Posted on 04/07/2024 5:28:40 PM PDT by grumpa
After years of skeptical study, I became persuaded that Jesus was telling the truth when He said that prophesied “last-things” events would be fulfilled in his generation (Luke 21:22, 32; etc.). This is the preterist view of eschatology. Preterism teaches that most, if not all prophetic events happened with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Books by modern authors such as Francis Gumerlock and Kenneth Gentry affirm that this view has been part of the discussion since the earliest days of Christianity. Indeed, preterists argue that the writers of the New Testament were preterists. It is re-emerging in popularity.
Truth matters. If you are willing to be a Berean Christian (Acts 17:11) and consider a different viewpoint from the one you may now hold, below are some of the questions I could not honestly answer as a futurist, but make perfect sense from the preterist perspective. It’s not just any one of these questions, but rather the cumulative power of the totality of the evidence:
1. Why have many Christians made failed predictions about the end of the world for 2000 years? History
2. If time means nothing to God, why does God constantly use time-restricted statements about the fulfillment of prophecy—such as: must shortly take place, at hand, near, quickly, soon, last times, last hour, last days, about to happen, this generation will not pass?
3. If “no one knows the day or the hour,” why did Jesus frequently insist that his PAROUSIA (Second Coming)—and indeed the fulfillment of all prophecy—would be fulfilled while those living in the first century were still alive (Matthew 10:23; Matthew 16:27-28; Mathew 26:64; Luke 21:22, 28, 32; Hebrews 10:37; Revelation 1:1-3; Revelation 22:6, 12, 20)? Were Jesus and the New Testament writers simply wrong? If they were false prophets, can we trust them on other things?
4. If “soon” (Revelation 1:1-3; 22:6-2-) means thousands of years later, does that mean it was going to take Timothy thousands of years to be sent to the Philippians by Paul (Philippians 2:19)? If “soon” means thousands of years later, why do we see it qualified with “must shortly take place” in the same passages?
5. If one day is a 1000 years, and a 1000 years is as a day to the Lord (2 Peter 3), DOES THAT MEAN?—1000 years in Revelation are a single 24-hour day (Revelation 20)? DOES THAT MEAN―that Jesus was in the grave 3000 years?
6. If any of the New Testament was written after AD 70, why is there no mention anywhere in the New Testament IN THE PAST TENSE about the incredible events surrounding the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in that year? If Revelation was written after AD 70, why is the temple mentioned in Revelation 11:1 as still standing? If Revelation was written after AD 70, why does Revelation 17:10 say it was being written during the reign of the sixth king, who was Nero (who reigned from AD 54 to 68)?
7. If the Great Tribulation is still future to us, why did Jesus tell the first century Christians that they could avoid it by fleeing to the mountains (Matthew 24:16; 21)? And why did the Apostle John tell his readers a few years later that THEY were in the tribulation (Revelation 1:9)?
8. If the book of Revelation is for us today, why would John write to the seven churches if it had nothing to do with them? Why would John torture these first-century Christians with impossible and intricate symbolic labyrinths that applied only to people 2,000 years later? Why does Revelation say some 30 times that the events MUST be fulfilled SOON or “about to happen” or “shortly take place?” (Examples: Revelation 1:1-3; 22:6, 12, 20)
9. Why does Hebrews 10:37 say that in a VERY VERY (“very” is there twice in the Greek) LITTLE WHILE Jesus would return and not delay? Were the writer of Hebrews and the other biblical writers that expressed the same thing FALSE PROPHETS?
10. If the biblical “last days” are in the 21st century, why does Peter and the writer of Hebrews both say the last days were in their time (Acts 2:16-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 1 Peter 1:20)?
11. If the last-days events are still future to us, why does every writer of the 19 mentions of the last days/end times declare that THEY were living in the last days/end times?
12. If the biblical “last days” started in the first century, but continue to this day, why did Peter say the end of all things was at hand, and the judgment was about to begin when he was writing (1 Peter 4:7, 17)? Given Jesus’ condemnation of the Jews of his day, which He said would be in their generation (Matthew 23:29-24:2), isn’t it logical that this is the Great Judgment of which the New Testament speaks?
13. John said it was the “last hour” (1 John 2:18) when he was writing. Does that mean that its fulfillment is now 17 million hours late?
14. If the GREAT COMMISSION is not yet fulfilled, why did Paul say it had been fulfilled when he was writing (Roman 1:8; 10:18; Colossians 1:5-6, 23)?
15. If “heaven and earth” have not yet passed away, does that mean that every jot and tittle of the law is still in effect (Matthew 5:17-18)?
16. If the NEW JERUSALEM is a future physical location, how is it possible that the Hebrews in the first century were already there (Hebrews 12:22)?
17. If Jesus was going to return literally and physically (Acts 1:11), why do we read that his ascension was hidden from view by a cloud? If Jesus is going to return LITERALLY “in like manner” (Acts 1:11), does that also mean that He will return riding a white horse (Revelation 19:11)?
18. If Jesus was to return in a physical, visible appearance to the whole world, why did He tell his first-century disciples that the world would never see him again (John 14:19)?
19. If the King James Version of the Bible really speaks of an end to the physical universe, why is “end of the world” found in the King James Version consistently translated as “end of the AGE” in modern translations and literal translations (like Young’s Literal Translation)?
20. If the prophetic passages were fulfilled once in the first century, and then again thousands of years later, why is there no hint of this by Jesus and the biblical writers?
You are invited to explore more questions here:
Questions for Dispensationalists
Why would you accept discrepancies in texts supposedly inspired by an infallible being capable of absolutely everything? Can’t get a proper editor but can read my thoughts and send natural disasters to kill infidels?
Useless questions that do NOT disprove normal, commonly accepted interpretation of prophecy in Scripture.
Nonsense.
No mark of the beast for buying and selling, nor any 1,000 year reign of Christ with Him ruling with a rod of iron.
You fail.
Excellent list of questions. Ultimately one concludes that the pre tribulation rapture philosophy is a modernist philosophy dating to the early 1800s and contradicts what Christians have believed for 2000 years
The idea that everything has to be knowable is not an assertion that can be supported by any known rules of logic and rationality. It is a vaporous assertion.
An omnipresent being should be able to communicate more efficiently.
Presumes that an "efficient" communication by an omnipresent being will be understood by finite minds.
Arguments against unknowability of certain spiritual matters quickly run into insurmountable logical problems.
To: Nervous Tick
I like your screen name. Did Jesus return in AD 70? See my articles “What Does the Bible Say about the Timing of Jesus’ Second Coming?” and “What Does the Bible say about the Nature of Jesus’ Second Coming?”
https://prophecyquestions.com/category/second-coming/
Yes. Of course.
It’s all unknowable. A mystery.
Yet we are inundated daily with people claiming truth that should be followed by all because they have correctly interpreted the will of god.
And we’re not supposed to be suspicious?
Cmon.
bro....I'd reevaluate my positions if I were you. You've got cronos in your corner.
NO. How about you just simply answer the question instead of pimping your blog all the time.
And he’s making the wrong statement/prediction after the event has happened.
Calling the balls and strikes after the inning ended.
You can’t make this up.
Well, yeah ya can!! He's proof of that!! LOL!
He never said His generation. It says in that generation.
bkmk
29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom.”
No one says "all is unknowable". The future is unknowable. But the past is not, especially well documented historical events.
Yet we are inundated daily with people claiming truth that should be followed by all because they have correctly interpreted the will of god.
We should be suspicious of people claiming to divine the future based on Biblical prophecies, because those things are truly unknowable.
But there are several other very plain assertions in the Bible that are injunctions or commandments whose meaning is quite clear. Such as "Do not kill", or the golden rule, or "Pray to God."
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Yet this is a thread about biblical prophecy.
If it’s unknowable, what’s the point?
Don’t kill or treating people with respect doesn’t require a god to come up with.
Ephesians 6:5
The "point" behind prophecies may be as unknowable as the correct meaning of those prophecies themselves. We need to accept that. Further, prophecies are only a small part of the Bible. Most of it, especially in the New Testament (other than Revelation), is prescriptive rather than prophetic.
Don’t kill or treating people with respect doesn’t require a god to come up with.
Yes it does, and non-God justifications quickly run into impenetrable logical obstacles and philosophical tripwires. Lots of good work has been done on this topic in recent decades (e.g. by Alvin Plantinga and W.L. Craig) - easily accessible on the internet including Youtube.
The first known prohibition of murder preceded the Jewish god. So unless the god of the moon or sun is the real one, no, laws against murder require no god.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.