Yes, but sorry, my interest is intellectual (there is less than one in a zillion chance I'd decide to adopt your views). But I'm interested in knowing about them anyway. So thanks for the link. I only just learned that this belief system existed. I knew Calvinism, Arminism, and etc, but I'd literally never heard or read of anything called preterism till a few days ago. The internet is certainly an educational resource - through Sam Ferguson I've learned there are still gnostics in the world. And now I've learned there is something called preterism.
Are there many preterists - out there in the world as opposed to here on Ask God? I see through the internet there is the Berean Bible Church which meets in a YMCA building in Chesapeake Va. But are there many other such churches? Is Berean an identifying name? It appears that you and Emile are preterists. I wonder if Chris Land and Robert Hall are as well?
I wonder about a lot of other things. Why do you guys think the second coming of Jesus wasn't noticed by anybody? How do preterists explain why it doesn't appear in history? And when exactly did it take place and how do you know when it did (I saw one reference to sometime between 70 and 150 AD)? And what exactly happened at that time? Did Jesus just pop back into the world and pop back out again?
I take it Paul, Peter, and most Christians ascended to heaven at that time. Why didn't anyone notice this? Why didn't all Christians ascend then too? Of course they couldn't have - otherwise Christianity wouldn't be here now. But wouldn't this mean that present day Christianity and it's scriptures are all products handed down to us by the "left-behind", implicitly rejected, Christians of that time? I mean if all the good ones went to heaven at the second coming, wasn't what was left the dreck?
And of course, I have to wonder if all preterists are nutso about the Jews i.e. obsessed with Israel and "satanic Talmudic Judaism". I know you're the wrong guy to ask this question so you don't have to address this. Maybe I should email a question to one of those two Berean elders in Va.
Although my interest is rooted in simple intellectual curiousity and I'm not going to adopt your views, my asking does provide you preterists an opportunity to communicate your distinctive views in a public forum. (That ought to elicit a response from any preterist out there who isn't embarressed to publicly say so.) |
