Preterism-What is it?

[lsusportsfan]

Here appears to be a main web page on it
preteristarchive.com/

Some of the stuff I like. Other stuff I run across I disagree with. Needless to say they are not advocating a return to the Catholic Church. I am curious about the following?

(1) What exactly is this
(2) Is this centered in one church? It appears it is not
(3) Is this having a real influence in the Protestant and Evanglical World
(4) What do we have in common with this Theolgical and Historical thought?
(5) It seems they do a lot of interesting research into the Fathers and Early Church history. How much of it is valid?

I am just curious if I need to start paying attention to this as to Apologetics.

 

[Jean_Marie_1]

Here appears to be a main web page on it
preteristarchive.com/

Some of the stuff I like. Other stuff I run across I disagree with. Needless to say they are not advocating a return to the Catholic Church. I am curious about the following?

(1) What exactly is this
(2) Is this centered in one church? It appears it is not
(3) Is this having a real influence in the Protestant and Evanglical World
(4) What do we have in common with this Theolgical and Historical thought?
(5) It seems they do a lot of interesting research into the Fathers and Early Church history. How much of it is valid?

I am just curious if I need to start paying attention to this as to Apologetics.

1. Preterism is the belief that ALL of the prophecies have been fulfilled, and nothing is left to the future - for example, that our own bodily resurrection has been fulfilled in Jesus’ Resurrection, and He shares that with us.
2. No, it’s not.
3. Not that I’m aware of - they’re still glued to the teevee watching John Hagee and Pat Robertson.
4. The main thought of the Church is that there is always LAYERS of prophecy, something is said by a prophet, and something happens immediately, and then something happens in some distant future, in a mysterious way, and then even there is a MORE mysterious, future event that is foreshadowed by the prophecy, and so-on and so-forth for many permutations.
5. It’s quite valuable, as long as you understand that the prophecies just don’t end with, say, the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, that the various prophecies apply today (but don’t let lead you to believe in such things as the “rapture”).