No judgment had ever and can ever be so severe. In the history of the world no judgment can be compared with this that wiped out the Jews as a nation.
R.H. Lenski
“It is no exaggeration to say that the Fall of Jerusalem is the most significant national event in the history of the world.” The arch of Titus and Spoils of the Temple
The Idealist method of interpretation has had a long association with Preterism. Examples can be traced back to St. Augustine, Origen Adamantius, Justin Martyr, and to the author of Hebrews — not to mention the Apocalypse of John. Recent scholarship has been no less enlightening. Charles Homer Giblin (1929-2002)expresses this idea well:
“The fate of Jerusalem is brought about by two major facts. First, the people are insensitive to the terms for peace… Second, the rulers of the people (the Romans not excepted, but not considered as primarily responsible) have committed injustice and thus bring about the ruin of the people. The fate of Jerusalem, however, is not ultimately weighed as an event in itself – it is a sign for others, and is expressly related to time for judgment of nations. All this proves to be relevant, parabolically, to Luke’s readership, a man of affluence and influence, educated, who is expected to perceive in “a history” what should be done and what should be avoided, to discern models of good and of evil, with their consequences for society as he knows it. In effect, Luke’s lesson apropos of his account of Jerusalem’s destruction is to be construed as a question prompted in the typed reader’s mind: If this is what happened to Jerusalem because of the way Jesus and those who represent him, his disciples, were treated, what will happen to my city/nation/society if he (and his followers, who stand for him) are treated similarly? What am I, as a respected man with some influence, expected to do?” (The Destruction of Jerusalem According to Luke’s Gospel: A Historical-Typological Moral, Biblical Institute Press, 1985, 123 pages), viii
DANIEL’S SEVENTY WEEK PROPHECY COMPLETELY FULFILLED BY AD70, TAUGHT BY MEN COMPLETELY WITHIN THE “ORTHODOX” REALM:
Wherein is evidently shewn the Accomplishment of the Predicted Events, As Especially Of the Cutting Off of the Messiah after the Predicted VII Weeks and LXII Weeks, according to the Express Letter of the Prophecy, and in most exact Agreement with Ptolemy’s Canon ; So Also Of the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, in the LXXth, or separate One Week, in the Litteral, Obvious, and Primary Sense
1. “To finish the transgression,”
– This was fulfilled. (Matt 21:33-45; Matt. 23:32,35,36,38; Luke 11:47-51; 1Thess. 2:14-16)
Preterist ARTchive: Includes Painting, Sculpture, Drama, Song, and from other visual arts, such as with the Flemish tapestries showing the campaigns of Titus and Vespasian
CRITICAL ARTICLE ARCHIVE Presenting Anti-Preterist Writings From Numerous Opposing Viewpoints
THE DOOMSDAY DEMENTIA OF CHRISTIAN ZIONISM Dispensationalist / Christian Zionist Writings From Numerous Viewpoints
The Dispensationalist view of bible prophecy teaches that the nation of Israel is still waiting for its kingdom and King, as well as the reception of the inheritances of the biblical ‘Abrahamic Covenant’. Accordingly, they teach, the Second Coming and Great Tribulation are right around the corner to settle world affairs. The political collaboration between the United States and the State of Israel is, in part, influenced by the theo-politics brought about by the merging of Zionism and Dispensationalism.
Doomsday dEmEnTiA – Presenting the critical materials for the theology of Dispensationalism and the politics of its Christian Zionism
Dispensational Futurism – Presenting the supportive materials for the theology of Dispensationalism and the politics of its Christian Zionism
John Lightfoot: A Commentary of the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica (1658) “That the destruction of Jerusalem and the whole Jewish state is described as if the whole frame of the world were to be dissolved. Nor is it strange, when God destroyed his habitation and city, places once so dear to him, with so direful and sad an overthrow; his own people, whom he accounted of as much or more than the whole world beside, by so dreadful and amazing plagues. Matt. 24:29,30, ‘The sun shall be darkened &c. Then shall appear the ‘sign of the Son of man,’ &c; which yet are said to fall out within that generation, ver. 34.”
Preliminary Dissertations on Eusebius’ Theophany (1843) // “EVER since his (discovery and) translation of Eusebius’s ‘Theophania,‘ my father’s mind had been more or less occupied on the subject of Prophecy, and he became convinced that the views which he entertained, known as the Preterist, were those held by the early Church.” A Brief Memoir
FIRST-GENERATION MODERN PRETERIST BOOK BY THE FATHER OF ENGLISH EXEGESIS Henry Hammond
“This was the first commentary of any length to be published in the English language,” E. Early Ellis
Herbert Thorndike Study Archive – First generation Modern Preterist, opposing the Historicist systems of Protestant England while Canon of Westminster “He asserted that the main scope and drift of the Apocalypse was to foretell the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity, the climax being reached with the coming of Constantine, followed by the Millennium (interpreted in a spiritual sense)”
Marshall: “First, As to Grotius, What hath he said as to the accomplishment of this part of the Prophecy ? — Hath he referr’d it to the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans only in a Secondary Sense? — So far from it, that he hath actually referred the Expressions taken by our blessed Saviour (In Matt. 24:15) from the Prophet Daniel immediately, and primarily to that Destruction. He hath (In Matt. 24:15 Jesus respects Daniel 9:27) positively told us that Christ had regard here to Daniel 9:27. In other places of Daniel, he saith, We grant to the Jews, (and we do so likewise to this Writer,) the Prophet treats of the times of Antioch Epiphanes, but no so here. — Grotius goes on to expose the great absurdity of the modern Jews, their referring this place of Daniel to the times of Antiochus : Whereas the ancient Jews, as he also tells us, understood it of the Destruction of Jerusalem. (vii,viii)”
Dr. David Thom:Three Grand Expositions of Man’s Enmity to God (1845) “Professor (George) Bush is, I perceive, a favourite writer with (Townley). He is also a favourite with the American Universalists, a body which boasts of numbering among its adherents above 600,000 individuals, and which happens to agree with my friend in his notion of Christ’s second coming being past.“
Preterism and Universalism – Are They The Perfect Match? “This is a healthy debate between 2 Christian brothers. David B. Curtis – a preterist, Calvinist and pastor of Berean Bible Church and Richard Wayne Garganta – a teacher of universal salvation with a preterist leaning. Richard is a theologian, writer, preacher and teacher with a television ministry in Rhode Island. Richard is responding to David Curtis’s article on the preterist archive website.”
