68. Has the Future already happened?

Yet another view of the Bible's endtimes passages.

So far, on the Future History website, we've discussed various views about the end-times such as pre-mill, post-mill, a-mill; pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, and pre-wrath. The posts on these subjects are listed here:
39. The Thousand Year period - Part 1 of 2
40. The Thousand Year period - Part 2 of 2
49. The Rapture. What, where, and when?
51. When will the Rapture happen...in relation to the tribulation?
52. The 3 1/2 year Great Tribulation

You can review these if you want, by clicking on each link (each post above is a link) which should open a new window, and after reading you'll return here by closing the new window.
Alternatively, if a new window does not open, just do a back arrow on this window.


There is another view or position concerning the end-times passages that I mentioned earlier on post #40, but did not specifically name. It is called Preterism, and its adherants generally maintain that most of the Bible passages that people usually take as still to be fulfilled in the future, were actually fulfilled when the Roman General Titus destroyed Jerusalem, the temple, and almost all the Jews, in a three-year campaign which ended in A.D. 70. The Preterists say this pertains particularly to those passages in Matthew, Mark, and Luke in Jesus' sermon on the Mount of Olives, which speak of the destruction of the temple, and of Jesus' return.

Regarding the "second-coming" itself, the Preterist position is that Jesus did come again in 70 A.D., and that he came in judgment of Israel and of the Jews who still stubbornly refused to believe in Jesus as Messiah, and who persecuted the church of Jesus. Preterists believe that this was Israel's last chance, and since that time, there has been no future for Israel as far as God is concerned.

There are variations within Preterism concerning which "second-coming" passages are still to be fulfilled in the future. No Preterist that I can find thinks that most such passages are still to be fulfilled, although a few think that many are still future. Overall, most think that only a few passages are still future, and another group (smallest of all) think that all "second-coming" passages have already been fulfilled, and that there are no more "second-coming" passages yet to be fulfilled. Needless to say, this latter view is a extreme and radical position. Adherants to this extreme position are called either "Full Preterists" or "Hyper-preterists".

This position about the last-days has surfaced from time to time in the history of the church, and usually can be included in the post- millennial camp. Recently, since the 1980's, a robust, vocal, and able subgroup of writers, teachers, and scholars have brought Preterism into a more visible, if not more respectable position. This group's viewpoint is known variously as dominion theology, christian reconstruction, or theonomy. We will have more to say about this subgroup within postmillennialism in a later post.

The purpose of this post is not to examine Preterism in detail, but rather just to advise of its existence. Hopefully, you have figured out that you cannot be both a Preterist and also a Premillennialist -- the latter being the position I take in this Future History blog.

Note that in Matthew 24:3, the disciples asked Jesus three questions: (1) "when will these things be (the destruction of Herod's temple)", (2) "what will be the sign of your coming",(3) "and of the end of the age". As premillennialists, we believe that questions 2 and 3 have application primarily about Jesus' coming "at the end of the age" which is still future. Question 1 is usually taken to relate to both (a) the time when the temple they are pointing at will be destroyed (pointing in 33 A.D., destroyed in 70 A.D.), and (b) Jesus' coming in the future when there will be a future temple to likewise be destroyed (obviously after 2009 A.D.) -- and therefore this is one of many "double-fulfillment" passages.

As for me, I have to reject the Preterist view, because it sounds too much like "The Future has already happened". We'll discuss Preterism more in later posts, and if questions or comments arise.
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