Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A Christian doctrine holding that at least some of the apocalyptic prophecies in the Bible describe events that occurred within the first century after Jesus's death, rather than events that lie still in the future.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun theology A Christian eschatological view that interprets Biblical prophecies as events which have already happened in the first century A.D.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin praeter, beyond, past; see preterite + –ism.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

preterit +‎ -ism

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word preterism.

Examples

  • Also, one does not have to attach a label called "preterism" to his eschatology in order to hold to a highly contextualized eschatology placed in the first century.

    open source theology - Comments 2008

  • Also, one does not have to attach a label called "preterism" to his eschatology in order to hold to a highly contextualized eschatology placed in the first century.

    open source theology - Comments 2008

  • Also, one does not have to attach a label called "preterism" to his eschatology in order to hold to a highly contextualized eschatology placed in the first century.

    open source theology - Comments 2008

  • Also, one does not have to attach a label called "preterism" to his eschatology in order to hold to a highly contextualized eschatology placed in the first century.

    open source theology - Comments 2008

  • Also, one does not have to attach a label called "preterism" to his eschatology in order to hold to a highly contextualized eschatology placed in the first century.

    open source theology - Comments 2008

  • Not only does preterism do violence to the teachings of Paul and the others in the NT, it also does violence to the teachings of the "Church" you talk about.

    Review of Doubting Jesus' Resurrection James F. McGrath 2010

  • I sure have heard about preterism, just like I have heard about a lot of other apologetic nonsense that many Christians come up with all the time to convince themselves that their Lord or his earlist followers cannot possibly have been wrong about a thing like the Fate of this planet.

    Review of Doubting Jesus' Resurrection James F. McGrath 2010

  • Well, if you want to stick to what the "Church" and the Church Fathers taught, until some Christians in pretty recent times came up with totally different views about the Parousia, then you´d better throw preterism out the window.

    Review of Doubting Jesus' Resurrection James F. McGrath 2010

  • I read the preterism chapter of Four Views on the Book of Revelation, and that's the only source of information I know of on this.

    A Great Question That Brought Someone Here James F. McGrath 2008

  • All the AnteNicene Fathers are divided between preterism and futurism.

    Preterist Pulp Fiction vs. Rapture Rubbish 2004

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Christian eschatology which holds that some or all of the biblical prophecies concerning the Last Days or End Times refer to events which actually happened in the first century after Christ's birth. (Wikipedia)

    May 27, 2008