Did End Times Prophecy End in A.D. 70?
“While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately and said, ‘Tell us, when will these things happen? And what is the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’” (Matthew 24:3)
A simple observation about the Preterist version of the End Times.
“According to preterism, all prophecy in the Bible is really history. The preterist interpretation of scripture regards the book of Revelation as a symbolic picture of first-century conflicts, not a description of what will occur in the end times. The term preterism comes from the Latin praeter, meaning “past.” Thus, preterism is the view that the biblical prophecies concerning the “end times” have already been fulfilled—in the past. Preterism is directly opposed to futurism, which sees the end-times prophecies as having a still-future fulfillment.” (gotquestions.org)
Per gotquestions.org, here is the problem with preterism: “The problems with preterism are many. For one thing, God’s covenant with Israel is EVERLASTING (Jeremiah 31:35–37 - Emphasis author), and there will be A FUTURE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL (Isaiah 11:12). The apostle Paul warned against those who, like Hymenaeus and Philetus, teach falsely “that the resurrection has already taken place (A PRETERISTIC APPROACH), and they destroy the faith of some” (2 Timothy 2:17–18). And Jesus’ mention of “this generation” should be taken to mean the generation that is alive to see the beginning of the events described in Matthew 24.”
Hmm. If using the preterist interpretation of prophecy destroyed the faith of some in Paul’s day, can we say the same for those who push preterism today? I believe so. In that case, the preterists need to go back to the Bible and reassess their position and how they have affected other believers.
But wait! There’s more!
Preterism believes that the Church has replaced Israel. Why? “Preterists see the decisive judgment and transition for biblical ‘Israel’ as having already occurred in A.D. 70. The ongoing people of God is defined by faith in Christ, not by ethnicity or a modern nation-state.” (Grok.com)
In other words, preterists believe the Church has replaced Israel as God’s people and the Jews are no longer God’s Chosen People by virtue of their rejection of Jesus.
There’s only one problem with this belief. It’s the word “forever.” Check out this X.com comment by Joel Richardson.
How can an utterly faithful God break His forever/permanent covenant with His people, the PHYSICAL descendants of Abraham?
“I will confirm my covenant that is between me and you and your future offspring throughout their generations. It is a PERMANENT covenant to be your God and the God of your offspring after you. And to you and your future offspring I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as a permanent possession, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:7-8)
1) This supports the people of Israel, the Jews’, right to their God-given homeland today. Yup. That’s called Zionism.
2) There is no way any person can deny God’s covenantal promise to the Jews.
3) To do so is the seedbed for a) Supersessionism (the Church/Christians displacing Israel/Jews in God’s plan), and 2) Replacement Theology, which was the justification for antisemitism and Jewish persecution over the last 2,000 years.
In context, the Lord is talking about Abraham’s physical offspring, not the “spiritual” offspring the preterists claim, so that they can rip Genesis 17:7-8 et al, out of context to support their view.
Why am I stirred up about this?
I recently heard a preterist pastor preach, “Your view of Israel is determined by your eschatology (End Time theology).” To a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To a preterist, every scripture must be forced into a preterist frame.
In truth, because God has made a forever/permanent covenant with His people (which doesn’t nullify their need to affirm their relationship with Him under the Newer/Revised Covenant), IT’S YOUR VIEW OF ISRAEL THAT DETERMINES YOUR ESCHATOLOGY.
The preterist believes their eschatology negates Israel’s relationship to God and His irrevocable promises to them.
The foundational approach to the Bible, and to interpreting it properly, is this: The Bible is an Israel-centric book. The Bible is God’s revelation about how He has used and will use the Jewish people to complete His plan of global redemption and restoration.
What the preterists have done with their faulty interpretation is to negate Israel and the Jewish people as the central outworking of God’s plan to restore the world and substitute the Christian Church as the New Israel.
Imagine a two-story building. You can remove the 2nd floor without affecting the 1st floor. If you remove the foundational floor, you bring down the entire building.
