The Tide Is Changing When It Comes To How We Understand
Bible Prophecy...
 I
was enjoying a meal with a pastor during a recent interstate ministry
trip when he then asked me about my understanding of Bible Prophecy.
"I see from your website that you've
written quite a bit about it"
he said.
"Yes I have" I replied, "but
what's your position first?"
To which he responded, "I take the traditional
orthodox position."
"Do you mean the oldest position,
or the one that's 170 years old?" I asked.
I remember as a young boy going to church on a Sunday
evening and hearing the Bible Prophecy teacher give his end-times-chart-on-the-bedsheet-on-the-wall
talk and feeling both excited and scared."Excited" because it was
reassuring to hear how accurate the Bible was in matching prophecy
with history. "Scared" because the Bible apparently said that the
'last days' were going to be hell-on-earth! I was taught that the
USSR was the bear of Ezekiel and also described as Gog and Magog.
I was told that the Anti-christ was alive today in America and already
plotting his world take-over. I heard that a time of Great Tribulation
was coming on the earth to punish Israel for rejecting their Messiah
and forming an alliance with the Anti-christ who will eventually rebuild
Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. This would all lead to the battle of
Armaggeddon where millions of people would be killed in the mother
of all battles. But most evangelistically I was told that I could
escape this coming doom by committing my life ot Christ and therefore
qualify for being "raptured" just before this final seven year period
began.
Like my interstate pastor friend, I just thought
this was the traditional, orthodox doctrine. I mostly ignored
the inconsistencies this understanding presented. I just let the questions
mount. Then one day when I was still young, I heard another pastor
teaching about end times who seemed to suggest that not only wasn't
this the traditional way of understanding Bible Prophecy, it was also
not orthodox! That is, he said that the Bible couldn't teach
this. He called it "Dispensationalism". Back then, Hal Lindsay was
the paperback champion of Dispensationalism while Dr John F. Walvoord
(of Dallas Theological Seminary) was the hardback champion. In my
boyhood church no-one questioned these Bible authorities. Dozens of
Bible Prophecy teachers were spawned by these authors. Each one reiterated
the Dispensational interpretation of the Bible and too few of us realised
that we weren't just being told how to interpret Bible prophecy...
That was all some thirty years ago. Since that time
Dispensationalism has reached its peak with the Left
Behind phenomenon. Its new champions include Tim LaHaye, John
Hagee, Kenneth Copeland, Jack Van Impe. Almost without exception,
all of the predictions these teachers have made (based on their Dispensational
interpretation of Bible prophecy) have not only not come
true, at times the degree to which they have been wrong has been
dangerously alarming. Who could forget the avalanche of supposed Bible
Prophecies these teachers promoted that predicted the total collapse
of the world banking and airline systems with the Y2K bug?! I have
detailed some more of these faulty predictions in another
article. But the exposure of this faulty method of interpreting
the Bible and Bible prophecy has not only embarrassed Dispensationalism,
it has hastened its inevitable demise!
Many Christians have been quick to realise the inadequacies
of Dispensationalism but have not known what to replace it with. This
vacuum has increasingly been filled by Preterism (from the Latin word
'praeter' which means the past). There are two types of Preterism.
The first is Full Preterism (also known as 'Hyper' Preterism
or Pantelogy) which regards all Bible prophecy is fulfilled.
The other is Partial Preterism (also known as 'Classical'
Preterism) which regards most Bible prophecy fulfilled - except the
return of Christ, the Resurrection, Final Judgment, and the New Heaven
and Earth. Partial Preterism agrees with ancient Creeds of the Church
while Dispensationalism and Full Preterism do not. The difference
between Full Preterism and Classical Preterism is explored in more
detail [here].
Some very respected Bible teachers have adopted the Partial Preterist
position. These include: Dr. R.C. Sproul, Steve Griegg, and Hank
Hanegraaff. One of the best cases for the Partial Preterist position
is the eBook- The Most Embarrassing Book
In The Bible which can be immediately downloaded to your
computer and read off your screen or printed out.
The implications of how we understand Bible Prophecy
goes much further than merely guessing about the future. It actually
goes to the heart of how we interpret the Bible and therefore whether
the Bible is truly God's Word. This then leads to how we understand
God, salvation, and church. If we can get the correct method for interpretting
the Bible and its prophecies we can learn to declare the Good News
with confidence knowing that God's Word is thoroughly
reliable because it has a proven prophetic track record. Correctly
understanding Bible Prophecy will help us to marvel at God and
His Ways and help us to communicate the Good News with awe and passion.
 Dr.
Andrew Corbett, Legana, Tasmania, August
2007
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