1 Peter 3:15 … Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect

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My goal herein this website is to challenge your current understanding of the Last Days and to put pieces in the puzzle to help complete the picture based on the foundation built by the Early Church Fathers and not the reconstructed image twisted together by authors, teachers, and preachers over the last  few hundred years. This is specifically in opposition to Partial and Full Preterism which continues to slowly grow among less than discerning teachers, preachers, and church leaders in general. (with an apologetic towards Amillennialism and Postmillennialism)

Let me be frank with you. Over the last few years, the increase in apostasy has grown in leaps and bounds. Reconstruction, deconstruction, and implosion is happening in many corners of the Christian world. Why? Century old traditions and beliefs are being replaced by feelings and positive thoughts instead of  the transformation of the mind through sound biblical teaching of doctrine and theology.

And yet there are good churches in the midst of these but Rev 2-3, comes to mind.

Let’s face it, there are a million voices out there all competing for your attention and every one of them are claiming to be “truth.” Once that truth has been evaluated by a person it can only be accepted or rejected based on the person’s maturity, understanding, education, and experience. I know that whatever is written will be compared to whatever paradigm you currently hold to, and people do change their minds.

While I am tempted to argue from my own experience, and education, (definitely not my reputation) I hope my words will do my arguing for me as we both know in today’s society the chances of changing a person’s mind is next to impossible (but can happen) as people have lost all trust in authoritative structures as divine institutions of uncompromising truth. What does the church expect when you have Pastors on TV telling the world they deserve a mansion, 30 million dollars in the bank and seven planes? What I hope to put between the pages is what convinced me. If it’s enough to convince you I would be very happy.

Of course, my main reason for writing this is based on my absolute conviction that when it comes to Eschatology, or the study of Last Day things I am mortified by the growing number of scholars, Pastors, teachers, and church leaders that have so easily moved into the Preterist Paradigms; Partial and Full.

Concerning the first, Partial Preterism, the arguments made are subtle and compelling but fail majorly in several areas, yet they become the gateway that leads to the second, Full or Hyper Preterism.  Now this is the point where I would start giving you my opinion of both systems but instead I will simply supply the Biblical and historical evidence in the pages to come.

Let me lay out my basic presuppositions and points from which I will argue from as a construct of my own “presuppositions” based on years of Bible study. So, getting back to my presuppositions, I hold to…

  1. The Late date of Revelation composition.
  2. The prophecy of the Olivet Discourse was fulfilled in AD 70 as the days of Vengeance.
    1. It was not the time of the Second Coming.
  3. The Millennium is still in the future.

Each premise is foundational to just one view: Historic Premillennialism. While at the same time disqualifying every other view. My hope of course is that you get something from this that is beneficial, enlightening, informative, and encouraging.

The foundation of the church was built in the 1st century upon the backs of the Apostle’s and Martyrs. As we have moved away from that foundation theologically, errors begin to creep in. Paul warned that in the last days that people would seek after myths and doctrines of Demons. The myths and doctrines can only be spread by men who claim to know the truth apart from those foundations. Paul condemned Hymenaeus and Philetus for teaching error claiming the resurrection was past. The Partial preterist claims much of Rev is past, are teachers and leaders stepping again into dangerous territory?

Keep this in the back of your mind as you read through these pages, The Partial Preterist  wants you to believe that the “Thousand Years”  will end with  Satan being released to deceive the nations in which these armies of the earth will surround Jerusalem where all the saints live and in that instant Christ will return, the resurrection takes place, which leads right into the Great White Throne Judgment followed by the New Heaven and Earth and this is all the church is waiting for.

According to this view, Left Behind  was all lies. There is no Gog and Magog war, no Armageddon, or some kind of Great persecution of the church yet to come so you can all relax, you have nothing to worry about. (Not that Dispensationalism is perfect.) Things are going to get better. Christianity will take over governments, the gospel will spread and change the world and so will usher in the return of Christ. (Postmillennialism View)

Or

Nothing really changes. There is no Gog and Magog war, no Armageddon, or some kind of Great persecution of the church yet to come so you can all relax, you have nothing to worry about. Jesus returns at the end of the church age, and we all go up, get judged, and the good go to heaven and the bad go to the LOF. (Amillennialism)

What would the devil want you to believe? – The Great Tribulation of the church is all in the past  so you can all relax, you have nothing to worry about.

The only Theology that’s worse is Full Preterism or Covenant Eschatology.

According to FP,  every prophecy has been fulfilled which means the Second Coming, resurrection of the dead, (rapture) Great White Throne Judgment, and the New Heaven and Earth have all been fulfilled spiritually. The first century church in AD 70 went fully into apostasy and did not recognize all these things were fulfilled spiritually. There were  no dead bodies coming out of the ground, there was no five-foot – four Jewish man coming out of heaven and appearing,  and no one was physically changed  Every person was judged in “absentia” so that now when you die you either go straight to heaven and get a new spiritual  body (Soul transmigration) or you go straight to Hell. NO one after AD 70 has to stand before the Great White Throne Judgment and no one has to give an account for deeds done while in the body.  They want you to believe the church has been wrong for the last two thousand years and this recent revelation by God in the mid 70’s that according to the time text, Jesus returned already, and God has restored this truth to the church. All creeds, confessions, are all lies and heretical. The ANF fathers were all apostatized and didn’t realize Jesus returned. There are no last days, sin and this present evil age will go on forever and all of God’s enemies will never be completely abolished. We are living in the New Heaven and Earth where sin and death continue on forever. IN fact, after being resurrected and going to heaven you can still sin and get kicked out and go to hell.

