By Jack Kinsella
Question: How can a person, who claims to be a Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit (who is supposed to guide us into all truth), be a Preterist? How could a person who has the same Holy Spirit as I do, be so utterly wrong and yet still be a Christian? Why are we so divided on so many topics?
Answer:
About the only Christian doctrine upon which there is more or less universal agreement is that we are saved by grace through faith in the shed blood and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That is the only doctrine, in the final analysis, which really and truly bears eternal consequences.
(Preterism is a Christian view that interprets prophecies of the Bible as events which have already happened.)
Preterists who trust Jesus for their salvation will meet up in Heaven with futurists who trusted Jesus who will fellowship with pre-tribbers, mid-tribbers and post-tribbers who will fellowship with Calvinists and Arminians together.
The Bible says if we trust Jesus Christ for our salvation we will go to Heaven.
That is the central message of the Gospel. The rest is the product of our longing to know God, and know the things of God while blinded by the limitations imposed on us by our earthly perspective.
As the Apostle Paul put it, we know see the things of God 'through a glass darkly. Not everything about God is spelled out, or revealed crystal clear.
Paul says we know only 'in part' but the part that we all agree on is the only part that really counts. Salvation is by faith and not by faith plus works
.
In the story of the Tower of Babel, God explains how the various ethnic nations came to be. Geneses 11:6-7 say, "And the LORD said, ‘Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech’."
By scattering man 'among the nations' and removing the common bond of language and ethnicity, God ensured that no one man could ever again rule all men, as Nimrod did until the construction of the Tower of Babel.
It prevented any one culture or worldview to dominate all mankind. That diversity is what allowed Christianity to flourish at the point when it was introduced into history.
The reason is because Christianity is a personal relationship with Christ, rather than a commonly-accepted cultural duty. God built that same diversity into the Church, which accounts for how and why sincere Christians can read the same Scriptures and come up with such widely divergent doctrines as preterist, historicism, and pre-tribulation futurism.
It prevents any one teacher from becoming the only accepted source of information of the things of God. If everybody agreed on every point of doctrine, then the guy who articulates it the best becomes the Great Oracle of God. (And what if he was wrong?)
*So we have diversity of understanding, but the same Scripture.
*And we have diversity of teachings, but share the same salvation by grace through faith.*
*And we are equally sincere, because we share the same awesome responsibility of accountability before the Lord.
In the end, we will be judged by how we used the doctrine God delivered to us to lead others to salvation in Christ.
The necessity of diversity of understanding in the Church Age is adequately demonstrated by a peek across the divide into the coming 'Time of Jacob's Trouble' after the Church Age is concluded.
During the Tribulation, that diversity of understanding is replaced by a universal religion imposed by the false prophet and directed toward the worship of antichrist.
Response from preacher Peter Zein
pzein@Rogers.com
July 15, 2014
Interesting question that is difficult to understand much less explain.
Although the article explains why, I don't know if is necessarily true that God desires all these different views. Whether it was implied in the article, that is the sense I got from reading it.
As far as salvation goes, that is a good explanation.
In Philippians, the disciples were concerned there were people sharing the gospel on their own and Paul told them to let them be. However, Paul always encouraged a correct interpretation of Scripture.
He warned against false teachers and clarified error often. Peter did as well. Preterism, I believe, is a pretty serious error and can be proven wrong by Scripture.
Other subjects may not be as clear. Where you fellowship is what your likely going to believe, which is why a one-man ministry is dangerous and the plurality of Biblical elders is important to balance doctrinal viewpoints.
A single Bible teacher at an assembly of believers whose teachings and doctrines are off course biblically is dangerous and can cause division in the church. And those who argue without Biblical support should be stopped.
God does take seriously when believers cause division. The question is why Godly people, who are led by the Holy Spirit, can be so far apart on Bible truth and interpretation.
Man's pride and sin interferes with truth of the Word. One day, when our old, sinful bodies are gone, we will get it right.
