Full Preterism Heresy: The Context
The Resurrection on Trial
We read in Ezekiel 37:
“Son of Man, can these bones live?”1
...and so the greater Son of Man, Jesus Christ, asks each one of us amidst the revival of an ancient heresy2—the denial of the bodily resurrection, the future, bodily return of Christ, and the judgment he will bring on the last day—whether we will believe the truth.
In this series, Valley of Dry Bones aims to equip Christians with the facts and background behind the developing heresy being promoted by Gary DeMar—and as we will demonstrate, several other prominent members of Christian media.
When we began investigating, we never expected the rabbit hole to go this deep, but each new find led us to a dozen more until we were forced to discover that this crisis has been brewing for over a decade. That story is for our next post. For now, we want to help the reader get up to speed in preparation for a full review of this assault on Christ's church. Sign up so you don't miss that post when it's released.
Update 4/3/2023: That post is now released: Wolves Put Out to Pasture
Moscow Under Attack
Moscow, Idaho is no stranger to controversy, so much so that Pastor Doug Wilson has a page on his website dedicated to logging them. Wilson, in our case, is not the concern of this article; in fact, he has taken tangible action in the case of DeMar by signing the open letter to him, calling him personally on the phone, and writing a comprehensive refutation of Full Preterism. Nevertheless, the situation in Moscow establishes some important context for why Full Preterism is rearing its ugly head and what is (and is not) being done about it.
Moscow-adjacent ministries and the CREC draw constant flack with at least a sizable portion of it being illegitimate. While there are real theological controversies and occasional questionable decisions, the degree of criticism is often so strong that it betrays a sort of “Doug Wilson Derangement Syndrome.” Critics grasp at straws seeking new ways to criticize anyone associated with them. Most are brazenly motivated by politics, upset by socially conservative and patriarchal views and finding in the controversies convenient angles from which smear and discredit those associated.
Supporters, realizing these critics are not trustworthy, have developed thorough defenses for handling and dismissing the criticism. To their credit, they have not done this through ceaseless or fruitless debate, but with various diffusion tactics: laughing off the critics, repeating catchphrases, or even writing articles with prose that belongs in a Cracker Barrel.
We acknowledge this in hopes of appealing to our brothers in Christ who may be concerned with our motives. Without offering a full pass on every theological debate, our desire is to promote the necessity of orthodoxy and fight under certainty of Christ’s victory, honoring truth over lies to the benefit of His church.
Canon+, Fight Laugh Feast & CrossPolitic
DeMar is connected to Moscow chiefly through media ministries. In particular, Canon Press’ paid digital platform, Canon+, and the Fight Laugh Feast Network (FLF) with its flagship program CrossPolitic. Before becoming a private company in 2012, Canon Press began as a ministry of Christ Church, whereas FLF, to our knowledge, has always been a private company—but the prominent figures involved in the production of most of its content are still affiliated with Christ Church or associated churches in Moscow: Doug Wilson & Toby Sumpter (pastors), Gabriel Rench (deacon), Deleaone Shannon (known primarily by his nickname Chocolate Knox) & Darren Doane (both members).
As of today, a simple search in Canon+ reveals 24 distinct programs featuring DeMar, including full books and courses. Likewise, FLF continues to platform DeMar's teaching as well as his engagement with various programs it hosts, especially CrossPolitic, media by Darren Doane, and DeMar’s own podcast. In each case, he is affectionately referred to as "Uncle Gary."
Before we continue, it is important to note that DeMar has long been passed as an orthodox Christian teacher, so the mere production and hosting of content DeMar has created does not automatically mean that those enabling this were compromised. Our concern is not that DeMar has ever been hosted on these platforms, but rather that as his heretical beliefs have begun to surface, he retains the platform which he uses to defend his views before a mixed audience of Christian laypeople.
Gary DeMar & American Vision
Gary DeMar got his start in ministry working with a variety of influential Christian Reconstructionists such as R.J. Rushdoony and Gary North through their respective ministries. DeMar’s career has revolved around the topic of Christian Reconstructionism which includes, as one of its five key aspects, postmillennialism:3 his specialization and the domain of his heretical views. DeMar in particular is a preterist postmillennialism.