Eschatology is built on God’s promises to Israel, specifically to bring forth His Messiah, Jesus, through the Jewish people, use the Jewish disciples to launch the Gospel to the nations (Matthew 28:19-20), graft the Gentiles into the messianic Jewish movement (Romans 9-11), and return to fulfill His Father’s promise to restore David’s kingdom with a Jewish Messiah sitting on the Davidic family throne while raising Israel to be the leader of the world’s nations.
Remove all of that foundational prophecy and ALL of your End Time Prophecy and eschatology crumbles to dust.
God’s covenant with Abraham is foundational. It’s one-sided, declared by God alone, meaning that only HE can break it. Preterists claim He did, with Jerusalem’s destruction in A.D. 70 as proof. If so, then God is a liar. His promise to Abraham is to his physical descendants. But then the preterist claims the New Covenant reveals that Abraham’s “offspring” means only Jesus, and when Gentiles convert, they are Abraham’s offspring, and thus the Church is the real Israel.
This conclusion completely twists Scripture, turning plain sense into an allegory to support your point.
“A text out of context is a pretext.” In other words, if you rip Scriptures away from their obvious context, you can make it mean whatever you want to, to support your conclusion, even if your conclusion is wrong.
“What came first, the chicken or the egg?” Duh. God created chickens first, not eggs. Only after God created chickens did they produce eggs.
So, it is with preterism’s theology regarding Israel. Israel came first along with God’s unbreakable, forever/permanent promises. Israel means physical Israel. Paul using “Israel” as a reference to the Christian community (i.e., spiritual Israel) is simply his illustration of a theological point that in no way nullifies or changes God’s promise to His physical descendants.
And preterists end up with an eschatological egg on their faces.
Your eschatology rests on God’s truth about the people and nation of Israel as Abraham’s descendants, not the other way around. Otherwise, your entire End Time theology crashes like the proverbial 2-story building.
All that being said, my biggest problem with preterism is that Jesus, Israel’s Messiah, said He would return physically in a way that the entire world would not miss:
“For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:27). Jesus isn’t talking about speed. He’s talking about observing. When lightning streaks across the sky, it’s impossible to miss, even if the thunderstorm occurs in daylight. At night, it’s even more spectacular. Jesus’ return will be unmissable.
A few verses later, Jesus tells us plainly what we won’t miss—the sign of the Son of Man’s coming with power and great glory.
“Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth 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).
Preterists believe Jesus returned in A.D. 70. Funny, the world seemed to miss that counter to what Jesus said about arriving physically. “Preterists (especially full/consistent preterists) argue that Jesus’ “return” or parousia was fulfilled in A.D. 70 as a spiritual/covenantal judgment-coming on apostate Israel, tied to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, rather than a future bodily return to earth.”
Oh, I get it. To bolster their argument, preterists have to explain away Jesus’ literal words by making His words allegorical, and then concocting a “spiritual” fulfillment (who can disprove a non-existent spiritual event?) or outright twisting His words from meaning a physical return to a so-called judgment on Israel.
In other words, they destroy Jesus’ own words to secure their case. That, dear readers, is reading into scripture (eisegesis), not pulling out the actual meaning of the text (exegesis).
Now, will the preterists lose their salvation because they’re wrong about End Times prophecy being fulfilled almost 2,000 years ago? No. Our salvation doesn’t depend on how we understand prophecy. Our salvation is based on our trust and allegiance to Jesus. The upside to End Times prophecy is that we’ll all find out how it fits together when we get there, i.e., when it comes to pass.
However, we should still do our best not to make our interpretation of prophecy harder than it needs to be. Otherwise, we may find ourselves unprepared or unable to cope when the actual prophesied events happen.
So ends our lesson for the day.
A special note to you, dear reader: Your financial support is greatly appreciated to keep High Beam Ministry producing The Truth Barista Podcast, The Frothy Thoughts Blog, and books and online classes. Please consider becoming a regular supporter. Support this Ministry
Also, I’d love to hear what you think of the Frothy Thoughts Blog. If you will, please send a quick email to HighBeamMinistry@gmail.com with your comment about this blog, or just to let me know you read it. Your response can be a sentence or a page. Don’t worry. High Beam Ministry won’t use your email for spam. For notifications about new material, please use the subscribe button on the website. Thanks so much for reading and replying!
Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead
Pastor Jay Christianson
The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts