My Journey into Preterism

Tina Rae Collins

I grew up in a very conservative, extremely strict, always critical church that accentuated what I did wrong and never what I did right. The idea was to search the New Testament with a fine-tooth comb and try to find any commandment or example that we must follow and beat people over the head with it. No matter how many wounded, bruised, hurting disciples came out of this, we kept on beating (or getting beaten) until the results we wanted were achieved. We insisted that we were the one true church and all others were denominations that God disapproved of, and therefore all people in them would burn in hell forever. I honestly think we were proud of this—that we were the true disciples and God would take vengeance on the others, who, although they tried very hard to please Him but somehow missed the mark, would writhe in agony for eternity while we laughed and danced and enjoyed our life in heaven.

This all somehow looked good and holy from the outside, but I knew my own dark heart. I knew I could not and was not measuring up. I knew that I failed at every turn to live up to what I was reading in the Bible. Sure, my preacher was good and his wife was good and the elders and their families were upstanding people. But I was a fake. While I tried, possibly harder than they did, I could not be the person I knew I should be and I thought they were. I was always fearful, thinking God was going to drag me off to hell by the hair of my head at any given moment. I could never find true happiness in serving Him. I heard and read about the peace that passes understanding but it was far beyond my reach.

Thankfully, that has all changed. I have finally, through realized eschatology, found the amazing peace that God’s word says can be ours. Nobody will ever again make me feel bad about my walk with God. Oh, and I now truly understand what it actually means to walk with God. I feel His presence in my life in a way that I never did before. How did I get from there to here? Grab a cup of hot cocoa and sit down and relax--this may take a while.

In 1993 I met Art Ogden (he spent a week in our home during a gospel meeting), and I read his book Avenging of the Apostles and Prophets. I had read the words of others on the book of Revelation, but nothing ever clicked. I knew right away, however, that Art was onto something. I didn't understand why he suddenly jumped thousands of years right there at the end of Revelation, but I got the rest of it and knew it was truth. Art was a partial preterist. He could not bring me all the way to the truth, and it was many years before I got there.

A few other things over the years got me more interested in this topic; and then one day not too long ago (sometime in 2007 or 2008) a friend wrote me and, without meaning to, he let the cat out of the bag. Something he said made me realize that he believed in fulfilled eschatology, which I had previously read some about but had dismissed, although I kept the information I had been given and stored it away. I wrote my friend and asked if he was a preterist. He said yes and I started bombarding him with questions. The one big hurdle I had was 1 Corinthians 15, and my friend finally got me over that as he showed me that it was the law that kept us under sin and death and the law was gone. Now I realize that, instead of being the hurdle to get past, this chapter teaches very strongly that the resurrection is past.

I read The Parousia by Russell and Who Is This Babylon? by Don Preston. I began to get in contact with every preterist I could find to help me. Even though I was learning and realizing that I had been wrong, I could not take that final step and say I actually believed what I was learning. I kept saying I was “studying preterism.” Part of that, of course, was that my husband (at the time) was powerfully against the idea of preterism. He did not want me studying it. At first he said we would talk about it. “Talking about it” became him giving me several passages of Scripture that he said refuted fulfilled eschatology. I stuck them in a book to look at later and forgot where they are, and he became angry that I had lost his “refutation.” I told him I did not need Bible passages as I had read the Bible, and particularly the New Testament, from front to back on numerous occasions. I said I needed him to sit down and explain to me how his passages refuted preterism. That he would not do, and he finally banned the subject in our house. He did, however, bring it up sometimes himself so he could say how “stupid” it was. Once I reminded him that we weren’t supposed to talk about it and he said, “No, YOU can’t talk about it. That’s the beauty of being the head of the house.”

Knowledge is good, but if you can’t defend it, do you really believe it? I wasn’t sure. One day I sat with my older sister on a church pew as a preacher was standing in the pulpit talking, and she pointed out a passage in the Bible to me. The passage was:

Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Her thinking (I assumed) was that since we still have some of these people (evangelists, pastors, and teachers), why do we not have apostles and prophets? I wanted to help her understand, so later I told her that I do not believe we need the others—that we no longer need to tell our neighbor about God because we all know Him. I told her I do not think we need pastors or evangelists, who are no longer inspired as they were in New Testament days, to tell us anything, as we have the Word of God and can read it for ourselves. I brought in 1 Corinithians 13 and “that which is perfect,” explaining that all that had taken place and we no longer see “through a glass darkly.” And then I, perhaps unwisely, brought up fulfilled eschatology, which thoroughly appalled her.

