According to what Tom Friess says in this article, the doctrines of Futurism and Preterism started in the church nearly from the beginning, way before Jesuits Ribera and Alcazar wrote their papers about it! This confirms what I believe about the so called “Church Fathers.” We can’t get our doctrines from those guys! Heresy began in the Church when the Apostles were still alive! The only source of true doctrine is, what saith the Scriptures? What does the Bible say about it?

Transcription

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Inquisition Update. My name is Tom Friess, and I’ll be your host for the next hour.

This morning, we’re going to begin a reading and discussion of a little booklet entitled The Origin of Futurism and Preterism. These are the two primary schools of prophetic thought that counter the Historicist view, the biblical view, the scriptural view, and the view held by all Christians throughout history from the first century to the present.

That school of interpretation of Bible prophecy is called the historicist school of Bible prophecy. You never hear about it today, because futurism and preterism have replaced it. Now, what does historicism teach? Historicism teaches that the book of Revelation is an outline of the entire church age from the time of the Apostle John on the island of Patmos when he received the revelation from the Lord in a vision to the return of Jesus Christ.

The book of Revelation covers the whole period. There are elements within that book that cover the entire history of the Christian era, as we call it, the prophecy given and history fulfilling those prophecies. All throughout the book of Revelation, there are prophecies given, an apocalypse, a revelation, an opening of the eyes of God’s people throughout all periods of time throughout the last 2,000 years, and then we just simply watch for their historical fulfillment.

That’s the belief held by the early Christians that the book of Revelation was a foretelling of the entire Christian era until Christ returns. In the historicist view we find the rise of the man of sin, who was supposed to immediately follow upon the heels of the Caesars of the pagan Roman Empire 2,000 years ago. At the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of the man of sin, the son of perdition, the little horn of Daniel, the Antichrist would arise in his place, and he would persecute the saints of the Most High. He would blaspheme God.

The historicist school of interpretation sees the fulfillment of that Antichrist, that man of sin, that son of perdition, that little horn of Daniel is the papacy. And the papacy has existed and has fulfilled the role of the Antichrist all throughout the history of the Revelation. Prophecy perfectly fulfilled in the papacy.

Now, if you’re the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, and if you have possession of the Scriptures, and you see it for yourself that the Bible is predicting the rise of the man of sin, and you wish to shed the onus of the Antichrist, the man of sin, the son of perdition, the little horn of Daniel away from yourself, what is your logical strategy? Well, since it’s imperative for your continued existence on the earth as the papacy, if you truly are indeed the man of sin, the son of perdition, then you must shed the onus of Antichrist away from yourself. In other words, you must distort or abolish somehow the historicist understanding of the Scripture. It’s imperative at all costs, if you’re going to remain anonymous in the world and operate and fulfill all the prophecies, then you must deceive the whole world. That’s your objective as a Pope, as the papacy. You have to burn Bibles, prevent people from reading the Bible, because the Bible points at the papacy.

And we find in history that’s exactly what the Popes did. They burnt Bibles. They authorized the burning of Bibles, and they charged the leaders of the civil governments of all of Europe to be the ones to go about house to house to round up all the Bibles and burn them.

And then if burning the Bibles doesn’t dissuade people from reading it and coming to the unavoidable conclusion that the man of sin, the son of perdition, the little horn, the Antichrist is the papacy, then you have to turn up the heat a little bit. You have to not only burn Bibles, but you have to burn those who read it, and send a message all over Europe. “The Bible is for the priests of the Roman Catholic Church and no one else. We are the only ones who can interpret Bible prophecy. You have no business reading the Scriptures for yourself. We are the divine institution in the world, and it is up to us to read and interpret the Scriptures and then teach you.”

So they burnt Bibles. When that didn’t work to stop the accusation of the papacy as the man of sin, they kept burning Bibles, and they also burnt those who read the Bible. They forbid anyone to read the Bible. They left it in the hands of the priests of the Roman Catholic Church, the priests and the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, and them alone.

If you insisted upon reading the Scripture, then the law was that you had to read it with the express permission of your bishop, and then you were instructed by your bishop not to interpret the Bible any differently than the Roman Catholic Church officially teaches. In other words, you can’t read the Scriptures without the church’s glasses on your face, so that it reads and says whatever the church says it reads and says. And of course, and as always, the papacy says these mentions of the man of sin, the son of perdition, the Antichrist, the little horn of Daniel, are not the papacy. It’s someone else.

