1. Why is your name Presence?

2. What does it mean that you are a “Center of Learning for Personal Transformation?”

3. Can you explain the four quadrants of transformation?

4. What is the history of Presence?

5. Who is Max King?

6. What is Transmillennialism?

7. How does Transmillennialism differ from popular Christian catastrophic end-time views?

8. What educational and community resources does Presence offer?

9. When is your next Global Conference?

10. Why do you own the copyright on Transmillennialism?

11. Is there a difference between Transmillennialism and preterism?

12. Do you take speaking engagements?

13. Do you take calls from the media?

1. Why is your name Presence?

It is taken from Revelation 21:3, "Now the presence of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people." Our name announces the fact that the Presence of God has been restored and we live in a face-to-face relationship with God. So, Presence speaks of the Divine-Human relationship being set right. Presence also reminds us that our first task in life, akin to breathing, is to seek the Presence of God, not just for our own personal renewal, but for the healing of our communities and world. This helps us to see the importance of in being present—with ourselves, with God, and with others.

2. What does it mean that you are a “Center of Learning for Personal Transformation?”

We believe that none of us are as smart as all of us. So, Presence holds dialogue with people from all fields of human inquiry. Since education impacts all aspects of life, we believe that the most fundamental way to experience and affect transformation is through continual learning.

3. Can you explain the four quadrants of transformation?

First is Covenantal Transformation. God worked through Christ to bring about the transformation of the Old Covenant to the New. The New Covenant establishes fullness of life for all. The realization of Covenantal Transformation can be actualized through…

Personal Transformation. Jesus said that out of our hearts will flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). Personal transformation from the inside out results in an increasing sense of peace and confidence—with God, self, and others. As we become personally transformed, we experience…

Organizational Transformation An organization can be your family, workplace, or even church. It is “wherever two or three are gathered.” Transformed individuals contribute to transformed families that combine to create…

Societal Transformation We live in a transitional time. The Postmodern Age is situated between the passing modern age and the in breaking Transmodern Age. There is a cone of plausible futures that may characterize the Transmodern Age. We look to contribute to making a constructive tomorrow.

4. What is the history of Presence?

Max King, an independent scholar and former minister, founded Presence. The years from 1971 to 1990, were foundational years. Max King and his Bible was the ministry. In 1990, Max began Living Presence as a theological journal. Concurrent with that step, he began hosting annual Covenant Eschatology Seminars. Over the past decade, thousands of people have subscribed to Living Presence Journal and attended our Annual Seminars.

In 1997, "Presence" was organized as a separate 501-c-3 non-profit and as a transdenominational organization.

In 1998, Max's son, Tim King, left a thriving business career as a Vice President of a national insurance company to become the President of Presence. Immediately, Tim organized a "Partners in His Presence" program to help sustain the organization’s growth.

The year 1999 saw further gains. In September of that year, we hosted the first National Conference Call for Transmillennialists, with over 300 people participating.

In October of 1999, Presence launched its online Message Board, which has become a significant means of fostering a virtual community. And in March of 2000, Presence Books opened its online doors, offering a broad selection of books, CDs, and DVDs related to theology, historical Jesus studies, and the four quadrants of transformation. Presence Books is the exclusive carrier of Transmillennial books, DVDs , and study material. Additionally, Presence Books offers the annual Transmillennial Global Conference CD.

Beginning in 2001, we published "Presence"-- the magazine for transformed living. Our bimonthly magazine was packed with photo features, in-depth articles and columns to help people appreciate their life in the presence of God. True to the international flavor of Presence, we were even blessed to have as a regular contributor three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Elias Chacour. Presence magazine was designed to present the Transmillennial view, and how it can transform your world. In 2002 we transformed our magazine to an e-journal.

As 2003 started, we launched a regular webcast, Presence Today, featuring Tim King. These webcasts are archived for viewing on our server, and for those who prefer to download them and view them off-line, we have launched a "Download Center" where all of the files may be easily accessed.

In 2004 we launched the Transformations Study Program, a 6-week online course designed to explore the four quadrants of transformation. We see Transformations as our leadership training program, allowing emerging leaders to meet other associates, and consider how they might apply this field to their personal, vocational and community life.

