One of the discoveries I recently made, after three years of battling the doctrines of systematic

Preterism, is that, although few Christians know it, Preterism’s tactics of exegesis are mind-
altering. In order to accept the doctrines of Preterism, one must assent to the premise that the
Bible is to be approached in a critical-historical, rather than canonical, fashion. Whenever
Preterists use New Testament phraseology like “soon,” “at hand,” and “shortly” to assert that
eschatological events are now past fulfillment, the implication is always that the texts must be
understood from a purely historical perspective, and not as they relate to the entire “Body of
Christ.” When the Christian finally agrees with the Preterist’s reasoning, and adopts such
interpretations as his own, he is unaware that in his mind a subtle shift has taken place, whereby
his thinking has been altered..
One of the main purposes of this blog is to re-enforce the premises of historic Christianity.
This is needful at the present time, for many do not realize that without the right premises and
presuppositions, error must always gain the upper hand. I know that many of my readers
probably have children. Well, suppose that your child came home from school one day and said:
“Daddy, I want to be a pirate when I grow up!“ All of us know that the problem
with his aspiration, is not that pirates are unsuccessful, or that they don’t make any money.
Indeed, pirates become rich more easily than most folks. The problem is, that piracy is illegal,
and that thievery and murder are sins. Unless the kid understands these things, he will not be in
a proper position to evaluate piracy as a possible career choice. Hence, premises are important.
By the same token, the main contention with Preterism is not that Preteristic inferences can’t
be drawn, when all the data is arranged according to a “historical-critical” hermeneutic. Of
course they can! The problem is, that a “historic-critical” hermeneutic is not an acknowledged
Christian principle of interpretation to begin with. After the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70,
Christians continued to look for the fulfillment of prophecies which Preterists claim were
fulfilled with that event. The reason? They were employing an orthodox hermeneutic. It is
simply not orthodox to read the New Testament as a series of mere historic documents, detatched
from their canonical relevancy to the ”Body of Christ.” Such a hermeneutic is not the product of
orthodox Christianity, but of liberal textual criticism. Therefore, it needs to be identified and
addressed BEFORE the inquiring Christian undertakes to discuss the meaning of texts with a
Preterist.
Here’s another analogy. Imagine if some smarty-pantses on Capital Hill, citing the U.S.
Constitution, claimed that the phrase “we the people of the United States of America” simply
meant Americans of the 18th century, and that because all the 18th century Americans were now
dead and deceased, the Constitution was no longer in force? Just imagine what an uproar that
would cause! Why, if the new interpretation gained enough adherents, the result would be a
complete overthrow of the U.S. government. But that certainly would not happen, because some
wise Supreme Court Justice would stand up and point out that the U.S. Constitution is not a
MERE historic document, but is also a constitutional document. As such, it therefore has
perpetual force over all citizens of the United States, in all places, at all times. End of
discussion.
Whenever I hear Preterists challenging 2,000 years of united Christian interpretation on the
strength of such statements as “Behold, I come quickly!” (Rev. 3: 11), I recognize immediately
that the Preterist is making a mental suggestion, which requires that the listener to switch from a
“grammatical-historical” hermeneutic to a “critical-historical” one. Then when I see people
starting to buckle under, denying the faith they once rejoiced in, and accepting Preterism as a
viable theology, to their own embitterment and disillusion, I realize that they have had their
thought-processes unknowingly re-configured to accord with Preterism’s liberalistic
hermeneutic.
Such invasion of the mind and conscience can only be prevented by understanding the
hermeneutical premises of Christianity. The New Testament was given to instruct and edify the
“Body of Christ.” There is only one body, one faith, one hope, and one calling (Eph. 4: 4-5).
Anyone whose theology claims otherwise, or which results in a different “constitution” to that
we find in the New Testament writings, has in reality broken the unity of the spirit, and
introduced schism in the body. But regardless of how bad it may become, the schism is healed
and mended, whenever one takes up and enforces the premises that underlie Christianity as a
system of revealed religion. When this is done, and only when this is done, do Christians have
an efficient safeguard against Preterist thought control. Maranatha!