Post by Daniel on Aug 31, 2015 8:26:50 GMT -5
Preterists in sheep's clothing: the growing plague of end times deception
By Susan D. Harris
August 20, 2015
"If you want to find out if someone understands Scripture correctly, ask them if they think Israel has a right to the land."
In the 1980's, when Hal Lindsey's book, "The Late Great Planet Earth" was still popular, I was busy with high school and college. Frankly I wasn't giving much thought to Bible prophecy. It was always in the back of my mind however – in a file marked "for future reference."
And I believed I had all the time in the world. Most Bible prophecy was yet to be fulfilled: The coming of the Antichrist (who I believed would be a real person), the mark of the beast, the Gog and Magog war, and the armies that would surround Jerusalem – the burdensome stone.
As editor of the college newspaper, I covered Gorbachev's reforms in the Soviet Union – Perestroika and Glasnost. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was paving the way for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty; "mutually assured destruction" would march into the history books.
I watched as the Berlin wall came down. I remember thinking, "Certainly Bible prophecy is a long way from being fulfilled. The Soviets are our friends; Communism is collapsing!" The world was destined for peace.
I had read the Bible as Holy book. I believed that my interpretation of its teaching and prophecy was revealed to me with divine guidance. Now there is a doctrine gaining steam in the churches, however, which wants to convince me that the divine guidance I'd experienced was all a lie.
Not too many years ago, I hadn't ever heard of the terms "dispensationalist" or "futurist." If anyone had mentioned "eschatology," I would have thought it was a French word for the study of snails. And I most definitely had never heard of "Replacement Theology" or "Preterism" – the idea that all Bible prophecies that I expected to be fulfilled in the future had already been fulfilled with the Siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of its temple in 70 A.D.
Not until I was faced with a Preterist that held these beliefs did I even know they existed. Worse yet, this Preterist was starting a Christian organization in my area and revealed to me that his secret goal was to convince Christians that their Futurist, Dispensationalist, end-times ideas were a manufactured lie. (He is currently working to spread his organization to 300 U.S. cities).
This man revealed to me that he was bitter that his late father had been "brainwashed" by "false teachers" like Hal Lindsey and Pat Robertson. His poor father had died, he said, waiting for a Savior that never came. It sounded more like it wasn't the father who had become disillusioned with his own beliefs, but his son – a son who turned to Preterism.
To hide the truth of his own bitterness, this Preterist blamed Futurist interpretations of Bible prophecy for every ill that befell America.
continue reading
www.renewamerica.com/columns/sharris/150820
By Susan D. Harris
August 20, 2015
"If you want to find out if someone understands Scripture correctly, ask them if they think Israel has a right to the land."
In the 1980's, when Hal Lindsey's book, "The Late Great Planet Earth" was still popular, I was busy with high school and college. Frankly I wasn't giving much thought to Bible prophecy. It was always in the back of my mind however – in a file marked "for future reference."
And I believed I had all the time in the world. Most Bible prophecy was yet to be fulfilled: The coming of the Antichrist (who I believed would be a real person), the mark of the beast, the Gog and Magog war, and the armies that would surround Jerusalem – the burdensome stone.
As editor of the college newspaper, I covered Gorbachev's reforms in the Soviet Union – Perestroika and Glasnost. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was paving the way for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty; "mutually assured destruction" would march into the history books.
I watched as the Berlin wall came down. I remember thinking, "Certainly Bible prophecy is a long way from being fulfilled. The Soviets are our friends; Communism is collapsing!" The world was destined for peace.
I had read the Bible as Holy book. I believed that my interpretation of its teaching and prophecy was revealed to me with divine guidance. Now there is a doctrine gaining steam in the churches, however, which wants to convince me that the divine guidance I'd experienced was all a lie.
Not too many years ago, I hadn't ever heard of the terms "dispensationalist" or "futurist." If anyone had mentioned "eschatology," I would have thought it was a French word for the study of snails. And I most definitely had never heard of "Replacement Theology" or "Preterism" – the idea that all Bible prophecies that I expected to be fulfilled in the future had already been fulfilled with the Siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of its temple in 70 A.D.
Not until I was faced with a Preterist that held these beliefs did I even know they existed. Worse yet, this Preterist was starting a Christian organization in my area and revealed to me that his secret goal was to convince Christians that their Futurist, Dispensationalist, end-times ideas were a manufactured lie. (He is currently working to spread his organization to 300 U.S. cities).
This man revealed to me that he was bitter that his late father had been "brainwashed" by "false teachers" like Hal Lindsey and Pat Robertson. His poor father had died, he said, waiting for a Savior that never came. It sounded more like it wasn't the father who had become disillusioned with his own beliefs, but his son – a son who turned to Preterism.
To hide the truth of his own bitterness, this Preterist blamed Futurist interpretations of Bible prophecy for every ill that befell America.
continue reading
www.renewamerica.com/columns/sharris/150820