About the Author
My name is William Brewer. I’m the author of this website.
I was not always a preterist. I was raised in a Christian home and my father was a historic premillennialist. This was the view I held well into my mid-thirties. I hoped to be alive through the tribulation and to be raptured at the Lord’s second coming. I studied the prophetic books of the Bible and the biblical account of the age of the Earth. I suspected the millennial reign would probably come after 6,000 years of world history. I tried to calculate when that point would be so that I could know approximately when Christ would return.
But in my studies of eschatology, there were always a few end-times passages that never seemed to make sense or be reconcilable with reality. The olivet discourse presented one such difficulty. Christ said all those things would be fulfilled before that generation passed away. I always hoped nobody would ask me to defend Jesus’s olivet discourse. I figured the apologists probably had some good answer, but I sure couldn’t think of what it might be. I also struggled with identifying who Babylon was. How could the merchants be so worried about the loss of their gains from the great City, when literally all the waters on the planet were turned to blood!?
Hey guys, I think you’ve got bigger things to worry about!
In 2019 God brought a dear brother into my life that showed me a more excellent way. He told me he had a vastly different eschatology and that he was probably one of the only ones who held such a view. We began studying the last few chapters of Revelation together. I was glad to learn that he was a premillennialist like I was. But it soon became apparent that he had some very peculiar beliefs!
He showed that the new heavens and new earth were contemporaneous with the millennium. I always thought that the new heavens and new earth came after the Millennium was over. He showed me that it didn’t have to be that way, they could start at the same time. He also showed me there were unrighteous people outside the city. It soon became apparent he believed that we were already in the new heavens and new earth.
He told me that Babylon was Jerusalem. I had never even considered that. When he said it, inside I know he was probably right about Preterism and I was probably wrong. I knew that that would probably resolve all the difficulties with identifying Babylon.
We started studying together regularly every Saturday night for about 6 hours a night. We went back and forth evaluation whether such a position could be held in light of all the scriptures. I already knew he’d have support from Matthew 24. I was quickly realizing he would have a lot of support from Revelation, at least parts of it. I wanted to look at passages that would potentially undermine his position. We went through the book of Ezekiel, Hebrews, Zachariah, Daniel and even the four books of Maccabees. I realized that many of the Old Testament prophecies had already been fulfilled before the first century. I realized that any idea about animal sacrifices for sin in the millennium would undermine the author of Hebrews argument about Jesus’ sacrifice adequately taking away our sin. Ezekiel’s “millennial temple” could not be built in our future.
After studying together with him for 9 months, praying about it, thinking about it, and watching preterist YouTube videos, I had to admit to myself that I was wrong and needed to switch my eschatology.
I did this somewhat reluctantly. I was really looking forward to a world without sin or evil. I was really looking forward to getting to go through the Great Tribulation. I did not like the idea that this is all there was. My friend kept assuring me that there was more, but I’d have to die, be resurrected, and go to the invisible New Jerusalem to see all the “more” that there was to see.
Overtime, the eschatology has grown on me. I realize it has tremendous apologetics value. What had formerly been an embarrassing passage (Mat 24) was now an excellent proof that Christ was indeed a true prophet. But more than that, Matt 24 now also proved that Christ had come and is judging the world. Not in an obvious and visible way, but in a real way, nonetheless. Christ is dashing the nations to pieces. Though it may look like a slow-motion video to us, if you zoom out to 20,000 years our future, it will look like the whole world became dominated by Christianity in a day. The Book of Revelation adequately foretold of the events that were to come quickly upon the world back in the first century.
Interestingly, the thousand years also provided a good understanding for why the reformers had to go through such dark times. If Christ came in 70AD, then Satan would have been released in 1070AD. If his release would last several hundred years (which would be a short time relative to a thousand years), then this would account for why there was so much trouble the Christians had to face during the Reformation. The Roman Catholic Church was acting like Gog and Magog. They were putting Christians on torture stakes for translating the Bible! Fortunately, the Catholic church has reformed itself and no longer behaves this way. It seems apparent from world history that Satan is now in the Lake of Fire. His demise probably happened sometime around the late 1600s.
I feel forever indebted to my friend for showing me this eschatology. It powerfully resolved most of the difficulties I had with biblical eschatology. My hope is that this website can be of some help to you in your studies of biblical eschatology.
My friend’s website has a lot more info and can be found here.
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