Off the Beaten Path

Brian L. Martin

Have you ever had to walk any distance through a thick layer of new snow? Compacting the snow beneath your feet each and every step you take makes for slow going. However, for someone following in your footsteps the journey is both easier and quicker.

The same holds true in forging a new trail during a wilderness hike. From a distance, or perhaps from a map, you determine what looks to be the best route to your destination. However, once on your way you may encounter obstacles and terrain which necessitate modifications and detours from your original plan. Each hill that is crested; each bend that is rounded presents a fresh perspective on your journey. What appeared to be the shortest route from a distance is revealed up close to be impassable due to steep terrain. From the crest of a hill you see that the backside is covered so thickly with brush that it is better to backtrack and circumnavigate the entire area.

By noting all these details, and sharing the information with others, their journey becomes easier and quicker. They might even enhance the trail further; finding a shortcut here and there, clearing overgrown brush, etc.

Similar principles apply in our own journeys toward the truth of God’s Word. The pioneering work of those who have gone before us makes our journey both easier and quicker. Not easy and quick—easier and quicker. I cannot imagine the painstaking hours of work by individuals such as Strong and Young to record every occurrence of every word in the Bible. The resulting exhaustive concordances which resulted from their pioneering efforts have made our journeys toward knowing and understanding the Bible both easier and quicker. The same can be said of lexicons, Greek and Hebrew dictionaries, commentaries and so forth. Imagine how slow our “journey” would be if these scholars had not gone before us, helping to blaze and define the trail!

Regardless of how improved the trail is, and how many others have traveled it before us, there is one thing that is required, and can only be accomplished, by us individually—make the journey! Even if the trail is paved with asphalt and there are elevators at all of the steep sections, if we never leave base camp we will never reach the destination. We may have in our possession detailed maps and step-by-step descriptions of the journey, but until we make the journey for ourselves those details and descriptions are someone else’s—not ours.

Similarly, regardless of what wonderful Bible study aids are at our disposal, it is incumbent upon each of us to make our own journey toward the truth of God’s Word. Unfortunately, many in the Church today possess detailed “maps” and “descriptions” of theology which are not their own, but someone else’s. This is especially true in the area of eschatology. Many feel that the journey is just too confusing, and rather than attempting it they are content merely to possess the eschatology of someone else. They have read a book, watched a video or heard a sermon which presented a plausible “map” and “description” of the eschatological journey, and have adopted them as their own. Without doubt the books, videos, and sermons of others can be very helpful in our journeys, but only if scrutinized by the light of the one and only source of biblical truth—the Bible itself.

     Unfortunately, many who are  willing to accept the journey often find themselves on a different trail than the majority. Why? Because, as they compare the “maps” and “descriptions” provided to them with the instructions of the Bible, they discover that there are discrepancies. Although there is a very real and well-defined trail to that peak over yonder, is that peak the one the Bible intends? Many Preterists, feeling that something was amiss, put aside the “maps” and “descriptions” of the popular trail, and began bushwhacking in the direction they felt the Bible was indicating. The result was a separate peak, which they feel better fits the biblical description of “Mt. Eschatology.” Over the years, remnants of an overgrown trail were discovered and the pathway was cleared and better defined. It is not paved, not by any stretch of the imagination, but there is a pathway.

One of the results of standing on this “new” peak is that one views the mountain range of theology from a different perspective. Standing on this peak, instead of that one over there, “Mt. Millennium” takes on a different shape; as does “Resurrection Valley” and “Judgment Gorge.” This realization is both exhilarating and unsettling at the same time. Exhilarating because new possibilities are at once opened to view. Whereas before, when standing on the other peak, you could never quite understand how one got from “Pt. D” to “Pt. E,” from this new angle a whole new approach seems possible. On the other hand, you are unsettled because you realize that if the path from “Pt. D” to “Pt. E” is not what you had been previously taught, then perhaps your understanding of the path from “Pt. A” to “Pt. B” is not what you think it is! Obviously, your journey has only begun, and there are many more trails to explore. And that will take time and effort!

Herein resides one of the more puzzling and discouraging aspects of Preterism, in my opinion. Many Preterists seem to have forgotten their internal agony as they were led to question the validity of the “popular trail,” as well as their years of study, struggling on a trail leading away from the majority. This same agony and struggle is repeated for the judgment, the resurrection, the millennium, and a host of other doctrines. Yet some, who have years, or decades, start on others, seem to have forgotten that, regardless of how well-traveled and well-defined the paths become, we each have to make our individual journey. I cannot see the millennium, rapture, judgment, resurrection, etc., from your view until I make that journey. Yes, because you and others have made the journey, my journey is easier and quicker. It may take a group of individuals several months to develop a 10-mile hiking path. When they are done it won’t take me months to hike it. However, even though it has been cleared and rock steps put in place, I still have to hike ten miles. Some are faster hikers than others; some have more time to hike than others. Furthermore, if it is to be truly my journey, I must judge each path not by those who have gone before me, but by the Word of God. Otherwise I am merely adopting their journey as my own. And if I were the type to do that, I would still be on the popular path. I don’t mean to minimize or deny the efforts, insights, and knowledge of other Preterists. But frankly, if I were to stop thinking for myself and accept a “canned” eschatology, it wouldn’t be Preterism, for the simple fact that my previous Futurist existence was a much better “package deal.” It included fellowship, Bible studies, church activities, etc. And that will be the case until we Preterists allow each other the time necessary to explore the trails before us, and the grace to be at different places in the journey.

In the pages of Fulfilled! you will find perspectives from many different trails, and many places on the trails. Just because they are printed here does not make them the truth. Don’t make them your truth until you have proven them by the Word of God.