saying "it is finished". Finished (Tetelestai, from the verb teleo) means “to complete, to accomplish".  Though some HyPs may try to diminish the meaning of the cross and Jesus' declaration prior to His sacrificial death (which diminishment in itself serves as a litmus test for error), it was of the utmost significance. In fact, in order to maintain continuity with Christianity, it must remain the central focus. To diminish the centrality of the cross for redemptive accomplishment is to fundamentally alter the message that has been handed down and delivered throughout all generations. To diminish the cross event is not just a small matter of end times disagreement; Rather, it is an attack on the very foundations of Christianity."

1/9/9:

Articles Moved in from Pretblog:

• Israel’s ‘Indy’ Puts Forth His Facts (2006)

• Author traces journey of `God’s gold’ (2006)

• Norman Golb may be right after all (2006)

• Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations (2007)

• Silver Anomalies Found in Jerusalem Pottery Suggest Wealth During Second Temple Period (2006)

• dEmEnTiA: Apocalyptic Times (2006)

• dEmEnTiA: Jews and the Christian Right (2006)

• dEmEnTiA: Two Schools of Thought on ‘Last Days’ Prophecy (2006)

• dEmEnTiA: End of times: Faithful see signs (again) (2006)

• dEmEnTiA: The Escape from Reason (2006)

• dEmEnTiA: Newsweek: Are These the End Times? (2006)

• dEmEnTiA: Mideast conflict studied for links to Bible (2006)

• dEmEnTiA: The Brutal Christ of the Armageddonites (2006)

• dEmEnTiA: Christian Zionism: Terror (2006)

• dEmEnTiA: Onward Christian Zionists "Rod Liddle on the crazed, quasi-fascist evangelicals in Britain and America who believe war in Gaza heralds the Second Coming of Christ"

Danny Scheie as You, Nero

Emperor Nero: Playbill News: Freed's You, Nero, a comdey that fiddles with history (2009) 

"Nero, the Emperor of Rome, has an epic public relations problem. He summons Scribonius, last of the great tragedians, to write a play that will turn public opinion in his favor when it is presented at the Neronia Festival of the Arts. Although Scribonius is terrified of displeasing the Emperor, who has the habit of torturing and/or killing anyone who makes that mistake, he recognizes the opportunity to use the power of art to turn Nero's life around. As the two men work through each draft, Nero continually misinterprets Scribonius' meanings, finding justifications for even more tyranny and murder. Scribonius' last effort, having Nero portray himself in the play, backfires completely. Intoxicated by his own creativity, Nero decides he doesn't need a playwright at all — he's going to go onstage, unscripted, at the Neronia Festival himself. And the Colosseum will never be the same."

1/8/9:

• OpenSourceTheology.net: Roderick Edwards - Preterism and 'Emergent Eschatology' (2009) “I personally see a strong possibility of Preterism and Emergent/Emerging eschatology becoming eventually synonymous. Do you think this is a possibility, and is there enough space for all of us to learn from each other and grow together?”

• Barack Obama 'prepared to talk to Hamas'

1/7/9:

Articles Moved in from Pretblog:

• Books: Maurice Williams - Revelation and the Fall of Judea (2002)

• dEmEnTiA: Following the Christian Money Trail (2007)

• dEmEnTiA: Vladislav Krasnov: Praying for Armageddon (2007)

• dEmEnTiA: Hagee’s speech backing Israel alarms some (2007)

• Norman Golb: Newly Discovered Tunnel May Once Have Carried Dead Sea Scrolls (2007)

• Nadav Shragai: Groups seek to make destruction more relevant to secular Israelis (2007)

• Israeli archaeologists find 2,000-year-old mansion linked to historic queen (2007)

• Gil Ronen: Archeological Jackpot in Jerusalem: Ancient Canal Uncovered (2007)

• Eli Ashkenazi: Discovering Ancient Galilee’s Hidden Shelters (2007)

• Stone Tablet Celebrating Masada’s Destroyer Discovered (2007)

• The Temple Destroyed; The Synagogue Takes a Turn (2007)

• Ancient Roman wood and ivory throne unearthed (2007)

• Greek ‘treasures’ expected from Herculaneum (2007)

1/2/9:

• Dorothy Anderson: Former Full Preterist
   

  • Hyper Preterism for Dummies (2009) "It is common to hear talk about leaving their Church families – due to the conflict of their position or because they see too much error being taught. (This adds to the problems for those who leave the view because they have no Church support)"

  • The Devil is in the Details (2009) "My position today is this: If they want to lay claim to the start of the next reformation, they must have a prepared response here. Luther wasn’t negligent in that area. Since their position requires a defeat of Satan, inquiring minds want to know. Who or what is/was Satan that proves this scripture is fulfilled?"

  • Re-Shuffling the Creed Deck (2009) "What has happened in hyper-preterism is their eschatological (end times) position requires them to redefine, or at best reschedule the resurrection and after 25+ years, they still have no unified solution to offer. You would think that would give them a clue that maybe they have a real problem. Instead, they are still arguing over what the resurrection represents. So their supposed answer to eschatology has resulted in a major creedal failure."

