IS PRETERISM ANTI-SEMITIC?

 By Dr Kenneth L. Gentry Jr

Preterism holds that God judged Israel in AD 70 and removed her from her place of prominence in redemptive-history.
Two issues merge today in forming the anti-Semitism charge against preterism: The first is the horrific Nazi holocaust that ruthlessly slaughtered so many Jews. This enormous evil has rightly impacted our psyche regarding both the suffering of the Jews and the sinfulness of man. Its impact is widely felt in biblical and theological studies, just as it is in historical, sociological, political, psychological, and other fields of academic endeavor.
The second is political correctness, with all of its absurdities and hyper-sensitivity. We are all familiar with this liberal mindset and its heightened sensitivity to any sort of perceived slight to any people group — except for Christians, especially evangelical Christians. Combined with an extreme relativism, the very facts of history are either totally sup-pressed or radically reinterpreted in order to promote the new values inherent in this perspective.
In this sort of environment any promotion or defense of Christianity, especially regarding its truth claims and its history-altering impact, is fair game for intellectual derision and academic assault. The modern mind stands aghast that we believe Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life.” The notion of Jesus as the only Savior is anathema that is condemned with all the vitriol that can be mustered.
Nevertheless, dispensationalists are opposed to preterism not only as an interpretive construct, but as a moral blight. Tomorrow I will begin looking at this charge of anti-Semitism which dispensationalists hurl at preterism.