this is a debate on the issue that was very informative...from Messianc Jew, Dr. Michael Brown.
Dr. Brown is a Messianic Jewish apologist and one of the foremost scholars on the subject of Jewish culture/thought, as well as one who's a Futurist...whereas Dr.Demar is a Preterist (Partial Preterist) who is has long had an issue with much of what's discussed within the "Left Behind"/End Times eschatology. Dr Brown is someone whom many of my friends/family have either known or worked with personally...whereas Dr. Demar is someone who used to teach at my highschool when I was a freshman.
The discussion was very cordial and it was wonderful to see how they discussed many differing issues that are often not acknowledged in certain circles, making clear that not everything with Preterism is automatically to be shunned and deemed "heresy"/deception. For there are many variations of Preterism---and other Preterists have often denounced some forms of it as an issue.
For other articles that may be of interest to you, one can go online/investigate the following --as they deal with many scriptures on the subject that are good for study:
Over the years, I have tended to find the Preterist view compelling..and personally, I am very much against much of the sensationalism being witnessed within the world due to a Futurist mindset of End Times. Thus, I tend to combine some parts of Preterism with other viewpoints at times---though I'm still debating the Futurist Mindset when it comes to the tribulation/other events. For many, the fact that many CHristians are being persecuted around the world still in GREAT numbers is evidence that a tribulation has already occurred. Many are of the mindset that we already have a world one government---and a GLOBAL Anti-Christ system established through the media/t.v. When seeing how much destruction has occurred with human trafficking and child sex slaves, as well as wars of many kinds, I think it'd be safe to say that we're definately in the end..
But techincally, the end has already been in place since Jesus rose and went to Heaven. Every generation thought they were the end--and that's something I have to square with.
A good place to go for review would be
"Jewish and Christian Biblical Studies @ PreteristArchive.com" . Learned of it awhile ago, concerning how believing that one generation was the last one was something that was present in the Jewish culture---especially in the group known as the Essenes since they felt that they were God's Chosen and that the Lord would come to redeem them as they waited out for him. Being much fewer in number than the Pharisees and the Sadducees (the other two major sects at the time), it was the Esscenes from whom the Dead Sea Scrolls were written from—-as they fled the corruption they saw rampant in Jerusalem/the religious groups of their day as they fought one another—and in an effort to avoid corruption, they fled the “politics”/went into the desert of Quarman. Similar to the Pharisees, the Essenes saw themselves as God’s elect in whom He was secretly working and whom He will vindicate when He finally cleanses the Temple, fulfilling His promises & restoring true worship while also putting back the right people in power and bringing redemption to unredeemed Israel. However, they had differing views on socio-political actions.
For whereas the Sadducees believed in seizing/maintaining political power for themselves…while the Pharisees were somewhat similar, the Esscenes lived very simple/communal lifestyles………proclaiming by their actions that, though they longed for the liberation of Israel, they were simply going to wait and allow the Lord to bring it to pass in His own time. They felt God will act in His own ways and was, in fact, already acting secretly through them and their quiet devotional practices rather than as other parties acted. When the resurrection happened, the Essenes—seeing themselves as the recipients of God’s future eschatological benefits, naturally believed that having shown their faithfulness to God during the exile/not engaging in either hatred of others or violence, they would be reestablished as the true Israel.
While the Roman war appealed to men of action such as the Zealots, men of a more peaceful and visionary nature seemed to become Essenes….and many others believe the Essene camp was what Christianity was birthed out of.
The early believers may've felt adopted similar views as the Essenes....and many scholars have speculated that the Nazarenes had a similar eschatology when it came to waiting for deliverance. Pehraps they were preterist...and to be clear, "partial preterism" is very different from "full preterism", and is generally partly futurist (but can embrace just about any mix of ideas). Partial preterism says that while many prophecies stated in the First Century should be examined first as to whether they were fulfilled close to that time. But with enough support they can be extended throughout the history of the Christians, and we're still in the middle somewhere. Many if not most partial preterists say that the next thing to occur in prophetic fulfillment is Jesus' return. Partial preterism says Jesus was primarily talking to His First Century hearers, so we should examine what He says from a First Century perspective, primarily.
Some of this you may already be aware of...but for the sake of info on the differing views of eschatology, Amillennialism is a specific position in regard to the Millennium, it says that the Millennium isn't intended to describe a literal period of time, but rather describes Christ's reign at the Father's right hand until the time of His coming. Preterism is a position in regard to prophetic interpretation, sometimes contrasted with Futurism and Historicism. Historicism would argue, for example, that what St. John the Revelator wrote has had an ongoing fulfillment since his day to ours, the earliest Protestants were Historicists, which led Luther, Calvin (et al) to conclude that the Papacy fulfilled the eschatological role of Antichrist and Beast (not the person of the Pope, per se, but rather the office of Pope). Futurists would posit that all or most of everything in the Revelation will be fulfilled at a heretofore unspecified point in the future, Dispensationalists fall in this category (and they are also Premillennialists).
Preterism, on the other hand, states that much (partial) or all (full) of what St. John wrote, or what Jesus spoke about in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24) had its fulfillment, or was primarily about, stuff that took place in the first century and the time of John himself. Hyper-Preterism goes so far as to argue that the Parousia--the Second Coming--occurred in 70 AD when the Roman army destroyed the Temple, they believe this was a visitation of Judgment, the return or appearing of Christ, against the old order represented by Jerusalem and the Temple. Hyper-Preterism is regarded as heretical by mainstream Christianity as the Historic Creeds are clear that the Lord will return at the end to raise the dead bodily (Hyper-Preterism denies the resurrection of the body, which is, again, heretical).
The two involve different aspects of eschatology, one could be both Amillennial and a Preterist, one could be Amillennial but not a Preterist. Luther, Calvin and other early Protestants were Amillennialists and Historicists, one can also be Amillennial and a Futurist.
A Historicist sees these things as having been fulfilled throughout the last two thousand years at different times, such as the early Protestants seeing the Papacy as fulfilling the role of "Man of Sin" from Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians and the Beast from Revelation 13. Seventh Day Adventists are Historicists, perhaps even moreso than the historic Protestant churches (Lutherans, Presbyterians, etc). A Preterist would see these things as having happened in the past, for example a Preterist would probably see Jesus mentioning the "abomination that causes desolation" and see its fulfillment when the Romans desolated the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD, a Preterist would understand the Revelation's "Beast" to likely be a reference to Nero and/or Domitian and/or the imperial power in Rome in general