Now, that left open a problem for Rome. Since the Antichrist is someone other than the papacy, well then who must it be? Well, the Roman Catholic Church, desperate to shed the onus of Antichrist away from itself, created two schools of Bible prophecy thought and teaching. The one is called Preterism.

Preterism is the school of interpretation of Bible prophecy that says all the prophecies were fulfilled at the time of the fall of the Roman Empire. That the Antichrist of the Scriptures, since it cannot be the papacy according to the popes, well it must have been one of the pagan Roman Caesars, either Nero or Caligula or Domitian or one of the other heathens Caesars of the old pagan Roman Empire.

Or if that’s even difficult to believe, maybe it was Antiochus Epiphanes or someone from the Grecian Empire that preceded the Roman Empire. Nonetheless, take whichever interpretation you want, the Antichrist cannot be the papacy if it was Nero or Caligula or Domitian or Antiochus Epiphanes, then the Antichrist has already been done away with. He’s no longer a factor in the world. All the prophecies have been fulfilled regarding the Antichrist.

And so that leaves the papacy in the very seat of Christ on the earth. The Antichrist has been vanquished, no longer a factor, and now Christ, through the papacy, has the opportunity to establish his eternal kingdom. That Christ, in his absence, has seated himself behind the breast of the papacy. That when we look upon the popes of Rome, we are actually seeing Jesus Christ hidden under a veil of flesh.

And having vanquished the Antichrist, the Antichrist is no longer a factor in the world. It’s now the divine prerogative of the popes to rule the whole world, one way or another, to establish Christ’s kingdom on the earth. And that’s essentially what the papacy’s been trying to do for 2,000 years, and in the process, fulfilling all the prophecies of the Antichrist.

Okay, so there’s the Preterist view in a nutshell. The Antichrist was in the long-distance past. It was prophesied that the Antichrist would arise before Christ established his kingdom on the earth, and that he would be destroyed by the spirit of his mouth and by the brightness of his coming. He would be destroyed without hand, the Scripture says. Well, prophecy fulfilled then, because the pope destroyed him. And he destroyed the Antichrist without ever laying a glove on him, if he’d be Caligula, or Nero, or Antiochus Epiphanes, or the Roman pagan emperor Domitian, or any of the three, any of the four.

So now, the papacy has justified itself as the very replacement of Christ on the earth, the very instrument, the human agency through which Christ now establishes his kingdom. And that has been the ground rules for the Roman Catholic Church for the last 2,000 years. The papacy believes it is their divine prerogative to conquer the world for Christ.

That’s the Preterist view. The Preterist view views the kingdom of the papacy to be the kingdom of Christ. And all who resist that kingdom should be burned, should be killed, their properties confiscated, their children taken from them and given over to the Roman Catholic Church to be raised Roman Catholic, their lands to be pilfered and sold off and given away to the nations where they reside and the benefit goes to the kings or to the papacy. That’s the Preterist view.

It’s very easy to understand. I mean, if you’re the Pope of Rome and you have to shed the onus of Antichrist away from yourself, well then, Preterism’s a pretty good way of doing it, isn’t it?

Okay, the other school of Bible interpretation is called Futurism. In other words, if you’re one of those who so well studies your Scriptures that you cannot be deceived by the Preterist lie, then you might believe the Futurist lie, which is just like Preterism, only that the Futurist view sees the Antichrist not arising in the world until just before Christ’s literal return. So Antichrist and the Futurist interpretation of Bible prophecy has not appeared in the world today and will not appear. He’s not a concern for any of us. All of us Christians ought to unite against him when he comes, and that’s the big power behind the ecumenical movement to reunite all the Protestant churches back to the Roman Catholic Church, to unite all of Christianity against the rise of this future Antichrist. And in the meantime, the papacy simply asserts its prophetic role in deceiving both Preterists, and Futurists, and aligning them all in support of his divine right to rule.

Now look, those of us who’ve raised children, and I confess I never have, but I was a child once, so I know a little bit about what I’m speaking. When you ask your child a specific question, “Son, did you get into the cookie jar?” And your son tells you first one lie, and he sees by the look in your eye or the demeanor or your gestures and discovers or senses that you don’t believe that lie, and then turns right around and tells another lie, a contradicting lie, one that contradicts the first lie that he told, then you automatically know the son got into the cookie jar. Right? I mean, we’ve all seen it.

