*Posted by Barry Creamer
There is an article on the internet implying that Criswell College is attempting to poison the well of preterism among evangelicals by inviting a full preterist to the Criswell Theological Lectures on eschatology. Criswell has always encouraged familiarity with all views while defending the right one. In this case, we invited not only three distinct premillennialists (a classical dispensationalist, a progressive dispensationalist, and a historic premillennialist), but also a postmillennialist, an amillennialist, and a preterist. Two things ought to be considered in light of that article.
First, Criswell College is openly opposed to preterism of any kind. We are a confessionally premillennial college and graduate school. If preterism wants a safe haven, it will have to look elsewhere. That said, I believe we were good hosts to all of our guest speakers, despite the fact that we heavily weighted the conference to our premillennial and even pre-tribulational perspective and that the president of our college gave a clear doctrinal rebuff to the heterodoxy of full preterism.
Second, as the article itself obliquely acknowledges, we already knew that the postmillennialist speaker would represent a form of partial preterism along with his postmillennialism. Whether we invited him as a postmillennialist or as a partial preterist is neither here nor there. The conference was about millennial perspectives, and the name is not the thing. He did make his case on a couple of occasions for partial preterism (particularly interpreting the vindication of martyrs and judgment of the harlot uniquely against Jerusalem/Israel).
I believe all the other perspectives received about as fair a shake as they could remotely and reasonably hope for at our conservatively and confessionally committed college.
Blessings to all who attended and made the Criswell Theological Lectures the most memorable and momentous in years.
Barry K. Creamer, Ph.D.
Vice President of Academic Affairs
Criswell College