Ernest Renan – L’Antechrist The Period from the Arrival of Paul in Rome to the End of the Jewish Revolution (1873) “Now every advantage gained over a religion is useless if it be not replaced by another, satisfying, at least as well as it can, the needs of the heart. Jerusalem will be avenged for her defeat. She shall conquer Rome by Christianity, Persia by Islamism, shall destroy the old fatherland, and shall become for all higher minds the city of the heart.” (pp. 271,272)
Henry Hammond: A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament (1653) – First Generation Modern Preterist Book! “before I had read to the end of the first verse of the book, these words, which must come to pass presently, had such an impression on my mind, offering themselves as a key to the whole prophecie, (in like manner as, this generation shall not passe till all these things be fulfilled, Matt. 24.34. have demonstrated infallibly to what coming of Christ the whole Chapter did belong”
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(Packed within an overall “orthodox” eschatology)
John Home (1737) The Scripture History of the Jews, and Their Republick (PDF) “Nor did he cease till he made a final End and Dissolution of the Jewish Oeconomy, which St. Peter calls the End of all things (I Pet. iv. 7) and St. James, the Coming of the Lord (Jam. v.8) and which our Saviour calls the Coming of the Son of Man (Mat. xiv. 27,28) the last of which verses may probably be an Allusion to the Roman Eagle, which was the Ensign of the Roman Empire.” (p. 303)
The Contribution of British Writers Between 1560 and 1830 to the Interpretation of Revelation 13.16-18 – Chapter Five : 1649-1660 – Henry Hammond and the Preterist School of Interpretation “This volume contained a brave but lonely attempt to introduce the preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation to English soil. Hammond laid great stress on the opening words of the Apocalypse in which the book is said to contain ‘things which must shortly come to pass.’ .. But those who argued for the preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation.. were playing to empty galleries, until at least the fourth decade of the nineteenth century. Their views were anything but popular and those who followed them could soon find themselves branded with the infamous mark of the papal beast.” Others who followed: Herbert Thorndike (1598-1672) / “author of an anonymous tract on the Millennium published in 1693 (“Millennianism : or, Christ’s Thousand Years Reign upon Earth, considered, in a Familiar Letter to a Friend”)” / Daniel Mace
The bulk of His argument lies in this: “the destruction of Jerusalem, and rejection of the Jewes, by Alcasars owne confession was fulfilled XXV yeeres before the Revelation was given.”
Destruction of Jerusalem Related to Scripture Prophecies (1816) “The prophecies of the Old Testament referring to the former destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, were most of them fulfilled a second time by Titus; indeed, they appear to bear a particular reference to this latter siege.”
REFERENCE WORKS
Dictionaries
1842: James Austin Bastow – A (Preterist) Bible Dictionary ! “Third, the Preterist, which regards the book as having to do with events long since fulfilled. To the Preterist scheme of interpretation we incline, regarding the predictions of the book as having been fully accomplished before the close of the year 135, within less than seventy years from the time when the book was written. The Apocalypse was evidently written to the Asiatic churches during a period of furious persecution, when the Christians greatly needed encouragement, consolation, and admonition. The writer has made a full disclosure of the persecuting powers of the Jews and Romans, and declared that their respective fall and ruin “must shortly come to pass.'” The fearful destruction of these persecuting powers, is, to the faithful, in all times and places, a type of the destruction of anti-christianism, and a pledge of the final and universal triumph of Christianity. “
Adam Clarke – Commentary On the Whole Bible“He seems here to refer to the coming of the Lord to execute judgment on the Jewish nation, which shortly afterwards took place. He is already on his way to destroy this wicked people, to raze their city and temple, and to destroy their polity for ever; and this judgment will soon take place.”
1851: Francis Hooper: PalmoniA very detailed chronological calculation regarding the dates of key events in the Jewish Rebellion and prophetic passages of Scripture.