• Freiderich Engels and Early Christianity (2009) "At this time, circa 69 AD, the entire Mediterranean world much of the of Near East and Western Europe were under the control of the Roman Empire. This was a multicultural empire made of hundreds of tribes, groups, cities and peoples. Within the empire was a vast underclass of workers, freedmen, slaves and peasants whose exploited labor was lived off of by a ruling class of landed aristocrats and merchants. In 69 AD the empire was in essence a military dictatorship controlled by the army and led by the Emperor (from the Latin word for “general”– imperator)."

• Israel kills top Hamas figure | Olmert 'iron fist' | Hamas vows suicide attacks on 'Zionists everywhere'... | 'Day of Wrath' | Tank Crews on Border Await Order to Move In

1/1/9:

• Joe Ortiz: The End Times Passover (2006) "Even more disconcerting is the pervasive and incessant promulgation of these left behind mythologies that permeate the Christian publishing and video markets of today, which are deluding millions of Christians into a false sense of security, motivated more so by profit and temporal fame. The author makes no apologies to these writers and preachers in regards to this matter. While there exists much love by the author for all those who claim to speak God's gospel truth about who is taken and who is left, claiming that those taken are Christians and those left behind are the heathen, it is inexcusable to persist in this folly when the word of God clearly states His children of promise are left (Gr. aphiemi, forgiven) alone, passed over, when He returns with great wrath!"

  • Dave MacPherson Review "Because of recently uncovered data that had been forgotten or covered up for more than a century, the Christian public now knows that the famous (or infamous) pretribulation rapturescape is actually only 178 years old, that John Darby (long credited wrongfully with either pretrib rapture origination or its basic development) wasn't original on any aspect of pretrib dispensationalism, and that pretrib rapturism since its birth in 1830 has been utterly riddled with dishonesty (rampant plagiarism, the subtle changing of primary documents, the deliberate cover-up of contexts in Biblical passages, the flaunting of non-existent or non-accredited academic degrees, etc.)"

• Gaza rockets put Israel’s nuclear plant in battle zone There were growing fears in Israel last night that Hamas missiles could threaten its top-secret nuclear facility at Dimona.  Rocket attacks from Gaza have forced Israelis to flee in ever greater numbers and military chiefs have been shaken by the size and sophistication of the militant group’s arsenal.

 

WHATSNEW 1996-97-98-99-00-01-02-03-04-05-06-07-08 || GUESTBOOK | ARTCHIVE

Administrative: Simple Classification and Color Schemes Given to Distinguish Between Forms of Fulfillment Eschatology: 

Futurism (F) - (No Fulfillment of Matt. 24/25 & Revelation in 1st C. - Types of Future Events Only)
Historical Preterism (HP) - (Minor Fulfillment of Matt. 24/25 or Revelation in Past)
Modern Preterism (MP) - (Major Fulfillment of Matt. 24/25 or Revelation in Past)
	Hyper Preterism (HyP) - (Absolute Fulfillment of all Bible prophecy - Full Preterism and "Resurrection Past" Teachings; Full Preterism is systematized Hyper Preterism - All Full Preterism is Hyper Preterism, but not all Hyper Preterism is Full Preterism.)

Free Online Books

Is the wholesale overthrow of historical Christianity in HyP inherently liberal-minded ?

Former Full Preterist Vince Krivda: Typological Illustration of My Eschatological View (2009) "I recently announced that I have supplemented my eschatological view. This is an introductory survey my view, but by no means the whole picture. I do not attempt to persuade anyone, nor endeavor to formulate a radically new system. There are many points that I have not included here. I will address them as the Lord permits over the next few months. The themes I will address as I get the time may include Covenant Theology, the curse and total depravity, definite atonement, redemption of the curse, etc. These themes among others were what prompted me to reconsider my eschatological views."

Comments: Vince K. "I would go back to FP if I am directed there by Scripture, but once the mind expanded, it can never go back to its original form. That is was true of my embrace of FP, and it is also true of my new position."

Charles Schultz Says:

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."

Significance of A.D. 70 | Significance of A.D. 30
The Best Eschatology is a Proper Christology

Progressive Eschatology: "English Christians burning churches, defacing tombs and graves of the death, destroying the monuments of Christianity, and in fine cutting the throats of English Christians, all the while that they were ruining the whore of Babel, and cutting antichrist's throat." - Herbert Thorndike, first generation Modern Preterist, opposing the Historicist systems of Protestant England - "He asserted that the main scope and drift of the Apocalypse was to foretell the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity, the climax being reached with the coming of Constantine, followed by the Millennium (interpreted in a spiritual sense)" David Brady

Rabbi Ari Enkin  "It is customary recite a preliminary chapter of Tehillim before reciting the birkat hamazon after meals. On weekdays, the general custom is to recite chapter 137, "Al Naharot Bavel", which is intended to remind us of the destruction of Jerusalem and the current exile. The Zohar states that one who derives pleasure from bread and enjoys the taste of foods is required to remember the Holy Land and the Beit Hamikdash after every meal.   On Shabbat, and other festive days when such sobering thoughts are not appropriate, chapter 126, "Shir Hama'alot", is recited instead which speaks about the future redemption.  Some also recite "Shir Hama'alot" when in the presence of a special guest. These Tehillim should be recited before washing one's hands at the end of the meal ("mayim achronim")."