To explore the full history of Presence we invite you to read Give Me This Mountain in which Tim King presents the full biography of Presence. From its roots seventy years ago in West Virginia to its breakthroughs in biblical renewal today, you will be inspired by this modern-day quest for the Presence of God.

This year, Presence will reach a worldwide audience through internet webcasts, media interviews, local seminars, and its quarterly journal. To track the latest news of the fulfilled prophecy world, email us and ask for a free subscription to Tim King's "Transmillennial Times".

Today Presence is led by its President, Timothy R. King and Vice President, Kevin Beck, along with a broad-based international board of directors. Its offices are in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

5. Who is Max King?

Max King is an independent scholar and former minister. In 1971, the year following the release of Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth, Max King quietly published The Spirit of Prophecy. This 392-page seminal discourse claimed that biblical "eschatology” (the study of “last things”) pertained to the consummation of the Old Covenant world rather than the end of time. In describing this approach, Max coined the term Covenant Eschatology.

The view first spread among the Churches of Christ in the '70s and '80s, and then throughout Reformed Presbyterians. Today Transmillennialism is an active network across various cultures and countries and seeks to offer an authentic and fresh approach to taking faith beyond the exhausted field of Christian millennialism.

Today, Max King lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His 784-page book, The Cross and the Parousia of Christ is considered his magnum opus. He still enjoys carpentry and treasures his study time in the Scriptures. Currently, he is finishing a revolutionary book on Paul’s theology in Romans 9-11.

6. What is Transmillennialism?

Most people today think of Bible prophecy as something future rather than something "fulfilled." Instead of seeing eschatology, or "the study of last things," as relating to the end of time we see Jesus and Paul teaching the "Last Days" as related to the End of the Old Covenant world.

In other words, the Kingdom of God, the Second Coming of Christ, the Last Judgment and the Last Resurrection (2 Tim. 4:1) found their consummation at the fall of Jerusalem in the emergence of the New Covenant.

Seeing it from this vantage point, Christ's millennial reign lasted from his Resurrection in A.D. 30 to his Return in A.D. 70.

This millennial view is known as Transmillennialism in contrast to Premillennialism, Amillennialism or Postmillennialism. Transmillennialism points to the transformation of ages, from the Old to New Covenant, which occurred during the apostolic age as Jesus predicted. Transmillennialism is also known as Covenant Eschatology or a fulfilled view of redemption.

The "C/A" notation above refers to Creation/Adam, the "C/R" to the Cross/Resurrection of Jesus and the "P/R" refer to the "Parousia" of Jesus and the corporate resurrection of the Body at the end of the age.

For more than a hundred years, scholars have wrestled with what Albert Schweitzer called the supposed "delay of the Parousia." Theologians have reached for solutions to this quandary, but by the mid-20th century they had come to no other conclusion than Jesus was a failed apocalyptic prophet.

In the past three decades, however, scholars have begun to place Jesus within the context of first-century Judaism and the restoration movements of his day. Rather than consider Jesus as a cynic-like sage, a religious genius or a social revolutionary, this "third quest" for the "historical Jesus" sees Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet within Second Temple Judaism.

For a survey of this separate, yet parallel pursuit to Transmillennialism, see Scot McKnight's book, A New Vision for Israel. Many scholars recognize that Jesus expected the end, but few if any have correlated this line of thinking that the Kingdom would be consummated in their generation to those who followed Jesus, such as James, Peter, John or Paul.

As a field of study, Transmillennialism has been developing for over thirty years. It has published research and made presentations to academic associations such as the Society of Biblical Literature, The Center for Millennial Studies, The Evangelical Theological Society, The American Academy of Religion, and the World Future Society.

The Transmillennial view puts a premium on advancing scholarly research in biblical and historical theology and stays abreast of news and book releases in the field of theology, Jesus studies, and eschatology.

7. How does Transmillennialism differ from popular Christian catastrophic end-time views?

All of the major schools of eschatology anticipate a time of suffering and destruction. Such catastrophic views have been popularized in the Left Behind book series. Transmillennialism sees eschatology as the means by which God has brought divine fullness to humanity. Therefore, we see eschatology as a creative impulse that integrates all things in God’s living presence.

