Introduction to Biblical Prophecy

Beware. This blog site may be uncomfortable to some Christians who have blindly accepted what you have been taught about Bible prophecy without checking it against God’s Word. Remember: We are instructed to search the Scriptures to find out whether the things we have been taught are so (Acts 17:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:21). 

This is a very brief introduction to my book: Christian Hope through Fulfilled Prophecy: Is Your Church Teaching Error about the Last Days and Second Coming? It is available at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/176-8842997-0637736?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=christian+hope+through+fulfilled+prophecy

Biblical prophecy appears to be undergoing a radical revision among scholars. R. C. Sproul, for example, perhaps the most influential theologian in America, has said that his views on eschatology had changed to a version of “preterism.” Preterism is the view that most if not all prophecy was fulfilled in the 1st century. Hank Hanegraaff (the popular Bible Answer Man) has adopted a similar view. On the other hand, Dallas Theological Seminary, a highly influential center of dispenational “end times” prophecy, appears to be modifying its views. Christians have simply tired of the continual failed predictions about the end of the world, which has been a persistent but embarrassing theme of many Christians. We are ready to take a fresh look at what the Bible actually teaches. The coming years are likely to witness an upheaval in the field of eschatology.

Eschatology—the study of prophetic “last things”—is an area in which there is remarkable disagreement among Christians. It is a complicated area for several reasons. One reason is that there are so many passages of Scripture on the topic that must be reconciled. Over one-fourth of the New Testament is about this, and includes such topics as: a new heaven and new earth, the Day of the Lord, a Great Tribulation, the “rapture,” the Second Coming of Jesus, and more.

In my book, I explain the different views of Bible prophecy: premillennialism, postmillennialism, amillennialism,  historicism, idealism, and preterism. Surprisingly, the church has never had a serious and concluding discussion on eschatology. The continued failed predictions of the Second Coming and the end of the world have been embarrassingly wrong. Much clarity is needed.

There are over 100 passages in the New Testament that declared the imminence of the prophesied events. It is clear that Jesus and his disciples expected his return while some of them were still alive—in their own generation. (See http://preteristcosmos.com/preterism101.html.)

What are at stake are the authority of Scripture and indeed the divinity of Christ. Perhaps the number one charge against Christians over the years is that Jesus promised his return in his own generation—that virtually all of the New Testament writers spoke of this as well—but they were wrong. So, they say, Jesus did not return as he predicted, making him a false prophet, and thus the Bible is unreliable. For example, skeptics Bertrand Russell in his book Why I Am Not a Christian, and Albert Schweitzer in his book The Quest of the Historical Jesus, made this charge. Jewish and Muslim critics make this charge as well.  

Indeed, even the famous Christian apologist C. S. Lewis recognized the problem. In reference to various passage of Scripture, including the “Olivet Discourse” found in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, Lewis said this:

“Say what you like, the apocalyptic beliefs of the first Christians have been proved to be false. It is clear from the New Testament that they all expected the Second Coming in their own lifetime. And, worse still, they had a reason, and one which you will find very embarrassing. Their Master had told them so. He shared, and indeed created, their delusion. He said in so many words, ‘this generation shall not pass till all these things are done.’ And He was wrong. He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than anyone else. It is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible.”

In my book I explore the compelling biblical and historical evidence that Jesus (and his disciples) were right all along, proving the opponents of Christianity wrong, and confirming the incredible accuracy of Scripture!

This is a challenge that must be faced. What we will explore is the possibility that most if not all biblical prophecy has already been fulfilled—the preterist view. This is a minority view among Christians, but it is rapidly gaining adherents. Gary DeMar and Francis X. Gumerlock in their book The Early Church and the End of the World argue that forms of preterism were an important, if not the dominant, view in the early and medieval church.

There is always much resistance to a challenge to widely held beliefs. We often have very ingrained presuppositions and we have much at stake if most of our neighbors hold to a common (but perhaps incorrect) view of something. There is the problem of what psychiatrists call “cognitive dissonance,” which is “a mental conflict that occurs when . . . confronted with challenging new information, most people seek to preserve their current understanding of the world by rejecting, explaining away, or avoiding the new information.”

Check out the book at Amazon!

                                                                   —Charles S. Meek

Prophecy Questions for Christians

Don’t just let your eyes glaze over with these questions. This is a serious study of Scripture and Christians must come to grips with the implications of this material.

Note that the questions are organized by topic. Here are the topics:

A. Questions about the “End of the Age,” “Last Days,” and the “Day of the Lord”

B. Questions about the timing of the Second Coming (the Parousia) and judgment according to Jesus

C. Questions about the timing of the Parousia and coming judgment according to the New Testament writers

D. New Testament questions about a first century fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecies in the Olivet Discourse

E. Old Testament questions about a first century fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecies in the Olivet Discourse

F. Questions about the book of Revelation

G. More Questions

If you are in a dispensational church, please note the blog entry that has questions just about issues from this viewpoint.

James Stuart Russell (1816-1895) in his classic work The Parousia says this, “In prophecy, as in poetry, the material is regarded as the type of the spiritual, the passions and emotions of humanity find expression in corresponding signs and symptoms in the inanimate creation. The earth convulsed with earthquakes, burning mountains cast into the sea, the stars falling like leaves, the heavens on fire, the sun clothed in sackcloth, the moon turned into blood, are images of appalling grandeur, but they are not necessarily unsuitable representations of great civil commotions—the overturning of thrones and dynasties, the desolations of war, the abolition of ancient systems, the great moral and spiritual revolutions.” 

A. Questions about the “End of the Age,” “Last Days,” and the “Day of the Lord”: 

1. In such passages as Matthew 13:40; Matthew 13:49; Matthew 24:3; Matthew 28:20, etc., isn’t Jesus referring to the end of an age (Greek aion)  rather than the end of the world (Greek kosmos)? In other words, if the author was talking about the end of the world, wouldn’t he have used kosmos when he actually used aion? (Compare the King James Version, which has been confusing people for a long time, with newer translations including the New King James Version.)

2. Since the thrust of the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24/25; Mark 13; Luke 21) is the destruction of the temple, isn’t it reasonable to believe that the age in question was the age of the Jewish dispensation, thus the Old Covenant order—especially since the ancient Jewish system of temple sacrifices for sin ended with the destruction of the temple in 70 AD?

3. The end time mentioned in the book of Daniel was to be when the burnt offering was taken away (Daniel 9:27, 11:31, and 12:11). Since burnt offerings ended in 70 AD, must not this be the time line, thus the “last days” of which the Bible speaks?

4. Considering audience relevance, can John’s declaration that “it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18) be construed to be far future events? (The last times become the last days which become the last hour, as the decisive moment was now imminent.)

5. Didn’t Peter proclaim the last days to be the time of Pentecost, or more generally the time in which he and his hearers were living (Acts 2:14-20)?

6. Doesn’t Peter insist that the Old Testament prophecies were being fulfilled in his day (Acts 3:23-24)?

7. Doesn’t Peter in his epistles reiterate, or at least strongly imply and reaffirm, that the last times were in his era (1 Peter 1:5, 20; 1 Peter 4:7; 2 Peter 3:3, 12)? Remembering that Peter puts the last days in the first generation in Acts 2, read all of 1st and 2nd Peter to see if the imminency of the events of which he speaks is not evident.

8. Wouldn’t readers of Peter’s epistles have understood the radical nearness of the coming judgment? How else can you interpret Peter’s words in 1 Peter 4:7 that “The end of all things is near/at hand”? Unless you think Peter was a quack, doesn’t it make sense that he is speaking of the end of all Old Covenant things?

9. Isn’t the other New Testament writers’ understanding of what was to happen well explained by Paul when he says in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that “the end of the ages has come” and in 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 the it was the form or fashion of the world that was passing away, not the end of the physical universe?

10. When the writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 1:2) refers to his day and time as “these last days,” can he be referring to the far distant future? Don’t Hebrews 9:26 and Hebrews 10:25-27 confirm a first century setting? If the end of the ages is still in the future, why does Hebrews 9:26 declare the end was present in the first century?