1827: Destruction of Jerusalem, Abridged from the History of the Jewish Wars, by Josephus – together with Sketches of the History of the Jews, since their dispersion – “Many learned commentators on the Scriptures have remarked, regarding the writings of Josephus, that his history is so perfect a delineation of certain passages of the Bible, and particularly those two verses in the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew, — “For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever shall be. And except these days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved,” &c. — that they are not only the exact counterparts of each other, but seem almost as if they had been written by the same person (Newton). Yet Josephus was not born till after our Saviour’s crucifixion; he was not a Christian, but a Jew, and certainly never meant to give any testimony to the truth of the Christian religion.”
Anglican Calendar
English
1578: Religious and Secular Events “September 8: Jerusalem was as upon this day, sacked with fire and sworde, and utterly rased, 73 yeeres after the birth of Christ: who prophesied the same 40 yeeres before. Matt 24:2, 34; Joseph. lib 7 chap 26 // August 10: Titus soldiours, as on this day, set the Citie and Temple of Jerusalem on fire, sithens which time neither of them haue euer bin reedified. Joseph. lib. 6, Chap 26 // October 23: Also Titus, sonne to Vaspasian, after the destruction of Jerusalem, slaieth 3000 Jewes on the birth day of his brother Domition. An. 73 // November 18: Titus as vpon this day, vsed no lesse crueltie against the Jewes his prisoners, in the citie of Beryte in Syria, keeping the birth day of his father Vespasian, then he did on the birth day of his brother Domition. Jospeh. Lib 7, Chap 20
1989: House Divided, The Breakup of Dispensational Theology “In less than a dozen years, the world will change drastically. Will it be for the better or the worse? Dispensationalists automatically answer: “Worse!” But their system is in deep trouble. The year 1988 marked the beginning of Dispensationalism’s “great tribulation”: the Rapture did not take place.”
Robert Baillie
English
1645: A Dissuasive From the Errors of the Time – The thousand years of Christ his visible Reign upon earth, is against Scripture“AMONG all the Sparkles of new light wherewith our Brethren do entertain their own and the people’s fancy, there is none more pleasant than that of the thousand years; a conceit of the most Ancient and gross Heretic Cerinthus, a little purged by Papias, and by him transmitted to some of the Greek and Latin Fathers, but quickly declared, both by the Greek and Latin Church to be a great errour, if not an heresy. Since the days of Augustine unto our time, it went under no other notion, and was embraced by no Christian we hear of, till some of the Anabaptists did draw it out of its grave”
1842: A (Preterist) Bible Dictionary “Third, the Preterist, which regards the book as having to do with events long since fulfilled. To the Preterist scheme of interpretation we incline, regarding the predictions of the book as having been fully accomplished before the close of the year 135, within less than seventy years from the time when the book was written. The Apocalypse was evidently written to the Asiatic churches during a period of furious persecution, when the Christians greatly needed encouragement, consolation, and admonition. The writer has made a full disclosure of the persecuting powers of the Jews and Romans, and declared that their respective fall and ruin “must shortly come to pass.'” The fearful destruction of these persecuting powers, is, to the faithful, in all times and places, a type of the destruction of anti-christianism, and a pledge of the final and universal triumph of Christianity. “
1804: Jerusalem “I also hope the reader will be with me Wholly One in Jesus our Lord, who is the God and Lord to whom the Ancients look’d and saw his day afar off with trembling and amazement.. These are the destroyers of Jerusalem! these are the murderers Of Jesus! who deny the Faith and mock at Eternal Life.. These are the Sexual Garments, the Abomination of Desolation, Hiding the Human Lineaments, as with an Ark and Curtains Which Jesus rent, and now shall wholly purge away with Fire, Till Generation is swallow’d up in Regeneration.”
