Israel Only Full of It Preterists?

There are strange religions. And then there are *really* strange religions. And then there's Israel Only Full Preterism (IO)...

I mentioned this peculiar current before. They believe that Jesus only came to save the Jews (as in literal blood descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). The "Gentile mission" was about finding the lost tribes of Israel. When all righteous Jews had been saved, the Temple was destroyed in AD 70. Since that time *nobody* can or will be saved. God and Jesus have abandoned Earth and humanity, perhaps the entire universe? This is a *very* weird take, and it's hardly surprising that some IO proponents have become atheists!

Atheist gadfly extraordinaire Richard Carrier recently posted an extensive critique of IO (see link below). It was apparently "ordered" by a web-based atheist group. Perhaps they wanted to investigate if IO really does contain arguments that can profitably be used by atheists. Not so, says Carrier. IO are just a bunch of cranks. None of their arguments hold up to closer scrutiny.

For instance, while it's true that the earliest Christians did see Jesus as an exclusively Jewish savior, anyone could join Judaism (it was a missionary religion at the time), so salvation was in *that* sense for everyone, not just for "ethnic" Jews. Paul of course went further, de-Judaizing what was originally a Jewish sect.

What makes IO so strange is that they de facto combine a kind of alt-fundamentalist reading of the Scriptures with something that sounds almost like misotheism. Carrier says relatively little about this aspect of the group, but it's surely the most interesting one. Why would anyone want to join *this* group, rather than, say, a strongly Judaizing Adventist Church?

With that, I leave you in the hands of Carrier... 

The Incompetent Crankery of the Israel Only Movement