Session 5 - Mark Hitchcock

I have never heard Mark Hitchcock speak. I was honestly a little apprehensive about this session, since a proper critique of Preterism is very, very difficult to do fairly in one hour, and honestly my fellow dispies tend to not do their homework very well on this subject.

But given the obvious time constraint, I thought Mark did remarkably well.

• Primary eschatologies:
  
  
  
  • Preterism
    
    
    
    • Full
    
    
    • Partial
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Historicist
  
  
  • Idealist
  
  
  • Futurist
  
  
  
  


• Hitchcock does differentiate between Full & Partial Preterism


• Full Preterism is heretical
  
  
  
  • Caveat: you can hold to F.P., & not necessarily be a heretic, though the tendency is very much there.
  
  
  
  


• Partial P. are brothers
  
  
  
  • They believe in a literal Second Coming
  
  
  
  


• Hanegraaff is an example of a P. Pret./Idealist
  
  
  
  • He denies it, but hey...
  
  
  
  


• (Hitchcock is an engaging speaker)


• "If you don't label yourself, others will label you."


• Some very articulate & influential brothers are actively promoting Pret. (Sproul, DeMar, Hanegraaff)


• Many people are just tired of date-setting & sensationalism among inconsistent dispies


• Grammatico-Historical hermeneutic is an indispensible cornerstone of good eschatology


• Pret. use Matthew as the "timing key" for Rev.
  
  
  
  • 10:23 - the "Coming" was judgment on Israel in A.D. 70
  
  
  • Mat. 16 (answered by ch.17, xfiguration)
  
  
  • Mat. 26, (but Caiaphas died approx. A.D. 48, per evidence from ossuary)
  
  
  • Mat.24:34 -> Cornerstone of Preterism
    
    
    
    • All hinges on "this generation"
    
    
    • Did every eye see Him when He came in supposed judgment?
      
      
      
      • No.
      
      
      • Ooops. (for the Pret.)
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Dr. Walvoord: the fig tree was a natural figure
      
      
      
      • Beware of date-setting!
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • "This generation" is the one alive when these things begin to be fulfilled.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• One question by the disciples: when will this be, & what events signal them?


• "You will not see Me until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'"
  
  
  
  • Implies a gap in time
  
  
  • Implies ethnic Israel will cry out for Him before 2nd Coming
  
  
  
  


• Didache regards 2nd. Com. Was future to it


• Pret. is primarily/essentially about the dest. of the Temple, end of the Old Covenant, divorce of Israel


• Preterists: small numbers are literal, but large numbers are literal
  
  
  
  • ...unless it becomes too inconvenient, then small #'s are symbolic, too
  
  
  
  


• Rev. is the bill of divorcement of Israel to Preterism


• Nero is the Beast of Rev.13
  
  
  
  • ...according to Pret.
  
  
  
  


• The Achilles' Heel of Pret. is the dating of the Book of Rev.

I was doubly-blessed this session...in that though I was still consigned to the overflow, I got to hang with Chik Chikeles, Eric Cartier, and Sandy Adams. Eventually Bill Desrocher came by, too.

...but Chik apparently didn't have quite the same opinion about Mark's session that I did...




...I'm just saying, is all...