Eusebius on Rome as "Babylon" "Clement in the eighth book of his Hypotyposes gives this account, and with him agrees the bishop of Hierapolis named Papias. And Peter makes mention of Mark in his first epistle which they say that he wrote in Rome itself, as is indicated by him, when he calls the city, by a figure, Babylon, as he does in the following words: "The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, greets you; and so does Mark my son."  Ecclesiastical History 2.15.1-2)

Origen on the coming of Christ: "He comes every day with great power to the mind of the believer in the clouds of prophecy, that is, in the Scriptures of the Prophets and the Apostles, who utter the word of God with a meaning above human nature. Also we say that to those who understand He comes with great glory, and that this is the mole seen in the second coming of the Word which is to the perfect. And so it may be, that all which the three Evangelists have said concerning Christ's coming, if carefully compared together and thoroughly examined would be found to apply to His continual daily coming in His body, which is the Church, of which coming He said in another place, Hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven, excepting those places in which He promises that His last coming in His own person." (Aquinas Catena Matt. 24:30)

"Our purpose in editing the texts has been to present all the decrees of the councils and only the decrees. For this reason some very important texts have had to be omitted, for example the anathemas against Origen formerly attributed (erroneously) to Constantinople II, or the charges on which pope Honorius was condemned (as these relate to the acts, not the decrees, of Constantinople III), or the profession of faith of pope Hormisdas which was a condition of admittance required of the council fathers at Constantinople IV, but does not appear to have been formally approved by the council." (Decrees of the ecumenical councils, 1990)

Roger Pearse "Now I was under the impression, rightly or wrongly, that the Council of Constantinople held by Justinian had condemned Origenism, and perhaps anathematised Origen himself, depending on some text-critical questions.  To pronounce a man anathema 300 years after he died in the peace of the church, and died moreover from the effects of torture in confessing Christ, would be morally wrong of course."

MoGrace2u　"TODAY is the day of salvation. Judgment comes at the end of this life for those who fail to avail themselves beforehand of what will save them from perdition - in that day when they bow before the Lord. A real warning and a real hope gives a man a real choice to make - now. Because now there is grace and mercy and forgiveness and no condemnation to face for those who call upon the Lord."

The (New) History of Full Preterism (Part Two) (Big .WMV File) | A Dictionary of the Writers on the Prophecies (1835 PDF) | Works Relating to Jews in the New York Library (1914 PDF) | Fulfilled Prophecy Bibliography | All PDF Book Files

Ken Gentry "I would also point out that I have re-titled the Appendix on hyper-preterism in that I greatly expand my critique in order to include exegetical as well as theological concerns regarding this aberrant movement. Though this heterodox movement continues to grow, signs are appearing that it may be coming apart at the seams. Their continual patching of new material on the old garment is making matters worse. I hope to loosen a few of its threads myself. "

Justin Martyr: "You know very well that Jerusalem was laid waste just as it was prophesied.  That it would be destroyed, and no one allowed to live there, was promised through the prophet Isaiah in this way: "Your land is desolate."   Indeed you are aware that it is guarded and no one is in it." (First Apology, 47.4-6)

Alexander Tilloch: "The commentator Arethas, who quotes Irenaeus' opinion, does not follow it.  In his explanation of the sixth seal he applies it to the destruction of Jerusalem ; and he does so expressly on the authority of preceding interpreters." (Dissertations introductory to the study and right understanding of the Apocalypse. p. 9)

Eusebius on Sunday worship: "Wherefore, being rejected of them [the Jews], the Word [Christ] by the new covenant translated and transferred the feast of the Sabbath to the dawn of light, and handed down to us a likeness of the true rest: the saving and Lord’s and first day of light.” (Commentary on the Psalms, Ps. 91 (Ps. 92 in A. V.), in J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 23, col. 1169, author’s translation.)

• (On Psalm 45:6/xlvi. 5) “I think that the Psalmist describes the morning assemblies in which we are accustomed to convene throughout the world;”

  (On Psalm 58:17/lix. 16) “By this is prophetically signified the service which is performed very early and every morning of the resurrection-day throughout the whole world.” (Comm., in Montfaucon’s Collectio Nova Patrum, pp. 85, 195, 272.)

St. Irenaeus of Lyons (On "the end of the times" as fulfilled) "This then is the order of the rule of our faith, and the foundation of the building, and the stability of our conversation: God, the Father, not made, not material, invisible; one God, the creator of all things: this is the first point of our faith. The second point is: The Word of God, Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, who was manifested to the prophets according to the form of their prophesying and according to the method of the dispensation of the Father: through whom all things were made; who also at the end of the times, to complete and gather up all things, was made man among men, visible and tangible, in order to abolish death and show forth life and produce a community of union between God and man. And the third point is: The Holy Spirit, through whom the prophets prophesied, and the fathers learned the things of God, and the righteous were led forth into the way of righteousness; and who in the end of the times was poured out in a new way upon mankind in all the earth, renewing man unto God.." //  "To them that believe He is as Father, for in the end of the times He opened up the covenant of adoption; but to the Jews as Lord and Lawgiver, for in the intermediate times, when man forgat God and departed and revolted from Him, He brought them into subjection by the Law, that they might learn that they had for Lord the maker and creator, who also gives the breath of life, and whom we ought to worship day and night: and to the Gentiles as maker and creator and almighty: and to all alike sustainer and nourisher and king and judge; for none shall escape and be delivered from His judgment, neither Jew nor Gentile, nor believer that has sinned, nor angel: but they who now reject His goodness shall know His power in judgment, according to that which the blessed apostle says: Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance; but according to thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who shall render to every man according to his works." (The Proof of Apostolic Preaching, p. 76-77)

