The false doctrines of the Preterist and Futurist interpretation

Here is from Wikipedia where I am a author and it is straightforward:

'One of the most influential aspects of the early Protestant historicist paradigm was the assertion that scriptural identifiers of the Antichrist where matched only by the institution of the Papacy. Particular significance and concern were the Papal claims of authority over both the Church, through Apostolic succession, and the State, through the Divine right of Kings. When the Papacy aspires to exercise authority beyond its religious realm into civil affairs, on account of the Papal claim to be the Vicar of Christ, then the institution was fulfilling the more perilous biblical indicators of the Antichrist. Martin Luther wrote this view, which was not novel, into the Smalcald Articles of 1537. It was then widely popularized in the 16th century, via sermons, drama, books, and broadside publication. The alternate methods of prophetic interpretation, Futurism and Preterism were derived from Jesuit writings, whose counter reformation efforts were aimed at opposing this interpretation that the Antichrist was the Papacy or the power of the Roman Catholic Church

Protestant Reformers, including John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, John Thomas, John Knox, Roger Williams, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley, as well as most Protestants of the 16th–18th centuries, felt that the Early Church had been led into the Great Apostasy by the Papacy and identified the Pope with the Antichrist. The Centuriators of Magdeburg, a group of Lutheran scholars in Magdeburg headed by Matthias Flacius, wrote the 12-volume Magdeburg Centuries to discredit the Catholic Church and lead other Christians to recognize the Pope as the Antichrist. So, rather than expecting a single Antichrist to rule the earth during a future Tribulation period, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other Protestant Reformers saw the Antichrist as a present feature in the world of their time, fulfilled in the Papacy. '

Now in order to counter this view that the papacy was the Antichrist power it the church turned to the Jesuits who were summoned to counter the reformers' teachings, and here two Jesuit scholars stand out in particular. They are Ribera and Alcasar, and they developed the Futurist and Preterist systems of prophetic interpretation.

Spanish Jesuit Francisco Ribera published a commentary on the book of Revelation which proposed that the bulk of the prophecies would be fulfilled in a brief three-and-one-half-year period at the end of the Christian era. In that short space antichrist (a single individual, according to Ribera) would rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, deny Christ, abolish Christianity, be received by the Jews, pretend to be god, and conquer the world. Thus the Protestant contention that the apocalyptic symbols of antichrist denoted an apostate religious system was countered, and the focus of the prophecies was diverted from the present to the far distant future.

Spanish Jesuit, Luis de Alcazar also published a scholarly work on Revelation, to refute the Protestant Reformation on the Antichrist power. Alcazar's thesis, the opposite of Ribera's, was that all the prophecies of Revelation had been fulfilled in the past, that is, by the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., the early centuries of Christianity. He asserted that this prophetic book simply described a two-fold war by the church-its victory over the Jewish synagogue on the one hand (chaps. 1-11) and Roman paganism on the other (chaps. 12-19). Chapters 21, 22 Alcazar applied to the Roman Catholic Church as the New Jerusalem, glorious and triumphant. His writings were developed into a system of interpretation known as preterism.

Over time these specific systems of counter interpretations of the Antichrist spread and began to penetrate Protestant thought. Preterism was the first; it began to enter Protestantism in the late eighteenth century. Preterist interpretations of the prophecies have today become the standard view of liberal Protestantism.

The ideas of futurism, although refuted at first, eventually spread into Protestantism during the nineteenth century. Futurism, is currently followed in some form by most conservative Protestant bodies. Thus both spectrum of the Protestant denominations has picked up this counter reformation view set about to change the views of the papacy as the Antichrist power that was from the Reformers.

The false doctrine as you can see, basically are to put aside the Reformers view of the Antichrist. Preterist interpretation puts all prophecy pertaining to the Antichrist into the past so it is long gone, and the Futurist interpretation puts them into the future so the papacy could claim it was not this power.

Here is one aspect of Futurism that is clearly false yet has been twisted to fit nevertheless.

'False Interpretation #1
DANIEL'S 70th WEEK

In the ninth chapter of the Book of Daniel we find a prophecy, commonly referred to as "Daniel's 70th Week," which has become a corner stone and foundation of Futurism. By taking the Scriptures out of their context to make them a pretext, the Futurists tell us that this prophecy foretells the coming of a one-world dictator, the Prince of the Prophecy, who will make a Treaty or Covenant with the Jews, break it after 31/2 years and sit enthroned for worship in a rebuilt Jewish Temple, from which he will impose the Mark of the Beast, and unlease the horrors of the Great Tribulation. To call this interpretation fanciful would be kind, to call it downright deceptive would be accurate. Let us now examine the Seventy Weeks Prophecy and see for ourselves.

In the Book of Daniel we read these words:

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy

city, to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make

reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,

and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy."