My sister and I own an e-mail discussion list together. As time went by she began to question me publicly on the list. I tried every way I could to get around talking about fulfilled eschatology, as I was not studied enough and did not feel that I had the ability to defend my new-found beliefs (or thoughts, or whatever I considered them at the time). But she hounded me until I finally had to answer her questions or look like a coward. And so began a very long discussion that sent me seeking preterists from every corner of the earth to “come over into Macedonia” and help me out. One man in particular was a lifesaver. He sometimes gave me answers before I even needed them. It was as if, and I believe it was, God was there anticipating my needs and providing for me in great detail. I was able, through help, to defend fulfilled eschatology—and learn a great deal myself! I can never fully believe something until I can defend it against the adversaries. After I had done that I finally realized that I was indeed a preterist.

Needless to say, my husband became more and more angry and cold toward me. He accused me of discussing preterism just to irritate him, which was far from the truth, as the last thing I wanted was to irritate him. He put time limits on how much I could study preterism. He said he would not worship with me and could not fellowship me. I asked what he would do if I went where he went to worship and he said he would reveal my beliefs to the leaders. Eventually he stopped me from all study of fulfilled prophecy and told me to give him my materials. I never did get them together and he never asked for them again—thankfully, because I gathered them together and took them to my daughter’s house for safekeeping. Because of this and other problems in our marriage, my husband divorced me in 2009, stating to me that he would tell the judge that I was a preterist as his reason for divorcing me. He was only joking, of course, but it shows how strongly he felt about it and that it did indeed have a bearing on our divorce.

I decided I needed to quickly read the New Testament through to see if I could find anything that would prove fulfilled prophecy to be false. Although, as I said, I had read it many times, I needed to search and make sure nothing refuted my new beliefs. I didn't find anything. Then I read it through again, in a different version, just to see what I could find that would bolster my belief in fulfilled prophecy. What a surprise I got that time! Fulfilled prophecy jumped out at me from practically every page of the New Testament. I was extremely excited but also ashamed of myself for having missed it all those years when it was sitting there staring me in the face.

I believe it is God’s will that I teach the truth on this subject, and I am using every avenue available to me to do just that. I want others to know the joy, peace, and overwhelming love of God and man that comes from this truth. Some believe “end times” study is not very important because it doesn’t change us or give us anything to do. Well, it does change us. It lets us see that God truly is love and that He wants to come to us and dwell with us and be our God. It changes everything.

Now that I have discussed what and how, I would like to discuss why. Why did I change my views? What is it about preterism that makes me believe I finally have the truth about end times? This is the fun part. You might want to pop you some popcorn to go with your hot cocoa.

Malachi 4:1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

Luke 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

Matthew 11:13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
14 And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.

A fire was prophesied to come upon Israel at the time the "Sun of righteousness" would "arise with healing in his wings." Elijah was to come beforehand to prepare the people for that "great and dreadful day of the Lord." If we believe Jesus' words--that John was Elijah that was coming--we know that the day was also coming when the wicked in Israel would be consumed and the righteous would tread them down. We can know the day was imminent because Elijah was there. And Jesus intimated that the fire was already kindled.

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Matthew 24:27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
32 ¶Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

I should be able to stop here. At least I feel that way now. But how many times did I myself read these passages and not understand the way I do today? If we just clear our heads of any preconceived ideas and read what this text says, we can see that the great tribulation was coming on Jerusalem and it would be the worst tribulation that ever had been or ever would be. And IMMEDIATELY after THIS TRIBULATION ON THE JEWS Jesus would come in the clouds with power and glory and the trumpet would sound and Jesus would gather His elect from one end of heaven to another. THAT generation would not pass until ALL that Jesus spoke took place. I sincerely believe that, were this speech of Jesus' written in any book besides the Bible, all of us would easily understand that all these things were going to happen in that generation. Most of us are basically brainwashed to believe what we have been taught. It is no fault of our own, and nobody meant us any harm. Our teachers were doing the best they could to teach us what they thought was truth. We read what we expect to be there.

There is more. I have page after page. But this should be enough for now.