Dollinger "Thus, after a siege unparalleled in the history of war, fell this noble city, the beloved Jerusalem, after it had flourished, under the protection of Heaven, more than two thousand years. The miserable citizens, who had not been carried away in chains, or crucified around the walls of Jerusalem, wandered forlorn over their once happy land. Their descendants, after a vain attempt, in the reign of Adrian, to rebuild their city, were scattered amongst the nations of the earth, where their children may, to this day, be seen, distinct from the nations with whom they live. The seat of the Jewish religion had fallen; the city of sacrifice had been destroyed; that implacable enemy of Christ, the sanhedrim, had been annihilated; it had become evident, even to the most darkened eye, that the time had arrived, in which the Church should spring forth, as the young plant, from the dead seed of Judaism, and should, in a short time, become the vast tree, spreading its branches over the whole earth."

WHATSNEW 1996-97-98-99-00-01-02-03-04-05-06-07-08 || GUESTBOOK | ARTCHIVE

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover

88 Reasons Why The Rapture Is In 1988, Edgar Whisenant (1988)

The Coming Russian Invasion of Israel, Thomas McCall (1974)

Was Hitler 'Him'?: Showing the Satanic Overthrow of World Order, Albert Gay (1939)

The End Of The World As We Know It: 1998-2000, Patrick Kinsella (1998)

The Last Days: A Discourse on the Evil Character of These Our Times, Proving Them to be The 'Perilous Times' and the 'Last Day', Edward Irving (1828)

The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon, Hal Lindsey (1980)

Gorbachev! Has the Real Antichrist Come?, Robert Faid (1988)

Saddam's Babylon The Great, Charles Taylor (1988)

Johanan b. Zakkai predicted Vespasian's elevation to the throne based upon his AD70 application of Isaiah 10:34 "And Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one"

Apocalypse of Abraham "Behold I saw them running to them by way of four ascents and they burned the Temple with fire, and they plundered the holy things that were in it. And I said, "Eternal One, the people you received from me are being robbed by the hordes of the heathen. They are killing some and holding others as aliens, and they burned the Temple with fire and they are stealing and destroying the beautiful things which are in it. Eternal, Mighty One! If this is so, why now have you afflicted my heart and why will it be so?"  (II, 681-705)

3rd Century Midrash traced to R. Levi: "Justice sprang up before the Holy One, Blessed Be He, and said to Him, "Master of the world can it be said of your glory, 'a creature of flesh and blood burned the Sanctuary? And can an evil one boast of Your glory, saying, 'I burned the House of God'? May a fire then descend from on heaven and burn him." God said to him, 'your plea is a valid one.' Then a fire descended from heaven, as it is said (Lam 1:13)!" (LmR I, 13)

3rd Century Midrash traced to R. Joshua ben Levi taunting the Romans: "If the fire had not been sent from heaven to harm me, what could you have done against me? If the fire had not been sent to do me in, would you have been able to triumph over me? You have milled flour which was already milled, you have killed a lion which was already dead, you have burned a building which was already burned." (Var. in PesR 26)

R. Jose ben Halfta (second century) "The war of Ben Koziba lasted three and a half years." (Seder Olam Rabba, ch. 13)

King James I (1588) "Of all the Scriptures, the bulk of reuelatioun is maist meit for this our last age. Iudge yif this be not ye tyme quhairof this place that have maid chois of doeth meane, and sa ye dew tyme for the reueiling of this prophecie." (Ane fruitfull Meditatioun contening ane plane and facill expositioun of ye 6m7m8m and 10 versis of the 20 Chap. of the Reuelatioun, Edinburg, p. sig. Aiiir.)

John Nolland "Scholars have most commonly dated Matthew in the 80s or the 90s.  But this is not to any significant degree because they have been able to identify in Matthew features that reflect what is definitely known of a situation in the 80s and 90s.  They regularly claim just one fixed point: that Matthew reflects knowledge of the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in A.D.70. This knowledge is said to be reflected most clearly in Mt. 22:7 and is sometimes claimed to be reflected in 23:36, 38 and 24:2.  But while they are likely right to think that the present form of Mt. 22:7 reflects the Jerusalem focus on the judgment materials of chaps. 23 and 24 and to that degree is not an original feature of the parable, there is no basis for going beyond this and claiming that Matthew has written in light of what actually happened in A.D. 70.   Nothing in Matthew's language encourages this belief.  At 24:1-2 I grant that 'it is not inconceivable that an original prophecy by Jesus has taken on some colouring from one or other crisis situation facing Jerusalem in the subsequent period.'  But there is actually no sign in Matthew of colouring from the A.D. 70 events.  In relation to what actually happened in A.D. 70, there 'won't be left here [one] stone upon [another] stone' in Mt. 24:2 is already an exaggeration." (The Gospel of Matthew, p. 14)

Preterist-Idealism: "To see the things of the future face to face is granted only to the after life ; to him who looks forward, the future appears only in the mirror of the present ; the symbol of the future hovers before him in the signs of his time. Hence the conflict of Christian history and the hope of eternal victory were to the writer of the Apocalypse symbolically reflected in the confusions of his time ; and if he saw close at hand the eternal triumph of the kingdom of God, he simply erred in the same way as Isaiah or his greater post-Exilic successor, the former of whom expected that the Assyrian oppression and deliverance from it, and the latter that the Babylonian captivity and deliverance, alone separated them from the Messianic salvation." (Willibald Beyschlag, New Testament Theology)

