|
|
If you already know what "preterism" is, and you are willing to be like the Bereans (Acts 17:11) and change my mind by searching the Scriptures with me, click here. I've met very few Bereans. Most people will simply engage in drive-by vandalism by simply hurling epithets at me: "Heretic!" "Blasphemer!" "You're not even a Christian!" If you know what preterism is and you believe you have a moral obligation not to have a conversation with a preterist about what the Bible says, I guess you should stop reading. I think being a Berean is more godly than merely denouncing someone. If you want to "search the Scriptures," click here. Keep reading if you don't know what "preterism" is.
The word "preterism" comes from the Latin word for "past." A "preterist" interpretation of a prophecy in the Bible holds that the prophecy was fulfilled in the past, rather than waiting to be fulfilled in the future.
Isaiah predicted that Jesus would be born of a virgin. Every Christian is a "preterist" with respect to that prophecy. Every Christian believes that Isaiah's prophecy -- and every other prophecy about the first coming of Christ -- was fulfilled in the past.
Jesus said He would come a second time. I'm going to say something that you will say is insane and heretical. I've been told I'm not even a Christian for saying this. But I'm willing to wager $100 (I'll send you an Amazon gift card) that if you are willing to read about 200 Bible verses, I can convince you that my position is not insane, but rational, and while it may be called "heretical" by many clergymen and televangelists, is respectful of the Bible as the Word of God.
Are you ready?
"The Second Coming of Christ already happened."
When people find out that I'm a preterist with regard to the second coming of Christ, they think I'm nuts. Or worse. They'll say that's weirder than the weirdest cult. They'll call me "heretic." Many will say I've "denied the orthodox faith" and I'm not even a Christian at all.
But sane men -- from anti-Christian mathematician Bertrand Russell, to Christian apologist C.S. Lewis -- will agree that the preterist view takes the Bible seriously. I'll quote them in a minute.
The real debate, as I hope to show, is not about what the writers of the Bible said, but about what the writers of church creeds said -- and which writers we should believe.
If you're a Berean, and out of compassion and friendship would like to see me change my mind, I'd like to tell you exactly what you need to to do change my mind -- back to the way it once was.
If you follow the basic, well-accepted rules of interpretation (called "hermeneutics") I think it's obvious that the writers of the Bible taught that the Second Coming of Christ would happen in their lifetime. So let's look at
Let's talk first about how to interpret the Bible. This is the science of "hermeneutics."
There are at least two schools of hermeneutics:
The Roman Catholic method of interpreting the Bible is to interpret it in such a way that the doctrines of "Holy Mother the Church" (Popes, Bishops, Priests, Fathers) are vindicated. Especially against Protestants.
I call the second school "Protestant/Humanist" because both Protested against Romanism and the first school of interpretation. Both unfurled a banner of "Ad Fontes!" meaning "Back to the Sources." For Humanists this sometimes meant going back to Greco-Roman sources, but in the case of Bible interpretation, it meant going back to the Bible itself. See more here.
The Protestant method of interpretation is also called the “grammatical-historical hermeneutic.” In our day, even many Catholics would give some assent to this method.
I think a helpful way of understanding the “grammatical-historical hermeneutic” is to compare two schools of interpreting the U.S. Constitution. These two methods correspond to the two methods of interpreting the Bible:
"Stare decisis" is Latin for "Let the Decision Stand." The earlier "Fathers" of the Supreme Court have previously made a decision, and the modern Court must follow this precedent.
"Original Intent" means going back to the Constitution itself.
The ACLU would like us to think that the Constitution is "a living constitution," meaning we can construe its provisions in a way that suits us today. "Judicial Activism" ignores stare decisis and asks the Court to be more "progressive." But once the ACLU persuades the first court to ignore the Constitution, the ACLU invokes stare decisis and argues that all subsequent courts must follow that new precedent.
Here's how the Framers of the Constitution described the "Protestant" model of judicial interpretation:
|
Madison wrote:
I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution. And if that be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a consistent and stable, more than for a faithful, exercise of its powers. . . . What a metamorphosis would be produced in the code of law if all its ancient phraseology were to be taken in its modern sense.
(to Henry Lee, June 25, 1824 [emphasis added])
We must use the Framers' understanding of terms if we are to understand the Constitution. As Jefferson admonished Supreme Court Justice William Johnson:
On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.