1858: Christ’s Second Coming, Will it be Pre-millennial?That those words point ultimately to the personal advent of Christ and the final judgment, I have not the least doubt. But the first question ought to be, What is the direct and primary sense of the prophecy? Those who have not directed their attention to prophetic language will be startled if I answer, The coming of the Lord here announced is his coming in judgment against Jerusalem”
1850: Discourses and Saying of our Lord“Heaven and earth passing,’ understood literally, is the dissolution of the present system of the universe, and the period when that is to take place, is called the ‘end of the world.’ But a person at all familiar with the phraseology of the Old Testament Scriptures, knows that the dissolution of the Mosaic economy, and the establishment of the Christian, is often spoken of as the removing of the old earth and heavens, and the creation of a new earth and new heavens”
1646: Vulgar ErrorsOf the Jewes “Againe, they were mistaken in the Emphaticall apprehension, placing the consideration upon the words, If I will, whereas it properly lay in these, when I come: which had they apprehended as some have since, that is, not for his ultimate and last returne, but his comming in judgement and destruction upon the Jewes; or such a comming as it might be said, that that generation should not passe before it was fulfilled: they needed not, much lesse need we suppose such diuturnity; for after the death of Peter, John lived to behold the same fulfilled by Vespasian:7 nor had he then his Nunc dimittis, or went out like unto Simeon;8 but old in accomplisht obscurities, and having seen the expire of Daniels prediction, as some conceive, he accomplished his Revelation.” (Chapter 10)
1856: Our Lord’s Great Prophecy, and Its Parallels Throughout the Bible Its Parallels Throughout the Bible, Harmonized and Expounded: Comprising a Review of the Common Figurative Theories of Interpretation. With a Particular Examination of the Principal Passages Relating to the Second Coming of Christ, the End of the World, the New Creation, The Millennium, The Resurrection, The Judgment, The Conversion and Restoration of the Jews ; And a Synopsis of Josephus’ History of the Jewish War
E.W. Bullinger (1837-1913)
English Ultradispensationalist
The Apocalypse – “Preterist Expositors differ among themselves as to whether “great Babylon” means the City of Rome, or the Church of Rome: Rome Pagan or Rome Papal. But, if this is all that these solemn chapters mean, we may well say with Dr. Seiss, “If we cannot find more solid ground than that on which the Rome theory rests, we must needs consign the whole subject to the department of doubt and uncertainty; and let all these tremendous foreshadowings pass for nothing.”
1914: How to Enjoy the Bible “If this coming be the same as the destruction of Jerusalem (as is generally supposed) then it is perfectly certain that the Twelve could not have gone on proclaiming the kingdom as being “at hand” for nearly forty years after it had been rejected, and the King crucified!”
1809: The Divinity of the Apocalypse Demonstrated by Its Fulfilment: in Answer to Professor Michaelis “Vespasian, the Father of Titus, came from the East; and to him Josephus applied the prophecies, relating to the Messiah on that account; He deputed the management of the Jewish war to his son Titus, who was called the delight of Mankind’. Mr. Stackhouse, describing the triumph of Titus, without any reference to prophecy, uses this remarkable expression: “This was the first time that ever saw the ‘Father and Son triumph together.”
1555: Commentary on the Harmony of the Gospels “For God had promised two things seemingly opposite; that the throne of David would be eternal, (Psalm 89:29, 36,) and that, after it had been destroyed, he would raise up its ruins, (Amos 9:11😉 that the sway of his kingly power would be eternal, and yet that there should come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, (Isaiah 11:1.) Both must be fulfilled. That supremacy, therefore, which God had bestowed on the tribe of Judah, was suffered by him to be broken down for a time, that the attention of the people might be more strongly directed to the expectation of Christ’s reign. But when the destruction of the Sanhedrim appeared to have cut off the hope of believers, suddenly the Lord shone forth.”
1824: Essays on the Work of the Holy Spirit “we shall proceed to notice a prophecy of great utility, which respected an event about forty years distant. This prediction was designed for public conviction, and was perfectly adapted to this end. It was of that character of events which must necessarily be notorious and eminently conspicuous. Let us attend to it.”
1829: Evidences of Christianity: A Debate – “Alexander Campbell and Robert Owen “beside the predictions uttered by the Savior concerning his own demise, and all the circumstances attendant upon it, he foretold one event of such notoriety and importance as to confirm the faith of one generation and to produce faith in all subsequent generations.”
