Post
by dwilkins » Tue Dec 23, 2014 3:37 pm
1) From what I understand, Universalism has been part of preterism since at least the early 1800's. Todd Dennis has done a lot of research on this. The earliest Full Preterists in the early 1800's were Universalists. It's my impression that this is because their position was that the GWTJ had already occurred, therefore there is no more negative final judgment. Since then, via various rationales, this has always been part of Full Preterism. Max King, an important Full Preterist who wrote the first systematic books on it in the 1980's eventually became a Universalist (from the point of view of everyone I know, though from what I hear he denies this label for technical reasons). But, early preterists like Eusebius (and from what I can tell he was essentially a Full Preterist with "the end" being associated with the work of Constantine) were not Universalists.
2) Most of the Full Preterists I know are primarily (or at least initially) from online relationships. However, I've met a few hundred of them over the years at events such as Preston's conference he holds every year and the debate that Preston and Steve did last year.
3) That was a reference to Roman 7:13 "Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure." In some way the Law was given to make sin exceedingly sinful. I take that to mean that the conscience was enough to make people aware of sin, but that the Law was given to emphasize the gravity of it to make sure that people understand their need for salvation.
4) The best paradigm of preterism that I've come across asserts that the GWTJ opened for business at the time of judgment just after the destruction of the Temple and complete end of the Old Covenant. The Hadean realm was emptied of people awaiting final judgment (all futurist positions say that the hadean realm is still operational and that everyone who has died up to this point is still there awaiting the time of final judgement). Since that time people are judged as they die. When I say "spiritual fulfillments" I don't mean metaphorical or unreal ones. I mean things operating in the invisible realm.
Doug