Category Archives: Preterism

IS PRETERISM ANTI-SEMITIC? (3)

Ethics, Preterism January 18, 2022 Leave a comment

Dead Sea ScrollsPMW 2022-005 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

This is my final article in a brief series responding to the charge that preterism is anti-Semitic. The charge arises in that preterists hold that many New Testament passages prophesy the judgment of Israel. I have already shown how this charge is misdirected in several respects. But now I will show that if the charge is accurate, then Jews are themselves anti-Semtic. As odd as it may sound, this is the moral logic of our day’s politically-correct world. Continue reading →

IS PRETERISM ANTI-SEMITIC? (2)

Ethics, New Testament, Preterism January 14, 2022 Comments: 3

Bible baatPMW 2022-004 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr

This is part 2 of a series on preterism and anti-semitism. According to some, the New Testament is one embarrassing book. How can anyone believe it? Not only is preterism anti-Semitic, but so is the New Testament. Christianity just needs to fold up, pack it away, and leave the world alone.

This New Testament=anti-Semitism charge is according to secularists and liberal “theologians,” that is. But ironically, those evangelicals who charge preterism with anti-Semitism because of what they read among the secularists and liberals are shooting themselves in the foot. Continue reading →

IS PRETERISM ANTI-SEMITIC? (1)

Ethics, History, Preterism January 11, 2022 1 Comment

PMW 2022-003 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

Anti semitismPreterism is anti-Semitic. Pure and simple. To the core, through-and-through. It denounces Jews and Israel. And it must do so to maintain its distinctive theology. It involves a persecutional mindset.

At least that is what prophecy populists maintain, and what a number of scholars (who should know better) argue. But why do they make this charge?

Preteristm teaches that several New Testament prophecies apply to the AD 70 destruction of the temple. Is preterism’s focus on the Jewish judgment in AD 70 anti-Semtic? This is a serious moral charge. How does the preterist postmillennialist answer it? Are we guilty of such a sin? Continue reading →

SATAN’S “SYNAGOGUE” IN REVELATION

Israel, Preterism December 28, 2021 Leave a comment

Syn SatanPMW 2021-094 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

In Rev 2:9 (cp. 3:9) we read Jesus saying to Pergamum: “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” Evangelical commentator Ramsey Michaels argues that the false Jews of “the synagogue of Satan” are actually non-Jews, just like the “false apostles” in the letter to the church at Ephesus were not actual apostles. In fact, this is the majority view among Rev commentators.

Against this position I would urge the following

First, why would anyone in the first-century Roman empire other than a racial Jew claim to be a Jew? Continue reading →

THE TEMPLE IN REVELATION 11

AD 70, Preterism, Revelation, Temple July 6, 2021 Comments: 4

Temple 2PMW 2021-052 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
Revelation is an important book in eschatological discussions. The most vigorous Revelation debate in ecclesiastical circles today revolves around the dispute between preterism and futurism. Preterism holds that Revelation was largely fulfilled not long after John wrote it. Futurism holds that it deals largely with events yet to come.

Because of this debate, the identity of the temple in Rev 11 arises as a serious matter. In Revelation 11:1, 2 we read:

And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

Here we find a Temple standing in a city called “the holy city.” Continue reading →

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR PRETERISM

History, Preterism, Revelation June 28, 2021 Comments: 5

PMW 2021-050 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

Evangelical preterism is virtually the opposite of dispensational futurism. Because of this, dispensationalists are alarmed at the spread of orthodox preterism among some of its claimants. One means by which they try to dissuade their followers from adopting preterism is by charging that it was a late creation by a Jesuit priest named Luis Alcázar around 1600. Continue reading →

MATTHEW 23:39, DISPENSATIONALISM & PRETERISM

AD 70, Dispensationalism, Israel, Preterism June 18, 2021 Comments: 3

PMW 2021-047 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

Matt. 23:39 is a favorite statement by Jesus that dispensationalism cling to as evidence of the future conversion of Israel. Read through their lens, it seems to state that Israel will one day be converted, and only then will the great tribulation begin (according to the order of verses following Matt 23:39). They hold that this would confirm dispensationalism and undermine preterism and postmillennialism.

Matthew 23:39 read:

“For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

Continue reading →