James Stuart Russell’s “Gospel Universalist” Conclusion to The Parousia“That favoured apostle who more than any other seems to have comprehended ‘the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ,’ suggests to us ideas of the extent and efficiency of the great redemption which our latent incredulity can scarcely receive. ” (Is ‘postponement’ the best solution to the “Universalist conundrum”?)
Todd Dennis: Introduction to a Hybrid of Preterism and Idealism (2006) | Hebrews 12:25-29: Jerusalem as the Heart (2006)“Looking closer at the “promised land,” we can see how the spiritual intent was revealed through fulfilled prophecy in Israel’s day. Though there was an appearance in the promises to Abraham of an ultimate fulfillment in reference to the everlasting possession of a particular tract of land in history, we know from New Testament revelation that the intent was regarding spiritual things in Christ. Though the promise found natural fulfillment in “Preterist Israel”, it was given to signify the true, greater fulfillment in “Idealist Israel” — with actual participants from all nations, throughout all generations (including ours).
Best Independent Summation Yet
C. Preterist Idealism
This system was first developed by former Full PreteristTodd Dennis, and presented at the first annual Carlsbad Eschatology Conference in 2007 (hosted by Kurt Simmons); though it integrates elements from Preterism and other systems. Preterist Idealism teaches that the historical fulfillment of prophecy constitutes only the shadows of an eternal spiritual substance which believers obtain in Christ. New Testament typology is vertical rather than horizontal; and meant to point to the higher realties of the Christian life, rather than foreshadow things to come. Idealism relies heavily on the allegorical interpretation of prophetic texts. The system has a small number of adherents, most of them former Full Preterists.
Preterist-Idealism:Willibald Beyschlag, New Testament Theology (1895) “The common error.. of conceiving the parousia as a single historical event instead of the whole course of Christ’s victory and triumph over the historical world, dominates also the writer of the Apocalypse. But this error marks simply the necessary limits of prophecy, which Paul describes in the words (1 Cor. xiii. 12): “Now we see (in our prophecy) through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face.” To see the things of the future face to face is granted only to the after life ; to him who looks forward the future appears only in the mirror of the present ; the symbol of the future hovers before him in the signs of his time. Hence the conflict of Christian history and the hope of eternal victory were to the writer of the Apocalypse symbolically reflected in the confusions of his time ; and if he saw close at hand the eternal triumph of the kingdom of God, he simply erred in the same way as Isaiah or his greater post-Exilic successor, the former of whom expected that the Assyrian oppression and deliverance from it, and the latter that the Babylonian captivity and deliverance, alone separated them from the Messianic salvation.” (This is a “must read” for anyone investigating a hybrid preterist view of any sort)
AD70 is awesome! ..when used as a template of how Jesus has worked, is working, and will work. When seen as a single working 2,000 years ago… not so much.
OFFICIAL TERM FOR AD70 / 135 “The ‘destruction of Israel’”
“A historic document that can be definitely dated based on a reference to a historical event such as the ‘destruction of Israel’ has never been discovered.”
NEW SPECIES OF “JUDEAN DESERT” FRAGMENT. SEEMS CERTAIN TO POST-DATE ENTIRE DSS CORPUS, SO SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN RECOVERED FROM A DIFFERENT CACHE
Fragment from AD 74 or 139 Discovered in police bust “Unusually, the first line of the document indicates a precise date, the IAA said – “Year 4 [AD] to the destruction of Israel”, which could indicate either AD74, when Jerusalem’s Second Temple was destroyed, or AD139, the date of a Jewish revolt violently put down by Rome.
Roman Emperor Constantine the.. Preterist! “I am filled with wonder at the intellectual greatness of the emperor, who as if by divine inspiration thus expressed what the prophets had foretold concerning this monster” Eusebius
Handel’s Messiah & The Destruction of Jerusalem“Messiah” lovers may be surprised to learn that the work was meant not for Christmas but for Lent, and that the “Hallelujah” chorus was designed not to honor the birth or resurrection of Jesus but to celebrate the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in A.D. 70. For most Christians in Handel’s day, this horrible event was construed as divine retribution on Judaism for its failure to accept Jesus as God’s promised Messiah. // The resurrected Jesus, sitting at the right hand of God, unleashed his anger on the Jews by having the Roman armies lay waste to Jerusalem and its temple in A.D. 70.
The Christian Flight to Pella “The approach of His general judgment ended the persecution; and when the godly were provided for at Pella, the unbelievers perished by the Roman swoh-century.html”>Thomas Manton)
Jewish Sources: Lamentations 4:17 “Our eyes still fail to see our help which we expected to come from the Romans, but which turned to naught for us. In hope we watched for the Edomites who were a nation which could not save. They prowled our paths so that we could not walk safely in our open places. We said, “Our end is near; our days are fulfilled,” for our end had come.” (Targum Lamentations)
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