Steve Mason: "Since Josephus’s literary art demonstrably involves changes of narrative voice, complexity of character development, calculated repetition of charged language, variation of diction, and diversionary excursus, it seems impossible to devise criteria based on such phenomena for extracting sources. Attempting such recovery would require a sort of literary Heimlich maneuver, performed on someone who has long since digested the item being sought. The result is likely to be neither appealing nor useful." (Josephus and Christian Origins, 38)

G.H. Van Kooten: "The only comparable independent patristic information (on the dating of Revelation) seems to be provided by Clement of Alexandria, according to whom 'on the tyrant's death, he [i.e. John] returned to Ephesus from the isle of Patmos' (What Rich Man Can Be Saved? 42).  Clement, however, does not specify this tyrant's identity, and it is only Eusebius who, when quoting Clement, assumes, in the light of Irenaeus' claims, that this tyrant is Domitian (Church History, 3.23.5).  Clement himself appears to apply the contents of Daniel's prophecies, which also resonate in Revelation, to the year of the four emperors in Stromata 1.21: 'Nero held sway, and in the holy city Jerusalem placed the abomination: and.. he was taken away, and Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius.  And Vespasian rose to the supreme power, and destroyed Jerusalem.'" (The Year of the Four Emperors and the Revelation of John PDF)

The Contribution of British Writers Between 1560 and 1830 to the Interpretation of Revelation 13.16-18 - Chapter Five : 1649-1660 - Henry Hammond and the Preterist School of Interpretation "This volume contained a brave but lonely attempt to introduce the preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation to English soil.  Hammond laid great stress on the opening words of the Apocalypse in which  the book is said to contain 'things which must shortly come to pass.'  .. But those who argued for the preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation.. were playing to empty galleries, until at least the fourth decade of the nineteenth century.  Their views were anything but popular and those who followed them could soon find themselves branded with the infamous mark of the papal beast."  Others who followed: Herbert Thorndike / "author of an anonymous tract on the Millennium published in 1693 ("Millennianism : or, Christ's Thousand Years Reign upon Earth, considered, in a Familiar Letter to a Friend")"  / Daniel Mace

"The prophetic gift was to cease within the limit of the seventy weeks, which ended with the fall of the once holy but ultimately devoted city. There can therefore be no just ground for ascribing to any books of the New Testament canon a later date than a.d. 70 " James Glasgow: The Apocalypse Translated and Expounded

C. Michael Patton (2008) "It looks like I am getting some flack from some passionate Preterists (full or hyper Preterist, not partial preterists) who say I don’t give them a fair shake in The Theology Program material.. Preterism is a funny thing. It is something that causes quite a bit of passionate adherence, the degree to which shows great imbalance. The reason why we don’t cover it in TTP is because it is neither significant historically or contemporary. I know that this might seem like an arrogant statement to those who hold this position, but I feel I am qualified enough to make this assertion in good conscience." (Why I Don't Teach Preterism)

Pere Villalba i Varneda "Neither should we forget, as a basic thesis of Flavius Josephus himself, that opinion according to which it was God himself who had vowed the downfall of Jerusalem (B, V, 19, 559; B, VI, 371, 411), and that it was this same God who for a long time had destined it to the flames (B, VI, 250), and that there also existed a premonition of its undoing, which the Jews had not managed to understand with sufficient justice (B, VI, 310-315)." (The Historical Method of Flavius Josephus, p. 18)

Josephus: 'you may perhaps recover when you have reconciled yourself with the deity who destroyed you.' (Josephus, War 5.19)

Arethas (c.850 - 944) (On the Early Dating of Revelation) "For there were many, yea, a countless multitude from among the Jews, who believed in Christ : as even they testify, who said to St Paul on his arrival at Jerusalem : Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe. (Acts xxi. 20.) And He who gave this revelation to the Evangelist, declares, that these men shall not share the destruction inflicted by the Romans. For the ruin brought by the Romans had not yet fallen upon the Jews, when this Evangelist received these prophecies : and he did not receive them at Jerusalem, but in Ionia near Ephesus. For after the suffering of the Lord he remained only fourteen years at Jerusalem, during which time the tabernacle of the mother of the Lord, which had conceived this Divine offspring, was preserved in this temporal life, after the suffering and resurrection of her incorruptible Son. For he continued with her as with a mother committed to him by the Lord. For after her death it is reported that he no longer chose to remain in Judaea, but passed over to Ephesus, where, as we have said, this present Apocalypse also was composed ; which is a revelation of future things, inasmuch as forty years after the ascension of the Lord this tribulation came upon the Jews."

N.T. Wright - "You may be allowed to eat meat offered to idols, but you cannot deny the future bodily resurrection and claim that denial as an allowable Christian option." The Resurrection of the Son of God, pg 331

Andrew Perriman - "The polemical origins, continuing controversialism, and sectarian rhetoric of Preterism make it a difficult movement to evaluate - and I have to admit, my instinct is still to hold it somewhat at arm’s length."