11. Can there be any doubt that James 5:3-9 is telling his readers that they themselves are in the last days?

12. Does any mention of the “last days” or equivalent (last times, last hour) in the New Testament clearly refer without exception to any time outside of the first century (Hebrews 1:2; Acts 2:17; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1; James 5:3; 2 Peter 3:3; Jude 18; 1 John 2:18)?

13. Again considering audience relevance, doesn’t Paul imply in 1 Corinthians 1:7-8 and 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 that the Day of the Lord will come during the lifetimes of his readers? Does it make any sense for Paul to tell his Thessalonian Christian brothers in 52 AD to be watchful for the Day of the Lord if the catastrophe was not to take place until thousands of years later?

14. The phrase “the day of the Lord” is used in 17 or so passages in the Old Testament (Isaiah 2:12, 13:6, 13:9; Ezekiel 13:5, 30:3; Joel 1:15, 2:1,11,31, 3:14; Amos 3:8:18-20; Obadiah 15; Zephaniah 1:7, 14-18; Zechariah 14:1; Malachi 4:5) and in some 5 passages in the New Testament (Acts 2:20; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 2 Peter 3:10). It is also alluded to in other passages (Revelation 6:17, 16:14). Since this phrase in the Old Testament at least sometimes refers to historical judgments that have already been fulfilled in some sense (Isaiah 13:6-22; Ezekiel 30:2-9; Joel 1:15; Joel 3:14; Amos 5:18-20; Zephaniah 1:14-18), isn’t it reasonable to infer that the times in the New Testament that we see this term may also refer to already fulfilled events?

15. Since other times in the Old Testament where we see the term “day of the Lord” refer to divine judgments that will take place toward the end of the age (Joel 2:30-32; Zechariah 14:1; Malachi 4:1-5), and since we can reasonably infer that the “end of the age” was the end of the Old Covenant age which ended in 70 AD, isn’t this consistent with a 70 AD fulfillment of the New Testament mentions of the Day of the Lord?

16. If you think there is more than one “end of the age” or “last day” or “Day of the Lord” period—one in the first century, and one in the 21^st century—where is the Scripture support for this view?

Again quoting Russell, “His ‘coming’ or ‘coming again,’ always refers to one particular event and one particular period.” And: “The phrase, ‘the end of the ages’ (Heb 9:26; 1 Cor 10:11) is equivalent to the ‘end of the age’ (Mat 13:39, 40, 49, 24:3, 28:20) and ‘the end” (Mat 10:22, 24:6, 24:13, 24:14;  1 Cor 1:8, 15:24; Heb 3:6, 3:14, 6:11; 1 Pet 4:7; Rev 2:26). All refer to the same period, viz. the close of the Jewish age, or dispensation—that is, The Old Covenant—which was now at hand….It is sometimes said that the whole period between the incarnation and the end of the world is regarded in the New Testament as the ‘end of the age’ [or the ‘last days’]. But this bears a manifest incongruity in its very front. How could the end of a period be a long protracted duration? Especially how could it be longer than the period of which it is the end? More time has already elapsed since the incarnation than from the giving of the law to the first coming of Christ: so that, on this hypothesis, the end of the age is a great deal longer than the age itself.”

B. Questions about the timing of the Second Coming (the Parousia) and judgment according to Jesus:

1. Doesn’t Jesus make it clear that the days in which he and his contemporaries were on earth—his literal generation—were the days of vengeance to fulfill ALL Old Testament prophecy (Luke 21:22,32)? If there is any yet any unfulfilled prophecy, why did Jesus say that his days were the days of vengeance to fulfill ALL that was written?

2. Doesn’t Luke 21:20, 22 provide biblical proof for 70 AD fulfillment of prophecy? (“When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near….For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written.”)

3. The term Parousia is the Greek word used 24 times in the New Testament which is often translated as “coming,” that is Christ’s Second Coming or his return. Can’t this term also legitimately mean “divine presence” or “nearness,” or even in specific reference to Christ’s punishment of Jerusalem or finally the wicked? (See Strong’s #3952.) Isn’t it indeed translated as “presence” in 2 Corinthians 10:10 and Philippians 2:12? Doesn’t this understanding at least open up the possibility of a past fulfillment of Jesus’ words in Luke 21: 22, 32?

4. Doesn’t Matthew 10:23 clearly say that his Parousia would be before his disciples finished going through the cities of Israel?

5. Doesn’t Matthew 16:27-28 clearly say that his Parousia would be before all his disciples had died? Isn’t it also clear that this could not mean the time of the transfiguration (just a few days away) unless Jesus thought that some of his disciples would die in those few days? (Compare the language here to see if it is not essentially the same as in the Olivet Discourse, just a few chapters later in Matthew 24/25).

6. What does Jesus mean in John 21:18-23? Isn’t the time line the same as the previous passages (Jesus’ own generation)?

7. The term generation (this generation) is used in 23 passages in the New Testament outside of the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21), and every time it clearly means without debate the generation of people alive when Jesus spoke. Isn’t it reasonable to interpret this generation the same way in the Olivet Discourse? How can “this generation” in Matthew 24:34 be talking about people thousands of years later? Jesus does not say “some future generation.” (Here is a list of all the times that generation is used in the New Testament: http://www.searchgodsword.org/desk/?l=en&query=generation&section=2&translation=nas&sr=1&Enter=Perform+Search).

8. Note especially that Jesus, in Matthew 23:35-36 uses this generation to refer to people living right then and there—the scribes and Pharisees. Wouldn’t this have strong implications about his meaning just a few verses later in Matthew 24?

9. Isn’t the focus of Jesus in his “this generation” prophecies (Matthew 12:38-45; Matthew 23:36; Mark 8:38-9:1; Luke 11:50-51) about judgment upon Israel? Wouldn’t this coincide with the destruction of Israel and the temple in 70 AD?

10. Don’t many of Jesus’ parables speak directly to the coming judgment on Israel and the Jewish leaders—The Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Matthew 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19), The Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1-14), The Parable of the Fig Tree (Luke 13:6-9, ref Mark 11:12-21, Isaiah 5:1-7). etc.? Don’t they perfectly fit the destruction of Israel and the temple in 70 AD?

11. If Jesus’ Second Coming would be the world seeing him coming in a physical body, why does Jesus say “In a little while and the world will see me no more” in John 14:19?

12. If you think that Matthew 24 speaks of two different time periods, some to near events (Matthew 24:1-34), and some to far away (Matthew 24:35ff), please comment on this statement:  The problem with this idea is that in Luke 17, where Jesus speaks of the same events (“the day that the Son of Man is revealed”), Luke mixes the events up and thus cannot be divided out. When were these events to take place?  Jesus tells us: the “generation” alive when he spoke those words.  Here is a web link:  http://www.worldwithoutend.info/start/articles/ed_stevens_03-matt24.htm.

13. The unbelieving Jews of Jesus’ day were looking for their Messiah, but when he arrived they did not recognize him. They were looking for a Messiah that would reign over a materialistic kingdom. Could it be that Christians have made the same mistake as the Jews, and are still looking for a Second Advent in a way different than what Jesus meant—when in fact he came just as promised in the generation of those then living, but in a way different from what was expected?

C. Questions about the timing of the Parousia and coming judgment according to the New Testament writers:

1. Doesn’t every book in the New Testament (except Philemon) attest to the expectation of a soon fulfillment of the great prophesied evens spoken of by the prophets?

2. Don’t the New Testament writers indisputably affirm that the Old Testament prophecies were being fulfilled in their day (Acts 3:23-24), confirming what Jesus said (Luke 21:22, 32)?

3. Doesn’t Paul declare in Acts 24:14-15 that the resurrection was about to be? (See Young’s Literal Translation.)

4. Doesn’t Paul in Acts 17:31 insist that God is about to judge the world in righteousness? (See Young’s Literal Translation.)

5. Doesn’t Paul further declare that Jesus was about to judge the living and the dead in 2 Timothy 4:1? (See Young’s Literal Translation.)

6. Here are all 19 times the phrase “at hand” is used in the New Testament: http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=at+hand&searchtype=phrase&version1=47&spanbegin=47&spanend=73. Doesn’t James’ pronouncement that the Lord’s Coming is near/at hand (James 5:7-9) mean just that? Can it possibly mean anything other than the literal interpretation? If “at hand” means 2000 years later or longer, how could the original audience (or anyone else for that matter) know when “at hand” would be? Why isn’t there a single instance in the New Testament that says Christ’s coming was not “at hand”?

