In Part I, I gave my basic take on this position, which is that it is well meaning but flawed. Although it attempts to take the scriptures literally and in their normative sense — so literally that time indicators like “soon” and “quickly” are interpreted as requiring this prophecy to be fulfilled in the first century — I believe the fulfillment required by the preterist view is imperfect, and in many cases, irreconcilably different from what is recorded in scripture. Furthermore, it results in larger scriptural consequences that are unacceptable. However, I left the critique of the individual points for another time.

In this column, I will begin to outline the major problems with the preterist view, point by point. Part III will conclude this discussion with the last set of points and my final analysis.

What About Daniel's 70th Week?

Unlike preterists, who teach that all of the events described by Jesus in Matthew 24 have been fulfilled, I believe that Matthew 24 is a prophecy, not for the end of the “Jewish age,” as preterists believe, but for the end of the world, to be fulfilled at a future time.

One of the main evidences for this future fulfillment is that these events take place within a time frame called “Daniel's 70th Week. We know from Daniel 9:24 that God has determined 70 weeks “to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.” The term “weeks,” or shabuwa, means "sevens," or seven years. So the 70 “weeks” refers to a time period made up of 70 seven-year periods, or 490 years.

This 70 weeks, or 490 years, is broken up into two separate periods: the first 69 weeks, which ends with the crucifixion of Christ (Dan. 9:24), and the final 70th Week, which will begin when the Antichrist signs a seven-year treaty with Israel (Dan. 9:27). In the middle of the 70th week, scripture tells us that the Antichrist will break his treaty, declare himself to be God — or in place of God — and defile the Jewish temple in an event Daniel calls “the abomination of desolation” (Dan. 11:31).

Among premillennialists (those who believe that the literal thousand-year earthly reign of Christ is yet future), the view is taken that the 70th Week is also yet future, and that the time period between the 69th Week and the 70th Week is what is called a parenthesis containing the Church Age. In this view, the temple that is defiled by the Antichrist (the abomination of desolation) is not the first century temple, but a temple that is yet to be rebuilt (plans for this rebuilding, incidentally, are in progress.) According to this view, when God's purposes for the Church have been fulfilled, God will once again turn His attention back to Israel. The Church Age will conclude and the 70th Week will begin.

One of the scriptural indicators for this view is Daniel 11:42. Eleven verses earlier, Daniel describes the abomination of desolation, when an unnamed, apostate ruler brings an end to sacrifices in the temple and breaks his covenant with the people of Israel. Up to this point, the passage has been describing the future actions of Antiochus Epiphanes, an ancient Greek conqueror who lived several centuries before the birth of Christ. In a selfish rage, Antiochus Epiphanes defiled the sanctuary in Jerusalem in the second century (various Bible translations give dates ranging from 175 to 168 B.C.) by slaughtering a pig on the altar. Then, he capped off this heinous act by murdering many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem

In verse 42, however, the perspective of this prophecy suddenly switches to the end times. We know this because Daniel writes, “At the time of the end, the king of the South shall attack him...” This tells us that the acts of Antiochus are a foreshadowing of a future ruler who will arise at the time of the end. This end-times ruler, which we know as the Antichrist, will commit a similar, but even greater, atrocity. Other evidence for this reading comes from the fact that the remaining details of the 70th Week prophecy have not yet been fulfilled.

Not everyone agrees with this view. There are many who believe that the 70th Week immediately followed the other 69 weeks and therefore has long been concluded. The problem with this view is that Jesus Himself placed the Matthew 24 events squarely within the Daniel's 70th Week when He warned, “And when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains...” (Matt. 24:15-16). By referring to the abomination of desolation, Jesus was referring back to the passage in Daniel 9 that describes this critical end-times prophecy.

Daniel's 70 Weeks prophecy is never mentioned in Sproul's book. Whether preterists in general do not address the 70th Week or whether it was not Sproul's purpose to address the 70th Week in his analysis, I do not know. However, the lack of mention of this is loud.

The Loud Absence

The issue regarding Daniel's 70th Week, in my mind, is a fundamental flaw in the preterist position. If the 69th Week and the 70th Week follow one another, which they must do in the preterist view, then the 70th Week must have occurred in A.D. 40. This would have been 30 years too early for the destruction of Jerusalem.

Furthermore, it would not have fulfilled the purpose of the 70th week: to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Has the transgression been finished? Has an end of sins been made? Has there been reconciliation for iniquity? Has everlasting righteousness arrived? Is Jesus reigning on the throne of Jerusalem? Absolutely not.

