How Full Preterism Led Me Into Universalism

By Brian Simmons,
New Covenant Truth

• Full Preterism - The view that all Bible prophecy was fulfilled by the year 70
• Universalism (Pret) - Because the devil, death, sin and law were destroyed in AD70, there is no more separation between any person and God.  Faith has been turned to sight.

 

  In Summer of 2005, I was a preacher/ Bible teacher at a small Baptist church in Moss Point, MS.  I had been asked by Rev. Lonnie Goff to do a study on Daniel's 70 weeks.  Having already read Philip Mauro's book on the subject, I was somewhat acquainted with the views of Preterism.  However, I was far from accepting any Full Preterist system.  In doing my study, I kept coming to the conclusion that the end of the 70 weeks was concurrent with Christ's return, the general judgment, and the resurrection.  It was the 70 weeks of Daniel that led me deeper and deeper into the Preterist system.  After sensing many 'logical' inconsistencies in my partial Preterist view, I felt I needed some answers, which my own understanding could not provide.  So I began to explore the doctrines of Full Preterism.

    My first foray into this paradigm was in reading J. Stuart Russell's book The Parousia.  This was "strong meat" which I could not well bear at the time.  As a matter of fact, after looking into some of his views I politely tossed the book into the trash bin.  "Enough of that system," I said.  However, the seeds had already been planted into my mind, and would continue to germinate throughout the coming months.  For the present time, I decided to remain with my partial Preterist system.

    However, the inconsistencies continued to mount. And soon I stumbled upon the website for Joe Thomas's Pensacola Orthodox Preterist Baptist Assembly.  After reading through a few of his articles, I contacted him, and we made an appointment to talk.  It was a cold, overcast November day when I drove into Pensacola, Florida, to Rev. Thomas's home.  I was shown into a cozy basement den, lined with shelves and shelves of theological books.  Thomas and his colleague Rev. Dick Farnham were both present, and cordially made me feel at home.  They outlined the doctrines of Full Preterism, reasoning with me out of the Scriptures.  And although some of their views seemed far-fetched at the time, I found myself leaning more and more toward the F.P. paradigm.  Everything seemed to come together and tie up very nicely.  However, I ignored the "still small voice" that told me that the system was wrong.  To put it plainly, my intellect assented, though my heart did not.  Yet it was all the bait needed to lure me in.  Almost overnight, I became a Full Preterist.

    Strange to say, I re-ordered a copy of J.S. Russell's book and began to read it more carefully.  Now the theories did not seem so far-fetched as before.  After all, it was plain common sense that "that generation" would see the culmination of all of God's promises to the covenant nation, as well as to all mankind.  As I traced Russell's system to its obvious conclusions, I began to feel that he was correct.  Yet the full doctrinal implications of his teaching had yet to dawn on me.  It would take almost a year before I realized one major truth: If death was destroyed in A.D. 70, why would anyone be under condemnation today?  Going back to Russell, I find that he seems to lean toward the same view, though it is carefully expressed (disguised?) as an "afterthought."  Russell writes:

   "Far from us be that incredulity which despairs of Christianity and of man.  Surely, it was not in vain that Jesus said, ‘I am the Light of the World.’ ‘God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved.’ ‘I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself.’ (emphasis in original)

     That favored apostle, who more than any other seems to have comprehended ‘the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ,’ suggests to us ideas of the extent and efficiency of the great redemption, which our latent incredulity can scarcely receive. He does not hesitate to affirm that the restorative work of Christ will ultimately more than repair the ruin wrought by sin. ‘As by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall the many be made righteous.’ There would be no point in this comparison if ‘the many’ on the one side of the equation bore no proportion to ‘the many’ on the other side. But this is not all: the redemptive work of Christ does more than redress the balance: it outweighs, and that immeasurably, the counterpoise of evil. ‘Where sin abounded, grace did beyond measure abound: that as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign in righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Rom. 5:19-21)." (Parousia, pg. 553).

