Review Of "The End Times Controversy" (Chapter 1)

  The first chapter of “The End Times Controversy” is entitled “What Is Preterism?“  Its author is Dr. Thomas Ice, executive director of the Pre-Trib Research Center, and writer of many books and study materials written from the Dispensational perspective.  Several other articles in this book are also written by him.

   Chapter 1 serves as a basic outline of what Preterism is, and what are some of its distinctive teachings.  Ice begins by giving a broad overview of the various eschatological viewpoints, which include Preterism, Futurism, Historicism, and Idealism.  He remarks that Preterism is sometimes confused with Historicism, the two systems being similar in approach, and looking for the fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the events of history.  The two schools see many details of the Apocalyptic narrative as having been fulfilled.

    After giving an outline of the different views, and their relation to the eschatological debate, Dr. Ice shifts his focus on Preterism, breaking the movement into three groups, which he denominates as ”Mild Preterism,” “Moderate Preterism,” and “Extreme Preterism.”   The author states that he is not aware of anyone on the contemporary scene who espouses Mild Preterism — even though this is, historically speaking, the most common form of Preterist doctrine.   This means that modern-day Preterists fall into two groups: Moderate Preterism and Extreme Preterism.   

   Ice does not focus on the controversy between Moderate and Extreme Preterism, which is something that belongs mainly within the Reformed community.  He does, however, turn his attention on Preterism as it relates to Dispensational theology.  And he states at the outset that the book will be interacting primarily with the doctrines of Partial Preterism. 

   “In this book, our focus will be upon refuting partial preterism.  If partial preterism is deemed untenable, then obviously the more extreme form will not be viable as well.  What’s more, we believe that when one ventures into extreme or full preterism, then he has moved away from orthodoxy into false teaching.  Because full preterism believes that Christ’s only coming (i.e. the second coming) occurred in A.D. 70, and because the translation and resurrection of believers are clearly connected with that event in Scripture (1 Cor. 15: 1; 1 Thess. 4: 13-17), then that means full preterism is heretical.” (pg. 24).

  Ice then proceeds to demonstrate some of the major implications of Preterist theology on end-time prophecy, by citing comments mainly culled from David Chilton’s books.  Chilton is a good representative of what may be called “Modern Preterism,” his writings having had great impact on the movement. 

   The author next points out that many Preterists (such as R.C. Sproul) feel that they are “helping to save Christianity from liberal skeptics like Bertrand Russell and Albert Schweitzer, by adopting a Preterist interpretation of Bible prophecy.”  Since  a chief bone of contention with the skeptics is that Jesus did not return during the time-frame he predicted, Sproul and others have suggested Preterism as a viable solution.  They say that Christ DID return, but that His coming was fulfilled in a non-literal manner. 

   Regarding this approach, however, Dr. Ice writes:

   “…When it comes to the Bible, we cannot fight liberalism with liberalism.  Dr. Sproul believes that he is defending the integrity of Scripture by adopting the preterist viewpoint.  However, in reality, I believe he is adopting a naturalistic interpretation that too many liberals feel at home with.  While Dr. Sproul sees Matthew 24 as a prophecy that was fulfilled in the first century, liberal preterists join him in giving a naturalistic explanation, though they do so from a different framework.  Ultimately, they both deny that our Lord prophesied a supernatural, bodily, visible return of Christ in fulfillment of Matthew 24.” (pg. 27).

  By “liberal preterists,” Ice ostensibly refers to the German critical school represented by such men as Eichhorn, De Wette, and Delitzsch.  These German critics often espoused Preterism as a means to avoid the supernatural elements of predictive prophecy.  Although Sproul can hardly be classed with this group, Ice’s observation that his preterism is really another form of the same liberalism, is doubtless correct.

    Ice then moves on to cover the Preterist view regarding Christ’s Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24/Mark 13).  Selecting the significant words and phrases from that discourse, he adds running commentaries by Dr. Kenneth Gentry, which serve to give an overall view of how Preterists deal with prophetic texts.  This is the most interesting section of the chapter, as it helps to exemplify the liberal element inherent in Preterist interpretation.

