I certainly concur. One of the most damnable heresies of our times.
I can remember, back before the rise of preterism, evangelicals (except for a few historicists here and there) interpreted NT prophetic scriptures, Matt. 24 to Revelation, futuristically. The great tribulation with its antichrist and mark of the beast, Armageddon, the 2nd coming, resurrection and rapture, and the millennial kingdom, had not taken place yet. Enter the preterists, making their appearance right on cue to be chief doctrinal representatives of the falling away, or apostasia, of 2 Thess. 2:3.
I've watched Christians getting carried away by these charlatans, the thing that always bugs me, why would anybody buy into such a theory in the first place? To be "one up" on everybody else? Do such things as a future antichrist and mark of the beast trouble them, so they cast about trying to find something that will ease their little troubled minds? They surely hit the jackpot when they find preterism!
I mean, one has to jump through hoops to make the NT a preterist document. One has to read into the scripture - and history - their theory. The NT doesn't naturally read that way, so they have to MAKE IT read that way.
Take Matt. 24:29-31 for example. We read of the sun and moon darkened, stars falling from heaven, the powers of the heavens shaken in conjunction with the coming of Jesus Christ. Now, last time I looked out the window, the sun, moon, and stars look like they did when Jesus uttered the words of Matt. 24. Enter the preterists: oh, no, you shouldn't read it that way, it doesn't mean what it appears to mean. And then they proceed to tell us all this happened in 70 AD...and with a straight face.
And lets not forget, that none of the ECF interpreted Matt. 24 as they do. And they lived almost two thousand years closer to the actual event (the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD) than these modern preterists. Like I said, history refutes them, not just Revelation being written in 96 AD, but the ECF also.
Good points all! Preterists are deniers of scripture and history both.
“I certainly concur. One of the most damnable heresies of our times.”
2,000 years of failed predictions and false hope from futurists is the most “damnable heresy”, and is keeping people out of churches because the church is a laughingstock over this. Harold Camping was a charlatan. Jack van Impe is a false teacher. Hal Lindsey has more than a few failed predictions, and Tim LaHaye profits from this nonsense, and these are just a few of the many frauds and false teachers who push this junk theology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictions_and_claims_for_the_Second_Coming_of_Christ
Futurism is the one thing all apocalyptic cults have in common, from the Millerites and JW’s, to the Heaven’s Gate cult and Branch Davidians.
Full Preterism is the only doctrine that harmonizes all apocalyptic scripture in its proper context. And it’s the only interpretation of scripture that doesn’t have to rewrite or change the words of Christ and His apostles to fit an ill-founded belief.