The little kid got caught, and he tried to bail himself out with first one lie, and if that lie doesn’t convince mommy or daddy that he got into the cookie jar, he tells another lie. First, no, I was in the bathtub, and I couldn’t have gotten in the cookie jar, and if mother and father look at him like, come on, son, you haven’t bathed for two or three days, well, then the son says, well, I was down the street at Jimmy’s house. I didn’t take any cookies out of the cookie jar, and you realize the kid hadn’t left the house all morning. So because of the lie, the child has convicted himself. It’s as good as an admission, isn’t it?

So what about futurism and preterism? That’s what they are. Two contradictory lies, and all you have to do is examine carefully who preterism protects and who futurism protects, and you have the liar! Preterism protects the papacy. Futurism protects the papacy.

So the papacy is that man of sin, that son of perdition, that antichrist. The papacy is the liar. He’s the father of lies, as Martin Luther suggested, that the papacy is nothing but a mask for Satan himself. Those are Martin Luther’s words, not mine. He said, the papacy is the mask for Satan himself. In other words, if you could rip off that fancy beehive hat that the Pope wears, you could rip off all the papal pretension, what you would find is Satan himself, and that’s who preterism and futurism protect, the papacy, the man of sin, the son of perdition, the antichrist. That’s the historicist belief.

Now, there’s a funny thing about historicism. They’ve never had to make up any excuses. They’ve never had to make up any lies. They’ve never had to retract from what they ever taught. They stand full in the face of both the history and future and present day and say the same thing they’ve ever said for the last 2,000 years. The papacy is, was, and always will be the antichrist.

The book of Revelation doesn’t end at 70 A.D. It spans the entire Christian era. The book of Revelation doesn’t begin at just 7 years before Christ returns. It spans the entire Christian era. It’s a reliable chronological prediction of history, Christian history, from the first century until the time that Christ returns. It predicts the rise of the man of sin, who succeeds immediately after the fall of the Caesars of the Roman Empire.

Rome can’t deny that. The papacy did elevate itself to power immediately after the fall of the pagan Roman Empire. It became the Holy Roman Empire. See, they call it the Holy Roman Empire. They’re admitting that they were that power that rose immediately after the fall of the old Roman Empire. The papacy stood up in the place of the Caesars and it became then the Holy Roman Empire.

So as condemning and damning as that historical fact is, what else arose about the time of the fall of the Roman Empire? The Gothics. The Gothic Empires. Remember the Bible even tells us that the little horn, the man of sin, the mouth that roared blasphemies against God and against his king and his kingdom? He would uproot three kings, wouldn’t he? He did, too. The three Gothic kings. It’s recorded in history. And they were so evidently rooted out of history that it’s difficult for historians to even put back together what it is that they believed.

But we can certainly attribute their destruction to the papacy. No one argues about that. So what did the papacy use as a justification to kill those three Gothic Empires? Well, that’s easy. If this power that threatens the kingdom of Christ, this Antichrist power rises after the fall of the Caesars, after the fall of the Roman Empire, and it cannot be the papacy, well, then it must be the Goths. And so the papacy in destroying what appeared to it as being the rise of the Antichrist literally fulfilled Bible prophecy proving that it is the Antichrist.

Interesting. Every time Rome tries to shed the onus of Antichrist onto someone else, God slams the door and actually causes the Roman Catholic Church to identify itself as Antichrist. The papacy has always tried to shed the onus of Antichrist away from itself and on to someone else, either someone in the distant past or someone in the distant future. So that the papacy can rule supreme in developing and building the kingdom of Christ on this earth. The head of Christendom, the sole interpreter of the Scriptures, the sole possessor of the Holy Spirit, the very seat of Christ on the earth, that every man woman and child on the earth must be subject to the holy Roman pontiff.

And so the world by and large except for those Bible believing Christians of every generation throughout the Christian era, since most of the world doesn’t read their Bibles, they believe the Pope’s lies even as ridiculous as they are, both preterism and futurism.

Now, what I told you is both preterism and futurism have been a fixture teaching in the Roman Catholic Church for nearly two thousand years. Forever the papacy has tried to shed the onus of Antichrist away from itself, and it has chosen either one of two false teachings. It would choose either preterism or futurism, and in which case by either one you have exonerated the papacy of the charge.