Joseph M. Canfield American
The Incredible Scofield and His Book – “The Christian Church still awaits a definitive comprehensive study of the entire subject of the second advent of Christ as it is revealed in the New Testament, including a careful investigation of the history of interpretation and the influence of this profound truth in the creeds and literature of the church..” | BJU faculty member David O. Beale – “There is a spiteful and inadequately documented attack on Scofield’s character.. Canfield attempts to discredit the pretribulation rapture, concludes that Scofield possibly was not even a Christian..”
2005: History’s Greatest Battles: Masterstrokes of War(PDF) Jerusalem, Defending the Temple – AD70 (p. 31-) “By crushing Jewish resistance in Jerusalem, the Romans consolidated their eastern empire, driving Jews out of their homeland in a diaspora that has religious and political consequences to this day.”
Lewis Sperry Chafer
1947: The Second Advent of Christ IncarnateOn earlier theology of Wm. Clarke “This work of fiction which does not even draw its material from the Bible — though for remote identification it must introduce Christ and His disciples – is one mass of impossible error in doctrine from its beginning to its end ; yet this work on theology has had acceptance with, and commendation from, an unusually large company of ministers and professors of note. Its fallacies should be noted briefly: (a) The entire assumption that Christ’s coming is fulfilled by a “spiritual and invisible” program ignores every event connected with His return. (b) The writer confuses Christ’s personal coming with His omnipresence. He is in the midst when two or three are gathered unto Him, but that fact does not imply that His promise to come as Bridegroom and Judge has been, or is now, being fulfilled. ” // “How different would have been the histroy of theology in the past three centuries and its fruits today, had theologians accepted the chiliasm of the apostles and the early church instead of the Federal or Covenant theories introduced by Johannes Cocceius and the postmillennialism of Daniel Whitby — both living a century after the Reformation!” (pp. 280-287)
Walter Chamberlain
1854: The National Restoration and Conversion of the Twelve Tribes of Israel “The mistake of the Professor and those who hold his sentiments lies here — that they are not careful to remember that the spiritual exposition of certain prophecies for the edification of the Church is perfectly permissible, and harmonises with the literal interpretation of the same for the benefit of Israel.” (p. 21) “there are, probably, many learned Hebrews who will be astonished to hear that he who propounded them has maintained that all prophecy, extending to Israel as a nation, has already been fulfilled.”
1728: A Vindication and a Defence of Christianity from the prophecies of the Old Testament “What can be more unreasonable than the Scheme of the Bishop and Mr. Marshal, who separate the 70th week from the 69th, at the end whereof they place the death of Jesus, and suppose the 70th week to commence at the end of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, thirty five years after the expiration of the sixty ninth?
1920: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Revelation of St. John “111-2 and 69 of the Apocalypse, if taken literally, refer to Jerusalem and the Temple as still standing, and the martyrdoms of Nero (64-68 A.D.). Other sources, though less clearly, postulate a Neronic date. Hence it is not difficult to understand the assignment of the banishment of John to the reign of Nero in the title prefixed to both the Syriac versions of the Apocalypse and by Theophylact (Praef. in Ioann.).” (Settles on Late Date)
Stephen Charnock Puritan
1680: A Discourse of God’s being the Author of Reconciliation “The time of his coming was fixed in Jacob’s prophecy about the time of the fall of the Jewish government, Gen. xlix. 10, before the ruin of the second temple, Mall iii.1, after seventy weeks of years from the time of Daniel’s prophecy.” “You know how he armed the Romans against them, discharged his wrath upon them, gave up the city and temple, which they (and even their enemies) studied to preserve, for the death of his Son, as a prey to the fury and avarice of the enemies.”
For the White Horse knew England When there was none to know; He saw the first oar break or bend, He saw heaven fall and the world end, O God, how long ago.
For the end of the world was long ago,
And all we dwell to-day
As children of some second birth,
Like a strange people left on earth
After a judgment day.
For the end of the world was long ago,
When the ends of the world waxed free,
When Rome was sunk in a waste of slaves,
And the sun drowned in the sea.
When Caesar’s sun fell out of the sky
And whoso hearkened right
Could only hear the plunging
Of the nations in the night.