Eusebius - "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority" [Acts 1:7]. It seems to me that [Jesus], as God and Lord, delivered this succinct verdict not solely regarding the end of the world but about all times, in order to discourage those who would dare attempt such a futile undertaking."  - , Introduction to the Chronicle, AD 325

Frédéric Godet "Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, that is certain." (A Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, 1889, p. 412)

F.C. Cook "The coming of Christ shall not be an obscure one, confined to a particular place, and signified from thence by report, but one visible to the whole world. Surely this again is an intimation that the second coming of Christ is not to be identified with any local event, such as the destruction of Jerusalem."

Louis H. Feldman "As for the impiety of which Josephus accused (John of Gischala), it stems to some extent from the fact that John, like many others, gave a favorable interpretation to the Scriptural prophecies, whereas Josephus saw them as foretelling the ruin of Jerusalem" (Josephus, the Bible and History, p. 234)

George Eldon Ladd (On Hebrews 8:13) "The passage we have just cited from Hebrews says that when there is forgiveness, there is no longer any offering for sin. The forgiveness wrought by Christ renders invalid and obsolete the Mosaic system. Hebrews asserts the same truth in 8:13: “In speaking of a new covenant, he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” Whether or not these words refer to the historical destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D., they at least affirm the dissolution of the old Mosaic order, because the new order of redemptive reality has come." The Last Things (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1978), 27.

The Fall of the Temple : A Study in the History of Dogma (1921 PDF)

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James Edson White - The Coming King (1911)

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PRESS CLIPPINGS / dEmEnTiA

Born-Again Bunkum - Australian Press "Visiting the US I once heard Reagan on a fundamentalist radio show chatting happily about the grim prognostications in the Book of Revelation, the arrival of the Antichrist and the imminent second coming and you couldn't help but wonder if he was the right man to have his finger on the button. For once Alzheimer's was a good thing for, by his second term, he seemed to have forgotten all about it. "

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STUDY ARCHIVE

PROCOPIUS. "'Among these [spoils] there were also the vessels of the Jews, which Titus the son of Vespasian after the capture of Jerusalem brought with some other things to Rome. Now a certain Jew, beholding these things, and standing near one of the friends of the Emperor, remarked : " It would be an inauspicious act, in my opinion, to have these treasures carried into the palace at Constantinople. For they can be kept no where but in that place, which Solomon, who was formerly king of the Jews, assigned to them. On account of these very things the palace of the Romans was formerly plundered by Genseric, and now that of the Vandals by the Roman army." These words being reported to the Emperor, excited his fears : and he instantly sent them all to the Christian churches in Jerusalem.'

Thomas Whittemore
"Some recent authors have expressed much surprise, that Universalists of the present day should apply so many passages of the New Testament to the destruction of Jerusalem. To name no other, Rev. Parsons Cooke speaks ' of the credulity of those who embrace the system of Universalism,' in believing' that so large a part of the Bible should relate to the destruction of Jerusalem.  "If ever I succeeded,' says he,' in digesting the monstrous absurdity, I would be honest enough to call things by right names, and label the New Testament, "JERUSALEM'S DESTRUCTION FORETOLD.'" (Notes on Parables, p. 316)

Matthew Poole
"A prediction, as some think, of that dreadful destruction which within a few years came, by the Romans, upon the whole Jewish nation. Whether it be to be understood of the judgment common to all unbelievers, all that know not God, and obey not the gospel of Christ, or of the particular destruction of this nation of the Jews, I shall not determine, though I rather judge the latter probable." (Matthew 3:10, Annot. in loc)

Tomson's Beza
"Christ, by setting before them the example of the uncircumcised centurion, and yet of an excellent faith, provoketh the Jews to emulation, and together forewarneth them of their casting off, and the calling of the Gentiles." (Matthew 8:5, Note in loc)

Bate
"We will suppose, then, the rich man, who fared so sumptuously, to be the Jew, so amply enriched with the heavenly treasure of divine revelation. The poor beggar who lay at his gate, in so miserable a plight, was the poor Gentile, now reduced to the last degree of want, in regard to religious knowledge. The crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, and which the beggar was so desirous of picking up, were such fragments of patriarchal and Jewish traditions, as their travelling philosophers were able to pick up with their utmost care and diligence. And those philosophers were also the dogs that licked the sores of heathenism, and endeavored to supply the wants of divine revelation, by such schemes and hypotheses, concerning the nature of the gods, and the obligation of moral duties, as (due allowance for their ignorance and frailties) did no Email honor to human nature, and yet thereby plainly showed, how little a way unassisted reason could go, without some supernatural help, as one of the wisest of them frankly confessed. About one and the same time, the beggar dies, and is carried by the angels (i. e., God's spiritual messengers to mankind,) into Abraham's bosom; that is, he is engrafted into the church of God. And the rich man also dies and is buried. He dies what we call a political death. His dispensation ceases. He is rejected from being any longer the peculiar son of God. The people whom he parabolically represents, are miserably destroyed by the Romans, and the wretched remains of them, driven into exile over the face of the earth, were vagabonds, with a kind of mark set upon them, like Cain, their prototype, for a like crime ; and which mark may perhaps be their adherence to the law. Whereby it came amazingly to pass, that these people, though dispersed, yet still dwell alone and separate, not being reckoned among the nations, as Balaam foretold. The rich man, being reduced to this state of misery, complains bitterly of his hard fate, but is told by Abraham, that he slipped his opportunity, while Lazarus laid hold on his, and now receives the comfort of it. The Jew complains of the want of more evidence, to convince his countrymen, the five brethren and would fain have Lazarus sent from the dead to convert them. But Abraham tells him, that if their own scriptures cannot convince them of their error, neither would they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. And exactly so it proved in the event. For this parable was delivered towards the end of the third year of our Lord's ministry ; and in the fourth, or following year of it, the words put into the mouth of Abraham, as the conclusion of the parable, are most literally verified, by our Lord's raising another Lazarus from the dead. And we may presume, that the beggar 'had the fictitious name of Lazarus given him in the parable, not without some reason, since the supposed request of the rich man was fully answered, by our Lord's raising another, and a real Lazarus, from the dead. But what was the consequence ?
Did this notorious miracle convince the rich man's brethren ? No, truly. His visit to them from the dead was so far from convincing them, that they actually consulted together, that they might put Lazarus also to death; because that, by reason of him, many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. So much for the true sense of this parable."
 (An Essay towards a Rationale of the literal Doctrine of Original Sin, a Vindication of God's Wisdom, Goodness, and Justice, in permitting the Fall of Adam, and the subsequent Corruption of Nature.' Published in 1752, and republished, much enlarged, in 1767.)