Now, back in the early centuries, they probably were not known as preterism and futurism, but their teachings were still alive and well. They were in the embryonic stages. Maybe they were not fully developed until the Protestant Reformation or shortly before, but they always been in the Roman Catholic Church. I mean let’s face it, were it not for preterism and futurism the papacy would have been discarded centuries and centuries and centuries ago. Because true Bible believing Christians pointed at no one else but the papacy. They were never deceived neither by futurism nor preterism. They read their Scriptures. They saw the fulfillment of prophecy in history that that prophecies were fulfilled by the Antichrist, the papacy. There was no question about who the Antichrist was. The were the ones who were most persecuted by the papacy. Hounded, persecuted, chased up and down the Alps until they nearly wiped them out!

They were in just as much jeopardy by the papacy as were the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, and the Vandals, the three kings that the Pope uprooted prior or just after the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the papacy. They were pursued even past the grave. Some true Bible-believing Protestants were even dug up. Their bones were dug up from their graves and put on trial, a papal trial, an inquisition of their bones and then their bones were broken and placed in a pile and burnt and the ashes were thrown into the Tiber. That’s how bitterly the Vatican has hated the true saints of Almighty God.

Now, we don’t talk about those saints anymore today because, well, we don’t see the Antichrist as the Pope anymore. All of his atrocities throughout history are disregarded as just hate speech or some kind of, well, misguided accusation.

No, there are only two schools of Bible prophecy that continue in the churches today. It’s either Preterism or Futurism, both of which exonerate the papacy.

So we’re not allowed to criticize the papacy. The first thing you’ll do when you walk into a church and you begin to point the finger at the papacy is you’ll get another finger pointed at you, pointed at the door. Get yourself out of our church. They’re not going to hear it. They are dead set on establishing the Kingdom of Christ before He returns to establish it Himself. And they’re all lining themselves up behind the papacy.

They’re going to unite all of Christianity. And anybody who stirs up any division with Rome is persona non grata. And that’s to say the least of it.

And I can tell you my own experiences, how bitterly they persecute those who challenge their so-called unity with the Roman Catholic Church. And if you endeavor to take upon this mission yourself, you’re going to experience the same thing. Persecution. You’ll be minimalized and marginalized by anyone and everyone, including your own family. So this mission isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s for the strong in spirit. Only the strong in spirit. You’ve got to be strong in the Spirit. You’ve got to be strong in the Scriptures. You’ve got to be strong in history. And when you have those three, you have Christ. And no weapon on earth can win against you. The truth is going to win out in the end. Until the end when Christ comes, we suffer. But we don’t suffer for nothing.

Now, having fully prepared you for what we’re about to read, the title of this little booklet is called The Origin of Futurism and Preterism. Is the end near or is the end past? That’s the title of the book. There are two authors. There are two portions of this book, either one authored by a different author.

The first, The Origin of Futurism and Preterism, was written by a man by the name of Paul Owen. Paul Owen was born in 1916 in a farming community in southern Illinois. He was raised in a Baptist church by dedicated Christian parents. The family moved to Burbank, California in 1923. Soon afterward, Paul accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior at eight years old in a Sunday school class.

In California, he received his education, raised his family, and began a secular career in the United States Post Office. He willingly served his country for four years in the military service during World War II. Paul Owen has spent his life as a follower of Jesus Christ and a student of the Scriptures.

The 1940s, the Holy Spirit placed within him a deep desire to have an in-depth understanding of God’s Word. Ever since then, his life’s passion has been to live a life for the glory of his Savior, Jesus Christ, and the furtherance of God’s kingdom.

The second author, the author of The Tragic Aftermath of Futurism, the second part of this book, is a man by the name of Charles Jennings.

Charles Jennings was born into a home of devout Christian parents. He was raised in South Florida with a rich spiritual legacy of traditional Pentecostal heritage and ancestry. At the age of nine, Charles had a personal life-changing experience with Jesus Christ.

By age 14, he began to realize the ministerial calling upon his life, followed by many spiritual experiences which enhanced his call and vision. After earning a B.A. degree in Biblical Studies from Central Bible College in 1969, he has served in Christian ministry for many years as pastor, evangelist, and Bible teacher. He is the author of two books, his most recent titled, quote, The Book of Revelation from an Israelite and Historicist Interpretation, unquote, as well as numerous booklets and brochures on Bible-related subjects.

