All sins are deadly: participating in the realm of death and leading to the place of death. What, then, is the healing medicine for gluttons by nature like you and me? It is not found in a new list of rules and restrictions, which “are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (Col. 2:23). Rather, it is to seek the fullness of life in the only place it resides: the fullness and super-abundance of Christ Jesus (Col. 2:9–10). 

“Curiouser and curiouser” (from Alice in Wonderland) seems an apropos response to our culture’s relationship to food. At one polar end, there are eating competitions to assess who can down the most hot dogs or slices of pizza. At the other, there is a growing movement of the practice of intermittent and prolonged fasting, apart from the Christian practice of prayer and fasting.
In between overeating and not eating at all, there is evidence of moral weight assigned to dietary choices. Recipes are commended as “virtuous and simple,” and invitations are made to cook and consume foods in line with “nature’s self-organizing perfection.” Ethical vocabulary may be noticeably absent from other spheres, but not so in the context of our eateries. A pilgrim following in Apostolic footsteps may well conclude after watching all the cooking shows and reading the gastronomical magazines: “Modern Western denizens: I perceive you are very religious!”
Gluttony, biblically speaking, can be summed up as laboring “for the food that perishes” (John 6:27). It is not only found in over-consumption, but an idolatrous expectation that looks to eating and drinking to provide sating and fullness for the soul (the inner person). To be gluttonous, then, is to carry “broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13). After all, food as a created reality is a gift, but not to be regarded as having the character or potency of the Creator and Giver (cf. James 1:17).
To be sure, gluttony is to be distinguished from proper feasting. The calendar of the old covenant church was punctuated by days of worship and feasting: “Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows” (Nah. 1:15). The communion of saints following the day of Pentecost included “receiv[ing] their food with glad and generous hearts” (Acts 2:46). A Christian abiding in Christ, who has the Spirit-given fruit of self-control, thus should be able to enjoy daily bread and feast in the presence of God. But believers must also be on guard, lest anxiety over what to eat or laying hold of edible goods as holding supernatural power enter into the equation of their lives (see Luke 12:22; 1 Cor. 8:8).
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While not all Tamils share the same joy in the souls Ziegenbalg led to Christ, they are grateful for Ziegenbalg’s contribution to the development of their language and culture. In fact, even from a historical point of view, Ziegenbalg’s writings…are still one of the best sources for the study of South Indian history and traditions.

While William Carey’s role in the evangelization of India is undisputed, few remember a two-men team who preceded him by 88 years. In reality, the German Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau, who landed in the Indian region of Tranquebar in 1706, can be considered the first Protestant missionaries to India. Their endeavor is known as the Tranquebar Mission or the Danish-Halle Mission (since it was sponsored by the Danish king and the students and faculty of Halle University – especially theologian, A. H. Francke).
A Tamil Bible
Born in 1682 and 1676 respectively, Ziegenbalg and Plütschau were both Halle graduates– both known for their piety, devotion to the Scriptures, sacrificial love, and interest in education. Of the two, Ziegelbalg was the most linguistically talented. Within six months of his arrival at Tranquebar, he was able to read, write, and speak Tamil, a local language that was particularly difficult for Europeans to master.
In 1708, being fluent, he began translating the New Testament, finishing his first draft in two and a half years – an impressive record, if we consider he also fulfilled his pastoral and evangelical duties while troubled by ill health. He also translated Luther’s Catechism and several hymns and prayers, and started the Old Testament, going as far as the book of Ruth.
Far from being content with a wooden translation, Ziegelbalg spent time studying the nuances of the Tamil language as they appeared in their cultural context. He did so through conversations and through the study of Tamil classical literature, both on his own and in local schools.
He later described his cultural discoveries in two long ethnological treatises which became popular in Europe. These volumes, together with a Tamil grammar book for future missionaries, helped to launch the study and appreciation of Oriental languages and cultures in Germany and have been influential in dispelling the negative conceptions many Europeans had fostered about India.
Although he had brought his own printing press, he had to request the presence of two Dutch blacksmiths to create Tamil character molds. There was also a scarcity of paper. Most Tamil classics were written on palm leaves. He solved this problem by setting up a paper manufactory.
To Bring Many to Salvation
As most missionaries, he had times of discouragement. “If we consider the success of this Mission from its first beginning; it hath not yet indeed been answerable to our desires: the iniquity of the times, fewness of the laborers, the perverse lives of some Christians among us, the rudeness of the pagans, the dignity of the employment itself and our own insufficiency for it, the want still of more necessary helps, together with other impediments, have been the cause why this work has hitherto made no greater advances,”[1] he wrote, in Latin, in 1716 – at the end of a two-year visit to Europe, where he got married.
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There are some texts in the New Testament that legislate against every eschatological-related text as being only fulfilled in the yet-to-be future.  There are words and phrases that demand that some of these events must be interpreted from a preterist (past) perspective.  In other words, PP don’t fudge. 

