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Originally Posted by Reader
I would like to hear from those who were not raised believing preterism/partial preterism, who went from the rapture/end times teaching to that. I am not interested in another debate on it. I seriously would like to hear from those who have changed their beliefs in this area and what lead to it.
If you believe in the rapture, no need to respond or debate in this thread as I would like to be able to read what caused people to change their thinking on this subject. I pose this as a serious question. It is something I have not yet studied and I am curious as to what lead to people changing their views, especially in light of how some apostolic groups, such as the UPC, take a strong stand against preterism.
Thank you in advance for sharing---Benincasa, Blume, Esaias & others!
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Hi! Let first clear something up. I am not a "preterist", either partial or full. Neither am I a futurist, though I was one in my early years as a Christian. I hold to what is known as the "Continuous historical" or "historicist" approach, meaning I believe that the book of Revelation covers the general history of the church from the first century to the final judgment and eternity. Preterism puts most or all of Revelation into the first century, futurism puts most or all of it into the last few years before the Second Coming (and beyond).
I started as a futurist, meaning I believed we were approaching the time of the seven year tribulation and the end of days. I heard a lot about the "rapture" (the secret pre-trib rapture) but I never did believe in a pretrib rapture. Every time I read my bible it seemed to teach the exact opposite. Thus I was a "post trib rapture" believer at first. But there were problems from the beginning with that as well.
I never could find a "seven year tribulation" in my bible. I never accepted the idea that Daniel's 70th week was separated from the other weeks. I also never could find where we were supposed to fly away to heaven. As I studied I discovered that the Bible teaches the eventual final annihilation of the wicked, that the dead "know not anything", that nobody goes to heaven or hell UNTIL the Judgment Day, that the blessed hope is not going to heaven but rather the resurrection from the dead. So I always preferred the bible doctrine of resurrection to the unbiblical "rapture/fly away to heaven" doctrine.
This led me to study prophecy and eschatology more in depth. I discovered almost all modern (futurist) prophecy teachers were completely oblivious to foundational old testament prophecy and how the apostles handled those prophecies. For example, Israel was prophesied to become a multitude of nations, not just be limited to a rag-tag group of Christ rejecting socialists over in the Mideast.
I discovered prophecy covers far more than "the final years of history" but spanned the history of God's people from the beginning THROUGH to the end. Thus, every generation of believers have had something to hear from God regarding them, they have never been left in the dark. To me, both preterism and futurism leave the vast overwhelming majority of God's people without prophetic guidance.
I also discovered both futurism and preterism were developed during the Counter-Reformation. Non catholic believers had concluded the Papal power was the fulfillment of various prophecies concerning "antichrist" so they concocted preterism and futurism as answers to those charges. If Revelation dealt with ancient history, or the last days right before the second coming, in either case, Papal Rome could not be mentioned in prophecy, so they were off the hook.
Other historicist interpreters, like Isaac Newton (yes, THAT Isaac Newton) and most Protestant scholars before the rise of dispensational futurism in the late 1800s still were ignorant of the foundational prophecies concerning Israel and the purpose of the gospel, so I differ with them in some areas, but overall I hold to similar views as they did regarding the general tenor of prophecy.
HOWEVER, I believe all three systems, as systems, are flawed and are not wholly APOSTOLIC. I look forward to a truly APOSTOLIC interpretation of prophecy, when we will quit borrowing whole sale interpretative schemes developed by scholars who really couldn't even tell someone who Jesus actually is or how to be born again BIBLICALLY.
Perhaps that time will come soon.
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