1985: Paradise Restored: A Biblical Theology of Dominion“…consider a fact which will undoubtedly shock some people: the word ‘antichrist’ never occurs in the Book of Revelation. Not once.” “…antichrist is a description of both the system of apostasy and individual apostates. In other words, antichrist was the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy that a time of great apostasy would come, when ‘many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many’ (Matt. 24:10-11).”
1912: The Burning of Rome: A Story of Nero’s Days “He threw himself down on the couch and buried his face in the cushions. The Empress and the Minister watched and waited in serious disquiet. There was no knowing what wild resolve he might take. That he had set his heart to no common degree on this new scheme was evident. In all his life he had never given so much serious thought to any subject as he had to this, and disappointment would probably result in some dangerous outburst. After about half an hour had passed, he started up. “I have it,” he cried; “it shall be done,—the plan, the whole plan.” “Sire, will you deign to tell us what inspiration the gods have given you?” said Tigellinus. “All in good time,” said the Emperor. “When I want your help I will tell you what it is needful for you to know. But now it is time for my harp practice.”
1923: To the Lions: A Tale of the Early Christians “No spoil that he could have carried off from the sack of Jerusalem could have proved such a treasure to him as the little Rhoda. She had learnt from her Christian mother, who, happily for herself, had passed to her rest just before Jerusalem was finally invested, some Gospel truths, and Manilius listened with attention which he might not have given to an older teacher when she told him in her childish prattle the story of the life and death of Jesus. When the rewards for services in the great siege were distributed, he received a permanent appointment at Ephesus. Here he came under the influence of St. John, and here he, his wife, and the little Rhoda were received into the Christian community. “
LXXV – Matt. 24:1-2 | LXXVI – Matt. 24:16-18 | LXXVII – Matt. 24:32,33 | Homily IV on Second Timothy “For I will ask them, Did He send the prophets and wise men? Did they slay them in their synagogue? Was their house left desolate? Did all the vengeance come upon that generation? It is quite plain that it was so, and no man gainsays it.” (Homily LXXIV on MATT. XXIII. 29, 30.)
“He seems here to refer to the coming of the Lord to execute judgment on the Jewish nation, which shortly afterwards took place. He is already on his way to destroy this wicked people, to raze their city and temple, and to destroy their polity for ever; and this judgment will soon take place.”
David S. Clark
1921: The Message From Patmos: A Postmillennial Commentary on the Book of Revelation “This early twentieth-century Postmillennial commentary on the Book of Revelation, written by the father of theologian Gordon Clark, offers an easy-to-read alternative to the popular Pre-millennial/Dispensational views of the best-selling Scofield Reference Bible and a multitude of other dissertations on end-time prophecy that litter the shelves of the average Christian bookstores. “
William Newton Clarke
1909: Sixty years with the Bible (Ten Years With Hyper Preterism) So I accepted the idea that the fulfilment occurred in the destruction of Jerusalem. As for the interpretation itself, it now seems to me to have been a very good way-station on the journey to the true solution of the problem.”
FROM 1894:
“Intelligent study of the nature of prophecy tends to the conclusion that there is but little prediction in Scripture awaiting fulfilment, and that what there is consists in large outlooks, without minute details.” (Outlines of Christian Theology)
TO 1909:
“It is interesting to note what this interpretation was, for the nature of it indicates again how far from being even and consistent was the movement of my mind.” (Sixty years with the Bible)
1871: The Revelation of John : With NotesOn Revelation 13-19 “At this stage of the discussion I need only say that, guided by these limitations of time, by these points of character, and by these special explanations, it is simply impossible to make any thing else of the first beast save the Roman Empire–the civil power of the Roman Emperors; while the second beast (v. II), judging from the description given of him here, from his influence as sketched here, and also from the further description of him which appears in chap. 16: 13, 14, and in 19: 20–” the false prophet that wrought miracles before him” [the first beast] “with which he deceived them that had the mark of the beast, etc., we must interpret to be the Pagan Priesthood–every-whereministering to the idolatrous homage paid to the Roman Emperors; every-where inspiring the animus of Paganism, and by virtue of their character, naturally active in the persecution of Christians. Beyond all question this second beast is co-ordinate and co-operative with the first and therefore contemporaneous, doing its work at the same time; receiving its final doom in the same fearful hour of judgment”
Homersham Cox
1886: The First Century of Christianity “This removal of the Christian Jews to a neighbouring town has been sometimes represented as a base and traitorous desertion of their countrymen in their sorest need. But the same thing was done by many of those who adhered to the Jewish faith. A large party among them, altogether opposed to the war, saw plainly that resistance to the overwhelming Roman power- was futile, and considered that the best interests of their country would be served by submission. In large numbers they escaped from the fated city as from a sinking vessel. Why, then, should the Christians be reproached for taking the same course ? They simply obeyed the command— And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof draweth nigh. Then let them which are in Judsa flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them which are in the countries enter thereinto.”