(June 12, 1823)
US Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, said:
The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it.
(Works, "Lectures on Law Delivered in the College of Phila.; Introductory Lecture: Of the Study of the Law in the United States.")
Sup Ct. Justice Joseph Story, foremost constitutional commentator:
The first and fundamental rule in the interpretation of all instruments is to construe them according to the sense of the terms and the intention of the parties.
Commentaries on the Constitution, (Boston: Hilliard, 1833) vol III, p. 383, sec. 400
Nothing in the Constitution supports the Progressivists' agenda. Those who participated in the Constitutional debates and ratifying conventions would be appalled at the government we have today.
Similarly, the authors of the New Testament and their original readers would be surprised to hear the conversations we are having today, as they do not resemble the conversations that were occurring in the Apostolic era.
Here are the sources of the "Original Intent" of the Scriptures:
My conclusion, based on all these "any moment" verses in the New Testament:
| There is not a single verse in the New Testament which was intended by its author and understood by its original audience to be prophesying an event thousands of years in the future. |
We'll look at the verses in a minute. Here's my conclusion: The timing of the "second coming of Christ" -- and some other notable events said to accompany His coming -- is clearly set forth in Scripture as occurring before the generation that rejected Him dies out. This judgment occurred in the past: AD 70. This first-century coming is such a dominant theme in the New Testament Scriptures, that the "default" setting should be "preterist." A sound application of the “grammatical-historical hermeneutic” would require any verse which is not clear about the timing of Christ's coming in judgment to be interpreted as fitting into that clearly-enunciated "default" 70AD time-frame. Some clear, explicit departure from that dominant context needs to appear in the text before one would conclude that that text breaks the mold and speaks not of an event in "that generation.," but of an event thousands or millions of years in the future.
There are many verses which clearly speak of Christ coming in judgment against His enemies, who rebelled against Him and murdered Him.
Read every verse in the Bible that talks about this momentous event. Verses like these:
Luke 21:20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Matthew 21:40-41,43,45: When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers? '....He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers, who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.' ....Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it.' ....When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them.
Matthew 22:7: But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
Matthew 24:1-3: Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
This prophesied destruction is one of the biggest themes in the New Testament, yet most church-goers have never heard of it, or know what happened in AD 70.
Jesus predicted that His Coming in judgment would occur before that generation died out:
Matthew 16:27-28 The Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds. There are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. (cf. Mark 8:38 - 9:1; Luke 9:26-27)
Any normal person -- without any attachment to what is claimed by the preachers on the radio or by "the Church Fathers" -- would read the New Testament and understand that Jesus taught that He would return to take vengeance on His assassins before that rebellious generation died out.
Matthew 24:34: This generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
Review the verses here. Christ's "Second Coming" was about that generation, not us and our generation.
Premillennialists affirm the doctrine of the "imminent return of Christ." Postmillennialists deny it. Premils say the Second Coming could occur "at any moment." There is an impressive amount of Scriptural support for this doctrine.
Except it doesn't make sense to say that something that hasn't happened for two thousand years could now happen "at any moment" or could have happened "at any moment" for the last two thousand years.
Since Christ's Second Coming was said to be a coming in judgment against that wicked generation, it would have to have been "imminent" for them (was "at hand" and could occur "soon" or "at any moment" during the remaining life of those then alive).
There are more than 100 verses in the New Testament which say that the Second Coming would occur very soon, within 40 years (one generation).
These verses are very clear.
New Testament readers were anticipating the end of the old age and the beginning of "the New Heavens and the New Earth" (2 Peter 3). Incredible, miraculous, unprecedented things
Either they happened, or the New Testament writers (and those who believed them)
This is a very serious issue, and many atheists have recognized what's at stake.
Sometimes people who profess to believe the Bible either don't know what it says, or believe a doctrine which their church teaches and are surprised to find that the Bible says something else. Sometimes atheists are more honest about what the Bible says than those who claim to believe it, but whose real loyalties are to their ecclesiastical Party. Sometimes atheists like to shock believers by pointing out things the Bible actually says, but which believers haven't seen.
Atheist Bertrand Russell was a smart guy. Not a believer, but not stupid. In his book Why I Am Not A Christian, Russell discredits the inspiration of the New Testament based on the failed prediction of Christ and the Apostles:
I am concerned with Christ as He appears in the Gospels . . . and there one does find some things that do not seem to be very wise. For one thing, He certainly thought that His second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all the people who were living at the time. There are a great many texts that prove that. He says, for instance, "Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come." Then He says, "There are some standing here which shall not taste death till the Son of Man comes into His kingdom"; and there are a lot of places where it is quite clear that He believed that His second coming would happen during the lifetime of many then living. That was the belief of his earlier followers, and it was the basis of a good deal of his moral teaching. [1]
Russell is correct when he says that much of the New Testament was based on the belief that the Kingdom and end of the age were "at hand." If Christ and the Apostles were teaching the imminent destruction of planet earth and the inauguration of the "eternal state," then they were clearly mistaken.
There have been various responses by Christians to this criticism of the Christian faith. Among these, one is particularly striking. We get a profound impression of just what a challenge this argument is to the integrity of the Christian faith when we realize that a great Christian thinker and apologist such as C.S. Lewis despaired at finding a solution to it. Lewis surrendered to the assertion of the skeptics that Jesus was wrong. He attributed this to the limited knowledge Jesus had in His incarnate human form. He correctly pointed out that Jesus himself said, in Matthew 24:36, that He did not know the exact time when He would return:
“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”
Lewis despairingly wrote,
“He said in so many words, 'this generation shall not pass till all these things be done.' And he was wrong. He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than anyone else. This is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible."[2]
To this, the skeptic may reply, “If Jesus incorrectly predicted His return within the contemporaneous generation, but actually did not know that He was going to return within that time frame, then why did He so confidently assert that all of the words He had just spoken would come to pass in Matthew 24:35? He said, ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.’ ”
Recently, Christians like R.C. Sproul have suggested that most -- and maybe even all -- of these "any moment" verses were fulfilled when Jerusalem was destroyed and the age of the Old Covenant terminated. If this is true, then the Bible can be trusted. If not, then Christians need to come up with an answer for people like Bertrand Russell.
Here are 101 verses speaking about the Second Coming of Christ occurring in "that generation."
Read these verses. Read them in context in your own Bible if you think we're taking them out of context.
Get the big picture.
Take this issue seriously.
Admit that this is a question that needs to be answered.
All you need to do to prove me wrong is list ONE VERSE which cannot possibly have been intended by its author and understood by the original audience to be predicting an event in their lifetime, and could only have been intended and understood to be predicting an event thousands of years in the future.
1. “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2)
2. “Who warned you to flee from the wrath about to come?” (Matthew 3:7)
3. “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees.” (Matthew 3:10)
4. “His winnowing fork is in His hand.” (Matthew 3:12)
5. “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)
6. “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 10:7)
7. “You shall not finish going through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man comes.” (Matthew 10:23)
8. “....the age about to come.” (Matthew 12:32)
9. “The Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds.” (Matthew 16:27; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26)
10. “Verily I say unto you, there are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom.” (Matthew 16:28; cf. Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27)
11. “‘When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?’ ‘....He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers, who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.’ ‘....Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it.’ ....When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them.” (Matthew 21:40-41,43,45)
12. “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matthew 24:34)
13. “Hereafter, you [Caiaphas, the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, the whole Sanhedrin] shall be seeing the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62; Luke 22:69)
14. “The kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mark 1:15)
15. “What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. ....They [the chief priests, scribes and elders] understood that He spoke the parable against them.” (Mark 12:9,12)
16. “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Mark 13:30)
17. “Who warned you to flee from the wrath about to come?” (Luke 3:7)
18. “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees. “ (Luke 3:9)
19. “His winnowing fork is in His hand.” (Luke 3:17)
20. “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” (Luke 10:9)
21. “The kingdom of God has come near.” (Luke 10:11)
22. “What, therefore, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.” The scribes and the chief priests understood that He spoke this parable against them.” (Luke 20:15-16,19)
23. “These are days of vengeance, in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:22)
24. “This generation will not pass away until all things take place.” (Luke 21:32)
25. “Daughters of Jerusalem , stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’” (Luke 23:28-30; Compare Revelation 6:14-17)
26. “We were hoping that He was the One who is about to redeem Israel .” (Luke 24:21)
27. “I will come to you. In that Day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.’ ‘Lord, what then has happened that You are about to disclose Yourself to us, and not to the world?’” (John 14:18,20,22)
28. “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” (John 21:22)
29. “This is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall be in the last days’” (Acts 2:16 -17)
30. “He has fixed a day in which He is about to judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31 )
31. “There is about to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.” (Acts 24:15)
32. “As he was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment about to come” (Acts 24:25)
33. “Not for [Abraham’s] sake only was it written, that [faith] was reckoned to him [as righteousness], but for our sake also, to whom it is about to be reckoned.” ( Rom. 4:23-24)
