Is Preterism Heresy?

Preterism is something that I personally had not heard of until about 5 years ago. It has become more popular in recent years and many reputable people hold to a partial or full preterist view. Some are Hank Hanegraaf, Gary Demar, and many others.

Preterism is a variant of Christian eschatology which holds that some or all of the biblical prophecies concerning the Last Days or End Times refer to events which actually happened in the first century after Christ’s birth. The term preterism comes from the Latin praeter, meaning “past”. Adherents of Preterism are known as Preterists. The two principal schools of Preterist thought are commonly called Partial Preterism and Full Preterism.

In the Word of God something we that would somewhat seem relevant to this teaching is when Hymenaeus is mentioned by name twice in Scripture (1 Timothy 1:20; 2 Timothy 2:17) — named in connection with Alexander (the coppersmith) and also Philetus. The apostle Paul denounced him as a blasphemer. Scripture does not fully describe his heresy, but apparently Hymenaeus denied the future physical resurrection of the born again (2 Timothy 2:17-18), as taught by Jesus Christ (John 5:25-29) and Paul (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). He claimed, instead, that the believer’s “resurrection” only happens in a spiritual sense, occurring at the moment one is born again. This heresy was apparently taught by the Nicolaitanes.

So this is my question-If we meet a Christian today that believes the essentials of the Faith- (the authority of Scripture, the existence of a triune God, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit - Christ/Who is fully God and fully man - was sent to save the elect from our bondage of sin, and other things that can be affirmed by the Word of God.) but hold to a different eschatalogical position, can we say they are not saved? Now some as mentioned above are partial meaning they believe some of the events have already taken place and others say they believe Christ has already done all that is said would be done throughout the book of Revelation.

I personally think that if you are a Full Preterist that you have some serious explaining to do but I have not spent a whole lot of time studying this topic. Lionel and I are currently going through the presuppositions of Covenant Theology and Dispensationlism. At this time I do not believe in the “Rapture” and have recently decided to study this more in depth. So this may change-so don’t hold me to a position yet.

I would love to hear some insight on this topic from a Biblical perspective on what many of you think.

Here is the question again-Is Preterism Heresy?
Some information obtained from www.wikipedia.com

Home Alone: Do We StillNeed the Local Church?

Home Alone: Do We StillNeed the Local Church?

Good article written By Jim Elliff at http://www.ccwonline.org/

The down-the-street local church is not the only show in town anymore. We are able to enjoy faith-building messages, listen to the latest Christian music, and explore the rich diversity and variety found in the most noted Christian gatherings, all with the click of the mouse or the touch of a button.

Many local church pastors now say, "The world is my parish," just as did the horseback-riding evangelist, John Wesley. But they mean this without ever going out of their own studio or auditorium! Some are communicating to millions.

It is not unusual for savvy web users to feed from many sources during a given week. Avid cable television viewers can watch the world's premium communicators any on almost any day! Some listen to Christian radio all day long. In fact, you can hear and see Christian leaders on your handheld media device while eating a hamburger in the local fast food restaurant.

For some time we have been losing the aura of significance once automatically assigned to the local church—the attention we had when nothing else much was going on.

We now have to face the truth—most media preachers are more engaging than those who speak in our own church, and we can watch them in our pajamas. Massive church meetings on television are so vivacious and musically stimulating that many simply lose their appetite for the "same ol' same ol'" of the regular assembly. And the church programs that once seemed so essential for spiritual vitality have become a bother to masses of declared believers, as illustrated by low levels of participation. Who really wants to be out one more night missing his favorite TV programming?

Do we really need the local church anymore?

This is not a meaningless question. Millions have written off church life as irrelevant. But some benefits are to be found in the local church that not even the best media experience can offer, such as . . .

Actual relationships rather than imaginary ones. Weak as some churches are, they are still made up of living people who come together. The media-engrossed Christian isolates himself from other believers while imagining relationships that are actually not there. This is not living life, but skipping life. I am often saddened by the isolated person who misses out on people. There is no true fellowship except among believers. Once you know it, you will not be satisfied without it.

Compassionate care rather than mere talk of concern. The media pastors talk about their love for their audience, but they will not be there when your child experiments with drugs, or your spouse dies, or your business goes down the drain. Those in the media audience will not sit at your bedside when you are dying. Radio preachers say they pray for you, but they really don't know you at all. Remember this: if you live alone, you die alone.

