Caution: not for the close-minded

It having recently come to my attention that a surprising number of my intimate acquaintances are uninformed of the specifics of my eschatological beliefs, and owing to my conviction that the opposing views most frequently encountered are deficient both in their ability to be supported Scripturally and in their effect on various doctrines, both abstract and practical, which by natural progression contribute to unsatisfactory Christian behavior, and seeing that there is little chance that anyone of you would come aware of this view apart from my divulgence and explication of it, I have decided that an attempt at presenting the essentials of my view, insofar as I have them strictly formulated, in a fashion as clear and concise as possible and hence wholly unlike the current paragraph, is a goal worth pursuing in the form of a blog post.

I like trying to talk like that! Ok, I’ll cut it out now.

My view on eschatology (the Scriptural doctrine of end times) is called “preterism” or “covenant eschatology”. Both are descriptive for different reasons: the first reveals the distinctive belief that the bulk or entirety of New Testament prophecy (including the Olivet Discourse and the book of Revelation) has already been fulfilled (praeter- being Latin for “past”) and requires no further, futurized fulfillment; the second term partially addresses the “huh?!?!?!” factor common to futurists when they first hear this interpretation. Let me explain.

Preterists, particularly full preterists like myself, believe that all the prophecies about the Second Coming and the Resurrection of the Dead were fulfilled in the first century; the apocalyptic language associated with “the end of the age” (e.g. the elements burning, the stars falling, and the demise of the sun and moon) was unambiguously in the style of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and were indicating not the end of the physical world, but the destruction of the Old Covenant of Judaism that occurred with the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem from 66-70 AD. “Eschatology” means “doctrine of last things”, and since the “last things” being prophesied about were actually the death throes of the Mosaic covenant, the term “covenant eschatology” is quite descriptive.

At the heart of this belief is the recognition that Jesus’ own credibility is at stake:

1. Mat 10:23 – “Truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.”
2. Mat 16:27,28 – “Truly I say to you, there are some who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
3. Mat 24:34 – “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”
4. Mat 26:24 – “You [the high priest] will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven.”

The time statements in Scripture are as clear as possible that Jesus’ prophecy of the return of the Son of Man “on the clouds of heaven” (apocalyptic language for a divine action of great gravity and moment) was expected to be fulfilled within the lifetime of its original audience. It was at this time that His believing saints were gathered to Him, making possible our eternal communion with Him. The Day of the Lord was fundamentally the time when apostate Israel was called on the carpet, with the sacking of the supposedly impenetrable City of David and the unthinkable destruction of Herod’s temple, in which, as the first-century Jewish historian Josephus confirms, “not one stone [was] left standing upon another”, just as Jesus predicted:

Jesus left the Temple and was going away, when His disciples came to point out to Him the buildings of the Temple: but He answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down.” (Mat 24:1-2 RSV)

The new heavens and new earth, the New Jerusalem, this all refers to our fully-realized redemption brought about in the New Covenant, a covenant that could not be in effect while the beneficiaries and breakers of the old one were still going about their business unscathed and even persecuting the true Sons of Abraham. The more you read the Gospels, and particularly Jesus’ parables, the more you realize that He was a prophet of doom to the religious system of the day; every day that ethnic and political Israel thought itself the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham was a day in which it thumbed its nose at the sacrifice of the Messiah whom it defiantly rejected. In the parable of the wedding feast (Mat 22:2-14), the king was enraged to find that the ones who should have been the most willing and qualified to come to the wedding feast of his son were completely uninterested in accepting his generous invitation, mocking the invitation and exacerbating their impudence by killing the servants proclaiming the message. “When the king heard that, he was angry, and he sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.” Is this sounding familiar at all?

Well, if it’s all fulfilled, what does this mean for us now? Let’s continue the parable. The king’s servants went out into the highways and byways and proclaimed the good news that everyone, not just the original set of privileged guests (typifying Israel), was invited. That‘s where we are now. In the New Covenant, we are the servants He sends out to gather in all, “bad and good”, anyone who would choose to wear the garment of His own righteousness that He has provided to cover our sins. We play the part of those who say to the blind, “Be of good cheer. Rise, He is calling you!” (Mk 10:49)

Do I have it all figured out? By no means, and I challenge you to show me an intellectually honest Christian to claim such of himself. But what I do know is more than sufficient to thoroughly convince me of the basic framework.

I implore you to research the following links for more detailed explanations.

• Outline to Covenant Eschatology
• Frequently Asked Questions
• A PowerPoint presentation called “An Introduction to Covenant Eschatology“

Why should you do this, reevaluating your own current doctrine and questioning an interpretation admittedly held by the majority of current American Christians?

1) The truth always matters, because Truth is a Person (John 14:6).

2) People convinced that “it’s all gonna burn” or that they’re about to get evacuated (against Jesus’ explicit prayer in John 17:15!) are not of much use for proclaiming the Kingdom of God. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” It is the saints’ inheritance: we cannot and must not continue to allow the Church to surrender what our Savior has bought with His Own blood.

As Bereans, please research this soberly and seriously, not by simply looking for opinions about it from the perspective of its detractors (futurists), but from within the view as an internally and Scripturally consistent interpretation; you’ll find most of futurists’ objections are quite answerable. Then please let me know what you think.

Related posts:

1. The Millennium and the Resurrection of the Dead I am firmly indebted to Don Preston for his presentation on the Millennium at the 2004 Preterist Research Institute Conference for much of the layout...
2. Iambic tetrameter The heavens and the earth have passed The new has dawned, the night complete, The day of judgment come. At last The rule of Death...
3. Covenant Theology I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Covenant Radio, today and feeling rather baffled. The hosts, both Presbyterians, were interviewing a Reformed Baptist,...
4. And the Lord spake, saying, “What was I thinking?!” Preterists who deny a physical Resurrection of the Dead have been accused of being gnostic (because we supposedly believe that only spiritual reality matters and...
5. Election and Adoption Part 3: God’s Purpose in Election As I stated in Part 2, I reject the notion that foreknowledge is prescriptive. I hold to the conviction that there is an interplay between...