IS PRETERISM MANICHEANISM?
The main contention of Gary North s article is that preterists are Manicheans because preterists believe in the eternal existence of sin and righteousness on Earth with no future final judgment. According to North, a (full) preterist worldview must logically see a Church that is forever in bondage to Satan s work, Satan s influence, sin, struggling, suffering, and the Curse of sin itself: Death. (“FULL PRETERISM”: MANICHEAN OR PERFECTIONIST-PELAGIAN?, Was He Really a Manichean?) Preterism, North says, must logically see a world where God s enemies and God s sons have equal, open-ended claims to the earth. Or in North s words, preterism sees the equal ultimacy of good and evil forever, world without end, amen (Ibid., Conclusion). North calls these alleged implications of preterism Manicheanism. We will demonstrate in this article that these inferences of North do not follow from preterism. But first, let s answer this question: Is the doctrine that sin and righteousness will exist on Ea