Real accountability rather than unchecked liberty. It may not seem immediately desirable, but accountability is a precious gift. In the local church, if you stray from God, someone is there to bring you back, or even to lovingly discipline you. If you are alone, you may stray deeper and deeper into sin even though you have periodic religious media fixes. Rather, you must subject yourself to the answerability that comes from engaging with real people. If you understand the deceitfulness of sin, you know you need that.

Authentic shared worship rather than vicarious viewing of worship. God promises benefits and blessings to corporate worship, even more so than for individual worship, though we should do both. Yet the isolated virtual Christian only imagines himself worshipping with others as he sits before the monitor. If the professing solo believer were to arrive in heaven one day, he would only then experience what he was made for when he became a believer. He will say, "How could I have missed it?"

Add to the above that the isolated media-only Christian disobeys God by not participating in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper or the corporate experience of Baptism, and that he refuses to use spiritual gifts and talents which God gave him expressly for edifying his local church, a distinct privilege and responsibility.
Do we still need the local church? Yes! But its members had better major on what makes it irreplaceable—becoming the loving, caring, worshipping, responsible fellowship it was meant to be. Your church, for instance, can be the most loving church in the world. Nothing can stop you except your own unwillingness. Love, especially in our media saturated day, is immensely attractive and satisfying.
Forget the flash and the showmanship. Don't even try to compete. Leave that to those media churches enamored with such surface concerns. They soon lose meaning to true believers anyway. Pare away all that is trifling—especially the traditions that have lost their meaning because they were only the last generation's attempts at being up-to-date. Do what is biblical even if it means changing everything. And then you will have meaning. You will be the local church that nobody can think little of anymore.

". . . not forsaking our own assembling together . . ." Hebrews 10:25

Copyright © 2008 Jim Elliff Permission granted for reproduction in exact form, including web address. All other uses require written permissionwww.CCWonline.org

Is Black History Important?

Through my wonderful journey since the Lord Jesus Christ drug(John 6:44) me to Himself I have been pushed further away from ministering to a certain type of people simply based on their race. I see many people who get excited when we get the “First Black Person” to do this or to do that and we as a “black people” take it as a personal badge of honor as if that person alone represents our entire race. In retrospect I think this type of thinking is ignorant and not that of a follower of Christ. I see so many black and reformed men who rely heavily on the works of great men like Saint Augustine who was a philosopher and theologian, and was bishop of the North African city of Hippo Regius for the last third of his life. Augustine is one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity, and is considered to be one of the church fathers. I have had a hard time getting an answer to the question, “Was he a Black Man?” as if it would matter when it comes to Christ finishing the work He began in me.(Phil 1:6)

What bothers me at times is that the fact that some hold to the teachings of Calvin, Luther, Edwards, Wesley and so many others, then they crucify these men for having African slaves and in the same breath gleam so much from their writings, insights, and revelation concerning the Word of God. The fact that these men had sin in their lives does not nullify what they have learned through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. If so, we would all be disqualified on that scale, even today as we stand upon the shoulders of giants. To make matters worse, they highly esteem people like Martin(Michael) Luther King Jr., Malcolm(X)Little, and a slew of others who were not Christians by any stretch of the wildest imagination(Please do some research on this before trying to stand behind these non-Christians). Somehow they get a “Get by Free Card” based on the color of their skin and not by the doctrine they teach. I really had to wrestle with some questions before coming to this particular stance. Some of the questions were:

1) Has Christ called us to preach to a certain group or to preach and teach the gospel to all people regardless of race, age, and gender?

2) Has Christ told us whom He has willed to save? Or in other words do we as mortals know who His elect are?

3) How is black history going to help me share the gospel of Christ?

Difficult questions. Let me say that I appreciate what all African Americans have done in the past to give me the freedoms that I possess today. The question is, “Do I feel indebted to a group of people for the sacrifices that God has sovereignly chosen them to go through?” NO!! I am thankful but surely am not indebted to give praises to men but rather God. I catch a lot of flack from many people of all races simply because I don’t vote(uh oh!!) and I can’t find a scripture that commands me to do so. To get back to the topic let us look at Joseph’s view of God’s sovereignty in retrospect of his trial.

Genesis 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

Genesis 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now [it was] not you [that] sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

I would encourage you to read this story through about Joseph see how he has a brilliant view of the hand of God over every situation. Joseph could have easily blamed his brothers and would have been right by doing so; but he seen the sovereign work of God in this. I guess the question would be how sovereign is God? Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these [things].

