Debunking Preterism & the Short Season
About this sermon
Pastor Dean Odle challenges preterism and the related “little season” or short-season theory, arguing that they relocate the Second Coming, resurrection, judgment, and millennial reign into the past without satisfying the plain sequence of Scripture. After an opening gospel appeal, he explains why eschatology is not a minor issue and responds to claims built from old architecture, Tartaria, hidden-history narratives, and selective readings of Revelation.
Chronological teaching outline
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After prayer, Odle explains the new birth as a sincere surrender to Jesus that is confirmed by repentance and the Spirit’s inward witness. This gospel foundation becomes his standard for testing prophetic systems and the teachers promoting them.
Odle argues that the Second Coming, Antichrist, mark of the beast, persecution, resurrection, and final judgment are central Christian doctrines rather than harmless side issues. He warns that relocating these events to the past can leave believers unprepared for what Scripture says is still ahead.
The sermon introduces preterism and the short-season theory, including the claim that Christ already returned and that the millennial reign is hidden in suppressed history. Odle objects that the theory depends on large speculative leaps and does not account for the full prophetic sequence.
Odle acknowledges that Tartaria existed and allows that old civilizations may have possessed technologies now poorly understood. He nevertheless argues that unusual architecture and historical gaps do not prove that Revelation 20’s millennium already occurred.
Using 2 Peter 2, Odle describes false teachers as people who promise liberty while remaining in bondage to corruption. He applies Peter’s warning to confident online teachers whom he considers novices and urges listeners to judge claims by Scripture rather than novelty.
Odle lays out the seals, trumpets, and bowls as overlapping prophetic cycles that converge near Christ’s return. The sixth seal’s cosmic disturbance is presented as a future event, contradicting the claim that Revelation’s decisive judgments were exhausted in the first century.
Reading Matthew 24, Odle distinguishes the destruction of Jerusalem from the later worldwide birth pains, persecution, abomination of desolation, and great tribulation. He emphasizes Jesus’ statement that the end was not yet at the time of the temple warning.
Odle follows Jesus’ warning about false christs with the lightning-like visibility of the Son of man’s coming. He argues that this public arrival, gathering of the elect, and cosmic upheaval cannot plausibly be reduced to a local event in AD 70.
Revelation 18 and 16 are brought together around Babylon’s destruction and the seventh bowl. Odle says the final collapse of the world system, unprecedented earthquake, and divine wrath belong to the future climax immediately preceding Christ’s reign.
The closing warning focuses on saints who refuse the beast and suffer martyrdom before resurrection. Odle urges listeners to prepare for costly faithfulness and rejects speculative narratives that, in his view, erase the coming test and its bodily resurrection.
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- 0:00:06
This is the, this is my, this is my God, we sent you here today, Lord, you are the air we breathe in you, we live and move and have our being as the apostle Paul declared, Lord, your presence, Lord God, we know you're everywhere all the time, Lord, but you manifest your presence, Lord, among your people, Lord, where two or three are gathered together in your name, Lord, you said you'd be in the midst of them and, Lord, you said you would move upon us and, Lord, that those who would follow you and obey you, Lord,
- 0:06:19
you would manifest yourself to them and, Lord, we thank you right now this morning again for the witness of the spirit that we are your children, Lord, you witness to our hearts, to our spirit man, that we are born again through faith in Jesus Christ, through his shed blood on the cross and his resurrection from the day and we thank you, Lord, that it's by your word of God, the word of God, the seed of the word planted in our hearts that, Lord, you made us come through that and be born again and, Lord, when I pray for anybody that's listening or watching or here today that's not truly born again, they have never sensed the witness of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, that they would surrender to you. They would say, Jesus, be my Lord and Savior, forgive me of my sins. I believe you died on that cross and rose from the dead. I've made a mess of everything. I choose today to repent of my sin and wickedness and evil and to follow you with all my heart. The Bible says you will be born again and then the Holy Spirit will bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God, but it has to be total surrender. And I don't know why the Lord's having me start out with this this morning, but this is important. A lot of people that go to church, a lot of people call themselves Christians, a lot of people read the Bible, try to do good, but they've never been born again. And born again, when you're born again, it's not something that you can easily miss because if you don't know, you can't know that you're born again, you could lose it and not miss it, right? But Jesus told us that we must be born again. And when you truly surrender, and this is why I think a lot of people are church, they're Christianized, but they're not born again. It's because that they have not been taught total surrender to Jesus. They've been taught that just say a little prayer and then go about your business, right? That God forgives you of all your sins. You know, that's a lie right there. He ain't forgiven nothing in the future. And he says, if we sin, we must confess our sins. And then he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all in righteousness. You have to admit you're a sinner. You have to admit you deserve judgment and hell and damnation. You have to believe in what he did for you that he paid the price for you and that he rose from the dead on the third day. And you have to confess that out of your mouth. But listen to me. If you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, like Romans 10 says, and then you don't make him Lord of your life, then you are a liar. And this is what we got a bunch of lying people in the church saying Jesus is my Lord Jesus even said. He said, Why do you call me Lord Lord? And you do not the things that I say. I mean, we got a bunch of people like that. They say his name. Oh, yeah, I follow Jesus, but they don't follow. They don't follow his word. They don't believe his word. They don't live a holy life. They don't repent of their sins. They don't surrender their own will, their own plans.
