spauline
September 30th 2007, 04:30 AM
Preterism is entirely valid in its own right, as I suppose futurism might even be, as could mere idealism. but preterism is not as important as spiritual historicism.
For example, the implications for major Salvation history of the fact that the war in the fall of Jerusalem was "FIVE months" is not nearly as important as "the Protestant rebelllion dealt a deadly blow to Christian unity, plunging entire large communities into the loss of FIVE sacraments and unleashing divsion and chaos that clearly served as the beginning of undoing the Christian faith altogether in the civs that intially had it."
Hence, the significance of Protestantism has far greater weight of meaning in Salvation history than that Jerusalem fell in five months. If it had been 23 months, would that alter the course of Salvatoin history? So i shouldn't say that the details of the destruction of the temple are utterly useless. But I should say that they are far less significant than the greater spiritual ages of the Church, precisely which are tied to ecclesiology, which is one of the central questions of PUBLIC revelation and dogma.
Dogma doesn't state: "Jerusalem fell in five months" nor would I see any reason that the Church would need to declare such a dogma, because, as a piece of temporal data, it's practically useless. On the other hand, the Chuch defines, "God gives sufficient grace to all schismatics, heretics, infidels, Jews, and pagans." She DOGMATICALLY defines matters of ecclesiology. No where does Jesus say in the Gospels that Jerusalem would fall in five months, but He implies ecclesiology when, in His Eucharistic Prayer, in John 17, he prays that "they may be one."
To the best of my knowledge, the CCC no where mentions that Jerusalem fell in five months, but it mentions "Wounds to unity, schism, heresy, scandal", which are also in Scripture. In the normal Mass prayers, I have never heard the phrase, "and in five months, O Lord, you allowed the Romans to destroy the Temple", but in EVERY SINGLE EUCHARISTIC PRAYER, whether watered down or not but modern lectionaries, there is either an EXPLICIT or IMPLICIT reference to a prayer that CHRISTIAN UNITY increase.
So, here's what I'm saying. The TEMPORAL details of the Early Church may have had SOME MINOR significance for the Early Christians, but, in the grander scheme of things, they are NOT that important. Jerusalem FELL, and the NT age was born. Yes, THAT is monumental. But knowing TEMPORAL specifics of this? Is that really all that important? If you are orthodox, you cannot say these minor TEMPORAL details have the same implication toward the meaning of human history as ECCLESIOLOGY. Ecclesiology is of far more sweeping and has far more mega implications for the salvation of the world.
Therefore, a person who truly understands the Gospel in its core essence would never be content with preterism. A person with true wisdom in this area knows that there must be more, FAR more, to this book, than that.
For example, the implications for major Salvation history of the fact that the war in the fall of Jerusalem was "FIVE months" is not nearly as important as "the Protestant rebelllion dealt a deadly blow to Christian unity, plunging entire large communities into the loss of FIVE sacraments and unleashing divsion and chaos that clearly served as the beginning of undoing the Christian faith altogether in the civs that intially had it."
Hence, the significance of Protestantism has far greater weight of meaning in Salvation history than that Jerusalem fell in five months. If it had been 23 months, would that alter the course of Salvatoin history? So i shouldn't say that the details of the destruction of the temple are utterly useless. But I should say that they are far less significant than the greater spiritual ages of the Church, precisely which are tied to ecclesiology, which is one of the central questions of PUBLIC revelation and dogma.
Dogma doesn't state: "Jerusalem fell in five months" nor would I see any reason that the Church would need to declare such a dogma, because, as a piece of temporal data, it's practically useless. On the other hand, the Chuch defines, "God gives sufficient grace to all schismatics, heretics, infidels, Jews, and pagans." She DOGMATICALLY defines matters of ecclesiology. No where does Jesus say in the Gospels that Jerusalem would fall in five months, but He implies ecclesiology when, in His Eucharistic Prayer, in John 17, he prays that "they may be one."
To the best of my knowledge, the CCC no where mentions that Jerusalem fell in five months, but it mentions "Wounds to unity, schism, heresy, scandal", which are also in Scripture. In the normal Mass prayers, I have never heard the phrase, "and in five months, O Lord, you allowed the Romans to destroy the Temple", but in EVERY SINGLE EUCHARISTIC PRAYER, whether watered down or not but modern lectionaries, there is either an EXPLICIT or IMPLICIT reference to a prayer that CHRISTIAN UNITY increase.
So, here's what I'm saying. The TEMPORAL details of the Early Church may have had SOME MINOR significance for the Early Christians, but, in the grander scheme of things, they are NOT that important. Jerusalem FELL, and the NT age was born. Yes, THAT is monumental. But knowing TEMPORAL specifics of this? Is that really all that important? If you are orthodox, you cannot say these minor TEMPORAL details have the same implication toward the meaning of human history as ECCLESIOLOGY. Ecclesiology is of far more sweeping and has far more mega implications for the salvation of the world.
Therefore, a person who truly understands the Gospel in its core essence would never be content with preterism. A person with true wisdom in this area knows that there must be more, FAR more, to this book, than that.