8. What educational and community resources does Presence offer?

Presence offers a 6-week on-line course, Transformations. This is the basic introduction to the 4 quadrants of transformed living. You can read the course description or register for the next session here.

Also, we host Transformation Intensives which are 4-week courses that explore each of the quadrants in-depth.

You can access our Daily Download, The Practice of Presence. This brief audio message provides an opportunity to reflect and create an internal space to develop your spirit and out of which you can find practical ways of cultivating the garden God has given you by contributing more broadly to the world in which you live.

Our website is updated regularly with fresh material related to covenantal, personal, organizational, and societal transformation. On our website, we provide a Public Forum on which anyone can post messages and ask questions. We find that deepening community occurs on our Transformations Alumni forum.

Each year in June, we host our Global Conference. Transmillennial 2005 will be held June 22-25 at Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs. The theme is The Unsearchable Riches of God. You can see the brochure or register here. Also, we engage in local seminars and conferences around the world throughout the year.

9. When is your next Global Conference?

Transmillennial 2005 will be held June 22-25 at Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs. The theme is The Unsearchable Riches of God. You can see the brochure or register here.

10. Why do you own the copyright on Transmillennialism?

Folks have told us "nobody owns the terms of Premillennialism, Amillennialism and Postmillennialism. So why did you obtain a trademark on Transmillennial?”

The simple answer is, because we invented the word and needed time to fully design its meaning. The other three Christian millennialisms cannot be trademarked, given the terms have been in the public domain for much of the 20th century.

Why did we trademark Transmillennialism? We saw that "preterism" was an aggressive 1990s sectarian approach to biblical eschatology, and it had lost its ability to relate to the church and society in a constructive, healthy manner.

By July 1999, we felt we needed to take steps to go beyond "preterist" divisiveness and the side-stream movement it had become. After naming this field Transmillennialism we began to release a new line of products and services to carry the Transmillennial identity.

Transmillennialism is not a doctrine, but a network of people dedicated to transformed, integral living in the 21st century by transcending and reframing the discussion of biblical eschatology from the way it was framed in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Our prayer is that the thought and action in all schools of eschatology would rise by interacting with Transmillennialism.

11. Is there a difference between Transmillennialism and preterism?

Yes. Preterism is essentially a subset of Reformed Postmillennialism. Full Preterism as a term was not in common use until the early-90s when a handful of Reformed Presbyterians started using the term.

Due to a shift toward Christian triumphalism among preterists, as well as their inability to answer the question, "What now after A.D. 70?" Presence decided to create an alternative that could carry the fulfilled view beyond the previous sectarian Restoration or Reformed worlds. In the early '70s, Max King coined the phrase Covenant Eschatology as a field of theological inquiry. Today, Transmillennialism integrates Covenant Eschatology into all areas of integrated living.

Transmillennialism underscores more than systematic theology. Rather than read the Bible or culture today as photographs, Transmillennialism approaches the biblical text and its context more in keeping with map making. Instead of just hindsight, Transmillennialism calls for foresight, looking at how the gospel can be applied to the emerging church. Transmillennialism also calls for insight, or reflection, on our own personal lives. This applied side of faith might be called therapeutics, in contrast to hermeneutics.

So in addition to "critical realism," the Transmillennial view is a charitable path, seeking to integrate all four quadrants of fulfilled living.

12. Do you take speaking engagements?

Yes. We can give keynotes at conferences, church renewal weekends, evening seminars, regional conferences, leader's retreats or media interviews. We can also do short seminars or live evening programs at churches via webcam. For more information, call us directly at 1-877-757-2703.

13. Do you take calls from the media?

Yes. Refer us to your religion editor. You may call us at 1-877-757-2703. We have been interviewed on the turn of the millennium and/or its theological significance by practically every major U.S. newspaper. We have done countless radio interviews and have appeared on CNN and other local media market stations. Our specialties are: Bible prophecy, Jesus studies, contemporary millennialism, biblical eschatology, apocalyptic literature, realized eschatology, redemptive violence, religious terrorism, Christian Zionism, God-at-War movements, postmodern faith, the future of religion, and world futures.

URL: http://www.presence.tv/cms/faqview.php

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