    While ignoring Russell's individual and personal conclusions, I continued to hold a "Limited Atonement" system of theology.  In time, however, the same questions kept recurring.  If death was abolished, it could only have been abolished in a universal sense.  This would release all men from the condemnation of Adam's transgression, thus imputing righteousness to all.  After thinking it over for several weeks, I finally realized that this was the view most consistent with the destruction of all Christ's enemies in A.D. 70.  If redemption was limited, death would still be very much in operation.  In that case, how could Rev. 20 be fulfilled? 

    Let me say here, that upon embracing Full Preterism I experienced an immediate spiritual slump.  I was never able to entirely overcome the apathy wrought by this new paradigm.  When I became a Universalist, however, the outlook became more radical.  After all, what essential difference was there between the evil and the righteous anyhow?  If we're all redeemed, let's just accept it and move on.  I tended to see everything in the New Testament canon as applying to the Old Covenant only.  In a statement I made at the time, I said: "On the day of Pentecost the Old Covenant was made spiritual, and it ended in A.D. 70." Obviously, anyone can tell where such a theology would lead me.  I tended to look at Christianity more as a philosophy than anything else.  It was not so much a moral system, as it was a means of interpreting the outside world. 

    This led me into a deeper and deeper spiritual rut, from which I could hardly emerge.  There were many weeks / months when I had no patience for reading the Bible.  After all, none of these passages applied to me, so what was the use?  The epistles were just old letters written to dead people who were under a totally different covenant.  Thank heaven we were out of that business now, and under a different set of terms and privileges.  Since sin has been abolished through the nullification of death, a mass murderer such as Henry Lee Lucas cannot be any less righteous than a man like Billy Graham.  Neither Graham nor Lucas can fulfill the law... right?  Then how can Graham be more righteous than Lucas?  They both must rely on the finished work of Christ.  And that work was "finished in A.D. 70."

    All this naturally led me to the profounder implications of Universalism.  If salvation has already been secured, then the ministry of the Holy Spirit is over.  For what need is there now to "draw" men to Christ?  The manna (=Holy Spirit) must have ended when the Israelites entered Canaan.  The apostolic period was just an antitype of the 40 years in the wilderness.  Therefore, since the antitype ended in A.D. 70, all men must have entered Canaan.  In that case, why would manna be necessary?  Here is what I wrote at the time:

"Is the Holy Spirit still in effect today?  If you believe that salvation is physical and objective, your answer will be "yes."  The "physical theory" holds that man's fall resulted in a corruption of his soul, and that his salvation consists of a physical "regeneration" by means of the Spirit of God.  Is this really and truly what the Scriptures teach?  In the course of this brief article, I'd like to discuss what I believe to be the true nature of salvation, and the "Age Mission of the Holy Spirit."  I do not propose to be dogmatic in my views-- merely to field an impartial examination of the Scriptures.  I myself am not ready to claim that the Holy Spirit's office lies outside of the New Covenant.  I'm leaning, however, toward the view that Christ now administers everything in person, and that the Holy Spirit pertained to the Old Covenant age alone."

"When Christ gave His apostles the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit, He said: "Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."  If you look in any standard concordance, you'll find that word translated "world" in the Authorized Version actually means "age."  That age is the Old Covenant age.  It was at the end of that age that Christ appeared to put away sin.  It was at the end of the age that He would return.  This period has also been designated as "the latter days."  Of what?  Of the Old Covenant.  Christ sent the Holy Spirit on his behalf to seal His disciples and keep them safe and secure until the day of redemption.  In Ephesians 1: 13-14, Paul writes: "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."  Please carefully consider all the connotations of that word 'until.' "

    And so I was led to question the applicability of the Spirit's ministry to Christians today.  This naturally would cause me to reject any type of "physical" or objective spiritual work in the process of redemption.  It was all "subjective and covenantal."  It was all "completed in A.D. 70."  Thus, anyone can see how I was led into Universalism through the doctrines of Full Preterism.  It wasn't a wide leap at all.  Just a few extra steps along the same old road every other F.P. was traveling, and I was there!  After all, the premise is incontrovertible.  If death has been nullified, it can only nullified completely.  This means eternal life is imputed to all men, regardless of faith.  I even said that "faith is an old covenant principle."  I leave you to judge whether I was in truth or in error. 

  as of 6-2007