7. Does “near” mean “far distant?”

8. What about Paul’s comment that the “time is short” (1 Corinthians 7:29-31)? Can “short” mean “long?” What time frame did Paul have in mind when he said that the present form of the world was passing away? What time frame would Paul’s readers have understood? (To quote R. C. Sproul, “Surely the Corinthians would not have understood Paul to be urging them to do something because the time is short when in fact it is thousands of years away.”)

9. When Paul says that “the end of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11), could he mean the “end of the world”? If so, why didn’t he say what he meant? If so, why does the Bible speak of the world NEVER ending (Psalms 78:69; 89:36-37, 93:1, 96:10, 104:5, 148:4-6; Ecclesiastes 1:4; Ephesians 3:21)? Isn’t it clear that Paul did not have the end of the world in mind since he spoke of more distant ages and generations elsewhere (Ephesians 2:7; Ephesians 3:21)? Doesn’t Paul clarify in 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 that what is soon to pass away is the present form or fashion of the world, not the world itself?

10. Doesn’t 1 Timothy 6:11-21 refer to the Parousia as something to come to pass while Timothy and his brethren are alive?

11. If Paul had taught the churches to believe in a physical resurrection, how could Hymaneus have overthrown the faith of some so easily, saying the resurrection was past already (2 Timothy 2:17-18)? If Hymaneus told them the resurrection was past already, and they believed in a physical resurrection, wouldn’t they have looked in their local cemeteries to see that the bodies were still in the graves? If Hymaneus taught a different nature of the resurrection than Paul did, why did Paul only condemn the fact that Hymaneus was off on the timing?

12. Isn’t Paul strongly suggesting in Titus 2:11-13 that he and his readers would witness Jesus’ Parousia?

13. Isn’t Paul in Colossians 3:4-6 telling his readers to expect the Parousia and judgment in their lifetimes?

14. Doesn’t it seem clear in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 and 2:14-19 that the Parousia and judgment was imminent—the time frame being so close at hand that it “has come upon them?” Isn’t the wrath here the same as in Luke 21:21-28, which is limited to Jesus’ generation?

15. Did Jesus come to grant relief to the Thessalonians as promised by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1:4-10 ? Would it make any sense to reassure those to whom he is speaking that relief was on its way in thousands of years? (That would be like your calling 9/11 for a life threatening situation and the dispatcher says the ambulance will be there soon or quickly, but doesn’t show up for many years later. For this to mean that soon or quickly means that whenever they do come in the future that they would come very fast—would make language ridiculous.)

16. If Jesus and the apostles all taught Jesus’ Second Coming was thousands of years away, why where the Thessalonians so upset about their loved ones who died before the coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13)? Is it possible that the inspired apostle Paul had told them Jesus was coming in their lifetime, which is why they were upset when some of them died before Christ came?

17. If Paul taught that some of those to whom he was writing would still be alive at the Second Coming (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), but in fact none were since the Second Coming was thousands of years away, was Paul not inspired?

18. When the writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 10:37) states that Jesus is coming again in a very little while (will not delay/tarry), what time-frame reference did he have in mind?

19. Is there any doubt about the time frame in mind by the writer of Hebrews 8:6-14 when he stated that what is becoming obsolete and growing old was ready to vanish away?

20. Isn’t the writer of Hebrews 9 calling his time the end of the ages (Hebrews 9:26) in the context of Christ closing out the Old Covenant and Christ’s Second Coming which is eagerly awaited (Hebrews 9:28)—as his readers would see the day drawing near (Hebrews 10:25) and Jesus coming in a little while (Hebrews 10:37)?

21. Consider Peter’s words in 1 Peter 1:5-7, 20; 4:5-17—salvation ready to be revealed, the last times and the end of all things/fiery trial were at hand/near for Peter’s readers in which Christ’s glory would be revealed, and the time for judgment had come! What time frame reference did Peter have in mind? (It is worth comparing Peter’s statement in chapter 4 about the coming glory to Paul’s comments in 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 where that glory is the New Covenant, which was about to be ushered in once for all as the Old Covenant with its animal sacrifices was about to end. It is noteworthy that the tone of Peter’s words is more urgent than that of Paul in 2 Thessalonians; the catastrophe was now imminent. Peter’s epistle was written close to the outbreak of the Jewish war, if not after its actual commencement.)

22. Also consider Peter’s words in 2 Peter 3:1-18—as you look forward to the Day of the Lord and the speed of its coming, with its destruction of the heavens by fire, ushering in a new heaven and earth, etc. While an end-of-the-world interpretation is the standard one for this passage, wouldn’t you agree, that in light of Peter’s comments in 1 Peter, that this Day of the Lord and the new heaven and earth would be known to those to whom he was speaking? Isn’t the language here similar to the Olivet Discourse—fire symbolizing God’s judgment and foreshadowing of the fires that burned the temple in 70 AD?

23. Given the overwhelming immanency of the events described in Peter’s epistles, and given references to Old Testament language with which Peter and his readers would have been familiar (Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22; Haggai 2:6), as well as New Testament language (Hebrews 12:26-28, et. al.), is it reasonable and consistent to interpret “new heaven and earth” as a theological (covenental) term rather than a cosmological term? That is, could this refer to a new religious order at the end of the Jewish age?

24. When Peter in 2 Peter 3:8 says that a day is like a thousand years, can this be literal? Wouldn’t it be nonsense if so? A short time cannot really mean a long time, can it? Isn’t Peter merely quoting Psalm 90:4 to assert that God is sovereign over time and that his perspective on time differs for ours? Indeed, in context, isn’t Peter using this phrase to tell his listeners that the expectated events would be soon in coming rather than a long time away?

25. Doesn’t more confirmation about Peter’s language come from an understanding of the term elements in 2 Pet. 3:10-13 (incorrectly translated as “heavenly bodies” in some translations, see Strongs #4747), in that while literalists think this term refers to physics, the term is always used in the New Testament in connection with the Old Covenant order (Gal. 4:3, 9; Col. 2:8, 20; Heb. 5:12)?

26. Is there a shred of evidence that the first century Jews and Jewish Christians were anticipating a cosmic catastrophe that would terminate time, burn up planet Earth, and end human history?

27. Consider Jesus’ statement in Matthew 5:18: “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot [jot and tittle] will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (See also Matthew 24:29-35.) This is confusing if the Second Coming is still in the future because we know that Jesus ushered in the New Covenant of grace—so why wouldn’t every detail of the law still be in effect today? In other words, if heaven and earth have not passed away yet, does that mean not one jot or tittle has passed from the law and Jesus did not fulfill it yet (Matthew 5:17)? Isn’t this logic further evidence of a new heaven and earth being a theological expression used by Jesus (also by Isaiah in Isaiah 13:13, 51:16, 65:17, 66:22, by Haggai in Haggai 2:6, 21, 22, by Paul in Ephesians 1:9-10, by the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 12:22-28, by Peter in 2 Peter 3:13, and by John in Revelation 21:1)? Repeating and emphasizing, isn’t this covenantal language rather than physical world language, referring to the end of the Old Covenant and ushering in of the New Covenant? Isn’t the time-frame reference made clear in the Olivet Discourse where Jesus puts the context of the passing of heaven and earth in the generation then alive?

28. Isn’t Jesus’ promise that Peter refers to in 2 Peter 3:13 concerning the new heavens and new earth the one that Jesus mentions in the Olivet Discourse, and which Jesus told us would be in his generation?

29. Since Jeremiah 4:23-31 uses heaven and earth language about the imminent fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC, isn’t it reasonable to view the heaven and earth language in the New Testament as a parallel to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD?

30. Isn’t the context of heaven and earth language in Ephesians 1:9-10 in the context of the gentiles being grafted in discussed by Paul in the first three chapters of Ephesians (the “mystery”), which would further fit the end of the Old Covenant order and the ushering in of the New?

31. If Jesus’ purpose for coming in the flesh was to destroy the devil (Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8), and Paul said Satan would be crushed shortly in the first century (Romans 16:20), how can Satan still be here? Did Jesus forget to destroy Satan and decide to let Satan linger 2000 years longer?

