Responding to Full-Preterist - Any Logos Resource Recommendations?

I'm working on a response to a relative that holds a full-preterist view (a relative of mine sat under teachings that there would not be another return of Christ, but only individual raptures as people die). Does anyone know of any texts within Logos that provide a good response to that viewpoint?

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Todd Phillips

In R.C. Sproul's The Last Days according to Jesus, he defends a partial preterist view against the full preterist view (available in http://www.logos.com/product/1505/r-c-sproul-digital-library).

The major Revelation commentaries (Osbourne in BECNT, Beale in NIGTC, etc) have in-depth discussion of the different views throughout their commentary, as does Steve Gregg's Revelation: Four Views, to a lesser extent.

I also would check out the commentaries you have on Matthew 24 (The Olivet Discourse), esp. Matt 24:34. The Cornerstone Commentary on Matthew and Mark discusses preterism.

James Macleod

I would read the Full Preterist material. I think it is best to fully understand a position before you try to argue against it. I have found that a lot of anti-preterist material that I have read doesn’t have a really good grasp on the full-preterist postion.

Derek Browning

Thanks Todd!

James,

Would you consider yourself a full-preterist? If so, would you mind carrying some thoughtful conversation around the topic through e-mail?

Friedrich

Derek

I can't help you 100%, but here are a couple other resources. The first is partial preterist, a commentary. http://www.logos.com/product/2113/back-to-the-future-a-study-in-the-book-of-revelation

The second is a collection where one book on 2 Peter is "argued from the preterist position". http://www.logos.com/product/4583/peter-j-leithart-collection

This is just a brief summation from Bass:

The Preterists are the next group we will consider. Their position is not well known and even the term they use to identify themselves, Preterism, is foreign to the vocabulary of most Christians. “The word comes from the Latin praeteritus (“to go by, pass”) which, in turn, is based upon praeter (“that which is beyond, past”).”6 This word was chosen because it makes the point that most of the Book of Revelation has, in their view, been fulfilled in what is now, our past.

The Preterists see the message to the seven churches as having contemporary significance to the generation to which it was written. They understand that the prophecies of the book were determined for the near future, and were substantially fulfilled by the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. As one author clarifies, “…the sustained attempt to root the fulfillment of the divine prophecies of Revelation in the first century A.D. constitutes the preterist’s distinctive approach.”7 Preterists contend, therefore, that because of its first century context, most of the prophecies of Revelation have been fulfilled and are now, two thousand years later, in our past. In other words, “Though the prophecies were in the future when John wrote and when his original audience read them, they are now in our past.”8 In this camp you will find Jay E. Adams, R. C. Sproul, Kenneth L. Gentry, Greg L. Bahnsen, Gary DeMar, J. Marcellus Kik, R. T. France, Morris Ashcraft, Philip Carrington, C. Vanderwall, David Chilton, David S. Clark, J. Stuart Russell, Phillip S. Desprez, Moses Stuart and Milton Terry.

In the Preterists camp are found Amillennialists, Historic Premillennialists and Postmillennialists. In other words, you could be an Amillennialist, a Historic Premillennialist, or a Postmillennialist and also be a Preterist. “Some form of preterism could conceivably be incorporated into all of them."9 This author writes from the Biblical Preterist (partial or orthodox preterist), position in this commentary. Hence the name of this book—Back To the Future. It is only by going back some two thousand years, do we come to a time when the prophecies in the Book of Revelation were yet future. Preterists believe that if Christ’s words in Matthew 24 are correct, then this position is inevitable.

Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. (Matthew 24:34, NASB95)

Ralph E. Bass, Back to the Future : A Study in the Book of Revelation (Greenville, SC: Living Hope Press, 2004), 13-14.

Not a lot of help to you, but maybe that author list is something to go off of. Obviously not all 'preterists' may ascribe to the "full" position your relative is.