After school that morning I went back up to the radio station to wrap up a few things from the night before. While I was there I thought I'd run in and see our news director, Brian Perez. I dropped by his studio with Bible in hand and gave him a cliff's notes version of what I had discovered earlier that morning. I then proceeded to point out some passages from the Bible that I had never really noticed before, that now stood out like a sore thumb.
The first one was Matthew 10:23 which states that Jesus, disciples whom He was sending out would, "not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes." Which always left me wondering which of Jesus disciples were still wandering around the Judean countryside today going from city to city spreading the good news. I mean hey...Didn't they all die before the first century came to a close? Right? 8)
And then there was Matthew 16:27-28 "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you,(Jesus' disciples) there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
How could I have missed verses like this before? That Jesus' disciples would not make it through the cities of Israel and that some of them would not die before the Son of Man comes. Those verses are right there. I had either read or listened to these same verses who knows how many times before. Of course as I looked back I realized that either these verses had been glazed over by myself or those teachers that I had been listening to or attributed to something else. I think it safe to say that certain presuppositional biases I held to kept me from understanding them.
And so I asked Brian, "Have you ever seen these verses before? Look at what they are saying." He said, "Yeah...I've seen them before and they've made me scratch my head...But I never really gave much thought to them."
And then...Whooosh...My friend Jymi Stewart comes into the studio behind me and says, "What's up dude...I know what you're doing...you're wrong!" I said, "Huh?" By the way...If you've ever spent much time in a radio station you would understand what I mean by...Whooosh, when Jymi came in. Recording studios are sound proof, sealed and pretty much air tight. So when the door opens quickly...Whooosh!!! Anyhow, back to the story. 8)
I can only assume that he had spoken to Lee Davis while I was in school and that Lee told Jymi about the same things that I brought up to Lee earlier that morning. From what I remember Lee was just about as excited about this new discovery as I was. And so I had barely understood much less embraced a fulfilled view of eschatology for what was maybe 6 hours and I already ran into fierce opposition.
A little background info about Jymi Stewart. I met him at the station a couple of years earlier. He wasn't your typical Calvary Chapel kind of guy. If I remember correctly he didn't even attend a Calvary Chapel, then again most of the people that worked for the station didn't attend one either. Some did though. Anyhow...I considered Jymi a good friend. He was someone that had a great zeal for the Bible and spent a lot of time studying cults and apologetics so that he could be a useful tool in the hands of God.
Over the next few weeks as I began to study the fulfilled view of Bible prophecy or preterism, I took the time to run some of these idea's past Jymi. But he would have nothing to do with it. I was just wrong and that's all there was to it. At least that's how I remember it going down. It was a very intense time of study and emotion and with all these new ideas running through my head I may have remembered something wrong. Either way the more I became convinced of the preterist method of interpretation the less Jymi wanted to have anything to do with me.
Since that time, my relationship with Jymi hasn't been the only one affected by my understanding of Bible prophecy. However the loss of his friendship has been the most significant. Others have disagreed...But none so disagreeably. I'd love to be friends with him again some day. I've even attempted to add him as a friend on Facebook. But I can only conclude by his lack of response that he still feels the same as he did more than four years ago.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It's quite a bummer to lose a friend of eschatology. I figure you have lost more than that as well since you "expected to be a Calvary Chapel pastor by this point." I know a lot of preterists who have lost friends and a whole lot more because of it too. David Curtis' story always comes to mind as well as Jack Scott's by the way. I have a friend who's parents quit having anything to do with him over it as well. It's sad how our own brothers in Christ are the most closed minded and the quickest to end relationships over things like this. They forget that love is the most important thing. My wife always wants me to keep my mouth shut around friends and at church so we can still have friends and a church. It's tough, but get's easier over time since I have friends who are preterist whom I can talk to at least. I'm sure you have found the same by now too.
ReplyDeleteI remember this time in my life too, when I first discovered preterism and I figured that everyone would be as excited as I was too. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out that way.
Oh and it's Matthew 16:27-28, not 23 so you may want to fix that. ;)
Thanks Dru...Not sure where Matthew 23 came from. 8) This is just the beginning of the story.
ReplyDelete