I know that there are more New Testament scriptures and Old Testament prophecies that I could use in this series. I have, however, used a tremendous amount of scripture to support the Preterist view, and it is my contention that if I were to access more scriptures, and continue to compare them to one another, it would only help to establish further credibility for the Preterist position.

Having used scripture to interpret scripture, and having tried to use credible historical data to substantiate the facts surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem, I believe that when Christ said He would come again in the lifetime of His disciples, and reiterated that fact to them by using the phrase "this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled" he meant it. Christ is now on his throne, ruling and reigning. For those of us living today, we are living in the kingdom of Christ in a spiritual sense, but also a real sense. We will ultimately go to be with God face to face when we die. We no longer need look for a resurrection to be with God. The resurrection was a promise to Old Testament saints. Now, when people die, they are judged and immediately ushered into the presence of God, or for unbelievers, into the lake of fire. There is no more waiting in Sheol.

This is my position, and it is supported by the clear and plain meaning of scripture as spoken first by God the Father, Christ the son, and testified of by all of the New Testament authors as moved by the Spirit. I don't need crazy dispensational time charts to try and twist the words soon, quickly, and near to mean 2000+ years. Out of prejudice, I don't need to split the Olivet Discourse and make it point to two different time periods when no such split exists. God is not the author of confusion.

I know that most people will throw up their hands and disagree with me completely. My position certainly goes against the eschatological paradigm of most Christians today. Before I'm told I'm wrong (again), and I know this will be redundant, but this alone would I like to know. What event did Christ point to that made the disciples ask the question, "When shall all these things be?" It was the destruction of the temple. He then told them of all the events that would precede and/or accompany the destruction of the temple, and that it would occur in the lifetime of that first century generation. Was the temple destroyed in their lifetime? Yes! Christ linked all of the events in the Olivet Discourse to that destruction. Therefore the question should not be, "look around you, how can you possibly believe all of those end time prophecies have been fulfilled?" I just point to scripture and say, "Well, that's exactly what Christ said, and I believe it". When a person is confronted with the fact that the temple was destroyed in the prophesied time frame, and that Christ linked his second coming to the destruction of the temple, the real question should be, "How can you not believe it happened?"

As mentioned before, the burden of proof is not on me, for I stand on Scripture, historical facts, and the plain meaning of words. The burden of proof is on the person who does not believe all these things have happened. To prove that they have not happened would require re-writing history, and denying the words of Christ. Is it possible to prove, using scripture alone, that he didn't come again? The only way this is possible is to change the meaning of words, and completely leave out audience relevance.

It does not matter if this view is contrary to creeds, or church doctrinal statements. All that matters is scripture. The second we put our feelings, creeds, church tradition, or other men as our guide for what we are to believe about scripture we are saying that we, or they, are more trustworthy than God himself.

The good news of Preterism is that it look towards tomorrow not with pessimism, but with celebration that all things are working out just as God and Christ have planned. Yes, the world is difficult, but in Christ we have what we lost in Adam. That is, a relationship with God. It isn't the physical world or the Garden of Eden we lost. It was fellowship with God that was lost. Stop looking for the physical. This world truly is not a Christian's home, and I'm not looking for a physical kingdom. I want to work for Him while I'm here and then ultimately go and be in the presence of God forever. Preterism offers hope because the promises of God are "realized", and that should give us confidence in all of His promises. That should give us reason to praise God.

I once had a pastor tell me he would not believe Preterism because if all things are fulfilled that meant his faith was "static" and there was nothing really worth working for today. Oh, really? The cross is 2000+years behind us, but does that make the work of the cross "static"? Hardly! To the Christian the cross is our hope and confidence that we have been reconciled to God. Let us take confidence in the realized second coming of Christ, just as we take confidence in his first coming and death on the cross. By being in Christ we are in his kingdom now, so let us start living like it, and go out and bring others into it.

It is encouraging to see Preterism grow exponentially on the Internet and elsewhere. It is no longer a novelty. It is either hated or loved, but either way it is growing. God is opening the eyes of people and helping them to see the foolishness of all the "Left Behind" sci-fi books, and turning them to the plain and simple meaning of scripture. My hope is that it will spread like a wildfire as people are forced to deal with the clear time statements of Christ and the Apostles concerning the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem.