Editing Preterism (section)

==History==
[[File:Alcazar title page.jpg|thumb|Title page of [[Luis del Alcázar]]'s ''Vestigatio arcani sensus in Apocalypsi'' (1614), the founding text of modern preterism.]]
At the time of the [[Counter-Reformation]], the Jesuit [[Luis de Alcasar]] wrote a prominent preterist exposition of prophecy.<ref name="Spanish Jesuit Alcasar 1614">{{Harvnb | Farrar | 1882}},  It has been usual to say that the Spanish Jesuit Alcasar, in his Vestigatio arcani sensus in Apocalpysi (1614), was the founder of the Præterist School'.</ref>{{Page needed | date = December 2013}}<ref>{{Harvnb | Froom | 1954 | p = 509}}, Alcazar was the first to apply preterism to the Apocalypse with anything like completeness, though it had previously been applied somewhat to Daniel'</ref> [[Moses Stuart]] noted in 1845 that Alcasar's preterist interpretation advantaged the [[Roman Catholic Church]] during its arguments with [[Protestants]],<ref name="Protestants page 464">{{Harvnb | Stuart | 1845 | p = 464}} "It might be expected, that a commentary which thus freed the Romish church from the assaults of Protestants, would be popular among the advocates of the papacy. Alcassar met, of course, with general approbation and reception among the Romish community"</ref> and Kenneth Newport in an eschatological commentary in 2000 described preterism as a Catholic defense against the Protestant [[Historicism (Christianity)|historicist]] view which identified the Roman Catholic Church as a [[Great Apostasy|persecuting apostasy]].<ref name= "Newport page 74">{{Harvnb | Newport | 2000 | p = 74}} "It is hardly surprising, given this general context, that the relatively few English Catholic commentators who turned their hands to the interpretation of these same passages should be concerned to counter this widely held, if somewhat variously presented, Protestant view. The response came in three basic forms: preterism, futurism, and 'counter historicism' – a term that has been created for the purposes of this discussion"</ref>

Due to resistance from Protestant historicists, the preterist view was slow to gain acceptance outside the Roman Catholic Church.<ref>{{Citation | first = Drue | last = Cressener | author-link = Drue Cressener | title = The Judgments of God Upon The Roman Catholic Church, &c | chapter = Preface | year = 1689}}</ref>{{Page needed | date = December 2013}} Among Protestants preterism was first accepted by [[Hugo Grotius]]<ref>{{Harvnb | Froom | 1954 | p = 510}}, "The Preterist view was soon adopted and taught, with various modifications, by the Protestant Hugo Grotius of Holland in his Annotationes (1644)"</ref>{{Sfn | Newport | 2000 | p = 74}} (1583-1645), a Dutch Protestant eager to establish common ground between Protestants and the Roman Catholic Church.<ref>{{Harvnb | Hammond | 1655}}, "all that this very learned man was guilty of in this matter, was but this, his passionate desire of the unity of the Church in the bands of peace and truth, and a full dislike of all uncharitable distempers, and impious doctrines"</ref> His first attempt to do this in his  "Commentary on Certain Texts Which Deal with Antichrist" (1640) arguing that the texts relating to [[Antichrist]] had had their fulfillment in the 1st century AD. Protestants did not welcome these views<ref>{{Harvnb | Froom | 1954 | p = 510}},  "When Grotius' authorship of the book was detected, it turned all orthodox theologians against him"</ref> but Grotius remained undeterred and in his next work, "Commentaries On The New Testament" (1641–1650), he expanded his preterist views to include the [[Olivet Discourse]] and the [[Book of Revelation]].

Preterism continued to struggle to gain credibility within other Protestant communities, especially in England.<ref>{{harvnb| Brady | 1983 | p = 158}}. "But those who argued for the preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation, and for that matter the futurist interpretation also, were playing to empty galleries, until at least the fourth decade of the nineteenth century. Their views were anything but popular and those who followed them could soon find themselves branded with the infamous mark of the papal beast".</ref> The English commentator [[Thomas Hayne (theologian)|Thomas Hayne]] claimed in 1645 that the prophecies of the [[Book of Daniel]] had all been fulfilled by the 1st century,<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Hayne
 | first1 = Thomas
 | author-link1 = Thomas Hayne (theologian)
 | title = Christs Kingdome on Earth, opened according to the Scriptures. Herein is examined what Mr. Th. Brightman, Dr. J. Alstede, Mr. I. Mede, Mr. H. Archer, The Glympse of Sions Glory, and such as concurre in opinion with them, hold concerning the thousand years of the Saints Reign with Christ, and of Satans binding
 | location = London
 | date = 1645
}}
</ref>
and [[Joseph Hall (bishop)|Joseph Hall]] expressed the same conclusion concerning Daniel's prophecies in 1650,<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Hall
 | first1 = Joseph
 | author-link1 = Joseph Hall (bishop)
 | title = The Revelation Unrevealed. Concerning The Thousand-Yeares Reigne of the Saints with Christ Upon Earth. Laying Forth the Weak Grounds, and Strange Consequences of that Plausible, and Too- Much Received Opinion
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4qZBwwEACAAJ
 | publisher = R.L.
 | date = 1650
}}
</ref>
but neither of them applied a preterist approach to Revelation. However, the exposition of Grotius convinced the Englishman [[Henry Hammond]] (1605-1660). Hammond sympathized with Grotius' desire for unity among Christians, and found his preterist exposition useful to this end.{{Sfn | Hammond | 1655}}{{Page needed | date = December 2013}} Hammond wrote his own preterist exposition in 1653, borrowing extensively from Grotius. In his introduction to Revelation he claimed that others had independently arrived at similar conclusions as himself, though giving pride of place to Grotius.<ref>{{Citation | quote = …appeared to me to be the meaning of this prophecie, hath, for this main of it, in the same manner represented it self to several persons of great piety and learning (as since I have discerned) none taking it from the other, but all from the same light shining in the Prophecie it self. Among which number I now also find the most learned Hugo Grotius, in those posthumous notes of his on the Apocalypse, lately publish'd | last = Hammond | first = Henry | title = Paraphrase and Annotations | chapter = Introduction to Revelation | year = 1653}}.</ref>{{Page needed | date = December 2013}} Hammond was Grotius' only notable Protestant convert, and despite his reputation and influence, Protestants overwhelmingly rejected Grotius' interpretation of Revelation, which gained no ground for at least 100 years.{{Sfn | Brady | 1983 | p = 158 | ps =: This volume contained a brave but lonely attempt to introduce the preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation to English soil}}<ref>{{Citation | quote = For most divines in the (early) Enlightenment the choice between the preterist approach of Grotius and the historicist approach of [[Johannes Cocceius|Cocceius]] was not a difficult one: there was a strong predilection for the latter | last = Van Der Wall | first = Ernestine | contribution = Between Grotius And Cocceius: The 'Theologica Prophetica' of Campegius Vitringa (1659–1722) | title = Hugo Grotius, Theologian: Essays in Honour of GHM Posthumous Meyjer | series = Studies in the History of Christian Thought | volume = 55 | page = 202 | year = 1994}}.</ref>{{Sfn | Froom | 1954 | p = 510 | ps = "…in 1791 JG Eichhorn (1752–1827), the noted German rationalist, revived and republished Alcazar's Preterist interpretation"}}

By the end of the 18th century preterist exposition had gradually become more widespread. In 1730 the Protestant and [[Arian]], Frenchman [[Firmin Abauzit]] wrote the first full preterist exposition, "Essai sur l'Apocalypse". Abauzit worked in the then independent [[Canton of Geneva|Republic of Geneva]] as a librarian.{{Sfn | Stuart | 1845 | p = 470 | ps =: "The great mass of the religious public became, at last, wearied out with the extravagances and the errors of apocalyptic interpreters. This prepared the way for ABAUZIT, in his Essay on the Apocalypse (see p. 443 above), to broach the idea, that the whole book relates to the destruction of Judea and Jerusalem. His starting point was, that the book itself declares that all which it predicts would take place speedily.  Hence Rome, in chap. xiii–xix. points figuratively to Jerusalem. Chap. xxi. xxii. relate to the extension of the church, after the destruction of the Jews"}} This was part of a growing development of more systematic preterist expositions of Revelation.{{Sfn | Stuart | 1845 | pp = 470, 417, 471–72}} Later, though, it appears that Abauzit recanted this approach after a critical examination by his English translator, [[Leonard Twells]].<ref>{{Citation | quote = "Essay upon the Apocalypse", (was) written to show that the canonical authority of the book of Revelation was doubtful, and to apply the predictions to the destruction of Jerusalem. This work was sent by the author to Dr. Twells, in London, who translated it from French into English, and added a refutation, – with which Abauzit was so well satisfied, that he desired his friend in Holland to stop an intended impression.|title= General Biography|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rkEBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA4 |last = Aiken|page= 4 | year = 1799}}.</ref>

The earliest American full-preterist work, ''The Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ: A Past Event'', was written in 1845 by Robert Townley. Townley later recanted this view.<ref>{{Citation | quote = We, on the contrary, fulfil every thing by that magic phrase, 'the destruction of Jerusalem.' But can we really and seriously refer these passages which I have quoted from Paul, to the destruction Jerusalem? Can we truly say that the rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles, let that mean what it may, exhausted all their meaning — the meaning which was the thought in Paul's mind when he wrote them? I must confess I cannot|title= The Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ: A Past Event | last = Townley|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nRkEAAAAQAAJ | year = 1852}}.</ref>