9. Preterism

     The term “Preterism” simply means “past” and is applied to prophecy/end times studies in the sense of an approach that views a good deal of prophecy as fulfilled in the past - in other words, everything predicted for the future in the Bible is not necessarily still to occur in our future!  Evidence suggests that both Dispensational Premillennial "Futurism"^[1] (Israelite kingdom prophecies are yet to be fulfilled at the future 2^nd Coming) and Preterism^[2] (all prophecy was fulfilled by 70 AD, when Jesus returned) were originally formulated by Roman Catholic scholars trying to defend the Papacy against attacks from Reformation leaders that “the Pope is the Antichrist.”

     There seems to be a growing “full/complete Preterist” (or I call it “extreme”) movement amongst some Baptist and Restoration Movement leaders.  Their main assumption is that the 2^nd Coming of Jesus, in its entirety, came in 70 A.D.  Thus, Matthew 24:3 is taken as an indication that the Parousia was predicted to coincide with the fall of Herod’s Temple, that Jesus’ kingdom began in its fullness when the Temple and Jerusalem fell, that the present age is that which is described in Revelation 21:1 - 22:6, that the “elements” which were destroyed with fervent heat in 2Peter 3:10 were the elements of Judaism passing away, that the “end of heaven and earth” (Matthew 24:35) was the end of the Jewish world, etc.  In other words, extreme Preterism asserts that everything traditionally applied to Jesus’ literal/visible/glorious return (still in our future) should really be understood as happening when Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D.  There are even Preterist authors asserting that true Christians were all “raptured” out of the world in 70 AD and that the “1,000 years/millennium” of Revelation 20:1-3 was the 40-year period between 30-70 A.D.  Everything else associated with the return of Christ in the New Testament is handled as a spiritual or invisible reality that occurred or began in 70 A.D.

     Preterist Views I agree with - Preterist charges against dispensational premillennialism are, generally, pretty sound from my perspective.  Of course, their criticism of premillenial errors does not simultaneously “prove” their view to be correct, but I agree with most of what they are saying about dispensationalism.  Second, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was a major event, it did fulfill and complete some very important prophecies (Daniel 9:24-27; Matthew 24:4-34) and I think it is a more prominent element in the book of Revelation than many commentators believe.

     Doubts about Preterism - Let me identify a few places where I think Preterism “protests too much.”  While the word parousia does appear in connection with the coming destruction of Herod’s Temple in Matthew 24:3, we must remember that this connection was made in the disciple’s question, not in Jesus’ answer.  In the disciples' thinking at this point, the issue of Judaism’s house becoming desolate/Herod’s Temple being destroyed (Matthew 23:29 - 24:2) could only be conceived of in terms of Jesus’ glorious appearance.  However, we need to remember that the disciples were still working from popular Jewish expectations of the time and did not really understand yet what was truly going to happen until after Jesus was raised from the dead (see: Matthew 16:21-23; John 2:18-22; 12:12-16).  The disciples connected the fall of the Temple with the parousia in their question, but Jesus seems to have fairly clearly separated these two events in His answer - the fall of Jerusalem/Temple would come within 40 years - upon “this generation” (Matthew 23:36; 24:34), the generation of Jews alive then that saw and heard Jesus - and they had a number of “signs” to warn of its approach so they could escape Judea (Matthew 24:4-21,32-34).  However, the end of heaven and earth/coming of the Son of Man was to come at a time unknown to Jesus (Matthew 24:36) and for which there would be absolutely no last-minute warning signs (Matthew 24:37 - 24:13).