Then there is the issue of the fulfillment of Revelation, which also describes the events that will occur during Daniel's 70th Week. If Matthew 24 was fulfilled in the first century, then so has Revelation. Has there been a worldwide famine and pestilence that killed up to one-quarter of the earth's inhabitants? Have there been locusts swarming from the bottomless pit? A third of the trees been burned up? And all of the green grass? Has a “burning mountain” fallen from the sky, turning one-third of the seas to blood? Have we seen the Battle of Armageddon?

The only way to argue that the 70th Week prophecy has been fulfilled is to spiritualize all of these elements. Preterists see the reigning kingdom of God as being fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Christ, the New Covenant, and the “kingdom of God” as it now exists in the Church and through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the bodies of believers. They see the God's fiery judgment in Revelation as allegorical for general plagues and pestilence that occurred in the first century.

However, preterism's own beliefs argue against this interpretation. Preterism presents itself as a historical position, the evidence for which is argued from the tangible results of history. Furthermore, one of preterism's strongest arguments is its claim to be the most natural reading of the text. To have to fall back on spiritualization on these points is both inconsistent with its own position and highly unconvincing.

The Abomination of Desolation

Then there is the question of the abomination of desolation, which Jesus says will occur — and that preterists believe has occurred — in the middle of the 70th Week. We have no record of such an event transpiring in the first century. As I discussed in Part I, the closest we can get is the presence of the idolatrous images of eagles on the standards of the Roman soldiers in the courtyard of the temple.

In spite of the preterists' strong belief that the scriptures should be taken in their most common sense meanings, nineteen century preterist scholar J. Stuart Russell has this to say on the subject: “Whether the abominable sacrilege refers to actual idolatry, or to the entrance of Roman imperial eagle standard into the temple area, is immaterial. It was common practice then and for long centuries before, to assert sovereignty over a nation by dethroning its gods and replacing them by those of the conqueror.” [1]

Unfortunately for J. Stuart Russell, history tells us that this dethroning did not take place. And, in spite of Russell's insistence that whether or not the prophecy was fulfilled precisely is “immaterial,” I strongly disagree. I believe that it is material whether or not a prophecy given by Jesus was fulfilled precisely or not.

The Great Tribulation

In Matt. 24:21, Jesus said that the time of the end will include great tribulation “such as the world has never seen, nor ever would be.” Can we really say that this was fulfilled in the first century? Certainly, the Holocaust was much worse than the first century persecution. Preterists answer this by arguing that the phrase “the world” actually means “the Jewish world,” or “the Jewish age.”

If phrase “the world” is to be read this way, then the preterist argument would make sense. However, using this position's own argument for the plain reading of the scriptures, use of “the world” to refer to the Jewish age — which it teaches was replaced by the Church Age at Pentecost — simply defies this natural reading. The only reason to read it this way is that, otherwise, the preterist argument would go down in flames. The argument is so weak, in fact, that if Rome had not destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70, no one would be calling for it. If this twisting of scripture is a necessary casualty to make the rest of the preterist argument fit, the price of this casualty is too high.

Preterists try to bolster their argument by pointing to Jesus' use of the terms “tribes” and “land,” which would have been interpreted by first century Jews as making this prophecy exclusive to the land of Israel. They believe that this, combined with time references such as “this generation,” create compelling evidence that this passage should be read as exclusive to the Jews and the land of Israel in the first century.

It is true that the people listening to Jesus' prophecy may, in fact, have believed that this prophecy applied to them, but this is not justification for making "the world” into “the Jewish age” and for changing it from a geographical reference into a conceptual reference. Jesus said that the tribulation would be “such as the world has never seen, nor will again.” In no way should this been seen as a conceptual period of time rather than a straightforward geographical reference.

But what of the fact that most first-century Jews thought that Jesus was teaching that He would return in their lifetimes? Again, this may be so, but I am thankful that the common understanding of the time is not always the standard by which scripture is judged. When Jesus used the terms “tribes” and “land,” Israel was gathered into one place — into the land of promise. Could these first century Jews have imagined the great dispersion? Today, despite the Zionist movement, Jews live in every corner of the world. It is no wonder that scripture tells us that, in relation to end-times prophecy, the earlier generations are limited in their understanding (Dan. 12:4,9). How limited is our human perspective!

The history of God's promises is often that the fulfillment is delayed beyond the expectation of the hearers. It is for exactly this reason that, by divine inspiration, Peter wrote, “But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8).

The context of both 1 and 2 Peter is time of the end and the Second Coming of Christ as described by Jesus in Matthew 24. Peter wrote this passage in response to skeptics who were saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (v. 4). Although Peter was among those who listened to Jesus give this prophecy, even at this early date, he had become aware of the dangers of holding it to our human timetables. To require the Matthew 24 prophecy to be confined to the first century, I believe, is to ignore the limitations of human perspective — and Peter's warning.

The Gospel Preached to All Nations

Jesus said the gospel would be preached to all the nations and then the end would come. Preterists try to make the case that this prophecy has been fulfilled based on verses like Col. 1:23: “...if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven [italics mine], of which I, Paul, became minister.”

This would be the literal reading of this passage, but we know that there is danger in holding passages to a strict literalism in all cases. For example, when Jesus said that He was “the door,” we know that He is not literally a framed door way with swinging hinges. And when He said, “It is not what goes into a man that defiles a man, but what comes out of a man,” He was not speaking of food, but of spiritual things, such as thoughts and the intents of the heart. Here, in this passage, we must again be careful about holding to a reading that is more literal than it was intended.

This passage, which states that the gospel was preached “to every creature under heaven,” cannot be taken in its strictly literal sense because history tells us that the gospel had not reached places like North America or China. It had reached the known world, or the Roman Empire, but this is not the same thing as the gospel being preached to all nations. We see the same hyperbolic language in Daniel 2:39, in which the Greek Empire is prophesied to "rule over all the earth." We know from history that the Greek Empire was, in fact, the dominant world power during the third century, but its boundaries reached only to the edges of the Mediterranean.

This language, throughout "all the world" or "the whole earth" is used frequently in the scriptures, but is limited to the perspective of the writer. The exception, of course, is Christ, whose perspective is omnicient. The Nelson Study Bible has this to say on Col. 1:23: “Paul uses this exaggeration to illustrate the rapid spread of the gospel. Compare Acts 17:6, where the apostles are said to have turned the world upside down, even though their ministry up to that point had been limited to a small portion of the eastern Mediterranean region.”

The Cosmic Signs

One of the most difficult Matthew 24 prophecies for preterists to justify as being fulfilled is the signs in the heavens. Preterists try to justify this interpretation by suggesting that this is apocalyptic imagery, or metaphorical language, used to create a sense of doom, judgment, and destruction — not that it necessarily represents literal events. This is a nice way of side-stepping the issue, but it doesn't work. The wording throughout Matthew 24 is anything but metaphorical. It is precise, and the details of the prophecies are concrete. Even the passage in question is written in very concrete language:

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24:29-31).

Throughout the Matthew 24 prophecy, Jesus used natural language from beginning to end. And when we look at the content and the purpose of this prophecy, we see why. It was intended to provide practical advice to His audience. When you see the abomination of desolation, run for the hills! When they say, “Here is the Christ!” or “There is the Christ!” do not believe them...But be of good cheer — after the tribulation of those days, your deliverance will come. These were instructions to help believers get through the last and perilous days. Are we to believe that Jesus simply switched gears to metaphorical language at the last moment?

Sproul, himself, seems to have trouble with the preterist position on this citing the word-for-word correlation between Matt. 24:30-31 and the concrete rapture verses in 1 Thess. 4:16-17 and 1 Cor. 15:52.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:52).

If these verses, which are nearly a word-for-word correlation with Matthew 24:30-31 (and are certainly tightly correlated in content) are to be taken literally and concretely, he argues, Matt. 24:30-31 must be taken literally and concretely, as well. I agree.

Furthermore, in Luke 21:28, Jesus said, “When these things begin to happen, look up, for your redemption draws near.” This admonition clearly indicates that these are specific prophecies that will be identifiable to the generation that sees their fulfillment. What good would it do to say, “Look up!” if the language were metaphorical?

Because of the concrete nature of this prophecy, Sproul has a difficult time believing the preterist argument that this prophecy has been fulfilled. Therefore, he leans toward “partial preterism,” or the position that sees the earlier parts of the Matthew 24 prophecy as having been fulfilled but not the latter portions, such as this. In my mind, however, the breach between partial preterism and complete preterism is terribly difficult to justify, since the signs in the heavens, which are accompanied by the Second Coming and the rapture, are linked inextricably to the Great Tribulation. Throughout this prophecy, Jesus linked the events to one another in rapid succession: “When you see...” “Then there shall be...” “Immediately after the tribulation of those days...” If the rapture is yet future, the Great Tribulation and all of its associated trappings must be future, too. In my view, either one must be a full preterist, accepting that Matthew 24 has been fulfilled completely, or one cannot be a preterist at all.