32. Are there any passages in the Bible that clearly offer a time-reference for the Parousia past the first century?

33. Did Paul and the other inspired writers mislead their readers about the timing of the Parousia, or did Jesus in fact come—but in a different sense than what most futurists envision?

Christians widely acknowledge that the New Testament writers expected the Parousia along with a cataclysmic world-changing event to occur soon, thus openly admitting the time-texts to be of first century fulfillment. From whom did they get this expectation? Wasn’t it from Jesus himself? This is most perplexing. How can all of these supposedly inspired writers have been wrong? Is not the logic obvious—that if they were wrong they were not really inspired?! Should not our conclusion be that the New Testament writers were in fact correct and the modern interpreters are wrong in thinking that it was the end of the world (rather than end of an age) that was in view?

D. New Testament questions about a first century fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecies in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24/25, Mark 13, Luke 21):

1. Isn’t it clear from Luke 21:20-21 that Jesus was not speaking about the end of the world since people would be able to escape the prophesied desolation by fleeing to the mountains? (Josephus confirmed that people did in fact flee to the mountains to avoid the destruction in 70 AD.)

2. Doesn’t the New Testament itself (Romans 1:8, 16:25-27; Colossians 1:6, 23; Acts 2:5, 19:10; 2 Timothy 4:17) prove that the gospel was indeed proclaimed to the “whole world” (Matthew 24:14), that is, to all nations (Mark 13:10), fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy that it would be done in his generation? (The Greek word translated “world” in Matthew 24:14 is the same Greek word used in Luke 2:1—oikoumene—to describe a “world-wide” census that took place during the time of Jesus’ birth, and the same as found in Acts 11:28, 17:6, and 24:5.) So isn’t this word best translated “known world,” thus the “borders of the Roman empire.” See Strong’s # 3625.)

3. Doesn’t Acts 11:28 explicitly show that the prophecy Jesus made concerning famines was fulfilled in his generation—just as he predicted? Note: similar to the above, this passage describes the famine is described as being “throughout all the world,” which means the “known world” since the Greek word is oikoumene (“inhabited earth” or “known world”) and not kosmos (“world”).

4. Isn’t there sufficient evidence from the Bible outside of the Olivet Discourse to prove that Jesus’ prophecy about false prophets would come in his generation (Acts 5:36-37, 8:9-11, 13:6, 20:29-30; 2 Cor. 11:13; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 2:16-18, 3:13; 2 Peter 2:1-3; 1 John 2:18-19, 4:1; 2 John 1:7)?

5. Isn’t there sufficient evidence from the Bible outside of the Olivet Discourse to prove that Jesus’ prophecy about the persecution of Christ’s disciples was fulfilled in his generation (Acts 4:3, 4:17, 5:40, 7:54-60, 8:1, 9:1, 12:1-3, 14:19; 2 Cor. 11:24-26; Rev. 1:9)?

6. Didn’t the most prominent of Jesus’ predictions—the destruction of the temple—occur just as he prophesied, within his generation?

7. Other examples can be given. But don’t the above questions, using Scripture to interpret Scripture, establish that key events of the Olivet Discourse were fulfilled by 70 AD—in his generation just as Jesus predicted!

Russell insisted, “These predictions are bounded by certain limits of time. The time is explicitly declared to fall within the period of the then existing generation. No artifice of logic, no violence of interpretation, can evade or gainsay this undeniable fact…the Parousia, the end of the age, the consummation of the kingdom of God, the destruction of Jerusalem, the judgment of Israel—all synchronize. To find the date of one is to fix the date of all.”

E. Old Testament questions about a first century fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecies in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24/25, Mark 13, Luke 21):

1. Doesn’t Jesus’ reference to the fig tree (Matthew 21:18-22; Matthew 24:32), which is elsewhere in the Bible a symbol of the Jewish nation, confirm that the cataclysmic events in the Olivet Discourse apply specifically to the Jewish nation? Didn’t the Jewish nation essentially end in 70 AD, confirming Jesus as a true prophet?

2. Using Scripture to interpret Scripture, doesn’t the destruction of the temple in 70 AD qualify as the “abomination of desolation” Jesus predicted, as this phrase is originally from Daniel 9:27 and 11:31, where it refers to the desecration of the temple? Doesn’t Luke 21:20-24 further clarify that the desolation event is the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple?

3. Doesn’t Daniel expressly state that the prophecies he wrote would be fulfilled when the power of the Jewish nation was scattered and destroyed (Daniel 12:7; cf. 10:14; 9:24-27)? Isn’t Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy fulfilled by 70 AD when the old covenant world, symbolized by Jerusalem and the temple, finally passed away in the flames of 70 AD?

4. Doesn’t Daniel tell us exactly when the time of distress (12:1), the resurrection (12:2), the time of the end (12:9), and the abomination of desolation (12:11)—all occur—that time being the time when the power of the holy people has finally been broken (12:7) and the burnt offering taken away (12:11)? Can there be ANY doubt that this was 70 AD?

5. Isn’t the language of astronomical signs that Jesus uses in the Olivet Discourse, such as the darkened sun and heavenly bodies being shaken, etc., typical of God’s comings in judgment in the Old Testament? Consider these examples which we know were fulfilled: Isaiah 13:9-13 (predicting doom on Babylon by the Medes); Isaiah 24 (prediction of the judgments about to come on the land of Israel), Isaiah 34:4-5 (judgment on Edom); Ezekiel 32:7-8 (concerning Egypt); Amos 5:18-20, 8:9 (on the Northern Kingdom of Israel); Joel 2:10 (on Judah)? See also Luke 10:18; Acts 2:15-21; Revelation 6:12-17. In other words, isn’t Jesus is using stock-in-trade language that the Jews would have understood as non-literal language about God’s coming judgment upon Israel (in their generation)?

6. Isn’t there further confirmation with the angels language? Isn’t the coming “with angels” in Matthew 24 similar to the coming of God to the Israelites from Mt. Sinai when “He came from the midst of the thousand holy ones” (Deuteronomy 33:1-2)—and similar to language in Jude 13-14 regarding the coming of the Lord in another context? In other words, is there any reason to think that the “angels” language has to be the end of the world?

7. Isn’t the image of lightning in the Olivet Discourse a parallel to Old Testament passages signifying the figurative presence of God and his coming in judgment (Exodus 19:16-19, 20:18; Psalm 18:14; Job 36:30; Ezekiel 21:15, 21:28; Zechariah 9:14)?

8. How about the cloud language in the Olivet Discourse? Aren’t clouds a metaphor for how God figuratively shows himself in the Old Testament (Exodus 13:21, 14:24, 19:9, 20:21, 24:15, 33:9, 34:5; 1 Kings 8:12) or is his figurative mode of transportation (Psalm 104:3)? Here are other passages as to God and clouds: Psalm 97:2; Jeremiah 10:13, 51:16, Ezekiel 30:3; Joel 2:2; Nahum 1:3.

9. Didn’t the chief priests and Pharisees understand in Jesus’ parables and elsewhere (Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62) that Jesus was speaking to them when he said the kingdom of God would be taken away from them and given to others? In this passage Jesus proclaims that he will be coming in his power on the clouds of heaven. Upon hearing his words, Caiaphas goes into a rage and accuses Jesus of blasphemy. Isn’t that because Caiaphas was aware that God himself is the one that comes on a cloud to judge the Jews?

10. Aren’t the judgment comings of God situations where God was not literally seen visually but He did come nevertheless? Note: here are other instances in which God effectively comes down to affect his will in which people could experience the effects of his coming rather than literally seeing Him: Genesis 14:19-20, 15:17-20; Exodus 3:8, 14:19-20; Deuteronomy 4:11, 5:22, 33:1-2; 2 Samuel 22:10-12; Psalm 18:1-11, 47:2-5, 72, 19:1, 78:49; Ezekiel 32:7-9; Daniel 7:13; Joel 2; Zechariah 2:6; Acts 2:19.

11. Didn’t God use the Romans to punish the Jews in 70 AD just as God used the Babylonians to punish the Jews in an earlier time?