David P. Crews American
1994: Prophecy Fulfilled: God’s Perfect Church “We have briefly mentioned the prophecy passage that comprises Matthew 24 and its parallel recordings in Mark 13 and Luke 21. Now we can take a detailed, in–depth look at this great prophecy, spoken by Jesus Christ himself and see how it fits into the events of the times. Many people have understood that portions of this passage refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, but they have made divisions in the prophecy in order to assign some parts of it to the far future. Our purpose here is to examine the prophecy in fine detail to see how it fits the events of the destruction of the Jewish nation, and to see how such man–made divisions in the text are unjustifiably imposed.” Former Full Preterist – My Journey From Religion to Rationalism
1841: The Second Coming of Christ, and the Resurrection;Showing by an Appeal to the Bible as it Reads, Aside From All Human Creeds and Commentaries, the Opinions of all Sects of Religionists of this Vastly Interesting Subject, to be Merely Human Opinions, and Wholly Irreconcilable with the Word of God (1841) “If any thing can be proved by the word of God, I pledge myself to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that the resurrection of the Jews and all Christian believers, was at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.”
Arthur Custance
1977: Hidden Things of God’s RevelationIII: A Tale of Two Cities “The temple itself — though Titus actually tried to preserve it against being destroyed — was nevertheless put to fire. Its vast treasures were plundered, and as much as possible of the gold sheeting which covered the walls and doors and columns was removed by the soldiers. However, the heat of the fire was so intense that much of the gold was melted and ran between the stones of the building, which had been laid without mortar. For the next twenty-five years or more, men continued to pry these stones apart, one by one, to obtain the gold which they knew had run between them. And thus it came about the Lord’s words were exactly fulfilled: “There shall not be left here one stone upon another” (Matthew 24:2).”
1887: The Past Second Advent: The Coming of Christ(PDF HERE) “The Unseen King of men is near, and nearer than we know ; and if we listen to the voice of those that call us to His feet, the vision of Christ when it suddenly comes at a moment we look not for it. — Christ, King, and Judge, sitting on the clouds of heaven with power and with great glory — will occasion no mourning to us. It will be the fulfilment of all our most passionate hopes and the beginning of our eternal blessedness. What lies beyond we cannot tell. There are intimations in Holy Scripture elsewhere that the presence and glory of Christ in the invisible and eternal world, where He has ascended His throne as King and Judge of all, will, at last, after He has gathered through age after age His elect to Himself, break through even into the material order, and the last generation of mankind will suddenly pass into His presence.”
1871: The Jewish Temple and the Christian Church – A Series of Discourses on the Epistle to the Hebrews(PDF) “The end of all things is at hand.” “His voice then shook the earth, but now hath He promised, saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only but also heaven.” In His last revelation to mankind, God’s purposes are reaching their perfect accomplishment. Empires which had overshadowed the whole earth had decayed and perished. The institutions and laws which God Himself had originally established, the temple He had consecrated, the priests He had anointed, were now ready to vanish away.”
Steven Davis
2005: Don’t Be “Left Behind” (PDF) “This is my new book which examines the popular doctrine of a pretribulation rapture and shows that it is unbiblical. Rather, this book takes a partial preterist, amillennial approach to eschatology. The book is available for free download a. Just download the preview (“Preview the book); the preview is the entire book.”
