|
Chicago Eschatology Conference Chicago Eschatology Conference THIRTEEN SESSIONS: TWO SPEAKERS: 2. ED STEVENS -- Long time preterist (since 1975), Ed has written five books and published several others, including three books by John Noe, four books by Jessie Mills, J. S. Russell, Arthur Melanson, Al Pigeon, Ian Harding, Dan Harden, and Ken Davies. Ed has defended preterism in two oral debates and two written debates, spoken in numerous seminars all over the country (including OH, PA, FL, NC, CT, NY, NJ, NE, TX, NM, MI, and CA), interviewed on numerous radio talk shows, and sets up an exhibit booth every November at the annual Evangelical Theological Society conferences. He writes a regular column for the quarterly Fulfilled Magazine. Currently engaged in producing a multi-authored book in response to Mathison's book which was critical of preterism. He is also working on expanded editions of some of his previous books, and finishing his historical reconstructive work entitled, First Century Events in Chronological Order.
Report on our two most important projects. To All The Friends of IPA, This letter provides an update on the two most significant projects that we are currently involved in (our annual exhibit booth at the Evangelical Theological Society, and the Mathison Response Project). It will also give you the opportunity to receive some of the latest products of our writing, speaking, and publishing efforts. Exhibit Booth at the Evangelical Theological Society Conference In November (2009), IPA set up its annual exhibit booth at the Evangelical Theological Society conference in New Orleans to promote the preterist view to its two thousand attendees. This was our eleventh consecutive year to do this, and every year the benefits for the whole Preterist movement keep getting better and better:
Every year the number of negative encounters at our exhibit booth has been less than the year before, and the number of positive encounters always increasing. The last two years there were no negative confrontations at all, and lots of very positive conversations. There were no speeches or paper presentations delivered against Preterism. And there were some speeches which used preterist hermeneutical principles on some of the eschatological texts. Our goal every year at ETS is to help those key leaders in conservative Christianity understand the preterist view and see it as a valid option within conservative evangelical Christianity. And it is working! Attendees at this annual conference are key opinion leaders in conservative Christianity – theologians, seminary professors, writers, publishers, pastors, ministry heads, and media personalities in evangelical circles. We had six preterist guys (Parker Voll, Paul Anderson, George Meara, Edmund Lee, Roy Montalbano, and Ed Stevens) who volunteered at their own expense to work in the booth and interact with the hundreds of attendees who came by our booth. One hundred seventy of them took a FREE review copy of Russell’s book, The Parousia. Another 30 of the Parousia books were kept by Edmund Lee to give away to his contacts there in the New Orleans area. This was our seventh year to give away 200 copies at ETS, for a total of 1400 copies so far. That is a lot of copies of Russell’s book to be sent out into the theological world as little preterist missionaries. There were two of us who presented scholarly papers there at ETS this year, Paul Anderson and myself. The theme of this year’s conference was Personal and Social Ethics. Paul’s presentation was titled, “Codex W and Related Manuscripts: A Comparative and Statistical Analysis.” My paper was titled, “How Eschatology Affects Our Ethics.” Both of these presentations were recorded, and along with my written paper are being made available to those who make a contribution to IPA (see details below). These efforts at ETS are enabling hundreds of conservative Christian leaders and seminary students to be introduced to the Preterist view every year. The truth marches on! But the costs are challenging. We sell very few books there, and the few we do sell are heavily discounted (in order to get them in the hands of those opinion leaders in the conservative Christian community). In addition to giving away two hundred of Russell’s book and dozens of other individual books, there is the additional cost of renting and furnishing the exhibit booth space (over $2500), shipping the books to the conference ($190), plus my gasoline, food, and lodging for the five days of the conference trip (over $600). This takes a huge bite out of our budget every year, but we believe very strongly that it is worth every penny for the good impact we are having there. Minds are being informed, challenged, and changed. Our work at ETS has planted seed that is already producing good fruit for the cause of Biblical Truth. Every year we exhibit there is cultivating and nurturing those seeds even more. We sincerely appreciate those of you who enable us to do this work by your contributions. We can not do it without you. The Mathison Response Book Project Recently I have had several inquiries about the status of our multi-authored response to Mathison’s critique book against Preterism. It is another one of those extremely important projects which benefits the whole preterist movement. All of us Preterists want to see a clear and convincing answer to all the critical objections expressed in Mathison’s book. We here at IPA do not want to give just a quick knee-jerk reaction to a few of those objections, but rather a thorough and well-reasoned response that will stand the test of time and be useful for all generations to come. No one wants to see our book in print any more than I do, however my goal is quality, not speed. I do not wish to rush it into print until it is ready to face the close scrutiny and intense criticism that is sure to come once it is published. The enemies of Truth have always tried to discredit the doctrine by pointing out the moral, ethical, and spiritual flaws of its proponents. Gentry, Sproul Jr., and others in Mathison’s