Together, these two authors, Paul Owen and Charles Jennings, have produced this little booklet, The Origin of Futurism and Preterism, and we’ll begin with the reading. The Origin of Futurism and Preterism by Paul Owen. This is section one. He says,

“This booklet falls naturally into three sections. The first section is the most important because it addresses the origin of both the futurist and preterist views of prophecy. Section two will show the progression of the development of preterism. From the period of the early church,…”

From the period of the early church, that’s talking about the first century church, right down through the Protestant Reformation, that’s from the first century to the 16th century, in a nutshell. Continuing, he says,

“While there are divisions among preterists as to certain of their dogmas, most hold to the belief that Christ’s second coming has already occurred, that all of prophecy has been fulfilled, and that we are now in the kingdom.”

Okay, now stop and think what we discussed before the program. The preterists believe that the Antichrist was vanquished prior to the fall of the pagan Roman Empire, and that ever since then, Christ has been establishing his kingdom in the Roman Catholic Church, and has made the papacy his vicar, or his replacement on the earth, to conquer the whole world for Christ, that the papacy is, as it were, Christ on earth. And that when the Pope speaks, it is God who speaks. Papacy believes that it is the mask behind which resides the true Christ.

This is in contrast to what Martin Luther taught us, that the papacy is merely a mask covering the face of Satan himself. So the preterist view is that Antichrist has long ago been vanquished before the rise of the Holy Roman Empire under the Popes, and it is now the Pope’s divine right to rule the world, to conquer all the world, to make the whole world Roman Catholic.

Since it cannot make the world Christian, it must make it Roman Catholic, right? Even if it can pass itself off as Christianity, which it inevitably does. I mean, if you ask anybody on the street, are Roman Catholics Christians? Well, they say, well, they’re kind of weird, but yeah, they’re Christians. They believe in Jesus. Well, so did Judas. He believed in Jesus until the Last Supper.

So, he says, “while there are divisions among preterists,” in other words, they don’t agree on everything, but generally speaking, most of their belief centers around the fact that Jesus’ second coming has already occurred, and that all of prophecy has already been fulfilled, and that we are now in the kingdom. Obviously, that means kingdom under the Popes.

Now, I want to tell you the truth. Jesus did establish his kingdom, and there were added to his kingdom daily, as the gospel spread from Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. But this kingdom, Christ’s kingdom, is not under the papacy, has nothing to do with the papacy, denounces the papacy as the Antichrist, as a mask for Satan himself on the earth, and we follow Christ and him alone. So, the kingdom is established, but it is not through the papacy. Now, he continues. He says,

“This section will provide numerous Bible passages that offer sufficient biblical support for the view that the second coming of Christ as foretold in Scripture has not yet occurred.

We who read our Scriptures absolutely know that Christ has not yet returned, and we know from the Scriptures that says when they beheld, Jesus was lifted up and received out of their sight by a cloud. And the angel said, why do you stand here gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus that is taken from you shall return in like manner. He’s going to come down from the clouds.

And the Scripture also tells us that we don’t know what we shall be, but we know this, that we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. In other words, no flesh at any time in history has ever beheld the glory of God and lived to tell about it. So, when Christ returns, we literally have to be changed to be like him in order to behold him. Otherwise, we would go up in smoke. So, are we like him? Are we gloriously changed and have bodies like his glorious body at the present time? Obviously not. So, obviously, Christ has not yet returned.

So, there are just a few right off the top of my head that prove that Christ has not yet literally returned to the earth. His kingdom is still established. Can’t a kingdom exist when the king is absent from his land? Absolutely. What happens to this kingdom when a papist president of the United States jumps on his old Air Force One nag and they go galloping off to Rome for a couple weeks? Playing pokey with the Pope. The kingdom still exists, doesn’t it? Still operates. Still functions. It’s not even aware of his absence. That’s how the kingdom of Christ operates too, don’t you know? And if you don’t know, then you ought to fire your pastor!

So, the kingdom of Christ is up and running. The flag is flying. The king has not yet returned, but we anxiously await him. We are not waiting on the Pope or any kingdom to be established by flesh and blood men. It ain’t happening! So, we’re not deceived. We cannot be deceived by the papal liar.