12. Isn’t it reasonable, given the Old Testament comparisons to God coming in judgment on various occassions, that Jesus indeed did come—not visibly, but in judgment—in 70 AD to judge the Jews? Wouldn’t this satisfy Jesus’ predictions in the Olivet Discourse, confounding the skeptics who say that He did not come as predicted?

As Russell says, “Our Lord, in answering the question of his disciples respecting the destruction of Jerusalem mixes up different events—now to Jerusalem and now to the human race; now to events close at hand and now to events indefinitely remote—that to distinguish and allocate the several references and topics, is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. Is this the manner in which the Savior taught his disciples, leaving them to grope their way through intricate labyrinths? There are no words too strong to repudiate such a suggestion. The disciples came to their Master with a plain, straight forward inquiry, and it is incredible that he would mock them with an unintelligible riddle for a reply.”

Both liberal and conservative New Testament scholars have been busy re-dating the book of Revelation. For example, both liberal scholar John A. T. Robinson in his book Redating the New Testament and conservative scholars Kenneth L. Gentry in his book Before Jerusalem Fell and Don Preston in his book Who Is This Babylon, argue convincingly that Revelation was written prior to 70 AD. Part of their argument is that Revelation always mentions the temple as still standing (Revelation 11 and 21). That the New Testament, including Revelation, would have been written after the events of 70 AD and not mention those events would be even more unlikely than writing a book about the history of New York after 2001 and not mentioning the 9/11 attack.

F. Questions about the book of Revelation:

1. Don’t Revelation 1:1-3, 3:11, 22:6, 22:7, 22:10, 22:12, 22:20 apply specifically to the readers of John’s Apocalypse? Can we overlook or minimize audience relevance? Can “soon” or “quickly” mean far distant future—or that when Jesus does come that he will come quickly? Wouldn’t that be like calling an ambulance and have the driver say, “Well, when we do come in a few months or years, we will certainly come quickly”? When Paul said the he trusted that Jesus would send Timothy to the Philippians soon, could that have meant thousands of years later?

2. Don’t the instructions in Revelation 22:10 not to seal the words of this prophecy stand in deliberate contrast to the instructions Daniel received at the end of his book to seal the words of his prophecy? Isn’t this a strong implication that, in contrast to Daniel (Daniel 12:4, 9), the time for the culmination of prophecy was imminent—indeed near, thus at hand (Revelation 22:10)?

3. In other words, Daniel was to be sealed because it was for “many days” (Daniel 10:14, NKJV), which turned out to be 500 years until the time of the writing of the book of Revelation.  And if that is true, how can “at hand” in Revelation be for 2000 years?

4. Why would John write to the seven churches if his message was not directly and principally for them? Wasn’t the book written specifically and obviously about events relevant to John’s first readers? Wasn’t the book to have been read out loud to the churches? How could hidden meanings of things to come thousands of years later have been relevant to these first century Christians?

5. Do you really think that Revelation should be given literal or scientific interpretations (a third of the sun smitten, etc. in 8:12)? Isn’t this language drawn from an Old Testament context—the judgment and destruction of nations (Isaiah 14:12 and Jeremiah 9:12-16)?

6. Why should we read the “thousand years” in Revelation 20 as literal, when the number thousand is used figuratively elsewhere in the Bible to mean perfection, completion, etc. (Deuteronomy 7:9; 1 Chronicles 16:15; Psalm 50:10; Psalm 105:8)?

7. If the teaching that 1 day = 1000 years and 1000 years = 1 day to the Lord (2 Peter 3:8) is how we are to read time in Scripture, does that mean that the 1000 years in Revelation 20 is a single 24 hour day?

8. If Revelation was written after 70 AD, why does John give time statements throughout the book pointing to imminent events which fit the description of Jerusalem’s destruction from Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 17/21?

9. If Revelation was written after 70 AD, why was John told to measure the temple (Revelation 11:1-2), if the temple was already destroyed?

10. If Revelation was written after 70 AD, why is there nothing mentioned about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple?

11. If Revelation was written after 70 AD, how could there be other apostles alive (Revelation 2:2), when all the apostles except John were dead before 70 AD?

12. If Revelation was written after 70 AD, why were there two different numbers used in different manuscripts to calculate the same beast in Revelation 13:18 which point to Nero? (666 spells Nero in Hebrew, 616 spells Nero in Latin.)

13. Doesn’t John make it clear in Revelation 1:9 that the tribulation was already present when he wrote the book?

14. What purpose would it serve for John to tell the first readers of his prophecy to “calculate” the number of the beast if he was not to born for thousands of years later?

15. John told the seven churches in Asia that “Behold he is coming with the clouds and every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him.” Doesn’t that mean that those who killed Jesus would be alive when Jesus returned? If you think this statement refers to heaven, doesn’t the mention of “tribes” in the same passage (Revelation 1:7) refer to the tribes of Israel, confirming a first century fulfillment?

16. If you think that Revelation is about heaven, why does Revelation 22:2 refer to the healing of the nations? What needs healing in heaven? Isn’t the world of Revelation 21-22 about “our world,” where the gospel of Jesus Christ makes sinners whole again?

17. Don’t numerous other passages in Revelation tie the date of the events in the book to first century Israel either (a) by specific time-reference, (b) correlate to other texts that are limited by a time reference (such as those we have pointed out throughout this article), (c) point specifically to Jerusalem or the nation of Israel, or (d) confirmed by actual historical accounts of first century Jerusalem as the place and time of the apocalypse? See Revelation 1:7, 1:10-11, 1:19, 2:10, 3:10, 4:1, 6:16-17, 8:7-13, 11:15-19, 14:14-20, 15:5-8, 16:6, 16:19, 20:7-15.

18. When John says in Revelation 14:7 that “the hour of his judgment has come,” could he possibly be talking about the far distant future?

19. Is there anything in the text of Revelation to suggest that John speaks of generations and generations into the future?

20. Wouldn’t the readers of Revelation 6:16-17 have clearly understood the radical nearness of the coming judgment—“the great day of His wrath?”

21. If Revelation would occur thousands of years after it was written, why does John say the sixth king is the one who “is” which would mean his present day (Revelation 17:10)?

22. Doesn’t the coming of Christ in Revelation 22:12 parallel the judgment coming of God in Isaiah 40:10 (which according to Revelation was to happen soon/quickly/near)?

23. If the 144,000 from Revelation 7 and 14 are still yet in the future, why are they described as “firstfruits” (Revelation 14:4)? Since they are the “firstfruits,” wouldn’t they be the first Christians rather than the last ones?

24. Summarizing the above questions, isn’t there strong evidence to tie the book of Revelation to the first century?

25. Since John did not have an Olivet Discourse in his gospel, is it reasonable to think that Revelation is an expanded version of the Olivet Discourse?

G. More Questions:

1. If Jesus has not returned, then why do people say Christians go to heaven and the wicked go to hell at death? If Christians go to heaven and the wicked go to hell at death, wouldn’t that mean that salvation, redemption, and judgment have already come to the world? In other words, if Christians go to heaven and the wicked go to hell at death, then doesn’t that suggest that Jesus has returned in some sense?

2. If most Bible prophecy has not been fulfilled or is being fulfilled today, why doesn’t ANY New Testament passage say its fulfillment would be 2000 years later?

3. If “like manner” is exactly how Jesus would return as he left in Acts 1:11, does that mean Jesus left while all the tribes of the earth (land) were wailing (Zechariah 12:10; Matthew 24:30; Revelation 1:7)?

4. If “like manner” is exactly how Jesus would return as he left in Acts 1:11, does that mean Jesus left riding a white horse (Revelation 19:11)?

5. If “like manner” is exactly how Jesus would return as he left in Acts 1:11, does that mean Jesus left with a sword coming out of his mouth (Revelation 19:15)?

6. If “like manner” is how Jesus would return as he left, wouldn’t he be in fact hidden per Acts 1:9?

7. If the Jews in the first century missed the first coming of Jesus because of their ignorance of the scriptures (Mark 12:24), isn’t it entirely possible that Christians living in the twenty-first century have missed the second coming of Jesus for the same reason?

8. Do you put your complete trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross, or is there a footnote? Please read Romans 13:11-12 and Hebrews 9:26-28. Can you call yourself saved and able to enter God’s presence in heaven? Are you still waiting on your salvation?

