Providence, Preaching, and Preterism: A Story

Sometime in the late 90’s or early 2000’s, I went to a Bible conference in Gladwin, MI. Pastor Joe Wilson preached a message on the Heresy of Preterism. He passed out a flyer that a church in Florida used in advertisement for their church services promoting their doctrine. Pastor Wilson gave an interesting and informative message on what Preterism was and its dangers. I took some notes, kept the flyer and went on about my life.

In 2008, I was called to pastor a church in NC. I’m sort of a pack rat when it comes to my study notes. I have files of scribbles, outlines, skeletons, and notes from sermons I have heard or books that I have read. When I was unpacking my office, I came across the notes from Pastor Wilson and the message he had preached. “Should I toss this?” Of course not!

Only a few weeks after I had arrived (and after I had put the flyer back in my files), a man who had been attending the church came to me wanting to join. He had been preaching for the church when they were without a pastor, and wanted to talk with me about joining and preaching. I can’t recall how I found out that he was a preterist, I think he may have mentioned it when he asked me to lunch, but I did know before I went and met him. The flyer I just had put away and rang the bell that this was going to be a problem. Had I not found the flyer and notes from Pastor Wilson's message, I would not have been concerned. I had but a short time to review and to study the subject again. At the time, I participated in Baptist forum and Pastor Troy Sheppard mentioned preterism in one of the threads and spoke about how wicked a doctrine it is and can be. In the matter of weeks I found the flyer with Joe Wilson’s message, and Pastor Sheppard mentioned this doctrine that I hadn’t thought about in close to a decade. I contracted him privately and he sent me his notes from a message he preached on the subject and I dove into the study of the doctrine. I always am blessed thinking how God providential cared for me through the whole event. Finding the flyer, the warning about the doctrine, and then the online discussion all served to prepare me to meet with this man and long story short, he did not join the church.

Later, at the urging of some church members I wrote about it and placed it online. There are different shades of preterism and I wrote about consistent preterism. If taken all the way to its logical ends, this heresy is a damnable heresy. Grace Bible Baptist Church in Denham Springs, Louisiana had taken the article and put it on their website and I hadn’t thought about it since. A couple weeks ago, I was informed that a man had taken offense to the article and written the church in Denahm Springs. In that vein, the next post will be a repost of the very long article. 

Lord Bless,