Postmillennialism itself does not necessarily entail heresy nor does it necessarily entail any form of preterism. For most of his career, DeMar was assumed to be a partial preterist, a form of preterism within the realm of orthodoxy. As such, DeMar has had a nearly-40-year career writing and teaching on these topics and was taken not only to be orthodox in his beliefs, but a trusted expert on these topics.
Gary DeMar is not an elder or minister in the church. Rather, he primarily teaches through his 501(c)(3) nonprofit American Vision, which publishes books, articles, podcasts, and videos.
Preterism
Key to this controversy is understanding the meaning of preterism. On its own, preterism is ambiguous, as there are partial preterists and full preterists. Full preterists believe that all of the Bible’s prophesies have been fulfilled either in the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D or at the fall of Rome. As such, there are no remaining prophesies left to be fulfilled, most notably the general bodily resurrection of the dead, the bodily return of Christ, or a final day of judgment. Partial preterists, on the other hand, believe that a substantial amount of the New Testament prophesies—including the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) and most of the book of Revelation—were fulfilled in 70 A.D. except for the final coming of Christ, the general, bodily resurrection, and His glorious judgment.
Full preterism by necessity requires one to deny at least three fundamental aspects of Christianity:
The general, bodily resurrection of the dead
The future, bodily return of Jesus
The future judgment of the living and the dead
To those outside the "niche" of studying theology, it may seem odd to suddenly focus on attacking such a relatively obscure concept, but the fundamental problem of a denial of these three points is that it proposes an entirely different religion than Christianity (and thus an entirely different Gospel than Christ's). The implications of these views completely upend every aspect of the Christian life.
Honest Full preterists openly acknowledge that they deny these three points. They identify as Christians and sometimes even as reformed Christians, but the result is a religion unlike Christianity. One must believe that Christ has already put an end to sin, our present bodies are already glorified, and Satan is already in Hell along with the second death. Our eternal life is essentially a spirit-existence, a claim more in line with ancient Gnosticism than Christianity.
Terminology
Like most controversy, those who define the terms frame the debate. Likewise, the most effective deception is told using fragments of misleading-yet-technical truths. For example, one may deny he is a full preterist, yet still hold to the heretical implications of full preterism by granting a trivial future event still unfulfilled.4 Additionally, full preterism requires the deconstruction of accepted definitions of a variety biblical terms like "resurrection," the "whole earth," and "death." While the Bible at times does use these terms in more than one sense, the full preterist must go against their biblical uses and the accepted definitions and consensus of the church for all its history. To deal with each case is beyond our scope.
Full preterists are known variously as hyper-preterists (usually by opponents) or consistent preterists by one another. There may be minor nuances to the technical uses of these terms but they are unimportant for our purpose.
Dispensationalism
In order to understand all the interest in preterism, one must understand a prevalent view in evangelical churches: dispensationalism. Dispensationalism is far too complicated to explain in this post but suffice it to say, it involves a rapture, a great tribulation, and requires detailed charts and graphs to make sense of everything that has happened and is expected to happen. Those raised in dispensationalism often report psychological turmoil from the fear it causes, as the view tends a perspective that sees the world as a sinking ship from which they will be removed near the end. This produces an indifference to solving material problems in the world. Thus many describe their exits from Dispensationalism as conversion experiences. Postmillennialism gives them “An Eschatology of Hope,” and preterism provides the interpretive framework for the Bible in order to justify rejecting dispensationalism.
There is not a binary choice between preterism or dispensationalism, as other interpretive frameworks exist. Nevertheless, it is easy to see why one would feel attachment to the preterist method after leaving dispensationalism.
Conclusion
Hopefully by now you understand what is at stake in the Full Preterism controversy and are equipped to understand and study the timeline of how this crisis came about, the behavior of false teachers, and the responsibility of our shepherds to fight them.
If you found this article helpful, please share it with others.
Ezekiel 37 contains both the question and the answer.
A quick note on the term ‘heresy’: it is technically correct to speak of heresy as any false teaching about the Christian faith, regardless of the scope and seriousness, but for the purposes of this publication, we speak of heresy as a fundamental break from the Christian religion such that one cannot be saved holding to it. In other words, we mean damnable heresy.
Postmillennialism is the view that history ends with the victory of Christ’s church over the world, that by the power of God, the church must ultimately triumph.
This helpful observation came from Jordan Wilson (no affiliation with this blog, nor with Doug Wilson). https://www.christendommedia.com/preterism-precision-demar/
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