I believe black history is important to all people but it is dwarfed when compared to knowing church history. When I was a young man I could tell you all about many of the highly esteemed blacks of our day and the of the past but could not tell you about the Council of Nicea or the Jerusalem Council(Acts 15). What good does it do anyone to know about the black history and to not know about church history? Which is more important? Generally we have a lot of black churches specializing in black history month and are totally ignorant of Biblical or church history. What is the result? Humanism, Black Pride, Separatism, and Prejudice disguised as false racial love.

Now to fast forward to the New Covenant, has God chosen a people set apart for Himself? Well of course He has and those people are followers of Christ-Christians. Christ has commanded us to Go ye therefore, and teach all nations(ethnos), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. No one will argue with the great commission that was given for all believers to carry out and not to be limited by a particular race. We as humans were all brothers and sisters linked together by Adam and lost in our sins and trespasses. Once Christ came(Gal 4:4), we then are part of the family of God linked together by Our Redeemer-Christ Jesus. So now we no longer see the black people as “our people” but we now see the famous colloquialism as a term that describes the family of God in Christ.

In conclusion one might say that it is important that blacks see other positive black people in order to be motivated. I would differ. We see black men and women aspiring to be like Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Obama, Colin Powell, and many others but if they die without Christ they too will go to hell. So my question is what really matters? Time out for the superficial racial hype dressed as a wolf in sheep’s clothing which screams… pride!! pride!! pride!!! Time to put Christ at the forefront of our everything meaning that we completely lose our everything in Christ. Furthermore meaning if we are going to esteem people let us check and see if they really have the heart of Christ in all that they do. We emulate Christ to all the world to see the love of Christ and in this they will know that we are His disciples.

What do you desire for your child?

Paul Washer Video

Heaven and Hell

I am currently reading through this book now with the men in my church and it is a great book thus far and wanted to recommend this read for all. I wanted to include an excerpt from the book in which the author quotes Jonathan Edwards in his sermon called “The Eternity of Hell Torments.” Let this thought always be on your mind whenever you present the whole counsel of God!!!

“Consider what is it to suffer extreme torment for ever and ever, and to suffer it day and night, from one year to another, from one age to another, and from one thousand ages to another, and so adding age to age, thousands to thousands, in pain, in wailing and lamenting, groaning and shrieking, and gnashing your teeth, with your souls full of dreadful grief and amazement, your bodies full of racking torture, without any possibility of getting ease; without any possibility of moving God to pity by your cries; without any possibility of hiding yourselves from him; without any possibility of diverting your thoughts from your pain. Consider how dreadful despair will be in such torment; to know assuredly that you never, never shall be delivered from them; to have no hope: when you shall wish you might be turned into nothing but shall have no hope of it… when you would rejoice, if you might but have any relief, after you have endured these torments millions of ages but shall have no hope of it. After you shall have worn our the age of the sun, moon and stars……… without rest day and night, or one minutes ease, yet you shall have no hope of ever being delivered; after you have worn a thousand more such ages you shall have no hope… but that still there are the same groans, the same shrieks, the same doleful cries, incessantly to be made by you, and that the smoke of your torment shall still ascend up for ever and ever. The more the damned in hell think of the eternity to their torments, the more amazing it will appear to them; and alas! they will not be able to keep it out of their minds. Their tortures will not divert them from it, but will fix their attention to it. O how dreadful will eternity appear to them after they shall have so long an experience of their torments! The damned in hell will have two infinities perpetually to amaze them and swallow them up; one is an infinite God, whose wrath they will bear and in whom they will behold their perfect and irreconcilable enemy. The other is the infinite duration of their torment.”

Joel Osteen's Theology?

Homosexual Christians?

This is terribly sad. I am almost speechless.

This Satuday Conference Call

Stand Up Ministries is having their 4th conference call this coming Saturday-February 9th. My apologies since I kept on forgetting to post this when we had our previous calls. Stand Up Minsitries is currently conducting live chat conference calls with over 150 lines to access over the phone every other Saturday which has been a blessing to those who have attended. This is not a line where we simply argue. The intent is also not to be a replacement for true Biblical fellowship. This is simply an extension of the 1st conference we had in November of 2007 and enables those of us across the country to keep in touch. At the past conference we had men and women from all over the US attend and even from England.

The time zones for your area are as follows:
6:00 pm - eastern 5:00 pm - central 4:00 pm -

mountain 3:00 pm - pacific (605) 475-4333

Access code: 339865#

(please hit the pound key after entering the code)

This Saturday's topic is "Divorce and Re-marriage." There are seven historically significant interpretations of the exception clause is Matthew 19:9, and there is no small amount of disagreement among reputable Bible scholars as to which one of these seven is correct. Five of the seven views affirm a no-divorce understanding of the text, and six affirm a no-remarriage view. Only one permits both divorce and re-marriage.