"For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds.  "Truly I say to 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 16:27-28)

     Matthew 16:27-28 (Mark 8:38-9:1) are also taken as a prediction of a single event, but I think here again Jesus was contrasting two separate events: Jesus will someday come in glory, with the angels to judge mankind (2Thessalonians 1:7-8), but before the current generation that He spoke to passes away, the Son of Man would powerfully come into His kingdom.  Powerful attestation to Jesus as God’s Messianic king (opposed but enthroned anyway - Psalm 2) came with the resurrection (Romans 1:1-4; Ephesians 1:18-23) and was powerfully announced at Pentecost (Acts 2:29-36).  Jesus was king at His first coming (Matthew 12:28) and Daniel 7:13-14 portrays what Jesus Himself described in Luke 19:11-27 - After initial contact and instructions given to submissive servants, the king would depart for awhile to "receive His kingdom" and is then either served in absentia or rejected by men.  When He eventually returns, servants are rewarded and enemies destroyed.  My guess is that Jesus disappeared up into the clouds (Acts 1:9) and then continued on to the Throne of God, where what is pictured in Daniel 7:13-14 and Psalm 2:6 occurred - Jesus was seated upon heaven's throne (Revelation 3:21).  In His visible absence from earth, during the current age, the warning is given to honor the Son before He comes again in judgment (Psalm 2:8-12).  If Jesus has already returned in judgment, can we stop warning people?

     Test by Substitution - Another way to test Preterist ideas is to assume that Jesus did fully and completely return in 70 A.D. and then see how satisfying our reading of all other pertinent passages about the return of Christ seems to be.

     (1) Did all of the world’s people stand before the judgment seat of Christ and go to eternal fates in 70 A.D.? (Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 20:10-15)

     (2) Were all of the saints resurrected, was death finally and completely defeated, and was the kingdom turned back over to the father in 70 A.D. (1Corinthians 15:20-25)?  If Jesus came in 70 A.D. and the promised “resurrection” of Christians occurred, then after 70 A.D. should not the practice of marriage have ended (Matthew 22:30-32)?

     (3) Were all Christians gathered to Jesus and was the Man of Lawlessness destroyed in 70 A.D.? (2Thessalonians 2:1-12).

     (4) Did the old heavens & earth disappear in intense heat and do we all now live on the New heavens and earth, where only righteousness dwells? (2Peter 3:10-13)  If the Church is the “new heavens and earth" (a strange/strained label), is only righteousness found in the Church?

     (5) If Jesus returned in 70 A.D., then are we no longer in flesh and blood bodies (or else excluded from the kingdom?) and do all of the saints now have the promised new heavenly/spiritual bodies, fitted for immortality? (1Corinthians 15:50-54; Philippians 3:20-21).  Did all of the dead and living saints join Christ in the air to be always with Him (1Thessalonians 4:13-18) in 70 A.D.?

     (6) If Jesus came with the angels in 70 A.D., then why do we not have the relief from affliction/persecution that was promised with it, were all those who do not know God and do not obey the Gospel destroyed in 70 A.D., and has Jesus now come to be glorified and marveled at amongst His believers? (2Thessalonians 1:6-10).

     (7) John wrote that when Jesus appears, Christians will be like Him and we will see Him just as He is, thus we purify ourselves in anticipation (1John 3:2-3).  Did He appear in 70 A.D., so that we are now just like Him, see Him as He really is, and no longer need to purify ourselves in anticipation of His appearance?

     Church = the New Heaven & Earth? - If we take the “present tense” passages and the “new heaven and earth” section (21:1- 22:6) of the Book of Revelation and apply it to the “post-70 AD world, how does it fit?  Does Revelation 21-22 describe the present Church Age?

     (1) Revelation 20:11 says that heaven and earth fled away from the judgment seat (of Christ) and no topos (topographic/geographic location) existed for them.  Did the judgment of Revelation 20:10-15 occur in 70 A.D. and has the first earth already passed away (Revelation 21:1)?