We can see both of his lies and how they contradict one another, papal preterism and futurism. We know the Pope’s made of a robe of flesh just like you and me. Sinful, fallen, wicked flesh just like you and me. He’s nothing in the world. We’re not deceived. And we’re here, despite all the persecution, to bring everyone else up to our level of understanding.

And that’s not to be boastful. It’s helpful. That’s what we’re about. Helping God’s people who are deceived. And we give no credit to ourselves. Not to our own intellect. We give the credit strictly to the one who gives us this understanding. And that’s Christ himself, the king. We’re beggars just like the rest. And we just are dutiful to use the gifts and the knowledge that Christ has given us through the Scripture. Nothing boastful about it. Nothing pride or arrogant about it. Nothing. It’s helpful. That’s what we are, helpers.

All right. Now, he continues. He said,

The third section of the booklet will submit an Old Testament prophecy that puts to rest, (in other words, puts in the trash can,) the preterist theory of the early fulfillment of all of Bible prophecy.”

We’re going to show you from the Old Testament that preterism can’t be the truth. It says,

“It will conclude with two examples of the preterist misunderstanding or misapplication of Scripture.”

It says the history of futurism and preterism could cause any thinking Christian flirting with either one of these two errors to make a serious in-depth look at both schools of prophecy and Scripture. We’ve already given you plenty of reason.

Carefully examine futurism and preterism and compare those lies with the facts as they are given to us in Scripture, and they are easily refuted as error. Now, the only thing left to decide is who told these lies and for what purpose. And you have the advantage of me as setting you up for the truth before we even began reading this book.

Now, the author is going to define these two schools, or rather three schools of Bible prophecy. Two that we’ve already talked about, preterism and futurism, and the third, the oldest, the most tightly held by Bible-believing Christians for the entire church era from the first century to the current century, and that is historicism. The view that says that the book of Revelation and the prophecies foretell every age from the first century church all the way to the return of Jesus Christ. That is historicism. And in the historicist school of Bible interpretation, we believe and teach unerringly that it was the papacy that rose to power after the fall of the Caesars. It is the papacy that is the man of sin, the son of perdition, the little horn, the antichrist, the beast, who is drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus for 2,000 years, who has a golden cup in his hand, that is the Eucharistic cup, is decked in scarlet and purple, the color of his bishops and his cardinals, the persecutor of the saints. It’s too easy. But then we have a master deceiver in Rome that would strip us of any historical record of his atrocities.

And since Bible prophecy is simply foretelling of history, if the papacy can distort or eliminate history, then we cannot see from history that those prophecies in the Bible have been fulfilled in the papacy. That’s been one of the major prerogatives of the papacy all along, to destroy history, to subvert history, to rewrite history, to deny history, to focus on the future, to focus on the distant past, to give every kind of diversion. But we’re wise to his means and methods, and we hold fast to history and to the scriptures and to prophecy, and the papacy, as hard as it works, cannot deceive us.

He’s going to define these three schools of Bible prophecy. First, historicism. Historicism teaches that Jesus Christ’s unveiling to the Apostle John that comprises the book of Revelation renders an ongoing history of the church for the called-out ones, the ecclesia, from the time of John, that’s the first century Christians, until the second advent, yet future.

We believe, I believe, that the church era, as we are told, begins at the first century church and ends when Christ returns, will be approximately 2,000 years. I say longer than 2,000 years. and I have a specific reason for saying longer, a bit longer than 2,000 years, and I give the example of the parable of the Good Samaritan in the Bible.

Maybe we’ll have time to discuss that later at the end of the reading of this book. I’m not a date setter, but I believe, as most Bible-believing Christians have believed for 2,000 years, that Christ will return approximately 2,000 years after his crucifixion.

All right, historicism, again, teaches that Jesus Christ’s quote-unquote unveiling or his revealing to the Apostle John that comprises the book of Revelation renders an ongoing history of the church or the called-out ones from the time of John until the second advent.

And in terms that I’ve already used to describe it, it’s a chronological history of the entire church age, from the beginning to the ending, from the beginning of the church at Jerusalem to the return of Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation encompasses it all. It predicts it all. It lays it all out so that we can understand who the Antichrist is and that he will reign over the entire church age.

Every generation has to decide who is Christ and who is Antichrist, okay? That’s the historicist view. That’s the historicist definition. And it’s the truth.