Preterism is the belief that all Bible prophecies, including those concerned with the return of Christ, resurrection of the dead, rapture, judgment, and arrival of the kingdom of God, came to fulfillment in a.d. 70 upon the destruction of Herod’s temple in Jerusalem as predicted by Jesus in Luke 21:
6As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.
22…these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.
28…when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
31…when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. (NASB throughout unless otherwise noted.)
Under the Old Covenant, being judged a false prophet was a very serious matter: it meant a death sentence (Deut. 18:20). Yet most modern prophecy teachers completely ignore this crucial point and present a gospel that makes Jesus and his apostles the most outrageous band of false prophets that ever walked the earth.
Be sure to read the introductory article:
Jesus Predicted a First-Century Return
It lists the emphatic predictions most Christians seem unwilling to face honestly.
Futurism is the belief that Christ’s return will take place in our future. It assumes the first-century fulfillment predicted by Jesus, his apostles, the Holy Spirit, and scripture failed to occur. This position makes the Father a failure as well since he was speaking through Jesus (John 14:10). Such a colossal failure implies these sources cannot be trusted for the assurance of salvation.
It is often argued that futurism is orthodox; however, it is not. The true orthodox position is the one taught in scripture: a first-century fulfillment of all eschatological events. Those who were not participants in the rapture of the living Christians were unaware of its occurrence and blindly continued to wait for its fulfillment. This perpetual state of waiting has continued throughout Christian history. Evidently, very few have the simple faith required to believe in fulfillment based solely on promises despite the sources of those promises being the most trustworthy imaginable (the Father, Jesus Christ, the apostles, the Holy Spirit, and scripture). Preterism.info upholds the integrity of these divinely inspired sources by refuting the various forms of futurism with sound scriptural argumentation.
All articles at Preterism.info are concise and formatted for easy reading. Some are available as printer-friendly versions saved in PDF format. They may be easily saved to your computer and printed using Adobe Reader. Feel free to download and print them for personal study, group Bible studies, or to kindly challenge friends and theologians. Articles formatted for mobile devices are available at Preterism.mobi.
The Preterist Report is a free Internet newsletter published by Preterism.info. It presents issues related to the preterist position and notifies subscribers when articles are added to the website. To add your name to the mailing list, click here.
I believe that all Bible prophecy was fulfilled on schedule, the first-century church received everything it was promised, and the words of Jesus, God’s holy apostles and holy scripture take precedence over all teachings to the contrary.
24This is what the Lord says…“I am the Lord… 25I expose the false prophets as liars…thus proving them to be fools. 26But I carry out the predictions of my prophets!” (Isa. 44:24-26, NLT)
Sincerely,
Tips:
As you click more links, your browser’s Back and Forward buttons control this frame. (Does not apply to Safari.)
This website responds well to your browser’s Text Size and Zoom features.
Press F11 to toggle Full Screen mode.