34. “If you are living according to the flesh, you are about to die.” (Romans 8:13 )
35. “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18 )
36. “It is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand.” ( Romans 13:11-12)
37. “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” (Romans 16:20 )
38. “The time has been shortened.” (I Corinthians 7:29)
39. “The form of this world is passing away.” (I Corinthians 7:31)
40. “Now these things were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (I Corinthians 10:11)
41. “We shall not all fall sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” (I Corinthians 15:51-52)
42. “Maranatha!” [The Lord comes!] (I Corinthians 16:22)
43. “...not only in this age, but also in the one about to come.” (Ephesians 1:21)
44. “The Lord is near.” (Phil. 4:5)
45. “The gospel was proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” (Colossians 1:23; Compare Matthew 24:14; Romans 10:18 ; 16:26 ; Colossians 1:5-6; II Timothy 4:17 ; Revelation 14:6-7; cf. I Clement 5,7)
46. “things which are a shadow of what is about to come.” (Colossians 2:16-17)
47. “we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds You, brethren, are not in darkness, that the Day should overtake you like a thief.” (I Thessalonians 4:15,17; 5:4)
48. “May your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thessalonians 5:23)
49. “It is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire.” (II Thessalonians 1:6-7)
50. “Godliness holds promise for the present life and that which is about to come.” (I Timothy 4:8)
51. “I charge you that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Timothy 6:14)
52. “storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for that which is about to come, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.” (I Timothy 6:19)
53. “In the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self Avoid these men. For of these are those who enter into households and captivate weak women These also oppose the truth But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all” (II Timothy 3:1-2,5-6,8-9)
54. “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is about to judge the living and the dead” (II Timothy 4:1)
55. “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.” (Heb. 1:1-2)
56. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who are about to inherit salvation” (Heb. 1:14 )
57. “He did not subject to angels the world about to come.” (Heb. 2:5)
58. “and have tasted the powers of the age about to come.” (Heb. 6:5)
59. “For ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near a curse, and it’s end is for burning.” (Heb. 6:7-8)
60. “When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” (Heb. 8:13)
61. “The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way of the [heavenly] Holy Places has not yet been revealed, while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.” (Heb. 9:8-10; Compare Galatians 4:19; Ephesians 2:21-22; 3:17; 4:13)
62. “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things about to come” (lit., "that have come," ESV) (Hebrews 9:11 )
63. “Now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin.” (Hebrews 9:26)
64. “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things about to come” (Hebrews 10:1)
65. “as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:25)
66. “the fury of a fire which is about to consume the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:27)
67. “For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay.” (Hebrews 10:37)
68. “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the one that is about to come.” (Hebrews 13:14)
69. “Speak and so act, as those who are about to be judged by the law of liberty.” (James 2:12)
70. “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!” (James 5:1,3)
71. “Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.” (James 5:7)
72. “You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” (James 5:8)
73. “salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (I Peter 1:5)
74. “He has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.” (I Peter 1:20)
75. “They shall give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” (I Peter 4:5)
76. “The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.” (I Peter 4:7)
77. “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God.” (I Peter 4:17)
78. “as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is about to be revealed.” (I Peter 5:1)
79. “We have the prophetic word which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the Day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.” (II Peter 1:19)
80. “Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” (II Peter 2:3)
81. “In the last days mockers will come. For this they willingly are ignorant of” (II Peter 3:3,5)
82. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.” (II Peter 3:10-12)
83. “The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.” (I John 2:8)
84. “The world is passing away, and its desires.” (I John 2:17)
85. “It is the last hour.” (I John 2:18)
86. “Even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour.” (I John 2:18; Compare Matthew 24:23-34)
87. “This is that of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” (I John 4:3; Compare II Thessalonians 2:7)
88. “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation. About these also Enoch prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly’” (Jude 1:4,14-15)
89. “But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, ‘In the last time there shall be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.’ These are the ones who cause divisions” (Jude 1:17-19)
90. “to show to His bond-servants, the things which must shortly take place.” (Revelation 1:1)
91. “The time is near.” (Revelation 1:3)
92. “Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come.” (Revelation 2:25)
93. “I also will keep you from the hour of testing which is about to come upon the whole land.” (Revelation 3:10; cf. Matthew 2:6,20,21)
94. “I am coming quickly.” (Revelation 3:11)
95. “And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is about to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.” (Revelation 12:5)
96. “And in her [the Great City Babylon] was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.” (Revelation 18:24; Compare Matthew 23:35-36; Luke 11:50-51)
97. “to show to His bond-servants the things which must shortly take place.” (Revelation 22:6)
98. “Behold, I am coming quickly. “ (Revelation 22:7)
99. “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.” (Revelation 22:10; Compare Daniel 8:26)
100. “Behold, I am coming quickly.” (Revelation 22:12)
101. “Yes, I am coming quickly.” (Revelation 22:20)
All of these verses concerned those who lived in the first century, not those who would live thousands of years later (though we can certainly learn some general principles from every verse of Scripture, even ones that weren't intended directly for us). The imminent destruction of the temple and judgment of those who rejected the Messiah is a dominant theme of the New Testament, and was a top priority in the minds of Christians in those days.
