Well – Thats OK – anything worth learning takes time and effort.
Often these things need watching a number of times.
and Quantum stuff always takes a lot of thinking through….
But you wouldnt expect building an airplane or a TV to the easy. And you wouldnt let a surgeon who just sat down and read one easy book to operate on you (I hope) . The laws the universe works on take some thought and so if u want to understand the universe God created – you can guarantee it will take some thought and effort.
Its the same with the bible. It takes some thought and effort as well.
And no – you need to give a lot more thought to what the preterists believe.
Jesus said his second coming would happen while he was still alive. If you pop back up to my earlier posts you will see this
Now the key to understanding the bible in this area is the word " Παρουσία" – Parousia or Presence and is used in the New testament to refer to the second Coming.
Preterists (which included the apostles and the early church) believed that Jesus's second coming has ALREADY happened.
This is what I mean by assumptions and reading things into the scriptures that arent there.
The word used in the bible for the second coming is Presence. No one believed in a physical second coming until hundreds and hundreds of years after the apostles died. They believed that the destruction of the temple ushered OUT the old covenant (fulfilled) and brought in the new to replace it.
The belief in a physical second coming is a relatively new (and still controversial) belief from people who didnt have access to the original languages (or access to centuries of scholarship on the subject)
Now there are scholars who believe in futurism – but it begs the question – were the apostles and the church wrong for hundreds of years ? OR is the new interpretation correct ? (This is why studying church history is so important)
To decide which you believe you really need to think about the word presence – and to work out why THAT word was used (presence does NOT imply a physical body and do you think God uses incorrect words ?). You also need to explain why Jesus said he would all these would happen in the apostles life time and why the apostles and the early church believed it all had happened in 70 AD.
As I said before – futurists believe that the those verses are peoples opinion and thats the only way you can reconcile them – but then if you allow that -how do u decide which parts are opinion (and thus can be ignored) and which parts are not.
Its something that people take years to study. Its seriously one of the most complex theological parts of the bible … (and Ive never met anyone who really studied it seriously who stuck with futurism BUT Im sure they exist) I still havent made up my mind and Ive had decades to look into it.
If you want to understand all the issues and ALL the relevant verses and what they mean in the original languages -then I wouldnt worry about WHAT you believe and I would just keep an open mind on it and just read – but make sure you read from both points of view (futurist and preterist) …. and THEN you can decide – when you have all the facts. Theres no rush and I would suggest your better to take lots of time and allow yourself a chance to dig into this. (its more fun as well to not make up your mind too early. Remember – a mind is like a parachute. Neither work well closed. )
🙂
|
