My apprehension with [totally] embracing preterism is that on a certain philosophical level it takes away from me a Bible that speaks to me about my circumstances and about the world around me with a practical hope and blueprint for my faith to walk out through Jesus's High Priestly Ministry until I've inherited a world conformed to His image. I can never embrace what's called in theology "consistent cessationism" which full preterism would seem to require, which would mean that the ministry gifts are no longer genuine calls and placements in the Body of Christ by Jesus Christ. I still see a need for Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers, Bishops, miracle workers, gifts of healings, helps, administrations, etc., etc., etc. as it says in 1Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, and in Paul's pastoral epistles. And I won't even get into the nature, circumstances, events, and manifestation of Jesus Christ that occured with regards to my own calling by Him to the ministry, and what's happened each step along the way with further and further [deeper] baptisms with the Holy Spirit.
I can easily make the New Jerusalem out to be the Church. If I were to embrace a consistent preterism, that's not a hard leap. I saw an example of total preterism early in my UR studies with Thomas Whittemore's "Plain Guide to Universalism" from 1840 in which he made the lake of fire judgment to be what befell Jerusalem in 70AD. I balked at the interpretation back then, but on a certain level it makes sense with the upheaval that's been going on in my understanding of eschatology over the last couple of years.
I never thought that I'd ever come to a point where the "rapture" wasn't the obvious sense of 1Thessalonians 4 and 1Corinthians 15, a couple of passages in Isaiah, and a couple of passages in the Gospels. But now, from a Biblical perspective, with all of the principles of the Kingdom that it seems in direct opposition to, I can no longer in good faith or in good conscience believe that the Bible teaches any type of rapture that's way prior to the general resurrection of the dead in the period of transition to the New Earth as everything's being engulfed in God at that time period. And the rapture's more precious than the Blood of Christ to mainstream Christianity in the United States. Most of them would sooner that I rejected the Blood -- which I emphatically don't -- but they'd prefer that I would rather than to forsake what they've twisted into being the "blessed hope."
There's a lot of things in mainstream Christianity that are more important than the virgin birth, the sinless life, the blood atonement of Christ, His literal bodily resurrection, the message of repentance unto love and good works, and the promise of Philippians 2 that every knee will bow and every tongue will offer up exuberantly thunderous praise and ovation (Gr: exomologeo, for "confess" in Eng.) that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Hell's more important, the rapture and tribulation are generally regarded as more important, tithing's more important, and I could continue down the list of things where if I spoke up in most Churches in disagreement, or with the pastor of those fellowships in private, I'd be thought to be the literal embodiment of Satan -- even if my love and works exceeded those of Mother Teresa.
God would not have had me born into this world without a certain hope of what I was working towards, precise expectations from His Written Word to corroborate all that His Spirit and Jesus's High Priestly Ministry would convey to me, and Biblical tools for seeing the next stage for the Body of Christ come to pass. I can deal with having a Bible with even 90% to 95% of it's prophecies having already been fulfilled. That's no problem. Gives me hope in the veracity of the Written Word and assurance that as every other calling's been fulfilled precisely to God's expectations through His hand being upon the various lives that have gone before me, that I can likewise expect for His purposes in my life through His Written Word and His anointing upon my life to come to pass to the exact letter of prophecy in the Scriptures regarding my place in the Body of Christ and my small portion of Jesus's present ministry in the earth.
I expect some good things to happen in this life that were foretold from the beginning. I expect an unprecidented outpouring of His Holy Spirit upon all flesh to a level and degree that's never yet been anticipated by the small expectations of the clergy of their God. I expect animal oppression and exploitation to be completely resolved in a favorable way towards the animals per beaucoup Scriptures that I won't get into at this point 'cause it's not central to my main, secondary, or tertiary points in this post. I expect for human longevity to get ridiculous again, by comparison with current estimates on the part of the carnal mind of man. I expect the elimination of poverty and the global outreach and discipleship with the Written and Preached Prophetic Word to reach unprecidented proportions! I expect that just as Uganda, the Ukraine, and various other nations have publicly done in the last few years that more every nation will publicly declare Jesus Christ to be Lord of their Nation to the glory of God the Father. I expect the elimination of diseases to occur both through science and particularly through the manifestations of the Sons of God on a level unseen even in Acts chapter 5 after the second baptism with the Spirit in the previous chapter.
Yes, it is finished, but YHVH-Yireh, i.e. Jehovah shall be seen!