Thomas Brownell
"Vessels of wrath ; viz., the unbelieving Jews, who for their wickedness and unbelief were the objects of God's wrath, and fitted for destruction ; meaning, as is most probable, for their destruction as a nation." (Romans 9:22, Expos. in loc. - A Bible Class and Family Expositor ; or a Familiar Guide to the study of the New Testament. Being a condensed Summary of the most valuable Commentaries ; compiled chiefly from a work of the Rev. George Holden, A. M. By THOMAS C. BROWNELL, D. D., LL.D. Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut.'
Hartford, 1823. 1 vol. 12mo. )

Under the imagery of the sixth seal is
represented a great revolution in the state of religion ; and this clearly points to the reign of Constantine the great, when Christianity was fully established upon the ruins of paganism. Constantine was first proclaimed emperor A. D. 307 and died A. D. 337." (Expos. in loc.)

David Brewster
EDINBURGH, October 16, 1801. "
DEAR SIR,—I received yours, and shall endeavour, as far as I am able, to explain the passage of Matthew which you have mentioned. It has long been a dispute among divines whether or not all prophecies have double senses, that is, refer to two events at the same time, and
a great many learned men have defended each side of the question. Now, if we believe in the double senses of prophecy, it is easy to explain the whole 24th chapter of Matthew, by saying that it refers, in the first part, to the destruction of Jerusalem, and in the last, to the
end of the world; but still a difficulty occurs in the 34th verse, where it is said that this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled. I do
not agree, however, with those who believe in the double sense of prophecy, as it is contrary to that simplicity
which ought to be expected in the sacred writings, and would therefore explain the chapter in a different manner, as referring wholly to the destruction of Jerusalem,
In the 3d verse, the coming of Christ and the end of the world, (or rather, the end of the age, as it is in the original), signifies nothing more than that period when the Jewish Polity and State should be completely overturned, and the Christian dispensation become more firmly established, by the destruction of its enemies, and by the interposition of Christ in the overthrow of Jerusalem. The prophecy in the 29th, 30th, and 31st verses, which contain the greatest difficulty, appears to me to have been fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem.
Christ might with sufficient propriety be said to come in the clouds of heaven, in power and glory, when at that time the most wonderful appearances in the heavens took place that were ever seen. The stars may with propriety be said to fall from heaven, when lightnings
and great globes of fire destroyed the workmen appointed by the Emperor Julian to rebuild Jerusalem; and, if I am not mistaken, the sun and moon were
actually darkened at the overthrow of that city. All the tribes of the earth might be said to mourn when so many thousands of Jews were slain in such a cruel manner, and when they heard of the dreadful barbarities which were committed upon them by the Romans. And the elect might properly be said to be gathered together from all quarters of the heavens, when the Christian religion, as it then actually did, extended itself rapidly over most countries of the known world, and brought the glad tidings of salvation to men of every description, nation, and language. This is the only consistent explanation of the passage which I can give without any assistance.—I am, yours sincerely, " DAVID BREWSTER." (The Home Life of David Brewster, p. 44,45)

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Revelations of the Ancient World

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Yahoo Group: Preterist Universalism
"Because Preterist thought and Universal Reconciliation in the accomplished work of our Lord Jesus Christ go hand in hand in such a beautiful way! "

An Unauthorized Look at the Christians United for Israel Tour "Are you looking forward to Armageddon?  I am!"

BibleProphecyFulfilled.org
You can listen to "Bible Prophecy Fulfilled" on KGU 760am, on Saturday mornings at 11:00. Call in to join in the discussion. (808) 296-5467. That would be 2:00 pm PST in the spring, and 1:00 pm in the fall

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1544 Josephus

Triumph of Titus, AD71

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Preterist-Idealism	Universalist-Preterism

WHATSNEW 1996-97-98-99-00-01-02-03-04-05-06-07-08 || GUESTBOOK | ARTCHIVE

Chiltons' Days of Vengeance Back in Print! | The Last Days: Rethinking Bible Prophecy in the Light of History

Constantine the.. Pret!

Eusebius: "I am filled with wonder at the intellectual greatness of the emperor, who as if by divine inspiration thus expressed what the prophets had foretold concerning this monster"

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BOOKS / SEARCHING...

