New member greetings

[3Resurrections]

Greetings to one and all,

I'm indebted to a member on this forum for letting me know of this forum's existence (thank you TruthInLove!). Over time I hope to become familiar with the individual opinions of those who post here.

Brief bio: 40-year marriage to an man currently an elder in a SBC, from which I withdrew my 16-year membership 3 years ago. We are empty-nest parents to 3 adult children, (2 married with kids), who on occasion have come back to the nest for a free worm or two. Husband directly descends from a soldier that was with Captain John Smith (of Pocohontas fame) in the original Jamestown settlement. Lots of military service through the generations, down to our son who served in Iraq and miraculously survived a pipe bomb explosion in a booby-trapped house. God is merciful, praise His name.

Been a believer ever since young childhood. Strong Calvinist upbringing. Attended Christian schooling until HS graduation. Married the year after, and husband joined the infantry (no surprise there - must be in the genes). We joined an independent church and stayed in it for 16 years until the cult-like conditions became unbearable. Joined the SBC some time after, and my husband graduated seminary and was ordained in 2010. Did my best to serve in that church in whatever way I could, but got introduced to Preterism for the first time 6 years ago. There's no going back from there. Tried to continue to blend in without introducing any conflict, but it's hard to breathe with duct tape on your mouth all the time. So I left after 16 years under amicable terms on both sides, giving them assurances that I still had great affection for them all.

Since then, I have joined a handful of Christian forums to continue fellowship with believers in some capacity, although I am convinced by now that the typical church institution is far from resembling the pattern that God intended. Eschatology is an all-pervading influence on every doctrine we have in scripture, which is why I have devoted this last six years to a continual study of this theme. My husband is a Historicist, in complete sympathy with his beloved Puritan "divines" lining his study walls. Consequently, he carefully avoids reading or listening to any input I have on this subject, and regards my current understanding as a "perversion" of correct doctrine. No matter. There's still no going back to where I was before. You couldn't pay me enough to abandon the peace I have about these things at present. Still have some points with questions that arise from time to time, but the paradigm I identify with just keeps getting stronger with scriptural proofs all the time for me. I sit somewhere in the middle between all the eschatology camps: Partial Preterist, Full Preterist, and Futurist. Therefore, I am usually getting shots from all directions. No matter. I regard no individual's viewpoint as completely void of truth. Somewhere, there is always a benefit to be found from listening to anyone's position on a given subject.

Looking forward to engaging with the believers on this forum - to our mutual benefit hopefully. God bless!

Patricia

[TruthInLove]

Welcome Patricia! Glad to see you were finally able to join. Hope you find the discussions here enriching.

[3Resurrections]

Hi Carmine,

It took me a while, but it's good to finally "shake hands" with you here. Thoroughly enjoyed discussing themes with you on your Daniel-reloaded site. Will have to get on your "Darius the Mede" post that you submitted here a while back, just to toss that subject around a bit. Out of curiosity, are there any women who post here with any regularity? Just wondering.

[steve]

Hi Patricia,

Welcome to the forum. As for the question of other women posting here, it is not easy to know how many there are, since the screen names people use often conceal their gender (I would not have known, from your screen name, that you were a woman, but by the content of your post). There may be many. Of course, there are a number of users who are known to be female—though I don't know how many currently participate. I suppose some will answer you here about that. I believe that most people who are here are men, simply because most have been drawn here through exposure to either the radio program or the teachings at our website. It seems that my ministry appeals to men more than to women by a factor of at least 3 to 1. I am not sure why that is, but we are glad for the participation of any women among us. We could appreciate there being more.

[Singalphile]

Greeting to you!

[3Resurrections]

Hi Steve,

Thank you for the gracious welcome. Will do my best to uphold the honor of womankind here, even if they might be a minority.

Hmmm, just a wild guess, but perhaps the 3 to 1 ratio in favor of predominantly male participation is due to the appeal of the beard factor? There's a growing population of beard-growing enthusiasts out there, as my son informs me. He himself sports a thick, luxuriant auburn beard, which he carefully tends with his favorite Beardbrand grooming products. Looks great on him. Hides the scar on his face from the close encounter with a pit bull, and makes up for the receding hairline as well. As long as he keeps his beard trimmed to a reasonable length, no one can get technical and accuse him of having long hair. Whether long or short on top, he can always point to his short beard and tell anyone that he's scripturally following the guidelines of having some short hair Works for me.