What is PRETERISM? 🧐

“Truly I tell you, THIS GENERATION will certainly not pass away until all these things have taken place.” Matthew 24:34

Hi friends! Why is a proper understanding of biblical prophecy important? Recently, I've made a series of videos on the proper interpretation of Jesus olive discourse found in Matthew 24, mark 13 in Luke 11, and why his prophecies there are better understood as predicting the cataclysmic events that befall his immediate audience of the ancient Jewish people when their homeland was conquered and their temple destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans.

I mean, literally every point of prophecy he makes is accounted for in that historical event. But where does that leave us? How do we find meaning for today once we put these prophecies in the past? The technical word for this, by the way, is “PRETERISM” 🧐 … That simply means that these events happened “pre” or “before” the future time, and by future I mean future for those of us living 2000 years after the fact.

First, I want to make sure you understand that from a post-millennial perspective, something I hope to cover in future videos, there will be a great falling away at the end of history just before Jesus returns, raises the dead, judges mankind and ushers in the eternal state. This is clear from other biblical references.

Having said that, I think it's very possible that we see reflections of that final apostasy and persecution in the Olivet discourse, but it's just NOT the immediate point of the prophecy. Look, I completely understand why people do it. I did it myself when I first read the Bible as a teenager. It was my natural tendency to FUTURIZE these verses, and what I mean by “future” is is that I pushed their fulfillment into our day, 2000 plus years into the quote future from the time that Jesus predicted them. When we do this, Biblical prophecies become nothing more than glorified bumper stickers that we can slap on any time, place or catastrophic event we choose.

So, what's the big deal? Why is it our tendency to “futurize” these verses? Why have I and others idolized these particular sections like the Olivet Discourse? Hear me out on this. Maybe it's because we feel like we NEED them to speak to the events of our day. Maybe it's because looking at them in this way gives us an “out” as Christians. It gives us a reason to fail when we see the insanity that is our modern world.

In other words, we don't have to engage. But was that the mindset of the early church in the book of Acts? And don't be upset with me on this. I'm honestly asking this question because I believe we truly see these things that work in the church. It's our tendency to avoid the hard things confrontations or the extreme evangelism that we see in the Bible. I think we can all admit that Christians from every age are capable of making the Bible all about them, right? Yet this understanding of Scripture (the Preterist one) is exactly the way for us to avoid those selfish tendencies.

Have you ever struggled to fulfill God's mission in your world?

How do you think we can persevere in difficult times?

Do you think a new understanding of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse and the things the early church endured can help us interpret our world differently?

Now WATCH THE VIDEO for three practical ways I think a more preterist understanding of Jesus' ancient prophecies can help us in our Christian walk TODAY 👇👇👇

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOtkBtbh7kI