The good news is this: Christ’s work of redemption is complete! If you are confident that this is true, Christ’s Second Coming has already happened!

Don’t these questions show that Jesus did in fact come—in judgment—in 70 AD, just as he predicted?!

Endnotes: CHRISTIAN HOPE through FULFILLED PROPHECY

This post will have the endnotes for my upcoming book Christian Hope through Fulfilled Prophecy: Is Your Church Teaching Error about the Last Days and Second Coming? The Surging Preterist Challenge to Eschatology

 

Preterist Websites

Preterist websites are exploding in number. Some websites as of 2013 are listed below. Many, though not all, are from a full preterist perspective; others are from a partial preterist perspective. We are not endorsing any of these in particular. Indeed, some may be teaching things with which we strongly disagree. But we offer it here to give the reader an opportunity to see differing views and to do independent research. They are in no particular order.

Preterist Questions and Answers:

http://preteristcosmos.com/questionsandanswers.html (David A. Green)

http://www.preterist.org/preteristQA.asp (Edward E. Stevens)

http://livingthequestion.org/resources (Riley O’Brien Powell)

http://ecclesia.org/truth/preterist-questions.html (Richard Anthony)

http://apostolicpreterist.com/Preterist_Q___A.html (Virgil Vaduva quoted)

http://www.preteristvision.org/questions.html

Here are places to go for preterist books and other resources:

http://www.preterist.org/preteristbookstore.asp

http://americanvision.com

http://www.bibleprophecy.com/banners-view/bpstore

These sites are hubs for preterist websites, books, sermons, Facebook pages, and networking:

http://www.preteristdoctrine.com (Allyn Morton)

http://asiteforthelord.com/id20.html (Tony Denton)

Misc. Preterist Websites:

http://www.faithfacts.org (Charles S. Meek)

http://preterist.org (Edward E. Stevens, International Preterist Association)

http://thewellkc.com/?page_id=161 (Joe Vincent)

http://www.eschatology.org (Don Preston)

http://www.bibleprophecy.com (Don Preston)

http://donkpreston.com (Don Preston)

http://www.preteristviewpoint.com (Walt Hibbard)

http://americanvision.org (Gary DeMar)

http://www.preteristcentral.com (Kurt Simmons)

http://preterism.ning.com (Michael Bennett)

http://www.ligionier.org (R. C. Sproul)

http://www.equip.org (Hank Hanegraaff)

http://www.fulfilledcg.com (Brian Martin)

http://planetpreterist.com (Virgil Vaduva)

http://www.preterism.info (Michael Fenemore)

http://www.preteristarchive.com (Todd Dennis)

http://www.prophecyrefi.org/information.htm (John Noe)

http://restorationgj.com (Timothy King)

http://eschatology.com (Ward Fenley)

http://www.newcreationministries.tv/index.html (Ward Fenley)

http://www.allthingsfulfilled.com (William Bell)

http://www.lastdays-eschatology.net (William Bell)

http://www.kennethgentry.com (Kenneth Gentry)

http://lynnish.tripod.com/index.html (Lynn Schuldt)

http://www.beyondcreationscience.com (Timothy Martin & Jeffrey Vaughn)

http://www.drkellynelsonbirks.com (Kelly Birks)

http://www.treeoflifeministries.info (Mike Sullivan)

http://fullpreterism.com (Mike Sullivan with various contributors)

http://www.wix.com/edwhynotme/fandd#! (Ed Hassertt)

http://reasonbyfaith.wix.com/rbfm (Ed Hassertt)

http://deathisdefeated.ning.com (John Scargy)

http://beyondtheendtimes.com/index.html (Ken Davies)

http://www.thenarrowpath.com (Steve Gregg)

http://www.theos.org/forum/index.php (Steve Gregg)

http://www.biblicalfulfillment.org (Jessie Mills)

http://www.asiteforthelord.com (Tony Everett Denton)

http://bibleprophecyfulfilled.com (Gary Parrish, Michael Day, Terry Kashian, David Warren)

http://kennethdahl.com/allthesethings.pdf (Kenneth Dahl)

http://www.preteristvoice.org (Allyn Morton)

http://covenantkey.fm/about (Larry and Jen Siegle)

http://www.charlescoty.com/Theology.html (Charles Coty)

http://moonmeanderings.wordpress.com (Tina Rae Collins)

http://www.biblepreterist.com (Michael Alan Nichols)

http://preterism-preterist-taffy.blogspot.in (Preterism with Taffy)

http://lightshine70.wordpress.com (Frank Speer)

http://kloposmasm.com/ (Adam Maarschalk)

http://www.eschatology101.com (Jim Wade)

http://www.eschatologyreview.com (Ron McRay)

http://www.presence.tv (Tim King)

http://www.bereanbiblechurch.org/home.php (Berean Bible Church, David Curtis)

http://newcovenanteyes.com (New Covenant Eyes Church, Alan Bondar)

http://www.truthaccordingtoscripture.com/index.php (Mesa Biblical Church)

http://www.ncfgeorgetown.com/#/Home (New Covenant Fellowship Church)

http://congregationofchrist.org (Spring and Case Church of Christ)

http://www.bluepointbiblechurch.org/peace (Blue Point Bible Church)

http://www.worldwithoutend.info (Victory Baptist Church, Philippines)

http://www.fpcchurch.com (Full Preterist Christian Church)

http://preteristalliance.org (Preterist Theological Society)

http://brock.brewercreative.com (Fulfilled Life)

http://lastdayspast.com

http://preteristradio.com

http://fulfilledradio.com

http://covenantkey.fm/about

http://www.buzzsprout.com/11633

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ad70

http://apostolicpreterist.com/Home_Page.html

http://www.biblicalpreteristarchive.com

http://hellbusters.8m.com/prophecy.html

http://preterismmatters.webs.com

http://sjolanderroadfellowship.com

Facebook Pages:

FaithFacts.org (Charles Meek)– https://www.facebook.com/Faithfacts.org

Bible Fulfilled Prophecy (Larry and Jenn Siegle)– https://www.facebook.com/groups/BibleFulfilledProphecy/?fref=ts

Charismatic Preterist Movement– http://www.facebook.com/groups/61453512279/?fref=ts

Consider Yesterday: An End of Times Study (Michael Miano)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/163393613718548

Covenant Creation (Dan Kortkamp, Hollan Linn)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/267807176662617/?fref=ts

Covenant Talk (Tony Denton/Terry Cropper)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/284173635861

Deaf Fulfilled Eschatology (Saif Rassouli, Haviv Ben-Chaim)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/358920800826931/?fref=ts

Eschatology Forum (Robert Summers)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/136437016438914/?fref=ts

Fulfilled Christian Group (Larry and Jen Siegle)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/382457128444024/516211641735238

Fulfilled Communications Group (Brian Martin)– http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fulfilled-Communications-Group/250077615062640

Fulfilled Covenant Group (Matthew Schultz)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/455893367793498

Fulfilled Eschatology (Allyn Morton)– http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fulfilled-Eschatology/258474497545872

Full Preterist (Paul Bumgardner)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/fullpreterist

Genuine Preterism (Larry Siegle)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/113617658673036

David Green– http://www.facebook.com/jer2329

The Parousia of Christ (Shannon Brook Parker, Terry Cropper)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/361332340564417

Don Preston– http://www.facebook.com/don.k.preston

Preterism: Past in Fullfillment– http://www.facebook.com/groups/14470981285/?fref=ts

Preterism Review (James Metzger)– http://www.facebook.com/preterism.review

Preterist Archive (Todd Dennis)– http://www.facebook.com/PreteristArchive

Preterist Forum for the New Comer (Rodney Alexander, Gerrie van Wyk, Robin L. Elliot)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/preteristforthenewcommer/?fref=ts

Preterist Friends (John Harding)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/117599281637889/?fref=ts

Preterist and Fulfilled Theology (Donald Hochner)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/381541645214446/?fref=ts

Preterist Gear/Allyn Morton– http://www.facebook.com/pages/Preterist-Gear/184288971670376

Preterist Now (David Pease)–http://www.facebook.com/groups/108327465864609/?fref=ts

Preterist of NW Arkansas– http://www.facebook.com/groups/159153630826023/?fref=ts

Preterist Voice Announcement Center– http://www.facebook.com/groups/204032893052224/?fref=ts

The Pret-Net Group (Quentin Duffy)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/370690392959571

Prophecy Fulfilled/B. S. Raju– http://www.facebook.com/prophecy.fulfilled

Rethinking Eschatology (Jason Watt)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/RethinkingEschatology

Larry Siegle– http://www.facebook.com/larry.siegle

World without End (John Paul)– http://www.facebook.com/groups/181149025240235

Prophecy Questions Specifically for Dispensationalists

Please see the other articles in this blog, beginning with “Introduction to Biblical Prophecy.”

