Editing Preterism (section)

==Interpretation of the Book of Revelation==
Preterism holds that the contents of Revelation constitute a prophecy of events that were fulfilled in the first century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catholic.com/library/Whore_of_Babylon.asp|title=The Whore of Babylon|publisher=Catholic Answers|access-date=2007-05-11|url-status=dead|archive-date=2008-01-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112104451/http://www.catholic.com/library/Whore_of_Babylon.asp}}</ref> Preterists believe that the dating of the book of Revelation is of vital importance{{sfn|Preston |2006 |loc=Foreword}} and that it was written before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Preterism was first expounded by the Jesuit [[Luis de Alcasar]] during the Counter-Reformation.<ref name= "Spanish Jesuit Alcasar 1614"/>{{Sfn | Froom | 1954 | p = 509 | ps =: Alcazar was the first to apply Preterism to the Apocalypse with anything like completeness, though it had previously been applied somewhat to Daniel}}{{sfn|Farrar |1882 |p=[https://archive.org/details/earlydaysofchri00farr/page/228 228]}} The preterist view served to bolster the Catholic Church's position against attacks by Protestants,<ref name ="Protestants page 464"/><ref name="Newport page 74" /> who identified the Pope with the Antichrist.