Why do I write so much on the Aquila Report?  Because in Reformed circles I am in a minority on a few theological issues, and because Dominic Aquila believes in the freedom of the press.  Maybe too, because my articles are short and concise.  Dr. Aquila deserves much accolades and praise for providing an open forum on theological issues of our day which typically do not get a full hearing in a Christian college or even in a conservative Seminary.  I have found him very fair and even-handed.
Now what about Mr. Davis’s theory (Preterism – Exposition and Critique) that Partial Preterism (PP) inevitably leads to Full Preterism (FP)?  Let it be known that Partial Preterism assumes the position of the standard confessional statements of the historic church, in that there yet lies in the future a physical resurrection of the dead, the second coming of Christ, and the final judgment. These are the default lines of the PP confession (see Unorthodox Eschatology (hyperpreterism.com) ). We believe that the Scriptures are very clear on these default teachings.  All these events did not occur in AD 70 (FP).
However, there are some texts in the New Testament that legislate against every eschatological-related text as being only fulfilled in the yet-to-be future.  There are words and phrases that demand that some of these events must be interpreted from a preterist (past) perspective.  In other words, PP don’t fudge.
The PP hermeneutic defends from the Scriptures the default eschatological positions of our confessions unless the words and the context of a particular passage demand otherwise.  PP is not the fallow ground that must of logical necessity bare the fruit of full preterism (FP), no more than reconstructionism ever led theonomists into the theological deviation of Federal Vision (see Theonomy and Straw Men (theaquilareport.com). It was an error to infallibly assert the Theonomic-Federal Vision connection years ago, and likewise it is an error to infallibly assert the PP-FP connection again today. Yes, there have been converts, but they remain in the minority on both issues.
Indeed, Matthew 24:34 is a major text used by partial preterists.  After years of struggle, I finally concluded that to read into the word “generation” any other meaning contrary to our common vernacular language was an abuse of the text. Then, tracing the meaning of the Greek word for “generation” throughout the New Testament pushed me to conclude that this word must be understood as it is used everywhere else in the Bible – a period of about 40 years. Again, taking any other position was nothing but fudging.
Also, in writing a commentary on the Book of Revelation (Blessed Is He Who Reads: Ball, Larry E. ) I had to deal honestly with phrases like “the things which must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1), and “for the time is near” (Rev. 1:3). To impress on these time-texts any alternative interpretation than what is literally written meant that I could not be honest with the text. Add other texts like Matthew 23:36, “Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.”
If my wife were stranded in a car in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee where there are all kinds of wild beasts, and if she called me for help, then I would tell her that I would be there soon or shortly.  If two thousand years later I showed up to help, then she would look at me straight in the eye and call me a fraud.  Worse than a fraud – a liar!  The readers in the seven churches of Revelation were living in days of great persecution, and they expected that the help promised soon would be coming quickly, not in millennia to come.
I cannot belabor the PP position endlessly.  Too many books have been written.  However, I would say that Mr. Davis’s characterization of the Reformed past as being the haven for amillennialism is misleading.  Post-millennialism, which generally depends on PP, is not an abnormal phenomenon.  It is easy enough to mention names like Rev. David Brown, a Scotch Presbyterian minister, R.L. Dabney, Charles and AA Hodge, B.B. Warfield, and W.G.T Shedd, all stalwarts in the Reformed world.  More recently, we could add names like Loraine Boettner and R. C. Sproul.
This is indeed a movement in Reformed circles, but not a novel one.  In my view it is just a return to the old paths.
Larry E. Ball is a retired minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is now a CPA. He lives in Kingsport, Tenn.
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