Ongoing salvation by faith preterists have a major problem with how to define the "faith" that they believe they still need. When one becomes a full Preterist it is usually because they begin to see that the "confidence" the "expectation" of the second appearance was not only "at hand" but ESSENTIAL to the "hope" and "faith" of the "last days" Christians. To place this very importance on faith in "post end of age" context is really to then claim that one from that point must then believe that Christ HAD COME. This means that all the time that the Christian prior to becoming a "full preterist" was actually not "in the faith". To refute this conclusion would have to explain how and why it was so important to believe in Christ coming prior to his coming and then explain why that became so unimportant once he came. All of this in the claim of continued "salvation by faith". It is in part because of this point that some Preterists have begun to minimize the significance of the end of the age and re-focus on the "Cross" as the only vital point concerning their "faith". Such however does ignore the whole "hope" and "confidence" that is expressed throughout the whole of the New Testament. Of course the simple answer to this it to understand that Christ did not come to start a new religion but to end religion and that the faith and hope requirements were all met IN THEN END in AD 70. Which of course explains clearly why they were to hold fast firm until the end to be found blameless in the day of the Lord. Ongoing salvation by faith is then untenable in the biblical Narrative. This points us directly to the sufficiency of love and not backward toward the lesser transitional expectations of Good things to come that "faith" and "hope" looked forward to. Barry DuPont
Posted on: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 12:50:20 +0000
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