Typically most Christians see marriage after a divorce as an option and see that there are exceptions based on Matthew chapter 5 and 19. I differ on this topic completely. I am posting below a paper written by John Piper who also holds this view. His paper is not as detailed as I would like but it gives an overview of his position on this. I believe this position is the most accurate and true to Christ' intent in the Bible. John Macarthur(my favorite Bible expositor) holds the common view and I think he couldn't be more wrong on this issue.

One basic rule of hermeneutics is if we find a passage in which in itself is capable of two interpretations, one of which harmonizes with the rest of the Scriptures while the other does not, we are duty bound to accept the former. This is a recognized principle of interpretation that the more obscure passages are to be interpreted in the light of clearer passages and not vice versa. Prayerfully I ask you to leave your presuppositions to the side and take a Berean look at the opposing views with a non-biased view.

Good book on the seven different views is "Marriage and Ministry in the New Temple" by Abel Isaksson.

Here is the Piper article. Here is Macarthur's site and his link here.

When God wants to drill a man.

This is a poem my pastor Jim Elliff gave to me about 8 months ago and I thought I would share it. God bless

Romans 7?

The common view of Romans chapter 7 typically is that Paul is speaking of himself as a believer and his stuggle with sin. I honestly have a hard time with that based of off chapter 6 and then chapter 8. My pastor's son Bryan Elliff(18 years old) teaches Wednesday night Bible study for the teenagers and makes some compelling arguments for the opposing view. The beauty of being young and in the Faith is the fact that(we) unlike many older guys in the Faith, do not have a lot of faulty pressuppositions about many topics.

Check out 1(Romans 7:14-25: “Sin Became Alive and I Died” Part 1) and 2(Romans 7:14-25: “Sin Became Alive and I Died” Part 2) of his studies so far. I couldn't link his blog article because I think he a older style blog to where you can't link the articles directly but I will give you his site and you can scroll through to find these articles-God Bless in Christ

His site is HERE.

Paul Washer

How do you know you are saved?

This is post from this site. Thanks to Alan Higgins for this great post-GOD Bless

2 Corinthians 13:5 says that we should

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
So how do you make sure that you are not disqualified? How do you make sure that you are not in that number of many church-going people who will say to God on Judgement Day

….Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then (he) will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’(Matthew 7:22-23)

How do you know you are saved?

Well first of all, you should be displaying (or starting to display) the fruit of the spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)
If you are displaying immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness and carousing, then this is a good indication that you are not saved and as it says in Galatians 5:21, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God

The books of 1 and 2 John also give you a list of things to look out for ’so that you may know that you have eternal life.’ (1 John 5:13)
You will not walk in darkness. If you do, then you do not practice or live by the truth (1 John 1:6)
You will have fellowship with other christians (1 John 1:7)
You recognise your sinful nature (1 John 1:8,10)
You confess your sins (1 John 1:9)
You obey and keep his commandments (1 John 2:3,5 ,1 John 3:24, 1 John 5:2)
You will not hate your brother or sister but love them (1 John 2:9,11 , 1 John 3:10 and 1 John 4:7-8,12-13, 20-21, 2 John 1:5)
You will not love the world or the things of the world (1 John 2:15)
You will do the will of God (1 John 2:17)
You believe the divinity of Jesus Christ and that he has come in the flesh (1 John 2:22 and 1 John 4:2-4,15, 2 John 1:7)
Biblical truth will be abiding in you (1 John 2:24)
You understand the righteousnes of Christ (1 John 2:29)
You will be practicing righteousness (1 John 2:29)
You will not habitually practice sin (1 John 3:8,9, 1 John 5:18)
You will have compassion for those in need (1 John 3:17)
You believe that Jesus is the Christ and is the Son of God (1 John 5:1)
You abide in the doctrine of Christ (2 John 1:9)

Now am I saying that if you are missing any of these then you are not saved? Of course not. It is not about perfection but about direction. You should be moving in the direction of doing the things above. This is called progressive sanctification where God is doing an inward work in you.
Other questions to ask yourself are:

Am I growing in holiness?
What is my relationship with sin?
Do I have a struggle with sin or do I feel no way about my sin? (Read Romans 7:7-25)
Do I hate it more and more or do I try and justify it?
Do I have a love for Gods word?
Do I hunger and thirst for righteousness?
Do I have a concern for the lost?
If the answer to the majority of these questions is no, then I would seriously doubt your salvation and I would urge you to repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ and in him alone.