Gary DeMar

This video presents Orthodox Christians with a debate between a Calvinist Partial Preterist and a Calvinist Dispensationalist. Partial Preterism interprets the prophetic discourse of Christ on the Mount of Olives as set forth in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 as predicting the destruction of the Jewish Temple and the City of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70 as a judgment from God upon the unbelief of the Jewish people. Dispensationalism interprets the Olivet Discourse as largely predictive of a future time, yet to be fulfilled. In contradistinction to both of these views, the saints and Fathers of the Orthodox Faith interpret these passages in several different ways as they do many other passages of Scripture. Our father among the saints John Chrysostom certainly understands these passages as referring to the past destruction by the armies of Rome. Chrysostom says, "Did [God] send the prophets and wise men? Did they slay them in their synagogue? Was their house left desolate? Did all the vengeance come upon that generation? It is quite plain that it was so, and no man gainsays it." (Homily LXXIV) This is a partial preterist interpretation set forth as orthodox by Chrysostom. At the same time, Saint Maximos the Confessor points to a spiritual fulfillment when dealing with some passages regarding the Coming of the Lord. He writes, "The text, 'The kingdom of heaven has drawn near' (Matt. 3:2; 4:17), does not in my judgment imply any temporal limitation. For the kingdom 'does not come in a way that can be observed: one cannot say, Look, it is here or Look, it is there (Luke 17:20-21). The phrase has reference to the relationship which the saints have with the kingdom, each according to his or her inner state. For 'the kingdom of God', says Scripture, 'is within you' (Luke 17:21). The kingdom of God the Father is present in all believers in potentiality; it is present in actuality in those who, after totally expelling all natural life of soul and body from their inner state, have attained the life of the Spirit alone and are able to say, 'I no longer live, but Christ lives in me' (Gal. 2:20). Some say that the kingdom of heaven is the way of life which the saints lead in heaven; others that it is a state similar to that of the angels, attained by those who are saved; others that it is the very form of the divine beauty of those who 'wear the image of Him who is from heaven' (1 Cor. 15:49). In my judgment each of these three views is correct. For the grace of the kingdom is given to all according to the quality and quantity of the righteousness that is in them" (Second Century on Theology 91-93). Likewise, Saint Symeon the New Theologian, in his Moral Speeches, writes, "Woe to those who say, 'When shall the day of the Lord come?' and they don't care to know and understand that day. For the Lord's Presence in the faithful has already come, and is continuously coming, and to all those who wish for it, has arrived and is firm. Because, if He is indeed the light of the world (John 8.12) and has said to His Apostles that He will be with us until the time of the end (Matt. 28.20, cf. Matt. 1.23), how, is it that, being with us, will He yet come? ...For we are not sons of darkness and sons of night, in order for the light to overtake us, but sons of light and sons of the Lord's day, hence are we so living in the Lord and dying in Him, and with Him we shall live, as Paul says (Acts 17.28). About this also Gregory the Theologian speaks on this wise: 'Thus exactly as the sun is to sensible things, so is God to the spiritual.' He will be the future age and the eternal day and the kingdom of heaven, bridegroom and marriage bed, earth of the peaceful and divine paradise, king and servant, as He Himself has thus spoken: 'Blessed are those servants, whom their Lord will come and find awake. Verily I say to you, He will lay them down in comfort to repose and He will be prepared to serve them' (Luke 12.37)."

While there is a manner in which these prophetic passages were fulfilled in past historical events and are being fulfilled spiritually or mystically in the ascetic struggle of believers and the purifying, illuminating, and deifying grace of the Holy Spirit at work in the spiritual development of the saints, there is also a manner in which these passages are yet to be fulfilled in the manifestation of the children of God in the future glory. The Church anticipates the Second Coming of Christ in glory to judge the living and the dead and the full manifestation of His Kingdom in a New Heavens and and a New Earth free of death, corruption, and sin.