   One example of Dr. Gentry’s modus operandi may be seen in Matthew 24: 29, where Christ says: “The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

   Gentry writes:

  “How then should we understand verse 29?  Rather than interpreting it literally, we must interpret it covenantally!… By the very requirement of the context, this passage speaks of the collapse of political Israel in A.D. 70… When a national government collapses in war and upheaval, it is often portrayed as a cosmic catastrophe –  an undoing of creation… Consequently, we may see how easy it is to apply Matthew 24: 29 to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.” (pg. 32).

   I might argue that the author’s view involves a mis-application of eschatological terminology.  But Ice’s selection of Gentry’s quotations is sufficient to demonstrate how Preterists mishandle the Word of God.  The error is not confined to Gentry, but is common to any teaching which seeks to make Christ’s parousia a past event.

   Before wrapping up the article, Dr. Ice briefly discusses the Preterist views of the Book of Revelation.  He observes that Preterists base their idea of first-century fulfillment on what are called “timing texts.”  These include words and phrases such as: “The time is near;” “I am coming quickly,” and “things which must shortly take place.”

   Since I myself hold to a grammatical/historical reading of these texts, I will refrain from commenting on the received mode of interpretation, until I get to chapter 4, in which Dr. Ice deals with these Preterist time indicators.  I will say, though, that Preterists make a mistake in falsely applying an “inerrantist” principle to many passages which are conditional in nature.  

   In closing, Dr. Ice makes an observation with which I entirely agree.  He writes:

   “The timing of a passage is determined by taking into account all factors in a given passage.”  (pg. 34).

  Yes, it seems that is what Preterists have missed.  All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is to be approached according to consistent, orderly hermeneutical principles.  To take the time-texts literally, and yet to spiritualize passages which indicate how a prophecy will be fulfilled, displays a logical bias which can never lead one to the attainment of objective truth. 

   To sum it up, then, I think that Dr. Ice does an excellent job in bringing to light the main elements involved in a Preterist interpretation of Scripture.  It is my wish that readers purchase this book (if they haven’t already), in order to gain a better understanding of the issues at stake in the ongoing eschatological battle.

MythAdventures by Robert Asprin

When I’m stressed I turn to the genre I’m most comfortable with, fantasy. The particular area of fantasy depends on so many factors I’m not going to discuss here, but this time I turned to Robert Asprin and have been re-reading the M.Y.T.H Inc stories.

It’s a fabulous series of books and this excerpt from Wikipedia explains it much better than I can. “MythAdventures is the collective name for a series of humorous fantasy novels written by Robert Lynn Asprin that are popular for their whimsical nature, myriad characters, and liberal use of puns. Each novel’s title makes a pun on the similarity between the word “myth” and either the prefix “mis-” or the word “miss”, with the exception of the first, which puns on the phrase “Another fine mess” (which was, incidentally, almost the novel’s title due to a misunderstanding with book’s publisher).”

What Wikipedia doesn’t say is how I feel about them. I just love them. They are wonderful, they have very cute characters and I just wish I had some of their gadgets. I would absolutely love to be able to rent out a bit of extra-dimensional space, it’d be fabulous to have more room for my books.

I sometimes get a bit confused with all the action, but I suspect it would be the same with any action movie. Keeping track of the characters and what magical disguise they are currently wearing is a little hard.

This series seems to have engendered a similar following to the Discworld series written by Sir Terry Pratchett. A quick google of ‘m.y.t.h. inc robert asprin’ will bring up a number of fan pages including a reference to the alt.fan.asprin newsgroup.

In my eagerness to buy all the books in the series I have managed to buy doubles of some of these books and when I’ve finished checking them all out I’ll be listing the doubles on Suz’s Space.

