Why I Needed to Repent: A Letter to a Friend... Among Friends

By Nathan DuBois
Nate 4 One Nation

"I get it now!" But do I really? There seems to be more to this than anyone is understanding. To think that the controversy started with a repentance. It was only until what was considered an o-fense that this became a serious vs. a sincere discussion. I thought I got it, and then here I am again writing this.

The view of looking for the internal, personal, and spiritual meaning made perfect sense. It MAKES perfect sense. There is no harm brought in the view that still acknowledges the importance of the physical signs, but still advocates that they were only temporal revelations of an eternal truth. No harm, no foul. But I didn't see it. I didn't see the need to repent. It was just a matter of growing up. Does that require "repentance" from full Preterism?

When that statement is uttered, it can be entirely personal. It does not mean that we ALL need to repent from it, just because one person saw that need for himself. However, it appears the problem is that if full Preterism is a system requiring "turning" away from, then isn't it worth turning from for all people?

Yes and no! Do we have any problem telling Arminians that we left there view (ie. turned away from/repented of) and embraced reformed theology? Does this mean they should all repent? Let your own heart judge. Should they be offended that we tell them we are no longer arminian? The responses of some recently should judge themselves.

Here is why a deeply personal, self-appointed statement of repentance was also a call from God for me to do so as well.

Full Preterism Is Today's Thomas

John 20:26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" 27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." 28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

All full Preterists seem to embrace that if the AD 70 Parousia is not true, then Christ was not the Messiah. This is a view I held. C.S. Lewis and his comments required an answer. And full Preterism has it. However, that makes us Thomas! We put the hand in the side, and we believed. The reason futurist arminians are still saved, is because they do not see anything but Christ crucified, and their need to repent, and they believe. They do not see the completed work of Christ, yet they believe it. God Bless Them.

Being Thomas has it's benefits and it's disadvantages. We should be broken because our disbelief is even a possibility! Yes, without AD 70 we would not believe Christ or the God of Abraham. But in the brokenness received at sight, we can have a knowledge beyond faith. We can SEE the Parousia and praise God and thank him more than anyone who is waiting. Thomas became an apostle, he was still blessed! After he saw he was guided by the Spirit to the upper room, where the Spirit of truth guided him. AFTER he "saw."

I still see the emphasis that God's truth does not require, nor favor, the sight. It favors the faith beyond it.

What We See Can Mislead

Matthew 23:1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples: 2 "The scribes and the Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses. 3 Therefore do and observe whatever they tell you. But don't do what they do, because they don't do what they say. 4 They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on people's shoulders, but they themselves aren't willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 They do everything to be observed by others: They enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6 They love the place of honor at banquets, the front seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called ' Rabbi' by people.

The priesthood saw the law. It was what they observed and taught. They loved it, paraded it, prized it. Yet Christ saw their shortfall. They could not see beyond the law. They were rebuked for it. Christ's first teaching that we have is His revelation of the heart of God concerning the law. Though the priest could see the law, they could not glimpse the heart of God.

Matt 5:17 "Don't assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

What was posted concerning Matthew 23 is why they needed to exceed the Pharisees righteousness. They did not see the heart and intent of the law. They loved their position, they loved the glory of the physical things and fleshly power they wielded, but they did not love God or the heart of God.

This is why Christ emphasized...

Matt 5:21 "You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. 22 But I tell you...

Matt 5:27 "You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. 28 But I tell you...

Matt 5:33 "Again, you have heard that it was said to our ancestors, You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord. 34 But I tell you...

etc.

They "saw" Christ, but they did not see Christ!

John 5:37 The Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me. You have not heard His voice at any time, and you haven't seen His form. 38 You don't have His word living in you, because you don't believe the One He sent.

John 6:35 "I am the bread of life," Jesus told them. "No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again. 36 But as I told you, you've seen Me, and yet you do not believe.

Why I Repented

So what am I trying to say? What is the point of this letter? Am I saying full Preterists are the Pharisees of today?

NO!

But I am saying I AM ONE!

I was so caught up in the system of things that I could SEE that I was missing, and causing others to miss, the things that can only be seen by the heart. I saw the purpose and will of God in AD 70, the "new" (though very old) law of God being advented, but I missed the heart behind it. I have been guilty of Phariseeism.

Matt 23:13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You lock up the kingdom of heaven from people. For you don't go in, and you don't allow those entering to go in.

There are people out there who long to see. I have been asked and have not answered. I tried to show them a road of the flesh. Answers like "we don't sin anymore, because if we are in the new covenant, we are perfected because the temple in Jerusalem fell when Christ said it would." However the believer knows he is forgiven, and yet knows he is far from perfect. What kind of answer is that? That I tell a person that they are "resurrected and therefore do not struggle against the flesh," or against "Satan." How delusional have I been when they look at me and all along know they battle the flesh!!?!!

I was seeing with the mind and with the sight of men, not the sight of God. I praise God for the eternal truths now being taught to me. I will not bind myself to what can be seen by my intellect. I pray that God correct me in every avenue I approach, that I might see with the Spirit. For it is the Spirit which is the point.

1 Corinthians 2:10 Now God has revealed them to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God.

1Corinthians 2:13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.

2Corinthians 3:6 He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life.

Ephesians 1:17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength. 20 He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens -- 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.

The Spirit is life, the Spirit is truth. When AD 70 occurred, it revealed this to the world. Some already had a removed veil even before the physical one was removed. I saw the significance, yet I missed the "fulfillment." I taught a sight of men in a system of the temporal, and ignored the sight of the spirit in the revelation of the eternal. Yes, I needed to repent. Let each man judge for himself in his own heart whether he should also. For it is God who brings judgment on the heart, not me.

So Thank You...Friend!
 

...for going out on the limb and sharing your heart. If the kingdom dwells in the heart and is revealed through men, then you were used. So thank you for the fellowship and help. As I have said, if we stopped learning how boring would life be.

God Bless
Nate

 

as of 2-2007