Preterism
Okay, so let's imagine that you and I are playing a game with toys. We have a bunch of different kinds of toys, like cars, dolls, animals, and blocks. We can make up all kinds of stories and adventures for our toys to have.
Now, imagine that we've been playing with these toys for a really long time. We've made up so many stories that we can't even remember all of them. But we love these toys and we want to keep playing with them.
One day, we decide that we want to organize all of our stories and adventures into a big book. We work really hard on this book, writing down everything we can remember about each toy and the things we've made them do. We even draw pictures to go along with the stories.
But there's a problem: some of the toys we used to play with have gotten lost or broken. We can't remember everything we did with them, so we just leave them out of the book. We still remember playing with them, but we don't have all the details anymore.
This is kind of like what preterism means. Preterism is a way of understanding the Bible, which is a big book filled with stories and teachings about God and Jesus. Preterism says that some of the things in the Bible have already happened, just like some of our toy stories have already happened.
For example, there are stories in the Bible about the end of the world and the return of Jesus. Preterism says that some of these things actually happened a long time ago, in the past. It's like we wrote these stories down in our toy book, even though we don't remember all the details.
Now, this can be a bit confusing, because we usually think of the Bible as a book about the future, not the past. But preterism says that some of the things that the Bible talks about were actually fulfilled a long time ago, just like some of our toy stories have already been finished.
So there you have it, a simplified explanation of preterism. Just like we can't remember everything about our toy stories, we might not be able to remember everything about the past events the Bible talks about. But we can still learn from these stories and teachings, and use them to make sense of our world today.
Now, imagine that we've been playing with these toys for a really long time. We've made up so many stories that we can't even remember all of them. But we love these toys and we want to keep playing with them.
One day, we decide that we want to organize all of our stories and adventures into a big book. We work really hard on this book, writing down everything we can remember about each toy and the things we've made them do. We even draw pictures to go along with the stories.
But there's a problem: some of the toys we used to play with have gotten lost or broken. We can't remember everything we did with them, so we just leave them out of the book. We still remember playing with them, but we don't have all the details anymore.
This is kind of like what preterism means. Preterism is a way of understanding the Bible, which is a big book filled with stories and teachings about God and Jesus. Preterism says that some of the things in the Bible have already happened, just like some of our toy stories have already happened.
For example, there are stories in the Bible about the end of the world and the return of Jesus. Preterism says that some of these things actually happened a long time ago, in the past. It's like we wrote these stories down in our toy book, even though we don't remember all the details.
Now, this can be a bit confusing, because we usually think of the Bible as a book about the future, not the past. But preterism says that some of the things that the Bible talks about were actually fulfilled a long time ago, just like some of our toy stories have already been finished.
So there you have it, a simplified explanation of preterism. Just like we can't remember everything about our toy stories, we might not be able to remember everything about the past events the Bible talks about. But we can still learn from these stories and teachings, and use them to make sense of our world today.
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