Baby #2

New Heavens and New Earth

Another issue I am going to begin discussing here is Preterism (vs. pre-millennial doctrine). I’m going to expound on several of the main points in following posts, but today I’m going to address the one objection to Preterism I hear and read the most.

If Jesus’s words are fulfilled (I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.) in AD 70 as preterists believe, where is the New Heaven and the New Earth spoken of by Peter? I defer to David Chilton:

According to St. Peter’s second epistle, Christ and the apostles had warned that apostasy would accelerate toward the end of the “last days” (2 Pet. 3:2–4; cf. Jude 17–19)—the forty-year period between Christ’s ascension and the destruction of the Old Covenant Temple in A.D. 70.1 He makes it clear that these latter-day “mockers” were Covenant apostates: familiar with Old Testament history and prophecy, they were Jews who had abandoned the Abrahamic Covenant by rejecting Christ. As Jesus had repeatedly warned (cf. Matt. 12:38–45; 16:1–4; 23:29–39), upon this evil and perverse generation would come the great “Day of Judgment” foretold in the prophets, a “destruction of ungodly men” like that suffered by the wicked of Noah’s day (2 Pet. 3:5–7). Throughout His ministry Jesus drew this analogy (see Matt. 24:37–39 and Luke 17:26–27). Just as God destroyed the “world” of the antediluvian era by the Flood, so would the “world” of first-century Israel be destroyed by fire in the fall of Jerusalem. St. Peter describes this judgment as the destruction of “the present heavens and earth” (2 Pet. 3:7), making way for “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Pet. 3:10).

The Art of Discipline

Recently I have been engaged in a forum discussion concerning discipline. First, know that my presuppositions are that the application of Scripture’s principles to all areas of life is required to live as a Christian. The term would be theonomy: believing that God gives us an answer for every issue in His Word.

That being said, I have been greatly assisted in the practical application of Proverbs by Michael and Debi Pearl of No Greater Joy Ministries. Please note that I do disagree with some of their other teachings, but on the subjects of discipline and submission I find no fault nor find them to stray from Scripture at all.

My first point is to give the verses oft quoted in defense of my position, and the Hebrew definitions behind them.

Withhold not correction from the child for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell. (Prov. 23:13-14 KJV)