One of the most insane teachings circulating today (besides eternal torment) is something called "Preterism," which claims (among other absurd things) that God cast away Israel forever in 70 A.D. This is the year that Titus of Rome destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in accord with the judgment pronounced upon that generation by our Lord. Why is this belief 

so attractive?

 

Preterists can't wrap their heads around the fact that God put a pause in His operations with Israel in order to usher in what is known as "the era of the nations," during which time the gospel of the transcendent grace of

God would be broadcast via the gospel of the apostle Paul. Preterists just can't understand this because, if they had been God, they wouldn't have done it this way. 

 

The other attraction of this teaching is that non-Israelites like to think of themselves as "spiritual Israelites." But are they? No. If anything, they are metaphoric Israelites. But since no Christian I have ever met understands the simple facts concerning metaphors, many of them trip over such statements of Paul as, "You are of the seed of Abraham." 

 

A simple teaching on the construction and meaning of a metaphor—and Paul's clear statements in Romans, chapter 11—ought to cure anyone of the

"God is done with Israel" and the "we are spiritual Israel" affliction. 

 

Let's see if it does. 

 

Yours from the peninsula, 

 

—Martin