The Praise of Folly, by Erasmus

This translation from the original Latin, Moriae Encomium, is in a 1993 Penguin paperback, along with the explanatory Letter to Maarten van Dorp. Erasmus displays his wide reading in Classical sources, giving example after example of the unacknowledged need for folly in human life. Throughout, Folly speaks as a goddess in her own voice.

The Encomium takes a sharp turn at midpoint and becomes a satire on contemporary Christian theology and piety. Folly stops showering examples of her necessity and blasts away at unnecessary foolishness. There is then a second turn as the last part of the work describes the necessary folly in Christian belief, echoing St. Paul: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.”

In the Letter to van Dorp, Erasmus tries to mask the obvious satire of the second part of the Encomium as harmless fun. After all, when Folly talked about sovereign pontiffs, no particular pope was named; and quotations from the Vulgate in the Church Fathers were often different from the text as it existed in his time, which showed that there had been corruptions of Jerome’s original.

Folly writes: “But, someone may say, the ears of princes are strangers to truth, and for this reason they avoid those wise men, because they fear lest someone more frank than the rest should dare to speak to them things rather true than pleasant; for so the matter is, that they don’t much care for truth. And yet this is found by experience among my fools, that not only truths but even open reproaches are heard with pleasure; so that the same thing which, if it came from a wise man’s mouth might prove a capital crime, spoken by a fool is received with delight. For truth carries with it a certain peculiar power of pleasing, if no accident fall in to give occasion of offense; which faculty the gods have given only to fools. And for the same reasons is it that women are so earnestly delighted with this kind of men, as being more propense by nature to pleasure and toys. And whatsoever they may happen to do with them, although sometimes it be of the most serious, yet they turn it to jest and laughter, as that sex was ever quick-witted, especially to color their own faults.”

Erasmus was the man in the middle, fool and wise man, Catholic and Protestant, scholar and gypsy. The Letter to van Dorp disappoints because it smudges the shiny espièglerie of the Encomium. My poor fool is dead!

Bitten by Books Review Teaser: Angel's Advocate

Angel’s Advocate by Mary Stanton

5 Tombstones

“Brianna Winston-Beaufort (better known as “Bree”) is not what anyone would call a typical attorney. Then again, it could also be because she does not take on the usual clients. Her clients, so far at least, are already dead. Yes, dead. Deceased. No longer in the land of the living. And yet, they still require Bree’s help as a lawyer while facing an entirely different and everlasting judgment…”

Read the Full Review Here: Angel’s Advocate over at Bitten by Books.

 

 with The Pen, Lyda

April short book reviews

iWoz – Steve Wozniak, Gina Smith: I really enjoyed this. I think it was mostly the voice – it was written based on taped interviews, and that shows in many little verbal tics and idiosyncracies that made the memoir endearing as well as interesting. I’d quite like to hear Steve Wozniak speak one day.

Teen Idol – Meg Cabot: I didn’t mean to sound like I was Cabot-bashing last month. I don’t mind her, and this book hit all the things that I really like about her books – the voice that was catchy without being annoying, the highschool-is-hell set-up, the nice person learning to be better (if not as “nice”), a few subverted expectations. Over-the-top and sweet and fun with one of my favourite forcible-makeover scenes (she does do these well).

Size 14 is not Fat Either – Meg Cabot: Light, fluffy, the voice got a bit irritating at times. I wanted the protagonist to take control a bit more, like in Teen Idol.

Underfoot in Show Business – Helene Hanff: So much fun – the story of how Helene Hanff didn’t become the next Noel Coward. New York and Broadway and playwriting and creative retreats and hand-to-mouth artistic existences and the beginning of television and a bad experience with Lord of the Rings.

Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens: The BBC miniseries of this is my favourite BBC miniseries, so I did know the outlines of the story going in (sometimes this helps). This book is now my favourite Dickens to date. So rich and complex and interwoven, so funny and sad and beautiful, it is difficult to pick a plot to call the main one. The mysterious character of the kindly but shadowy Rokesmith? The rise of the dustman and his wife, come to an unexpected fortune? The predicament of beautiful, poor, grasping Bella, willed to a man who died before she met him. The moral quandaries of the lovelorn taxidermist drawn into a web of deceit by a scheming ballad seller whose amputated leg he bought? Strong, capable Lizzie, who saves her brother and cannot save her father and must keep saving herself? The myriad of smaller backstories? Is it the loves – dangerous, sweet, murderous, unfaltering? The friendships – of the pawnbroker with the dolls-dressmaker and the factory worker, of Bella with her father, of the Boffins for all those less fortunate than them? The hatred and the paths paved by the love of money, or the paths shaped by the river? I love the book for all of these, for the mistakes and misteps and hard decisions, for the repeated references to Little Red Riding Hood, for the unexpected physicality of relationships, for the dear humanity of clerks in dingy offices, for the heroines who cannot wait by their lover’s sickbed because they have to go to work at the factory, for the descriptions of shops and of rusting chains, for the girl who rescues a victim of violence and carries him to safety, for the sharp tongue of the dressmaker and the many buttons of the false foreman, for the comeuppances and the happy endings, and the bittersweet ones.

Once on a time – A. A. Milne: A short fairy-tale novel. Oh, read this if only for that wonderful, terrible woman, the Countess Belvane. And the army of Amazon(s) marching round and round a tree. And the recommendation that poets wear green when the muse is upon them (as inspiration or warning). And the conclusion that the Gladstone bag has killed romance. But mostly for Belvane, that enchanting, scheming villainess, who keeps a diary and in it writes sadly that today, she became bad.

Hedge Fund Wives- Author Interview

After I wrote my review of Hedge Fund Wives, TJ Dietderich set up an e-mail interview with Tatiana Boncompagni for me.  Read the review here, and the interview below.

At what point in the writing process of the book did news of the current economic downturn become apparent, and how did that shape your writing?  (I know you had the idea for the book in 2007, before the mortgage crisis and credit crunch became daily news fare.)

Last summer the economic situation began looking progressively dire and it was pretty clear we were headed for a recession. I was about two thirds of the way through writing the book at the time, and decided to tweak some of the plot points to make the story line seem grounded in real events. For example, I added that Ainsley’s husband Peter had worked for Bear Stearns, and that he had run his fund’s trades through Bear. Then I explained how the fall of the bank contributed to the demise of his fund and to Peter’s own financial problems (because a lot of Bear’s former employers were still heavily invested in the bank). This gave me an opportunity to show how the world of finance is interconnected and how one event can lead to another, etc.  After September 2008, when I turned in the book, I didn’t make any changes to the plot.

You draw from the lives of hedge fund wives you know- how have they reacted to the book and its characters?  Anybody recognize themselves?

I don’t know if anyone has recognized themselves. If they have, they haven’t told me. They’ also be wrong. None of the characters are modeled after people I know with one exception: My friend Gigi asked me to name a character after her. The Gigi in the book is Southern and Sassy like my friend, but that’s where the similarities end. The rest of the characters are either composites of real people or entirely fictional creations.

What is your favorite upmarket indulgence?  I know your main character, Marcy, loves cheese.

I’d have to say shoes. They are the one thing I don’t mind buying spending a lot of money on. I have my shoes for years and years and only buy classic looks. I also think they are worth it because a great pair of heels makes me feel more confident. I think it must have something to do with the added height. I grew up as the shortest girl in my class–I was a late bloomer–and always wanted to be tall.

In the interview at the back of the book, you allude to some of the Hedge Fund Wives anecdotes that didn’t make it into the book- would you mind sharing another?

It’s hard to keep track of them. But here’s a good one. There was a woman who married a much older, not terribly attractive guy. She left her then current husband for this guy because he had a ton of money. A couple years later an old friend from high school saw her at a party. But instead of saying hello, she turned her head, lifted up her left hand, with just her ring finger extended (she has a gigantic diamond engagement ring) and walked away, not saying a word. Only in the hedge fund world, could a ring finger function as a middle finger…

What book have you read more times than any other, and what keeps you coming back to it?