     (2) If the New Heaven and Earth came after 70 A.D., then why have all tears, death, mourning, crying, pain not ceased because God is now dwelling amongst us in a different sense than He did before 70 A.D.? (Revelation 21:3-4)

     (3) Do we still need to “overcome to inherit these things" (in the future) or can we “ease-off” because we already have these things now? (Revelation 21:7)

     (4) Have the sun and moon disappeared because God now directly gives us light since 70 A.D.? (Revelation 21:23)

     (5) Is there, then, no uncleanness, abominations, or lying within the confines of “the Church”? (Revelation 21:27)

     (6) Has the “curse” ceased (Revelation 22:3) and are the problems of the cursed creation now gone (Romans 8:18-25)?

     (7) Have any living preterists actually looking upon Jesus’ face? (Revelation 22:4)

     (8) Has “night” ceased to exist, so that now we no longer ever need to turn on a light/lamp? (Revelation 22:5)

     Did Jesus physically/visibly ascend out of the disciples’ sight, so that they “watched” Him go (Acts 1:9-11) or did they spiritually perceive this and see nothing with their physical eyes?  The angels said He would return in the same way they “saw” Him go.  The book of Revelation says that “every eye will see Him” come in again in the clouds (1:7), but Preterists tell us that Jesus came invisibly (totally and completely) in 70 A.D.

     As for the Preterist belief that all Christians (or at least “Jewish Christians” - and we should not make that distinction, Galatians 3:28) were "raptured" out of the world in 70 A.D., we have here another alleged “invisible” event.  History records that Jewish Christians heeded Jesus’ warning as the Roman Legions closed on Jerusalem and departed, over the Mt. of Olives and continued Eastward to the town of Pella, where a Christian presence continued for some time.  I know of no evidence suggesting that Christians anywhere else around the Roman Empire disappeared in 70 A.D., or that would have been the end of the Church on earth at that point.  If all Christians disappeared in 70 A.D., then who passed on the faith after 70 A.D.?  And who was it that the Romans were calling “Christians” and persecuting for the next two centuries?  Extreme Preterism is also a doctrine foreign to the writings of the early Church Fathers - Church leaders around the Mediterranean who wrote histories, Apologies, and commentaries on Scripture (100-500 A.D.).

     Preterists seem to join those who deconstruct Scripture so that they force it into their own mold.  Preterists apply “spiritual appraisal” (Ephesians 1:18) so that physical death, resurrection, etc. can be disconnected from 1Corinthians 15 and Revelation 21:1 - 22:6.  Could we not also apply the same reasoning to “death” and “beheaded” (in Revelation 12:11; 20:4) so as to dismiss the unpleasant ideas of physical martyrdom under Roman persecution (65-313 A.D.).  How is this approach any different from the reasoning that removes physical “water” from all discussions of baptism in the New Testament?

     Conclusion - Jerusalem’s fall in 70 A.D. was a major event in Biblical history and Jesus certainly did “come in judgment” upon Judaism.  But I cannot convince myself that 70 A.D. was also the time of the gathering and changing of all Christians for eternity, the judgment of all humanity and separation to eternal fates, did “every eye” see Him come, marriage should cease, etc.  Getting our minds to go along with novel ideas that we find attractive is an area requiring caution.  Our rationality should be the filter we use to sort out truth and error, not a tool to justify and argue for beloved novel ideas that don’t fit all the evidence so well.  I wonder how much similarity there might be between the reasoning of modern extreme preterists and {1} Jesus' warning of false rumors that He had returned unseen (Matthew 24:23-27), {2} the teaching mentioned in 2Timothy 2:18 that the resurrection had already happened even before 70 A.D., {3} the Corinthian believers who argued that there was no resurrection of the dead (1Corinthians 15:12), {4} the similar doctrine of Charles T. Russell that Jesus came invisibly in 1874 A.D., {5} or the “Unity School of Christianity” doctrine that the 2^nd Coming of Christ is not an event to be anticipated in the future, but “It is happening here and now, through prayer, meditation, study, and application.”^[3]  Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 seems all too appropriate again.

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Charles E. McCoy

11/22/2006