A. Haven’t dispensationalists been consistently wrong on prophecy (see links below)?—

http://americanvision.org/4545/before-harold-camping-there-was-chuck-smith/

http://planetpreterist.com/news-2008.html

http://www.examiner.com/x-16146-Wilmington-Religion–Politics-Examiner~y2009m7d15-Eschatology-A-past-history-of-failed-prophecies

http://againstdispensationalism.blogspot.com/2009/04/obituary-of-dispensationalism.html

http://www.americanvision.org/article/chuck-smiths-prophetic-confusion/

http://www.americanvision.org/article/making-bad-prophecy-predictions-vanish/

http://publisherscorner.nordskogpublishing.com/2009/01/is-it-time-for-doomsday-or-for-building.html 

http://www.ministryserver.com/rwsr/Part01_Introduction.htm

http://www.andrewcorbett.net/articles/fortune-telling-prophecies.html

http://www.verumserum.com/the-return-of-christ/eschatological-word-studies#toc-three-greek-words-for-the-return

In fact, every generation since Christ has heard predictions of the end in their day, as detailed in the book by Francis Gumerlock entitled The Day and the Hour (http://francisgumerlock.com/books/the-day-and-the-hour/.

B. Questions about Israel:

1. Could the dispensational distinctive of separation between Israel and the church be incorrect? On the Jewish Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, if you asked Peter and the disciples if they were part of “Israel” or the “Church,” what would they say? Wouldn’t they say they were both? Don’t Romans 11 and Hebrews 8 show that the gentiles were grafted in as the Israel of God, rather the Jews maintaining a separate line of salvation? Doesn’t Galatians 3:14 further identify the nature of the blessing that would come to all the other nations in addition to Israel through Christ? Doesn’t Galatians 3:6-8 and Galatians 3:29 tell us that believers are the spiritual descendants of Abraham?

2. If God has two different plans for Jews and Gentiles, why does Paul say there isn’t any more distinction (Romans 10:12; Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11)?

3. Isn’t the gospel the salvation for everyone who believes—both Jew and Gentile (Romans 1:16)?

4. If Israel and the Christian church are two different groups of people who have two separate covenants, and the hope of Israel is the resurrection (Acts 23:6, 24:14-15, 26:6-8), why is it taught that Christians will experience any type of resurrection, being that it is only for Israel (http://bible.org/article/contemporary-interpretative-problems-%E2%80%94-resurrection-israel)?

5. Don’t the following passages further confirm that the New Israel (New Jerusalem) does not mean a literal restored nation of Israel: Matthew 21:43; Romans 2:28-29, 9:6, 10:12; Galatians 6:15-16; Philippians 3:3; Colossians 3:11; Hebrews 8:8, 8:13; 1 Peter 2:9-10; Revelation 21:2? In 1 Peter 2:9-10 isn’t Peter applying Old Testament terms for Israel to the church, asserting the continuity between Old Testament Israel and the New Testament church—representing them as one people of God? Isn’t it a reasonable interpretation that Revelation 12:2 is speaking about a heavenly Jerusalem (see Hebrews 12:22-23)?

6. Are there any references in the Bible to the temple being built a third time? If there is going to be a rebuilt Jewish temple in the future, why does Scripture say God does not dwell in temples made with hand anymore (Acts 7:48, 17:24)?

7. Don’t all the New Testament texts comparing Israel to a fig tree point to Jerusalem’s destruction rather than its restoration?

8. Weren’t the Jews as a nation rejected (Matthew 8:8-13, 21:33-46, 22:1-4, 23:31-39; John 8:37-47; Romans 9:30-10:4; Romans 11:7)?

9. Wasn’t the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:15-16) given to the those individuals, either Jew or Gentile, who believe (Matthew 3:9; Romans 2:28-29; Galatians 3:28-29, 4:24-31; Hebrews 8:13, 12:12-24; 1 Peter 2:5-10; Revelation 3:9)?

10. When the Jews rejected Jesus weren’t their branches broken off and the Gentiles “grafted in” (Romans 9:6-8, 11:11-24) along with a remnant of Jews (Romans 11:5)?

11. Doesn’t the New Testament (Ephesians 2:20-22; 1 Peter 2:4-8) explain that while the physical temple is about to be destroyed, it is being replaced by the church with Christ as the cornerstone and Christians as the living stones?

12. Is there anywhere in the New Testament that explicitly supports the land promises made to Israel are yet to be fulfilled?

13. Doesn’t the distinctive of the separation between Israel and the church inevitably teach that there are two paths to salvation—law for Jews and grace for everyone else? Didn’t C. I. Scofield himself say; “As a dispensation, grace begins with the death and resurrection of Christ… The point of testing is no longer legal obedience as the condition of salvation, but acceptance or rejection of Christ…” (Scofield Reference Bible, page 1115). Doesn’t the labeling of the current dispensation as the Age of Grace at the very least confuse the issue of justification? Aren’t both law and grace (gospel) present in both the Old Testament and New Testament? Isn’t the notion that God saved Old Testament Jews by law, but now saves New Testament Christians by grace unbiblical (Romans 4, 5)? Didn’t God preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham (Galatians 3:8)? Doesn’t Paul in Galatians 3 clearly state that no man is justified by the law, and quotes the Old Testament to prove it? On the other hand, aren’t there plenty of statements in the New Testament about obeying the law (Matthew 5:19; Matthew 7:16-20; Matthew 13:36-43; Matthew 25:31-46; Romans 3:31; James 2:10-17)?

14. When Jesus says in John 14:6 that no man comes to the Father but through him, doesn’t Jesus mean what he says? “No man” would include Jew or Gentile, doesn’t it?

15. Do you believe that two-thirds of Israelis will be slaughtered in a Holocaust II (John Walvoord’s book Israel in Prophecy)? If so, how can you call yourself pro-Israel? When you pray for Jesus to come soon or the imminent rapture, aren’t you preaching or even asking for a near term slaughter of the Jews? Isn’t this teaching based almost entirely on one verse—Zechariah 13:8—yet the New Testament places the previous verse (13:7) squarely in the time of Christ? Isn’t it true that there is no prediction in the book of Revelation about the annihilation of two-thirds of all Jews living in Israel by the Antichrist?

16. If we are in the New Covenant era, which scripture says is forever, why would God go back to a temple system of the Old Covenant which Paul called bondage (Galatians 4)?

17. If God was going to go back to animal sacrifices for sin in a future millennium, does that mean Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:21)?

18. If the promises to Israel are forever and unconditional, why does God say it is conditional in Deuteronomy 28?

19. Why can Jesus’ earthly kingdom be set up in earthly Jerusalem, when Jesus himself said the hour was coming when worshipping God would NOT be in Jerusalem (John 4:21)? 

Gary DeMar, author of the book Last Days Madness says this about interpretation of words:  “If the Bible can be interpreted so ‘soon’ can mean ‘late,’ and ‘near’ can mean ‘distant,’ and ‘shortly’ can mean ‘delayed,’ and vice versa, then the Bible can mean anything and nothing. Does God have two methods of measurement? When God says ‘love,’ are we to read ‘hate?’ Can we trust a God whose words can mean their opposite?”