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The writing is just so beautiful. It’s not as minimalistic as Hemingway, or as flowery as Henry James, another favorite writer of mine. I guess I try to model my work after Fitzgerald’s in the sense that I try for both graceful prose and economy of words. Also, The Great Gatsby is at its heart a condemnation of materialism and how the American Dream had been corrupted, and my works are inspired by the same themes.

What question do you wish interviewers would ask you?

I like talking about my process. How I come up with my stories and how I work. I usually come up with an idea or concept first and then turn it over in my mind for a while before I start working on the character sketches and outline. Then I start the actual writing process, during which I end up altering the plot line and characterizations. The hardest part for me is getting the story going. Once I get fifty pages of story that I am happy with, the rest is easy. In general, it takes me about a year to write a book. I loathe rewrites, but really that’s when all the magic happens.

Book Review - The Perfect Poison By Amanda Quick

The Perfect Poison

By Amanda Quick

Putnam, April 21, 2009

Historical Romantic Suspense

Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Poison-Arcane-Society-Book/dp/0399155805/

Scandal—the stuff Victorian society thrives on. Botanist and member of the Arcane Society, Lucinda Bromley found herself embroiled in the juiciest kind of scandal when she was suspected in her fiancé’s death by poisoning followed by her father’s suicide. Since then she has been ostracized by society. But Lucinda is no ordinary botanist. She has the paranormal ability to detect poison and volunteers her services to the police in suspected poisoning cases. When called in to inspect the body of a member of society, Lucinda is shocked to detect that the man was indeed poisoned and by a poison concocted using a very rare fern. The very fern that was stolen from her conservatory earlier. Fearing she may be arrested and convicted of the man’s murder, Lucinda only tells the police that he was poisoned, but doesn’t mention the fern. She calls on psychical investigator, Caleb Jones, to find the thief who stole her fern.

 Caleb, also a member of the Arcane Society founded by his ancestor, has the psychic ability to work percentages and solve problems by connecting seemingly unconnected facts. Believing Lucinda’s case may lead him to the man he’s been searching for, he agrees to take the case. As the two paranormal sleuths work together to solve the crime and save Lucinda from prison, passion ignites and leads to a romantic relationship. Because of his relationship to the founder who went mad, Caleb believes he too is slowly descending into madness, which prevents him from offering marriage.

I’m a huge fan of the Jayne Ann Krentz books written under her pseudonym, Amanda Quick. I fell in love with the Quick stories years ago when I picked up a copy of Ravished in a used bookstore. After that I searched for her books everywhere, now I preorder them. Although I love paranormal, I found the Arcane Society series a little lacking when compared to the author’s previous works. So, when I received her newest, The Perfect Poison, I didn’t start reading it immediately as I’d always done before. Now that I’ve had a chance to read Quick’s newest, I’m happy to see the author’s writing is returning somewhat to the older style. I found the suspense in this one a little weak, but the romance was lovely and the mystery interesting.

We met Caleb in a previous book and I was thrilled to finally get his story. I adored both Lucinda and Caleb. The way their romance develops is both delightful and refreshing. I like it when the hero and heroine know what they want and go about getting it without so much dillydallying and wishy washy excuses to keep them apart. The internal conflict was there because of Caleb’s possible decent to madness, but although this keeps him from offering marriage, it doesn’t keep him from passionately pursing an intimate and professional relationship with Lucinda. I can take or leave sex scenes in a story, but the love scene in the drying shed between Lucinda and Caleb was one of the best and most romantic I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. Ms. Quick is a master of words and a phenomenal storyteller. I especially love her unique use of verbs that bring a sentence immediately to life.

So, although I still found the book not quite up to the standards of the earlier Amanda Quick stories, it was close and I highly recommend it to any reader who loves Victorian romance with light suspense.

Willow–