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Counter-Reformation Futurist and Preterist Views of Revelation and the antichrist

Janet Smith – 11/2/17 ©gardenministries.org

The opened seal of Revelation 6:2 releases a different white horse then the white horse and rider of Revelation 19:11. The Revelation 6:2 horse and rider represent the spirit of antichrist, which began riding as soon as the Acts 2 outpouring of the Holy Spirit birthed the true Church. The Revelation 6:2 seal opened when the true Church was born and has been continually opening [or unfolding] ever since. The Revelation 6:2 white horse riding forth represents the counterfeit, “unholy-spirit of antichrist” who was released and who continues to release itself throughout history until the end of this age. Even on the day that Jesus hung and died on Calvary’s tree, satan’s son of perdition, Judas, also hung and died on a tree.

Ever since the Holy Spirit at Pentecost birthed the true Church, the counterfeit, religious unholy-spirit of antichrist can be more accurately viewed as being in a perpetual “now-but-maturing” mode
rather than an all-in-the-future (Futurist) or all-in-the-past (Preterist) view. When the Church was birthed in the Upper Room, the spirit of antichrist shot back and birthed the false church. An unfolding, “now-but-maturing” view of the existence of the spirit of antichrist and how it has manifested throughout history helps us both understand and resolve the “Now” language of 1 John chapters 1, 2, and 4 and the “Future” view of a fully-matured, “man of lawlessness” version of the antichrist as described in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

The Futurist and Preterist views were originally developed by the Catholic Church to counter the Church Reform that began with Martin Luther’s Protestantism. Unfortunately, the Futurist and Preterist views blind the viewer from seeing the existing “Now-and-maturing” nature of the spirit of antichrist.

While not an ‘end-all” perfected view, the Historicist view stands on better ground Biblically. “The historicist system of interpretation understands the book of Revelation as setting forth the major events of Christian history spanning the time of John until the present.” https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/revelation/introduction/historicist-interpretation.html

Important Background on the Roots of Futurism and Preterism:

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther released his 95-theses denouncing among many things, the Catholic churches sale of indulgences and that “Justification is by faith alone!” This began the Protestant Reformation that led the Catholic Church to launch a Counter-Reformation movement to regain ground they lost to the Protestant Reforms.

From 1545-1563, the Catholic Church convened the “Council of Trent” in Italy to form and execute Counter-Reformation strategies in following three categories:

The 3-Fold Counter-Reformation Strategy List:
1.) Open warfare
2.) Intrigue
3.) Theology

Regarding strategy #3: Known for their keen intellectualism, the Jesuit Order (The Society of Jesus) was chosen and commissioned by the Vatican at the Council of Trent to specifically develop counter-theories and theology to take the blame off of the Catholic Church. The Jesuit priest named Francisco Ribera from the University of Salamanca in Spain wrote the theology that became known as Futurism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Ribera
http://amazingdiscoveries.org/RT_encyclopedia_Futurism_Jesuit_Ribera

“In 1590, Ribera published a commentary on the [book of] Revelation as a counter-interpretation to the prevailing view among Protestants which identified the Papacy with the Antichrist. Ribera applied all of Revelation but the earliest chapters to the end time rather than to the history of the church. Antichrist would be a single evil person who would be received by the Jews and would rebuild Jerusalem, abolish Christianity, deny Christ, persecute the Church, and rule the world for three and a half years.” George Eldon Ladd, Blessed Hope, 37-38

This Counter-Reformation, Jesuit-created, Theology is remarkably similar to the view reflected in Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins Christian fiction book series, “Left Behind.”

The Council of Trent’s Counter-Reformation strategy launched a second Jesuit Theology in the opposite direction as Ribera’s. Preterist theology was founded by another commissioned Jesuit priest, Luis del Alcázar in 1614. Alcázar’s view was that “the antichrist was Nero” and that “everything in the Apocalypse, apart from the three final chapters, refers to events that already have come to pass.” Alcázar explained Revelation as being that of the past “by the fall of Jerusalem or by the fall of Pagan Rome in 410 A.D.” The Beasts and The Little Horn, 7. https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Luis_del_Alc%C3%A1zar

On 11/22/2004, TIME Magazine wrote an article countering Left Behind “theology” by referencing a Christian fiction novel entitled, The Last Disciple. This book described the antichrist as someone from the past named Emperor Nero whose servant threatens Christians and forces them to worship the beast—Nero. In contrast to the Futurist’s Left Behind series, The Last Disciple’s “theology” is Preterist and says that the antichrist was Nero and that the time of antichrist has already happened.

That’s why knowing where these views originated is so important. To accomplish their assignment to redirect negative attention off of the Catholic church through counter-reformation theology, the two Jesuits commissioned by the Council of Trent went in two opposite directions and formed two theological half-truth theologies. One (Ribera) said the Book of Revelation was all in the future (Futurism) and the other (Alcázar) said it was all in the past (Preterist). They were both anti-protestant theological views developed with the intent of taking the eyes off of the Roman Catholic Church. Centuries later, these very Counter-Reformation views resurface within the premise of the fictional books, the Left Behind series (Futurism) and The Last Disciple (Preterism).
———

Additional considerations:

• The religion of antichrist is the religion of purported half-truths couched with hidden agendas that always point its “believers” back to the created rather than to the Creator.
• If Preterism was developed as the Catholic Church’s Counter-Reformation Theology, is Partial-Preterism then, simply building on the cracked foundation of Preterist theology?
• Understanding the various Millennial views such as the following describe may also prove helpful:

o https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/mill.cfm
o http://www.ihopkc.org.edgesuite.net/platform/IHOP/173/303/20140926_Historic_Premillennialism_and_the_Victorious_Church_TMHE03_study_notes.pdf


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