So, there is a manner in which the Orthodox Christian can agree with the partial preterist Gary DeMar. We can also affirm a future fulfillment of the prophecies regarding the Second Coming of Christ as set forth by Dr. Tommy Ice and the full embrace by the Jewish people as a whole of their Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, when they say, "Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord." On this future facet of interpretation, John Chrysostom interprets the "this generation," debated by DeMar and Ice, as also referring to the race of Christians.

In the Orthodox view, the more pressing interpretation of these passages, the spiritual or mystical understanding as set forth by our Holy Fathers, is the level of revelation largely missed by these Protestant debaters. The spiritual interpretation has import for the present time, each current moment in which we now live our lives. This spiritual understanding encourages us in our own personal, spiritual struggle and motivates us to continue on in our prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." The Orthodox Church, while not denying the past fulfillment of these prophecies and also their future implications, nevertheless, prefers to emphasize the importance of the present spiritual fulfillment of these things in our personal lives, in our parish, and in the Church at large. Why does the Church prefer this spiritual emphasis? Because the Church emphasizes the working out of our own salvation with fear and trembling and our cooperation with Divine Grace through prayer, fasting, and charitable acts in preparation for the Coming of God to the soul through participation in the Divine Mysteries in the Holy Services of the Church.

Another important feature of this video-recorded debate is the attack on Dispensationalism by Gary DeMar. In attacking Dispensationalism, DeMar is not attacking the hope of Dispensationalists in a future Second Coming of Christ in a glory manifest universally, but rather the artifical timelines which Dispensationalists have imposed on the unfolding of history through faulty or questionable interpretations of Scripture, which they espouse as being unquestionable. We would do well to remember that modern Dispensationalism, with its so-called "pre-Tribulational rapture of believers," is foreign to Orthodox Christian teaching. The placement of a rapture as "pre-Tribulational" is the feature of this form of Dispensationalism seen as most problematic by Orthodox Christians. Also the idea of a future restored Jewish Temple to be fully operative with a revival of animal sacrifices under the reign of Christ during a future 1,000-year reign on the earth, which they call "The Millenium" is inconsistent with Orthodox Christian Faith. Gary DeMar, though a Calvinist, is. nevertheless, a step closer to Orthodox Christianity in his eschatology, or view of last things. His rebuttal of Thomas ice leaves the Orthodox Christian desirous of a full demolishment of the falsities of Dispensationalism.

When all is said and done, the Orthodox Christian, in company with the Holy Fathers, will recognize the validity of various facets of Scriptural interpretation, including a past, historical understanding, a current spiritual understanding and application, a future, prophetic culmination, and, perhaps, a moral, analogical derivation. Whatever these interpretations may be, we can be certain that, if they are guided by the Spirit of Truth, they will not conflict with one another in their import and they will be consistent with the beliefs and practices of Holy Orthodoxy. The spiritual understanding will parallel the past, historical understanding. The future, prophetic culmination will be prefigured in the historical interpretations already past. The moral principles derived by analogy will support the application of the spiritual understanding.

Having considered these two different perspectives, let us return quickly to the task at hand and continue on in our current striving to enter the narrow gate that leads to Life, to open our hearts to a greater receptivity to the Coming of Divine Grace at the Present Time.… (mais)

NO OF PAGES: 409 SUB CAT I: Escatology SUB CAT II: SUB CAT III: DESCRIPTION: For centuries scholars have argued over when the Book of Revelation was written-before or after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The most accepted but not the most compelling date is around the time of Domitian, at the end of the first century when John would have been nearly 100 years old. A more compelling date for the writing is during the reign of Nero Caesar, just a few years before Jerusalem's destruction at the hands of the Roman commander Titus. The evidence for this conclusion is found within the pages of Scripture. The Bible itself tells us when the Book of Revelation was written. We do not have to depend on people who wrote a hundred years or more after the fact to get the accurate story. God's own Word sets the record straight. Through careful and painstaking work, Dr. Gentry deals with all the evidence. He weighs all the arguments.NOTES: SUBTITLE: Dating the Book of Revelation… (mais)