Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
Preterism certainly does not "hinge nearly entirely on the single word near". Preterism is actually very clearly supported by the book of Revelation. When you realize how symbolic it is, the symbols are very easily applied to past events and it all lines up so beautifully that it can not be ignored. Of course if you read Revelation with the assumption that it's all still future, then it's impossible to see.
There is only one chapter about it. If you claim Revelation was about the first century, should you not be able to map out Revelation onto the first century? You are the one declaring it was fulfilled, not me. When it says they had power and authority for 42 months, did they not have power and authority? Our does your interpretation state something totally different than power and authority?
The questions included: when is your coming and the end. The answers included His second coming and the end. No where in Matthew 24 and 25 does Jesus answer how to start a church and make it a strong church. That question was not asked.
One would have to point out the order of Revelation not Daniel to show how Revelation is not chronological. I never said anything about Daniel being chronological. Most of Daniel was historically fulfilled before Christ died on the Cross. Not relevant to 70AD either. No 10 empire (Nation) coalition joined Rome at any time in the first century.
So John was lying when he claimed people had their heads chopped off instead of receiving the mark? When did the mark stop being an issue, and how do we know we are not marked now and removed from the Lamb's book of life? No one has in the last 1900 years had to choose, so all who have their heads, should be marked and removed from the Lamb's book of life, since then, no? John seems to indicate strongly about the head removal part and being a martyr. How many heads were removed by the Romans? And those killed in battle do not count. This was a normal society decision. We are talking about Roman citizens, not the enemies of Rome.
Parts of Revelation are chronological, but not the entire book from start to finish. It's written in a style of writing called progressive parallelism which repeats the same story multiple times, each time in either lesser or greater detail. Ironically, this is done to make the message easier to understand, but we're not used to that in our culture so it actually makes it a bit confusing.
We don't know how many people were beheaded in those days, but it's possible that this "beheading" is simply symbolic of having been murdered. We do know that John the baptist and James were both beheaded though there were certainly others.
Maybe this was answered earlier, but I'm late to the party here:
I believe we're still in the thousand years and that at the end of the thousand years Satan will be released for a short time to deceive the nations. Sometimes I wonder if we're currently living in that short time, considering the amount of deception that's out there, but if not then I believe this thousand years will likely not last another 20 years, or 30 at most.
You seem pretty certain that these ten kings represent a ten nation coalition. Have you considered that these ten kings could be simply generals of the same nation? Or perhaps governors or some other such title?
Actually you and I are in full agreement about the millenium, although I'm more pessemistic about how long we have left. It also sounds like you are more Amillenial like me rather than postmillenial like many preterists.
Luke 21 is definitely in the past. When is the last time Jerusalem was compassed with armies? This speaks of the day of judgment of 70 AD. Jesus himself said "these are the days of vengeance", which can be tied to the souls under the altar asking for vengeance. And note that Jesus is speaking of a local event when he says "let them that are in Judea flee to the mountains" which is exactly what happened. All the Christians of Jerusalem fled into the mountains of Pela and thereby were spared the horrors of the time of judgment.
Satan opens the pit, if you are referring to the 5th Trumpet, not released. In 11, Satan kills the 2 witnesses 3.5 days prior to Armageddon. Only after 1000 years later, is Satan released only once in history.
1 Thess 4 is very interesting and easily misunderstood.
