The Fallacy of Preterism

 

The Fallacy of Preterism and its Negative Impact Impact on the Church

 

What is Preterism?

 

• It teaches that the events in the Olivet Discourse (Mat 13, Mk 13, Lk 21) and in Revelation were fulfilled in the Destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D.
  • Radical Preterism: All events fulfilled including Tribulation, Judgment, and Second Coming of Christ. Deny all millennial views.
  • Moderate Preterism: Destruction of Jerusalem fulfilled tribulation. There remains the second coming of Christ, the resurrection and Judgment Day. Generally, they are post-millennial.

 

The following chart illustrates the Preterist’s beliefs:

 

                                                            Radical Preterists                     Moderate Preterists

 

	A.D. 70	End of Time	A.D. 70	End of Time
2nd Coming of Christ   Rapture / Resurrection	Yes   Yes	No   No	Yes   No	Yes   Yes
Day of the Lord   Judgment Day   Tribulation Period	Yes   Yes   Yes	No   No   No	Yes   Yes   Yes	Yes   Yes   No

 

 

Negative Impacts of Radical Preterism:

 

1. Denies Tribulation period on church resulting in potential deception during that period
2. Literalizes NT and OT prophetic passages concerning Israel and Jerusalem resulting in teaching a Biblical interpretation other than to compare Scripture with Scripture
3. Downplays the importance of passages about the day of the Lord thereby removing a large portion of the Bible from being truly applicable to the Christian today (i.e. OT prophets were directed at Israel, NT prophecies were for Israel and not the church)
4. Denies Future Resurrection/Judgment which is a basic Christian Doctrine (Heb 6:1-2, 2 Tim 2:18)
5. Because of the radical departure from fundamental doctrines such as the resurrection of the dead and judgment day, this belief should be considered a false gospel since judgment day is altogether a part of the Gospel (Ro 2:16, Rev 14:6-8)

 

Negative Impacts of Moderate Preterism:

 

Same as 1, 2, and 3 above. This doctrinal error is not as significant as radical Preterism, but still is very significant in regards to mis-understanding the tribulation period, relegating most of the Olivet Discourse (Mat 24, Mk 13, Lk 21), 2 Thess 2, and most of the book of Revelation to Israel. By assigning the tribulation period to Israel, the condition of the church may be overly optimistic and may easily be misled by the false church during the tribulation period.

 

Errors of Preterism:

 

The following is a brief discussion of some of the errors common to both Radical and Moderate Preterism.  The following is the Biblical chronology of the end times from a Futurist viewpoint::

 

1. The Cross
2. The Church Age
3. The Tribulation
4. The Second Coming of Christ / the Rapture / Judgment Day

 

The following are notable errors of Preterism.  Not included are the basic errors of teaching that the resurrection is already past and there is no future Judgment Day (denial of hell). This is assumed to be a basic rebellion from any resemblance of Christian orthodoxy and will not be addressed here.

 

• The Temple has not yet been totally destroyed – Since a literal view of the Olivet Discourse is taken, Preterism results in the Bible being inaccurate since the prediction of Jesus in Mat 24:1-2, Mk 13:1-2, Lk 21:5-6 of not one temple stone remaining upon another has not actually transpired. They teach that the Olivet Discourse predicts a literal event of the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, however, it is not literally true that the all the temple stones were thrown down. The western wall of the temple remains to this day. The temple in the Olivet Discourse refers to the spiritual temple of the believers. This is the common usage of the term temple in the New Testament. The literalizing of the temple has no on-going spiritual value or warnings for believers today, it trivializes the grand spiritual teachings of the Olivet Discourse and the Revelation.

 

• The use of extra-Biblical sources to prove doctrinal belief instead of comparing Scripture with Scripture – The following examples are typical of the Preterists continual appeal to other authority besides the Bible alone:
  • Josephus’ account of the destruction of the temple
  • Numerology in identifying Nero as the Antichrist / beast

 

• The literalizing of Revelation and the Olivet Discourse – The literalizing of these passages violates the principle of interpreting Scripture with Scripture since the literal interpretation can result in absurd conclusions. Examples include:
  • The heavenly signs affecting the sun, moon and stars does not have a biblically literal They represent beautiful truths about the end of the Gospel age.
  • The tribulation in Mat 24 being the worst time of trouble of all times. This is not literally true. There have been many other terrible events in the history of the world. The worst time of trouble is that of the release of Satan during the tribulation period (see Rev 20:3).
  • The Revelation 11 temple being literal while holding that other passages in Revelation are allegorical. This is a very inconsistent method of interpretation in Revelation and results in absurdity since it is subjective as to what is literal and what is allegorical. Revelation must be interpreted in the light of other Scriptures. It should be noted that the temple usually is interpreted as the church in the New Testament and is the correct interpretation in Rev. 11.

 

• Incorrect interpretation of the‘nearness’ passages in the Bible – It is true that there are warnings that the time is near, but in principle a 1000 years is as a day (2 Pet 3:8) with God and in principle, life is short and the judgment does come quickly since man’s days are but a few and then there is judgment (Heb 9:27). These passages are a warning to believers of all time to examine themselves to see if they are in the faith (2 Cor 13:5). For example, Mat 10:23 is used by Preterists to teach that Christ would come presumably in A.D. 70 because at this time the disciples would not have yet visited all the cities of Israel. However, this assumes that Israel is that of national Israel. The Israel in view is that of spiritual Israel (see Rev 7:1-8) which was inaugurated shortly after Pentecost (see next item). Spiritual Israel can be found throughout the whole world.

 

• Incorrect view that the ‘dispensation’ of the Jews ended at A.D. 70 – It is clear from the book of Acts that the Gentiles were now part of Israel and the dividing wall is destroyed (see Eph 2, Acts 10-11, 28:28, 9:15, 13:46-47, 18:6, 22:21, 1:8 w/ 26:20). It should be noted that the Jews are not necessarily excluded from the kingdom in the church age (see Ro 9:23-33 and Rev 7:1-8).

 

• Incorrect understanding of the ‘end of the age’, the ‘last days’, and the ‘last day’ – Preterists assign numerous passages that relate to these terms as being fulfilled in the destruction of the temple. This ended the Jewish age. For example, the phrase ‘end of the age’ is assumed to refer to the end of the Jewish age in A.D. 70. This erroneous belief assigns many passages that belong to the church of all time to only Israel (e.g. Mat 13:39, 40, 49, Mat 24:3, etc). The ‘last days’ in the New Testament (see Acts 2:17) refers to the entire time from the cross to Judgment Day.

 

• Misunderstanding of the term ‘generation’ in Mat 16:28, 24:34 – The Preterists assert that these verses teach that the coming of the Son of man and the events in the Olivet discourse would be completed prior to that present 1^st century generation tasting death. Regarding Mat 16:28, it can be understood that the seeing of the Son of man coming in His kingdom can be realized in the Transfiguration (see next verse in context – Mat 17:1) and also that when Christ ascended, He sat on the right hand of God. He was the King of His Kingdom (see Eph 1:20, etc). As far as Mat 24:34 is concerned, the ‘this generation’ can be understood to be that generation during the tribulation when Satan is released for a short time (Rev 20:3). The ‘this generation’ is a parallel passage to the short time of the releasing of Satan during the Tribulation. In the immediate context of the parable in Mat 24:34, the parable teaches us that when we see the things of Mat 24 occur, then ‘this generation’ that sees these things happening will not pass away until all is fulfilled.

 

Reference:

 

The book The Last Days According to Jesus, by R.C. Sproul, Baker Books, 1998 was used in deriving the position of Preterism.