- 0:09:35
But let me tell you when you surrender your life completely to Jesus and you say, Forgive me, Lord of my sins. Be Lord of my life. I want to follow you. I want to be your disciple and you're sincere and true about that. And you prove it by your actions by truly repenting of your sins and starting a walk with the Lord. You will get the witness of the Holy Spirit that you are born again. He will come in and you will feel it. You will experience it. It is a supernatural encounter experience with God where you feel the peace of God, the forgiveness of God, the love of God, the power of God. He said that's why he said being born again is like the wind. You can't see it, but you can feel it. And if you've never been truly born again, I will say this. It's time to be born again. It's time to repent. Turn from your sin. You cannot say Jesus be my Lord. And keep being a fornicator or an adulterer or a drunkard or a drug addict or an idolater praying to Mary and everything else. You've got to surrender to Jesus. You've got to turn from your sin and follow him. And this is the problem in the body of Christ. This is in two. Let me say this. If you don't surrender to the will of God for your life, if you don't repent and truly let Jesus be Lord, God almighty in your life and direct your path. If you don't do that, then this is why people are so deceived and fall for false doctrines left and right. Because Jesus said, if any man will do his will, he will know of the doctrine, right? If you will do his will, if you will surrender to Jesus, then the Holy Spirit will come and he will teach you and guide you into all truth. But what's the flip side of that coin? If you don't surrender, if you play church, you play Christian, then you're just going to be deceived. And you're going to be, you're going to be deceived and going to be deceiving others because James one says very clearly, if you are hearers of the word only and not doers of the word, you are deceiving yourself. Real simple. You think you can be be an adulterer and go to heaven. You think you can be a homosexual and go to heaven. You think you can be a drunkard and go to heaven. No, the Bible is clear about these things. But why do we have these false doctrines? Like once saved, always saved, no matter how you live. Why do we have them? Because there are people who have deceived themselves. And they're thinking, saying a little prayer when they were nine years old or getting baptized in water. Oh, I'm saved. And then I'm eternally secure no matter what I do after that. That is so not true. That is such a false teaching and false doctrine. I'm going to actually going to address some of that today. But I just feel very strongly. But I feel the Holy Spirit on this so strong, especially someone listening right now. You know what I'm saying. It's true. You feel the Holy Spirit convicting you right now that yeah, you've played around church and you've played games.
- 0:12:45
And you've just kept on playing with sin and in and out and up and down. And you've never truly surrendered to Jesus Christ as Lord God almighty of your life. You've never given up your own plans, your own will. And you've never given up your sin. And some of you, it's that it's that marijuana joint or pipe or whatever you smoke it out of. That's your God. That's what you go to for the feelings. But I'm going to tell you what. If you get close to Jesus and the Holy Spirit touches you and fills you, you don't need marijuana and you don't need alcohol and you don't need an antidepressant. See, this is a problem. We need Jesus. Jesus is the answer. There's not another. And let me tell you something about Jesus. He is the only true God, the creator of heaven and earth. God in the flesh who died on the cross and rose from the dead. He's also the healer. We covered that last week. He still heals. He is the baptizer in the Holy Ghost. With the evidence of speaking in other tongues and the fruits and all the other gifts of the Holy Spirit. And he is the deliverer from demons. Yes, deliverance is needful. And he is also the soon coming king, not some king that came in 70 A.D. We're going to deal with that, too. These are the foundational doctrines of the New Testament. And the reason so many of you are deceived is because you're still the God of your life. You're still the Lord of your life. You haven't given up the throne to him. In your life, and it's time to do it. Amen. Y'all may be seated. That's sermon number one today. This one's going to be in segments today. I can tell already. There's so many false doctrines in the body of Christ. So many false doctrine. Eternal security is one. I'm not saying you're not. You can't be eternally secure, but it's if. It's if you continue in his word. It's if you continue to repent. It's if you continue to stay in a relationship. You you you are the branch and he's the vine. You must abide in the vine. OK, and if you choose to transgress and live in sin, you're not abiding in the vine. Simple. And if you don't abide in the vine, what does John 15 say? If you don't abide in the vine, then you're cast forth as a branch away from the vine. You wither. And then you are thrown into the fire. That's hell. So you can. That's why Jesus said every branch in me that bears not fruit. He taketh away every branch in me. How did you get put
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