• Abauzit, Firmin (ob. 1767) - Essay on the Apocalypse, showing that the canonical authority of the book of Revelation was doubtful, and applying predictions to the destruction of Jerusalem.  Translated from the French, by Dr. Twells. London.

• Andreas, Caesariensis, Cappadocum Episcopus (cl. 500) - Commentarii in Apocalypsin ad Macarium, quos Latine vertit Theodorus Peltanus.  Extant Gr. et Lat. ad finem Chrysostomi Commentariorum in S. Johannem in editione Morelliana, Tom. viii.

• Arethas, Caesareae Cappadociae Archiepiscopus (cl. cir A.D. 540) Explicatio Apocalypseos. Veronae, 1532, fol.  Extat etiam ad calcem Oecumenii. Paris 1631.

• Burlington, J.N. "Destruction of Jerusalem" - 1807.

• Butt, John Martin - The Revelation of St. John compared with itself, and the rest of Scripture ; The Divinity of the Apocalypse demonstrated by its fulfillment.

• Burrows' (E.J.) Hours of Devoltion.  Christian Disciple. 4:206

• Clarke, Richard - A Discourse on the third day of the Gospel, compared with the seventh day of the Law.  London 1794

• Clericus, Joan.  Veteris Testamenti Prophetae ab Esaia ad Malachiam usque, ex translatione Joannis Clerici ; cum ejusdem commentario philologico &c. Amst. 1731

• Cocceius, Joh. Prof. of Hebrew at Leyden.  Comm. in prophetica Jeremiae et Ezekielis Amst. 1669.

• Collyer, Wm. Bengo, D.D. - Lectures on Scripture Prophecy. London 1811

• Corrodi, Heinrich - A critical history of Chiliasm, or opinions respeecting the millennial reign of Christ. Zurich - First published anonymously in 1781.

• Eichorn, Joh. Godf. - Commentarius in Apocalypsin Johannis.  Gotting. 1791.

• Faber, George Stanley. The Sacred Calendar of Prophecy. London 1828 (In this work, which is the last of Mr. Faber's of any importance, he abandons much of the interpretation which he had previously published)

• Fehr, Sam. Benj. - An introduction to the right understanding and use of the Revelation of St. John (or rather of Jesus Christ) ; and as to what relates to the past, sufficiently illustrated from ecclesiastical and secular history.  (Ger.) Altenburg, 1761.

• Greenhill, Jos. A.M. Rector of East Horsley - An Essay on the prophecies of the New Testament which relate to the destruction of Jerusalem. Lodon. 1755.

• Grotius, Hugo - Comm. ad loca quaedam Novi Test. Quae de Antichristo agunt aut agere putantur.  Amst. 1640.

• Lee, Samuel - Sermons and Dissertations. | Six sermons on the study of Holy Scriptures, their nature, interpretation, and some of their most important doctrines

• Marshall, Benjamin, A Chronological Treatise upon the Seventy Weeks of Daniel 1725

• Park, J.R. ; M.D. - An amicable controversy with a Jewish Rabbi on the Messiah's coming. 1832. ; A new exposition of the Apocalypse, so far as the prophecies are fulfilled ; to which are prefixed the history of Christianity epitomised. 1834.

• Rainolds, John D.D. - A discourse on the destructio nof the Idumeans. 1584

• Stockwood, John - A Sermon on the Destruction of Ierusalem - Printed by Tho. Dawson, 1584

• Whiston, William - The Accomplishment of Scripture prophecies

Books you can find in the Certain Evangelical Bookstores:

• R.C. Sproul, The Last Days According to Jesus (Grand Rapids, Baker Book House)

• Hank Hanegraaf, The Last Disciple (Wheaton: Tyndale) (This is historical fiction)

• __. The Last Sacrifice (Wheaton: Tyndale) (This is historical fiction)

• __. The Apocalypse Code (Nashville: Thomas Nelson)

• Gary Demar, Last Days Madness (Atlanta: American Vision)

• __. End Times Fiction (Nashville: Thomas Nelson)

• Loraine Boettner, The Millennium (Philipsburg: P&R)

• Kim Riddlebarge, The Case for Amillennialism (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House)

• Herman Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom (Philipsburg: P&R)

James Stuart Russell

• The Parousia (1878)

  Full Preterist Millennium "violent and unnatural" "Some interpreters indeed attempt to get over the difficulty by supposing that the thousand years, being a symbolic number, may represent a period of very short duration, and so bring the whole within the prescribed apocalyptic limits; but this method of interpretation appears to us so violent and unnatural that we cannot hesitate to reject it. " (p. 514)

  Revelation 20:5-10 Still Unfulfilled "We must consequently regard this prediction of the loosing of Satan, and the events that follow, as still future, and therefore unfulfilled." (p. 523)

 

The Coming of the Messiah (1802) 

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Josephus' "cloud coming" passage : "Before sunset were seen around the whole country chariots poised in the air,
and armed battalions speeding through the clouds and investing the cities." - Traill's Josephus,  page 197

The Coming of the Son of Man

Andrew Perriman: "I believe that there will be a final defeat of evil. There will be a resurrection of the dead; the dead will be ‘judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done’ (Rev.20:12); death will be destroyed; anyone who’s name is not written in the book of life will likewise be destroyed. There will be a new heaven and a new earth."

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Avalon Hill
"Siege of Jerusalem"
Board Game

"therein lies the fascination: the immovable object vs the unstoppable force."
 

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