well, wadr you were asked to excuse yourself at post #1, and for good reason imo. No offense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Reader
I would like to hear from those who were not raised believing preterism/partial preterism, who went from the rapture/end times teaching to that. I am not interested in another debate on it. I seriously would like to hear from those who have changed their beliefs in this area and what lead to it.
If you believe in the rapture, no need to respond or debate in this thread as I would like to be able to read what caused people to change their thinking on this subject. I pose this as a serious question. It is something I have not yet studied and I am curious as to what lead to people changing their views, especially in light of how some apostolic groups, such as the UPC, take a strong stand against preterism.
Thank you in advance for sharing---Benincasa, Blume, Esaias & others!
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having come to Christ with the futurist model, i began to accept some elements of preterism after witnessing the fruit of pure futurism, which to me seemed to culminate in an attitude of "my real life will begin someday, after i die or am raptured," and elicited comments--on this forum--such as "it's ok to trash the planet, since God is going to remake it anyway." Although I'm sure this doesn't rep all futurists.
I was then shown that rapture doctrine is not new, and Ezekiel condemned it, and that it did not come back up until the end of the 19th century, some woman whose name i forget. Now, something described--or at least translated--as "miraculous" obviously happens there in 1Cor15:52, and I'm frankly not sure how a full preterist interprets that (and i don't really care), so I'll let a preterist explain that part; but there is this, from
Ephesians 5,
"14for what makes everything clear is light. Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and the Messiah will shine on you."
and i also became convicted that "Understand I AM" is written with the "am" as
emphatic and not as titular, which to me would be "I Am," although this is strictly my conviction--that God is about right now, the only place you will ever be. I just also became convicted, through their fruit mostly, that futurism is a trap to keep people asleep.
Now this doesn't mean that i don't have some hope of a different future in Christ, but that
I am the body of Christ--will Christ then bodily return, having then two bodies? For a physical crown, won through violence, blood running up to horse's bridles? The Revelation to me now describes a much more likely,
spiritual process that must occur in a believer's heart. There is also a "step by step" reference in Rev that i cannot now find that had an impact.
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