Dead Sea Scrolls Historical Witness to First Century Preterist View
Christian and Jewish refugees from Jerusalem’s impending besiegement stored numerous documents east of the city near Qumran. Key writings discovered immediately prior to the formation of the Jewish State reflect the Palestinian Christianity of James the Just.
These writings are all of utmost significance for first century studies in fulfilled eschatology because:
1) They show a highly developed Preterist view: Daniel and the Habakkuk Commentary specifically identify the Romans (the ‘Kittim’) as the primary apocalyptic enemy, making them the earliest known “Preterist Commentaries” (This view was in currency prior to the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey in 63 B.C.)
“The new leather fragment now provided a first-century B.C.-A.D. testimony to the accuracy of the text as it has been preserved – Kasidim was clearly in the text used by the copyist. The next line, however, begins, “Its interpretation concerns the Kittim….” The modern theory had already been propounded by interpretation by the ancient community two thousand years earlier!” – John C. Trever, The Untold Story of Qumran
2) The “Pella Flight Tradition,” which explains the deposit of many scrolls, substantiates that the Preterist view was the early Christian interpretation of Christ’s Olivet Discourse (Such as found in Matthew 24:16).
3) The eschatology of the DSS reflects the view that their period was the “End of Days” for Israel:
“And we recognize that some of the blessings and curses have come, (24) those written in the Bo[ok of Mo]ses; therefore this is the End of Days” (4Q397 – 399)
“..from the day of the gathering in of the unique teacher, until the destruction of all the men of war who turned back with the man of lies, there shall be about forty years.” (Damascus Document, xx, 14-15) – “I will stare at his place and he will no longer be there. Its interpretation concerns all the evil at the end of the forty years, for they shall be devoured..” (Commentary on Ps 37:10, 4QPsalms Pesher [4Q17, ii, 6-8]).
1865: Daniel; or, The apocalypse of the Old Testament “In unequivocal language, which hardly even the science of hermeneutics can explain away, the Son of Man had announced his speedy advent to destroy Jerusalem.” (Daniel, p. 235)
1586: Douay-Rheims Version of the Holy Bible (1586) William Allen, Richard Bristow, Thomas Worthington “Zacharias Chapter 11 – The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. God’s dealings with the Jews, and their reprobation. 11:1. Open thy gates, O Libanus, and let fire devour thy cedars. O Libanus. . .So Jerusalem, and more particularly the temple, is called by the prophets, from its height, and from its being built of the cedars of Libanus.–Ibid. Thy cedars. . .Thy princes and chief men.” “A fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, etc. . .Viz., the fountain of grace in the church militant, and of glory in the church triumphant: which shall water the torrent or valley of thorns, that is, the souls that before, like barren ground brought forth nothing but thorns; or that were afflicted with the thorns of crosses and tribulations.”
Robert Drummelow
1920: A Commentary on the Holy Bible “The sketch of the purpose of the book will have shown that the ‘Preterist‘ view is at the basis of the present Commentary. The probability of this view is supported by the analogy of other apocalypses. And it seems natural to suppose that the book would be meant to be intelligible by those to whom it the language and the figures of the book are found to fit the condition of the early days of Christianity, and to yield, on this system, a consistent and unforced interpretation.
1776: The History of Redemption: From the Resurrection of Christ to the Destruction of Jerusalem“That coming of Christ which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem, was preceded by a glorious spiritual resurrection of souls in the calling of the Gentiles, and bringing home multitudes of souls to Christ by the preaching of the gospel.”
Miscellanies“‘Tis evident that when Christ speaks of his coming; his being revealed; his coming in his Kingdom; or his Kingdom’s coming; He has respect to his appearing in those great works of his Power Justice and Grace, which should be in the Destruction of Jerusalem and other extraordinary Providences which should attend it.”