Daniel 9, v. 24

The people of the prophecy were Daniel's people, the Judah section of the House of Israel. The holy city referred to was undoubtedly Jerusalem. The time-factor given is Seventy Weeks. Now we need to determine how long this would be, using the prophetic time-scale of a year to a day (see our book 'The Divine Calculator')

1 DAY = 1 YEAR 1 WEEK (7 DAYS). = 7 YEARS 70 WEEKS = 490 YEARS

We must now go on to determine the starting point when the Seventy Prophetic Weeks or 490 Years began, and so we read:

"Seven weeks and three score and two weeks, the street shall be built

again and the wall, even in troublesome times, and after three-score

and two weeks shall Messiah the Prince be cut off but not for himself."

Daniel 9, v. 25-26

The starting point is the Decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. This came about in 457 B.C. under the Medo-Persian monarch Artaxerxes. The people were then to spend

7 WEEKS or 49 YEARS — BUILDING

62 WEEKS or 434 YEARS — AWAITING MESSIAH

Sure enough, 483 years after the Decree of Artaxerxes, in 27 A.D. (allowing one for the crossing over from B.C. to A.D.) the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized by John in the waters of the River Jordan, being declared to be the Son of God with power, when the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove and the voice from heaven proclaimed:

Daniel's 70th Week ended in 34 A.D. with the martyrdom of Stephen and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the household of Cornelius.' http://www.historicist.com/futurism/futurism-s-four-false-interpretations

And Preterism is not much better...

'Question: "What is the preterist view of the end times?"
Answer: According to preterism, all prophecy in the Bible is really history. The preterist interpretation of Scripture regards the book of Revelation as a symbolic picture of first-century conflicts, not a description of what will occur in the end times....

Preterism denies the future prophetic quality of the book of Revelation. The preterist movement essentially teaches that all the end-times prophecies of the New Testament were fulfilled in AD 70 when the Romans attacked and destroyed Jerusalem. Preterism teaches that every event normally associated with the end times—Christ’s second coming, the tribulation, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment—has already happened.' https://www.gotquestions.org/preterist.html

Here is a good explanation...

"The Reformation preachers unanimously identified the papal system as the Antichrist, and the Roman Church as Babylon—causing a mass exodus of believers out of the Catholic institution.

Because Rome realized that the Reformation could jeopardize her position as a religio-political power, she employed five strategies in what became known as the Counter Reformation. One of those strategies was the creation of futurism and preterism, two different interpretations of the prophecies in Daniel and Revelation. These interpretations contradicted the reformers' stance of historicism. "https://amazingdiscoveries.org/RT_encyclopedia_Futurism_Preterism_Catholic

Its clear that Rome knew what the Preterist and Futurist methods of interpretation would do to the Protestant teachings on the Antichrist..

"Sixteenth century Protestant interpretations of Daniel and Revelation shook the Roman Catholic Church. In response the Catholic Counter-Reformation introduced the initial arguments for two different systems of prophetic interpretation: preterism and futurism. These moves served to deflect the accusing finger of prophecy away from the papal system.
Preterism (from the Latin, praeter, meaning "past") argued that these prophetic books met their fulfillment in the pre-Christian past or early centuries of the Christian era. Preterism eventually penetrated Protestant thought in the late eighteenth century and became the standard view of liberal Protestantism. Today, standard historical-critical scholarship places the composition of Daniel in the second century B.C. and sees its alleged prophecies as reflecting the person and times of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid king of Syria. The book of Revelation is restricted to a Roman setting in the first centuries of the Christian era.
Futurism entered Protestant ranks in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The most prominent form of futurist interpretation today places the fulfillment of the bulk of Revelation (other than chapters 1-3) in a three and one-half year period of tribulation at the end of the age, commencing with a secret rapture of the church to heaven. The seventieth week of the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 is detached from its setting and relocated as the last seven years of the world. Many conservative Protestants have adopted futurism (with additions and variations) as their standard system for interpreting the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation.
Rome shrewdly knew that a change in the method of interpretation would lead inevitably to a change in conclusions. It is easy to see that both preterism and futurism direct the prophetic spotlight away from Rome and her activities. Preterism and present-day historical-critical studies place all fulfillments in the past. Futurism defers the fulfillment of the bulk of Revelation to a future point - at the end of the world after an alleged secret rapture." (Visions of Turmoil and Eternal Rest" by Ebenezer A. Belete, Warren A. Shipton page 47)

FredVB said:

What matters is a believer's direct reading of prophetic texts. That still won't have them understanding how it all will really work out, and if that understanding is tried it is almost certainly going to be wrong in some ways. But it would be seen that texts are about what is to come in the future where it was meant in the written text in scriptures, and it is so in the book of Revelation, which does not show things that have now happened.

Click to expand...

So do you believe God knows the future?