book are very skilled in using this approach. Since they could not refute our arguments with correctly exegeted scripture, they resorted to character assassination and personal attacks. So it behooves the editor of our response book to make sure our writers are as conservative as possible (morally, ethically, doctrinally, and spiritually). As the editor of the project, I reserve the right at any time to exclude any writers or articles which I believe might compromise either the consistency of our preterist apologetic or the effectiveness of the book once it is in print. It is this type of concern which forced me to make some adjustments, not only to the timetable for the project, but to the list of contributing writers as well. In a previous report (Oct. 2007) I mentioned that we had made some changes to our writer list, but that all the critical chapters in Mathison’s book still have writers assigned to them, to ensure the comprehensiveness of our response. We added three new writers to replace the ones who resigned from the project. Walt Hibbard will be doing the Foreword for the book. Here is the list of the main writers (and the chapters in Mathison’s book to which they are responding): Ken Arndt (vs. Gentry) All of these writers are seminary graduates and have letters behind their name. But more importantly, they are all godly men of high moral and ethical character, who love the truth and are willing to defend it no matter the cost. Hibbard, Arndt and one other have already written their articles, while Stevens and Voll are still working on theirs. So we are still on track with a collection of articles that I believe will be consistent, conservative, and doctrinally uncompromising in its response to our critics. I am unable at this time to set any firm date for publication, but I can assure you that it is my top priority. And we are absolutely depending on God’s providential help and your financial support to finish it. Every year I look forward to ETS with great anticipation, anxious to see how God will use us for His Kingdom. It is hard and expensive work, but extremely encouraging because I know we are doing things which will help the whole Preterist movement. I know you want your financial support to make a BIG difference for truth. By contributing to IPA, you can share in all the fruit that comes from our efforts at ETS and the books that we publish, and all the seminars and website work and emails that we provide to truth-seekers. Your tax-deductible gift of $25 (or more) will enable us to continue our work at ETS each year, and help us finish the Mathison response book. We cannot do it without God’s providence through partners like you. We not only need one-time gifts for annual efforts like ETS, but regular monthly support for our ongoing work with the Mathison response book. We pray that God will enable many of you to also help us on a monthly basis. Give as generously and as often as God leads you to. In appreciation for your gift, you will be one of the first to receive our latest resources (see the postscript below for details). To contribute, simply fill in the amount at the bottom of our SECURE website order form (click here), or call our Toll-Free order line (1-888-257-7023) to contribute using your debit/credit card. Thanks for sharing with us in this work! Your partner in the promotion of Fulfilled Prophecy, Edward E. Stevens, President International Preterist Association P.S. In appreciation for your gift of $25 or more, you will receive a CD with the two MP3 audio tracks of the two presentations at ETS by Paul Anderson and Ed Stevens which are described at the beginning of this report (above) under the heading of “Exhibit Booth at Evangelical Theological Society Conference.” The CD also contains a PDF (eText) version of Ed Stevens' paper which you can either read on your computer screen, or print out on paper for reading along with him as you listen to his presentation. • Gifts of $50 or more will receive (in addition to the above) a photocopy of the latest revision of a new manuscript I am working on, First Century Events in Chronological Order. This is a chronological listing of the most significant events during the final twelve years leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. I pinpoint the dates when each New Testament book was written, as well as the historical circumstances under which they were written. I explain the great tribulation (from AD 62-66) and the events in Judea which led to the revolt against Rome, including all the significant events in Jewish, Roman, and Christian history that contributed to the development of the NT canon and the fulfillment of all Biblical endtime prophecies. I explain when John was exiled to Patmos, and how he and Paul most likely were martyred in the Neronic persecution in AD 64-65. It also lists in chronological order the main events of the Zealot rebellion and the war with Rome. If you ever wanted to get a much better grasp of the historical background of our NT faith from a preterist perspective, this is a good place to start. It will make the New Testament (especially its eschatological passages) come alive for you. • Become a Monthly Supporter: Our monthly contributors are always the first ones to receive free copies of our latest resources (like the ones mentioned above). We ship them to you before they are made available to everyone else. If you are not yet a monthly supporter, you may wish to begin doing that. Simply indicate your desire to support monthly at the bottom of our SECURE website Order Form (click here) and we will contact you to make the arrangements, or you may call our Toll-Free order line (1-888-257-7023). We can send you a packet of coupons and envelopes to use in mailing your check to us, or we could do a monthly debit to your card (at whatever time of the month you prefer). We will then send either an email receipt or a regular mail receipt in acknowledgment of your donations each month, as well as a summary statement of your deductible contributions at the end of the year. |