Evidence from Acts

Further evidence that Matthew 24 is not merely apocalyptic imagery but is a concrete description of actual events comes from Acts 1:9-11, where Luke writes, “Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, `Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.'” The angel is telling us that, when Jesus returns, it will be a physical, bodily return visible to men on earth. It will not be the kind of invisible, spiritual return that preterists are trying to suggest.

And yet, this is exactly what preterists argue. For Matthew 24 to be completely fulfilled, they must believe that we are resurrected in spiritual bodies that cannot be seen by the human eye. Writes Russell, “Is a spiritual body one which can be seen, touched, handled? We are not certain that the eye can see the spiritual, or the hand grasp the immaterial.” [2]

Therefore, they say, there does not need to be physical confirmation of this fulfillment. I find it ironic that Russell uses the natural reading argument to justify his position, and yet regarding Acts 1:9-11, he says “the expression `in like manner' must not be pressed too far” (p. 46).

But we can, and should, press the issue. The similarity of Matt. 24:31 to 1 Thess. 4:16-17 and 1 Cor. 15:51-52 are of the utmost importance. Paul's writings create a vivid expectation of how this blessed event will occur. The Second Coming and the rapture, including the bodily resurrection, will be physical and material, visible to the entire world. This is a key element in God's end-times plan. When the rapture occurs, cutting short the Great Tribulation, the earth will rip open, the dead will pop out of their graves, and living believers will join those who sleep in Jesus to rise to meet Jesus in the sky. As they do so, the world will watch, mouths agape, realizing that they have made a terrible mistake. When God's judgment falls, just like the days of Noah, they will not be in doubt as to why.

The insistence by preterists that the resurrection and rapture must be spiritual in order to maintain consistency with their position reminds me of the arguments used by defenders of the pretribulation position. This position also teaches a spiritualized coming of Christ for His Church. It teaches that Christ will come spiritually and invisibly for the Church before the 70th Week, then visibly and bodily with His Church at the end of the 70th Week. It is a creation necessary to make the position work, but there is no credible evidence from scripture to support it. In a similar vein, a spiritual resurrection of the dead and the spiritual rapture of the Church and the invisible Second Coming of Christ of the preterist position must be taken on faith.

Considering that the Second Coming is one of the most important promises in scripture, I find it extremely difficult to believe that the Lord would have this occur invisibly and that its fulfillment must be taken on faith by the millions of believers that live from the second century onward. It is ironic that preterists, who rely heavily on the “natural reading” of the text, find no difficulty accepting a spiritualized version of these events.

The Day of the Lord

Not only is the fulfillment of the Second Coming and the rapture of the Church difficult to accept on grounds of the context in which the verses arise, but it is also difficult to accept because of their correlation of the verses with one another. We have already seen that the precise descriptions of the Second Coming and the rapture in 1 Thess. 4:16-17, Matt. 30-31, and 1 Cor. 15:51-52 require them to be concrete descriptions of the same event.

We see the same correlation in the verses that detail the Day of the Lord, or the time period that will contain God's final judgment. Joel 2:31 tells us that the sun will turn dark, the moon into blood, and the stars will fall from the sky prior to the great and terrible day of the Lord. Matt. 24:29-31 tells us that the sun will turn dark, the moon into blood, and the stars will fall from the sky prior to the return of Christ and the rapture. 1 Thess. 4:16-5:2 tells us that the return of Christ and the rapture will usher in the Day of the Lord. Rev. 6:12-13 tell us that the sun will turn dark, the moon into blood, and the stars will fall from the sky immediately prior to the sudden appearance in heaven of “those who come out of the great tribulation” (a consequence of the rapture), followed by the trumpet and bowl judgments that make up the Day of the Lord

If this were apocalyptic imagery, we would not expect this perfect correlation to exist — not just in wording but in these verses' relation to each other and their placement in the order of end times events. All of the evidence points to the fact that the signs in Matthew 24 are precise, detailed descriptions of real, future events.

In Part III of this column, I will go through the final arguments against the preterist position and conclude with some final thoughts.

Footnotes

[1] Ibid., p. 40.

[2] Ibid., p. 16.

Recommended reading on the rapture debate