Preterism is the default interpretation of prophecy in the New Testament. There needs to be clear evidence from the text of Scripture indicating that the prophecy is intended to be fulfilled thousands of years in the future. Without that clear textual indication, preterism should be assumed in light of all those verses.
If you want to change my mind, you need to produce a verse which explicitly states that the timing is thousands of years in the future, and cannot possibly have been intended to be fulfilled in the first century.
Thanks to David Green for putting together these verses.
He adds:
|
There are clearly many verses in the New Testament which inescapably point to an event or events that would occur in the first century. Another question which might be raised is this: is there a single verse in the Bible which inescapably predicts an event that would occur in the 21st century or later, and can be interpreted in no other way?
The standard form of the objection to preterism is this: "What about verse X. It predicts ABC. I don't see how ABC could possibly have taken place in the first century."
In other words, the timing of the event may be clear, but the nature of the event is also clear -- at least in the mind of the objector, who has always been taught that the nature of the event was as described by the prophecy preachers and in the best-selling novels about Israel, Armageddon, the coming anti-christ, and being "Left Behind" after the Rapture.
The answer to this objection is usually to point to other passages of the Bible to show that the objector is not reading verse X the way Hebrew Bible readers would have read that verse.
Example: In Matthew 24, Jesus says,
But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and all of the tribes of the land will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
(Matthew 24:29-30)
The objector says "The sun was not darkened, therefore Christ did not come again, therefore preterism is false."
The problem with this objection is that the language in verse X is the language of Old Testament prophets with whom the objector is not familiar. The objector takes the verses with a modern-sounding wooden literalism which was not intended by the author nor understood by the original readers.
Example of an answer:
At the end of the Tribulation, Jesus said, the universe will collapse: the light of the sun and the moon will be extinguished, the stars will fall, the powers of the heavens will be shaken. The basis for this symbolism is in Genesis 1:14-16, where the sun, moon, and stars (“the powers of the heavens”) are spoken of as “signs” which “govern” the world. Later in Scripture, these heavenly lights are used to speak of earthly authorities and governors; and when God threatens to come against them in judgment, the same collapsing-universe terminology is used to describe it. Prophesying the fall of Babylon to the Medes in 539 B.C., Isaiah wrote:
Behold, the Day of the Lord is coming,
Cruel, with fury and burning anger,
To make the land a desolation;
And He will exterminate its sinners from it.
For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not flash forth with their light;
The sun will be dark when it rises,
And the moon will not shed its light. (Isaiah 13:9-10)
Significantly, Isaiah later prophesied the fall of Edom in terms of de-creation:
And all the host of heaven will wear away,
And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;
All their hosts will also wither away
As a leaf withers from the vine,
Or as one withers from the fig tree. (Isaiah 34:4)
Isaiah’s contemporary, the prophet Amos, foretold the doom of Samaria (722 B.C.) in much the same way:
“And it will come about in that day,”
Declares the Lord God,
“That I shall make the sun go down at noon
And make the earth dark in broad daylight.” (Amos 8:9)
Another example is from the prophet Ezekiel, who predicted the destruction of Egypt. God said this through Ezekiel:
“And when I extinguish you,
I will cover the heavens, and darken their stars;
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
And the moon shall not give its light.