I understand that each and every potential reader is at a different level of maturity, understanding, education, and experience and so what you will get out of these pages can be completely different from your best friend, Pastor, mentor, or spiritual advisor. But it must be understood that Full Preterism is a complete departure from the Historical Christian Faith and a complete rejection of any creed or confession. To be fair their reaction to our rejection of FP is not entirely unwarranted. When an eschatology denies the bodily resurrection of the saints or the visible bodily return of Christ, rejects the future judgment of all men, and claims it happened 2000 years ago spiritually then this teaching enters into the realm of heresy, a rejection of the historic orthodox Christian faith. It is simply a repeat of the Hymenaeus and Philetus error of I Timothy. When this is pointed out to the Full Preterist cognitive dissonance kicks in and the Full Pret goes into defense mode by attacking the person.

To those who have come here to learn I will assume you already have a basic understanding of what is Full, Hyper, or Partial Preterism (Covenant or Victorious Eschatology) In the other camp of futurism is Postmillennialism, Amillennialism and Dispensationalism.  What this site is about is a case for the Historical Premillennial view of Eschatology. Now there are several books out there on this topic such as A Case for Historic Premillennialism: An Alternative to “Left Behind” Eschatology by Blomberg, which is consistent with Blaising, Vlach, Pate, and other scholars of the same persuasion. What is different here is that many minor points that I will expound upon are being made in response to Preterist claims or arguments made by them. The goal is to present a clear consistent, coherent, and logical presentation of Historical Premillennialism.

With the many views that now circulate among scholars and the mischaracterization made by those of opposing views with the intent to distort for the sake of disparaging the other, simply muddy the waters and make it almost impossible for a clear loud voice to come through. I will not make an appeal to my authority based on education and experience but a declaration of my heart’s desire to learn, to be the never-ending student of learning, never settling for the idea that I have arrived at all truth, or the one tradition I hold to is the cat’s meow. But the pursuit of truth is  NOT heralded by a goal of  “I’m RIGHT your WRONG” but from the inward desire to come to truth through honesty, not only with others but with yourself first. No scholar in good conscience declares they have the truth knowing that a specific point they are arguing for has been twisted to fit and support their version of truth as the right one.

It is quite true the more information we gain and hone our abilities to process this information the more one is to be trusted. Hence we seek out experienced lawyers to represent us at trial, and not law clerks or seek the most skilled brain surgeon for brain surgery and not first  year med students. Why should we get our theology from someone who once read the bible at a  Holiday Inn?

Then it’s not that we shouldn’t have our one pastor or teacher but recognize the Bible tells us to “come and let us reason together.” Lone wolves have wreaked havoc in the church with their date settings and predictions, not to mention the rampant false teaching that is slowly gaining ground in those who are “deconstructing” and not to mention the continuation of the “Prosperity Gospel”, “Name it and claim it,” “Seed Faith.” Etc. etc. A lone wolf of course sits alone in their theology telling people “listen to me, I alone am right.” Nor does the true scholar get up on a soap box and challenge people with, “If you can show me where I am wrong I am willing to change.” We, scholars,  begin with the idea that I am communicating the historical Christian faith as established by the church fathers and build alone on that foundation.

Secondly we try to get the best most complete education we can  before we stand up on a soap box and tell people to “listen to me.”

Let me make one small point. Many people study for years and years, mostly independent Bible study meaning not “seminary” indoctrinated and when started out on a wrong foundation of Biblical Hermeneutics what follows is seriously flawed. Now  “seminary” indoctrination is a misnomer itself as I have attended three different Universities of different backgrounds, (Pentecostal, Baptist, and Churches of Christ) and trust me there was no “indoctrination” involved where I had to spew out only their views. When FP bad mouth “seminary” it automatically reveals their level of education. But my point was the very first thing we learned is Hermeneutics, the art and science of Biblical interpretation through a historical, grammatical method of understanding scripture with its eight rules. The basic premise is that when I say the word “resurrection of the dead.” I mean based on the word usage in history and what the literal words means, two parties understand “resurrection of the dead” in Greek is “Anastasis Nekron” which literally translated is “the standing again of a lifeless corpse.” The FP uses the phrase “resurrection of the dead” to mean spirits coming out of Hades into heaven in AD 70. So, they can say they agree with the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, but they have a total opposite meaning from orthodox Christianity. So no, they don’t believe in the “standing again of the lifeless corpse” except for only Jesus who was the exception and no one else will be raised from out of the dead  like he was. I am supporting one eschatological view that I would suggest provides the greatest coherence and consistency found throughout the Bible concerning the Last Days.

Stephen Whitsett Jr.

Inside….

All things Eschatology… Last Days Things which was not AD 70.

Giving an answer for the Preterist interpretation through sound exegesis and using the Historical-Grammatical Method of Interpretation and the 8 Rules of Hermeneutics.

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