Still, even I recognize the need to have a firm opinion on the subject. That's because I believe God's Word should be studied in full rather than reading only the Psalms and Gospels one likes best. And, yes, that includes the apocalyptic stuff like the relevant sections of Daniel and a good bit of Revelation.
On top of that, back when I taught a small group at Southern Baptist Church #1, I had to teach End Times stuff on two and a half occasions so it behooved me to study the various viewpoints out there and formulate my opinion.
Before I get into that though, I want to be clear in saying I generally don't view a strong interest in End Timey subjects as a negative. If I learned nothing else as a small group teacher, it's that different things motivate different peoples' faith.
For some, the birth of Our Lord, His self-identification with lowly, fallen man is the foundation of their belief. For others, maybe His suffering and death on the cross, the promise of mercy and forgiveness no matter how they've sinned, is what underlies their faith. For some others, it could be that the study of history and discovering the TRUTH of Christianity is what persuades them, as in my case. For still others, it's probable that the guarantee of judgment and the threat of hell is how they came to faith. And, I suppose related to that, there is the crowd who study the Scriptures to ferret out details about how everything is brought to a conclusion.
My point is that one group isn't somehow "wrong" for being motivated by different things than someone else. There's room for everybody!
That all said, I do think some people go WAY too far with it. If somebody were to need me to quantify this to them and explain why that is, odds are they're one of them and nothing I can say will change their mind.
So like I said, everybody has their religious preference. Mine is no better or worse than someone else's. So no matter which side you come down on, don't take this as me bashing on the End Time crowd.
Okay, so that should be enough CYA for me. My basic view is fairly traditional partial Preterism. Again, history guy, remember? It's easier for me to convince myself that the majority of the predictions Our Lord made have already come to pass than I can believe that somehow all world political power, religious influence, economics and everything else will somehow return to Rome. That's not to say that all those things can't or won't happen. Preterism explicitly permits things to have some type of future duplicated fulfillment. For all I know (and am willing to put on the record), they very well may happen "again" in the future. But as I see it, events in history already satisfy most of the requirements made in those prophecies. Not much more needs to be added.
Now, the main reason I bring all this up is because I've been asked about End Time stuff on many occasions. Generally when people found out that I taught the Bible at SB Church #1, sooner or later End Time stuff, Marks of Beasts, Raptures and other stuff would become a topic of conversation. I guess I was supposed to have access to special information that nobody else has or something.
Generally I was greeted by looks of borderline disappointment when I informed the inquirer that the orthodox view for most of Christianity's history has been Preterism, that's the viewpoint I tend to favor so I don't see much point in keeping an eye out for False Prophets or what have you in our lifetimes. Again, for all I know, it COULD happen "again"; I simply don't think it NEEDS to.
What, then, are we to do? How are we to live? Obey the Church's teachings, partake of the Sacraments, study ALL of Scripture (including the "scary" parts), pray and let God work His plan on His schedule.
It's all you can do.
More to follow.
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