C. Questions about hermeneutics (biblical interpretive method):

1. Dispensationalists say that you interpret the Bible literally, but do you do so appropriately and consistently? For example, when Isaiah (Isaiah 55:12) describes the mountains and the hills breaking into song and the trees clapping their hands, do is this to be taken this literally? When Isaiah (Isaiah 13:9-13) describes God shaking the earth from its place and making the stars not show their light (predicting doom on Babylon), wasn’t this intended to be taken seriously but non-literally? Or when God says that he will make the sun go down at noon (Amos 8:8-9), was this literal or rather an emphatic statement about his coming judgment on the northern kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 17:3-6)? When Jesus says that he is the “vine,” does that mean he is a woody plant?

2. When Colossians 1:23 states, “This is the gospel you heard and that has been proclaimed [past tense] to every living creature under heaven.” —do you interpret this literally? Had the gospel been declared to the American Indians? No, of course not. This passage, and many others that could be given, refers to the spread of the gospel in the first century across the local region of the known world.

3. If prophetic language is literal, why did none of the cosmic events described in Isaiah 13 literally happen when it was fulfilled according to Daniel 5?

4. Doesn’t the Bible throughout use figures of speech such as symbolism, allegory, parables, hyperbole, and so forth to make a point—but which are not always intended to be interpreted literally?

5. If the Bible is to be interpreted 100% literally, why are the terms like “at hand,” “quickly,” “shortly,” etc. not read literally?

6. If “soon” means “2000 years or longer,” does that mean it was going to take Timothy 2000 years to be sent to the Philippians (or to us) by Paul (Philippians 2:19)?

7. If the Bible is to be interpreted 100% literally, why do some dispensationalists say the seven churches in Asia (Revelation 1-3) are “church ages” and not “literal” churches?

8. Can we agree on these four criteria for interpreting the Bible: interpreting it (a) the way it was intended to be interpreted by the author, (2) the way it would have been understood by the original hearers, (c) in context of both the immediate passages and the rest of the Bible (letting Scripture interpret Scripture), (d) interpreting the more difficult passages in light of the clearer ones, (e) in order that all of Scripture is harmonized? 

D. Questions about the Rapture and the Tribulation:

1. Is there anywhere in the New Testament a trace of evidence for a secret, invisible, instantaneous rapture of the church?

2. If Jesus is going to rapture the church out of the world, why does Jesus pray for the exact opposite thing to happen (that the church would NOT be taken out of the world) in John 17:15?

3. Is there any verse in the Bible that teaches a “seven year tribulation?”

4. Doesn’t the Jewish War of 66-70 AD qualify as a great tribulation, given that that over a million Jews were killed, their nation was dissolved, their temple decimated, and along with it went their whole world order and the centerpiece of their religion—the centuries old system of animal sacrifices for sin?

5. If the great tribulation (Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21) is global, why did Jesus only tell those living in Judea to flee to the mountains to avoid the tribulation (Matthew 24:16, Luke 21:20-22)? In other words, why would the Great Tribulation be a global event if people could escape it by fleeing to the mountains? If the great tribulation is global, why did Daniel only refer to it occurring to those who were the “children of my people”?

6. If the Great Tribulation associated with the Second Coming was to be global, why does Jesus compare it to Sodom and Gomarrah which was clearly local (Luke 17:25-32), also Peter (2 Peter 2:5-9)?

7. If the Great Tribulation is future, why did Jesus say it (the great day of judgment) would fall upon his generation (Matthew 12:38-45; 16:1-4; 23:29-39)?

8. Doesn’t Daniel tell us exactly when the time of distress (12:1), the resurrection (12:2), the time of the end (12:9), and the abomination of desolation (12:11)—all occur when the power of the holy people has finally been broken (12:7) and the burnt offering taken away (12:11)? Can there be ANY doubt that this was 70 AD?

9. If the rapture is still an event to come in the future, why do the time-frame implications given in 1 and 2 Thessalonians suggest that Paul expected the events of which he speaks in these books to occur while some of those alive at the time were still alive? Go back and re-read these passages with this idea in mind: 1 Thes 1:10, 2:16, 4:17; 2 Thes 1:7, 5:4, 5:8-9.

 E. Questions about the Kingdom of God:

1. How can Jesus’ kingdom be physical/earthly when Jesus rejected a physical kingdom in John 6:15; John 18:36?

2. How can Jesus’ kingdom have not yet come, when John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, and the apostles all declared the “kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 3:2, 4:17, 10:7; Acts 28:31)?

3. Why would Jesus’ kingdom be set up in earthly Jerusalem, even though Paul said earthly Jerusalem was bondage and the old covenant (Galatians 4:24-25)?

4. Since Jesus declared that the Kingdom had come when he cast out demons, didn’t he usher in the kingdom during his time on earth (Matthew 12:28-29; Luke 10:8-20; Luke 11:20)?

5. How can Jesus’ kingdom be seen by everyone when Jesus himself said it comes NOT with observation (Luke 17:20)?

6. Is it a conflict to long for an earthly kingdom of peace and joy while expecting God to destroy the planet?

7. Why would Jesus’ kingdom be set up in earthly Jerusalem, knowing Jesus condemned their city several times (Matthew 21-Matthew 25)?

8. How can the “millennial” kingdom of God be of the Jews when Jesus himself said that he took the kingdom away from them and gave it to the gentiles who produce the fruits (Matthew 21:43)? If Jesus took the kingdom from the Jews and gave it to the gentiles, why is there no scripture to show another transfer back to the Jews?

9. Doesn’t John in Revelation 11:15 declare that the kingdom of the world had become the kingdom of God?

10. Has the failure to recognize that we are living in the kingdom of heaven today contributed to the malaise of the church?

11. Does the idea of a future millennial reign of Jesus on earth sound too much like Jehovah’s Witness theology? (Jehovah’s Witnesses got their start with books entitled the Millennial Dawn.)

Russell says, “The coming, the judgment, the kingdom, are all coincident and contemporaneous, and not only so, but also nigh at hand…So long as the Theocratic nation existed, and the temple, with its priesthood and sacrifices and ritual, remained, and the Mosaic law continued, or seemed to continue, in force, the distinction between Jew and Gentile could not be obliterated. But the barrier was effectually broken down when law, temple, city, and nation were swept away together, and the Theocracy was visibly brought to a final consummation. That event was, so to speak, the formal and public declaration that God was no longer God of the Jews only, but that He was now the common Father of all men…”

F. More Questions for Dispensationalists:

1. Why do dispensationalists say we are: (1) on earth…  (2) when we die, we go to heaven…  (3) at the rapture, we come back to earth…  (4) at the rapture we go back to heaven…  (5) at the Second Coming we come back to earth seven years later to be there for 1000 years…  (6) after the 1000 years, we go to a new heaven and earth?

2. If dispensationalists can believe in an invisible, spiritual coming of Christ for the “rapture,” then why do they condemn preterists for teaching in that very same nature of fulfillment in 70 AD?

3. Is there a single verse that explicitly teaches that the antichrist will make a covenant with the Jews and then break it?

4. Is there a single verse that explicitly teaches that Jesus will reign on earth for a literal thousand years, or that Jesus will sit on David’s throne in Jerusalem during the millennium?

5. Does the Bible speak of a literal thousand year reign of the saints outside of Revelation 20—a chapter that is perhaps the most complex and highly symbolic section of the most symbolic and complex book in the Bible? Is it likely that something so dramatically significant would not appear elsewhere in the Bible?

6. Is there any explicit teaching that animal sacrifices and circumcision will be reinstated during the millennium of Revelation 20?

7. In a literal millennium, are premillennialists relying on faith in total bureaucracy for the world? Doesn’t this view put too much faith in man being able to live sinlessly?

See also: http://www.biblicalpreteristarchive.com/statements/70-Qs.htm (Many of our questions came from this source.)

As Russell put it, writing in the nineteenth century, “Is it conceivable that an apostle would mock the suffering and persecuted Christians of his time with dark parables about distant ages?…If it spoke of, as some would have us believe, of Huns and Goths and Saracens, of mediaeval emperors and popes, of the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution, what possible interest or meaning could it have for the Christian churches of Ephesus, and Smyrna, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea?…It may be safely affirmed that on this hypothesis [Revelation] is incapable of interpretation: it must continue to be what it has so long been, the material for arbitrary and fanciful speculation.” Note: In the twenty-first century, such references by prophecy enthusiasts have morphed into Russia, China, Iran, nuclear holocaust, or whatever the news of the day happens to be.