(By Jeremiah Johnson) As I continue to personally interact with many so-called modern day “apostles” and study current apostolic trends in the earth, I’m convinced that a great deception is currently attempting to sweep the body of Christ and the alarm must be sounded! It’s called “full preterism” and it’s currently being specifically pushed by some so-called “apostles”.
Full preterism is the belief that the prophecies in Matthew 24 (spoken by Jesus on the Mount of Olives) and the Book of Revelation were completely fulfilled in the PAST, particularly in the events leading up to and surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70.
According to Full-Preterists…
• The Tribulation
• The Antichrist
• The Abomination of Desolation
• Jesus’ Second Coming (Matthew 24; Revelation 19)
…are all things of the past.
Here are 5 prophetic warnings for those potentially being deceived into this dangerous doctrine by “apostles”:
1. Full Preterism Operates in a Scoffing Spirit
2 Peter 3:3 says, “Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days SCOFFERS will come, MOCKING the truth and following their own desires. They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again…?
There is a scoffing and mocking spirit operating in some circles in the body of Christ toward the return of Jesus Christ. They believe He has already come and any tribulation, persecution etc is not a future event. You will hear full preterists constantly mock and scoff at references to the “end times” as they glory in their deception.
2. Full Preterism Leads to Hyper-Grace Theology
The apostles in the New Testament constantly appealed to the second coming of Jesus as a primary reason for why the Church must live holy and righteously before God.
1 Thessalonians 3:13 “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”
1 Timothy 6:13- “I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time…”
Titus 2:12-14 “Grace teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
Holiness and consecration are rarely if at all emphasized and preached among full preterists. They typically embrace hyper grace theology and never appeal to the return of Jesus Christ as to why people should be living right with God.
Many of them will claim that we are living in a “better covenant” and God is no longer judging anyone.
3. Full Preterism Breeds Lazy and Complacent Christianity
The urgency of the hour and the fact that Jesus Christ could return at any moment fueled the zeal and passion of the first century Church for the proclamation of the gospel message and the repentance of sin.
1 John 2:28 “And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.”
Acts 3:19-21 “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you – even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.”
Because full preterists believe that Jesus has already returned, there is no urgency for the proclamation of the Gospel or for anyone to repent of sin with fervency and sobriety.
4. Full Preterism Leaves the Church Completely Unprepared for the Days Ahead
Those who are deceived by full preterism will become offended and fall away as persecution and tribulations increases in many parts of the earth in the days ahead. The New Testament clearly helps believers realize that trouble will come in the days ahead, but in the midst of trouble, we are anchored to the promise of Jesus’ bodily return. Full preterism teaches that trouble is not coming and Jesus has already returned. Therefore there is no preparation for trouble, nor any hope in the midst of it when it comes.
2 Peter 3:10-13 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”
5. Full Preterism Disconnects the Church from the Crisis that is Coming to Israel.
Scripture consistently teaches that trouble will come to Jerusalem and the national salvation of all of Israel will take place. This is why we must understand this trouble and what God’s plan is for it (Matthew 24:15). Full Preterism tells us all these prophecies have already been fulfilled and therefore the trouble in the Middle East has no biblical significance whatsoever.
Because full preterism does not accurately interpret the signs of our times, it creates a culture of prayerlessness, a scoffing spirit, hyper-grace theology, lazy and complacent Christianity, and a misunderstanding surrounding events in/around Israel.
Saints, beware of so-called “apostles” pushing this belief system in the days ahead. Those who are deceived will be given over to strong delusion! Remember, the apostles nor the early church fathers mentioned Christ’s Second Coming as having already occurred. By “church fathers” I am referring to those leaders in the church of the first three centuries A.D. following the original apostles (e.g., Justin Martyr, Eusebius, Tertullian, Polycarp).
Let’s stay alert in this hour and ask God for a spirit of sobriety and revelation.
Sounding the alarm, Jeremiah Johnson
Although I do not agree with full preterism, I believe that partial preterism is far closer than the truth than the cult of dispensationalism. It is extremely ignorant to push Mat 24 to the future without looking at its historical context. Mat 23:36 and Mat 24:34, right out of the mouth of the Lord clearly states that the things He was prophesying was about to take place in that particular generation. Let’s not forget how the Jews planned to kill Him as they fully rejected God’s Messiah.
1Thes. 2:14-16 is abundantly clear that the Jews were about to be judged for all the crimes they had committed from the beginning until the time that they planned the murder of God’s Son, Messiah and King of all creation while going after God’s true Israel (a people of faith in Christ) in order to torture them and kill them.
The Jews were judged in A.D. 70 just as Jesus prophesied many times over through the gospels. The Tribulation, the Antichrist, the Abomination of desolation are nothing but dispensational lies that pushes to the future what already took place in the past. For starters the antichrist only appears in the epistles of John (not in Revelation). These people were the gnostics that rejected the incarnation of God the Son. We will not find the term “antichrist” in any other book of the bible.
As a believer in Christ, in no way I’m complacent, nor do I believe in hyper-grace, nor am I being unprepared for the future since my present walk with the Lord in the beauty of holiness prepares me day by day for the return of the Lord to take His bride away and make all things new (Rev. 21:5)
The lies presented by ultra dispensationalists that pushes all Jesus’s prophecies to the future is done in order to accommodate a godless nation that has no faith in Christ, no covenant with God and does not have the righteousness of Christ. This is nothing but an indication of an apostaste generation that believe that somehow they (Christians) will avoid great suffering by being taken up and away from all the hell that they believe will take place after (or before) the so called great tribulation.
These people postpone it all to the future making themselves the most irresponsible generation of believers because after all they will escape the wrath of God and will be able to watch very comfortable on their heavenly TV screen as the world is turned upside down. (pass the popcorn guys this is so much fun!)
These deluded Christians also believe in the so called “Millennium” that has zero support in the scriptures since Jesus never once said that He would come down once again to reign literally on earth (nor any of the writers of the NT even implied it), actually in Jerusalem (the city that Jesus Himself condemned) for 1,000 literal years.
Full preterism is wrong since we all know that the Lord hasn’t returned yet, but full dispensationalism is a cult because it denies the full redemption of Calvary’s cross that took place at the cross 2,000 years ago. It denies it because it postpones modern, secular and ungodly Israel to a “special redemption” (just for them) after the so called “great tribulation.”
That alone is an affront to the cross and the finished work of Jesus Christ. It demotes the Lordship of Christ who reigns now as Lord and as Christ over all His creation while limiting (or attempting to do so) to physically reign on earth in order to give room to false Israel that in their eyes can do no wrong, no matter what.
This article is deceptive at its core because it hides all the lies that dispensationalists believe and go on to attack other believers in Christ that may be fully devoted to serve the Lord with a heart of obedience and hope.
Excellent response, the truth if accepted will set you free. Also a good in depth study of the Wars of the Jews could not hurt.
Jeremiah, there are as many errors in your presentation as there are sentences. And if anyone is scoffing and mocking, you are doing so to preterists. I don’t mock futurists. I simply think–by virtue of my own study and interpretation–that they are incorrect. I don’t mock the Coming of the Lord. I simply think it has been fulfilled. Want a fuller explanation? See my class, “New Covenant Eschatology–a fresh look at the Last Days”, at Udemy.com.