Why am I a Preterist? Because I find agreement in all of the narrative of scripture

Why am I now a preterist? 
Because I find agreement in all of the narrative of scripture

In discussions of the end times I have had many say they are, “pan-trib, its all going to pan out the way God wants it to in the end. “

Many think that because there are so many sides to this matter, and everyone's opinion and thoughts seem to disagree, that they just can't understand what scripture says. If all of these scholars and theologians disagree how can the common layman come to a sure conclusion on what the Bible says about the end times?

When I tested different eschatological views I read books and articles for and against that view as part of my study. What I often found was a dogmatism based on the author's adherence to either some supposed great teacher or the theological party line of one doctrinal camp or another. Reading the literature you almost find a repeating of the same few phrases, that were authored by some renown theologian, scholar or teacher, and these statements are the foundation of their whole hermeneutic.

Most of this literature I have found to be a constant scholars argument back and forth, basically saying, "my ideas are right and your ideas are wrong, so there!".

As I went on in my studies I trusted all of these demagogues less and less.

One example for me was standing in a waiting room to talk to a pastor about them handing out leaflets for a Billy Graham movie, Time to Run. The pastor was interviewing a new Sunday school teacher and the man asked the pastor what were their views on the end times. This pastor was on the local radio station and over all I respected his teaching. He told the man that the SBC held to the pre-trib rapture but his personal view was a post trib rapture, but he taught the pre-trib to keep with SBC doctrine.

This made me question what the truth really was. Do not words and phrases have specific meanings? Do we not chose our words to convey a certain idea, express a specific truth? Now numbers are exact, but words can have multiple meanings, depending on the context. But can the same phrases in their narrative context have multiple meanings?

My main way of testing the different views is based on my own reading and study. When dealing with each of the eschatological views I would consider them as I read the bible. Either I found support for them or found some passage or verse that did not fit with that view.

My hermeneutic is that the bible is a narrative. None of it was written in snippets of verses, well except for the collection of sayings in Proverbs. Every other book and letter in the collection of the bible was written as its own narrative. And the collection as a whole was gathered together because of the overall narrative of God's work in the earth that they contain.

To understand any of the individual sentences or passages we need to consider the narrative that they are contained in. Pulling any verse or passage out of context can cause us to misconstrue the meaning. Creating ideas that are not in the text at all.

Also I understand that none of the bible was actually written to us today. To understand the books of the bible its important to understand the history of the time it was written and who it was written to. For example, Isaiah and Jeremiah were written during the time of the Babylonian captivity to captive Israel. They mention the Jews keeping faith while in captivity and the historic return of the captives of Israel to the land of Israel and the rebuilding of the temple and city of Jerusalem.

Nothing in Isaiah and Jeremiah was written to us, but understanding what they were going through, and seeing the faithfulness of God to them and his keeping his promises to them in the return, gives us a valuable lesson on the faithfulness of God in keeping his people, even when they rebel against him, and he is judging them harshly.

Another tool I use is reading multiple translations. I use a bible software, eSword, so I can study out passages with the different translations. I prefer the Literal Translation of the Bible, as the scholars tried to keep as true to the original languages as possible even when it is not exactly right in English.

Even using multiple translations there are some things best to understand from the Greek. For example the English word "world" is used to translate two different Greek words, kosmos and oikoumenē. Kosmos is the whole of the earth. Oikoumene is only a part of the earth and used to refer to a large area, such as the Roman world, meaning the Roman Empire, the areas of the world influenced by Roman rule.

Testing ideas in the narrative, grammatical, historical and cultural context. Comparing scripture with scripture, considering the original languages all help to understand eschatology for what it says, rather than what we want it to say.

Eschatology is not just found in the NT. There is a narrative throughout the collection of books of the bible that builds the ideas of the Messianic kingdom. Starting in Genesis, we see the Messiah as victor and savior. Culminating in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the would, who takes away the sins of the world.

Why am I now a preterist? Because I find agreement in all of the narrative of scripture with this view. Based on my own reading, considering the Hebrew and Greek.