All the shining lights in the heavens
I will darken over you
And will set darkness on your land,”
Declares the Lord God. (Ezekiel 32:7-8)
It must be stressed that none of these astronomical events literally took place. God did not intend anyone to place a literalist construction on these statements. Poetically, however, all these things did happen: as far as these wicked nations were concerned, “the lights went out.” Their imperial hegemony came to an end. This is simply figurative language, which would not surprise us at all if we were more familiar with the Bible and appreciative of its literary character. This figurative language is referring to political — not astronomical — events.
What Jesus is saying in Matthew 24, therefore, in prophetic terminology immediately recognizable by his disciples, is that the light of Israel is going to be extinguished; the covenant nation will cease to exist. When the Tribulation is over, old Israel––the old heavens and earth –– will be gone.
A second example is that of "resurrection." I tend to agree with Biblical scholars like James Jordan who conclude that passages like Ezekiel 37 and Daniel 12 are speaking of a national "resurrection" of Israel. This "resurrection" is spiritual or political, despite all the anatomical details found in a passage like Ezekiel 37.
I admit I'm not a Greek or Hebrew expert. I have to pick and choose among experts who sometimes contradict each other. You'll have to do this as well.
I'm convinced that all the objections -- objections which I used to entertain -- are the result of the lack of familiarity with Older Testamental language.
Since the timing of the verses is clear, the job of the expositor is to explain Biblically how those events took place at the time taught by the Biblical writers. It is not the job of the expositor to show how those verses will be fulfilled in the future at the time taught by ecclesiastical clergymen. Their timing -- off in the distant future -- is suspect without clear Scriptural attestation. What's clear in Scripture is a first-century timing, not a timing thousands of years in the future.
If you object to preterism, you might be able to expose my ignorance by saying, "How could verse X have been fulfilled in the first century?" I may not know. I know that I have been wrong about certain prophecies, and I'm continually studying this issue. But I think the proper interpretation is that Event X must have taken place in the past -- somehow -- because the Bible says it was going to take place in that generation. I just need to study more to find out the real nature of that prophesied event.
"This is HERESY. What about the Church Fathers?"
When I present the case for Preterism, opponents can't refute it. They can't provide a single verse to support their view or to refute an idea which they furiously believe is a damnable heresy. The emotion and passion directed against preterism is inversely proportional to the Scriptural support for an event thousands of years in the future (the basis for opposition to preterism).
I believe the New Testament says that Christ's Second Coming was a coming in judgment against the same generation that witnessed His First Coming.
That judgment happened in the year 70 A.D.
Once this issue is dealt with, and we admit that the Scriptures were consistently preterist, then we need to ask how this fact changes the way we live out our lives. I suggest here that any claim that Jesus is not fully reigning and fulfilling "Messianic prophecies" in this age -- before any future "Second Coming" -- is "anti-Christ." I suggest here that preterism means our duty in this life is to build the City of God, the "New Jerusalem."
I'm a preterist.
And not just a preterist, but an "anarcho-preterist."
It's "a package deal."
If Jesus "came" in the past, then He became the Global Messiah predicted in the Scriptures in the past. Jesus is the Christ TODAY. Jesus is the only legitimate archist. This is why there is an inevitable conflict between earthly human "archists" and Biblical Christianity.
The Bible teaches Preterism. "The Church" teaches futurism.
The Bible teaches anarcho-capitalism. "The Church" teaches some form of socialism, fascism, Keynesianism, or other systems of central planning, and the violence and dependence which those systems entail.
"Anarcho-preterism" is just a determination to take the Bible seriously and ignore ecclesiastical spokesmen (while selectively quoting from their works to buttress our viewpoint).
From a marketing perspective, this is a challenging task (persuading someone to become an anarcho-preterist). It's hard to persuade someone to become a preterist without seeing the Big Picture. And it will be difficult for you to persuade me to abandon preterism without showing me a better package than the one (I think) I have.
[1] Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not A Christian (New York: A Touchtone Book by Simon & Schuster, 1957), 16.
[2]. Essay, "The World's Last Night" (1960), found in The Essential C.S. Lewis, p. 385. Lewis' views were pointed out by Marshall "Rusty" Entrekin. http://www.thingstocome.org/whatgen.htm
| Table of Contents |
|
