Our Journey Home
Jonathan Brenter, August 23, 2023
Preterism is one of today’s popular views of the end times; its adherents among church staff continue to rapidly grow in number. Below is a list of its basic beliefs:
- Nero was the Antichrist. There will be no future individual Antichrist.
- The Tribulation Period is already over. It occurred when the Roman army besieged Jerusalem in AD 66-70.
- Christ “returned” in the clouds in AD 70 to witness the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army.
- God replaced Old Testament Israel with the Church. Therefore, all the biblical promises to Israel belong to the Church.[i]
- Armageddon already happened in AD 70.
- Satan is already bound in the abyss and cannot hinder the spread of the Gospel. Revelation 20 has already been fulfilled.
- We are already in the Millennium, but it is not literal. Some preterists equate the entire Church Age as the Millennium [as do other end time positions].[ii]
Some preterists believe in a bodily resurrection of the saints as described in 1 Corinthians 15:47-54 and Philippians 3:20-21, which necessitates, in their view, another return of the Savior. Many advocates of preterism don’t believe in a future bodily resurrection of the saints as described in these passages.
The popularity of a doctrine that believes Jesus fulfilled His Matthew 24:29-31 promise in AD 70 is just an initial cause for alarm. Below I describe other reasons why we must reject the teachings of preterism. It’s also because they . . .