1884: Hours with the Apocalypse “Now with regard to the Præterist Scheme, on the review of which we are first to enter, it may be remembered that I stated it to have had its origin with the Jesuit Alcasar: and that it was subsequently, and after Grotius and Hammonds prior adoption of it, adopted and improved by Bossuet, the great Papal champion, under one form and modification; then afterwards, under another modification, by Hernnschneider, Eichhorn, and others of the German critical and generally infidel school of the last half-century; followed in our own æra by Heinrichs, and by Moses Stuart of the United States of America.”
1894: On the Early History of Christianity “But we have in the New Testament a single book the time of the writing of which can be defined within a few months, which must have been written between June 67 and January or April 68; a book, consequently, which belongs to the very beginning of the Christian era and reflects with the most naive fidelity and in the corresponding idiomatic language the ideas of the beginning of that era. This book is the so-called Revelation of John.. John describes his book at the very beginning as the revelation of “things which must shortly come to pass ; an immediately afterwards, I, 3, he declares “Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy … for the time is at hand.” To the church in Philadelphia Christ sends the message: “Behold, I come quickly.” And in the last chapter the angel says he has shown John “things which must shortly be done” and gives him the order: “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.” And Christ himself says twice (XXII, 12, 20) “I come quickly.” The sequel will show us how soon this coming was expected..”
2008: The Prophecies of Daniel 2 “The position that I hold with regard to Revelation 20 puts me at odds with full preterism, which associates the “thousand years” with the forty years from AD 30 to 70. That a thousand years can be equated to a mere forty even in such to be a great challenge, and it is tempting to dismiss such an idea as patent nonsense. . . Nevertheless, it must be recognized at the outset that equating the “thousand years” to only forty years stretches the metaphorical elasticity of Revelation beyond limits of credibility for most serious students of the Bible. Furthermore, the challenge faced by FPs becomes even greater when it is recognized that their millennium” is EVEN SHORTER THAN FORTY YEARS because it begins AFTER AD30 and ENDS BEFORE AD70.” (Pages 168-170)
1856: Prophecy Viewed in Respect to its Distinctive Character; its Special Function and its Proper Interpretation “During the time that the temple and Jerusalem stood, and formed the centre of the divine kingdom and worship, the predictions, which were of the nature of promises, received a measure of fulfilment in the case of the true covenant- people to whom alone they properly referred. But from the moment that Christ was glorified, as the temple and Jerusalem lost their original character—as the Jerusalem and the temple, which thenceforth constituted the real habitation of God and the seat of worship, rose heavenwards with its Divine Head (Gal. iv. 26, Rev. xxi. 2), it is in connection with that higher region that we are to look for what yet remains to be fulfilled of the predictions.”
1854: The Typology of Scripture – Two Volumes in One“Thus, the deliverance accomplished from the yoke of Babylon formed a fitting stepping-stone to the main subject of the prophecy – the revelation of God in the person and work in the Son. The certainty of the one – a certainty soon to be realized – was a pledge of the ultimate certainty of the other ; and the character also of the former, as a singular and unexpected manifestation of the Lord’s power to deliver his people and lay their enemies in the dust, was a prefiguration of what was to be accomplished once for all in the salvation to be wrought out by Jesus Christ. There are few portions of Old Testament prophecy, which altogether resemble the one we have been considering. Perhaps that which approaches nearest to it, in the mode of combining type with prophecy, is the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, which is not a direct and simple delineation of the judgments that were destined to alight upon Idumea, but rather an ideal representation of the judgments preparing to alight on the enemies generally of God’s people, founded upon the approaching desolations of Edom, which it contemplates as the type of the destruction which awaits all the adversaries.” (pp. 125-126)
1886: The History of Interpretation“He (Irenaeus) makes the highly questionable statement that the Apocalypse was not written till the reign of Domitian.”
1874: Life of Christ – “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!” And has not that denunciation been fearfully fulfilled? Who does not catch an echo of it in the language of Tacitus—”Expassac repente delubri fores, et audita major humana vox excedere Deos.” Speaking of the murder of the younger Hanan, and other eminent nobles and hierarchs, Josephus says, “I cannot but think that it was because God had doomed this city to destruction as a polluted city, and was resolved to purge His sanctuary by fire, that He cut off these their great defenders and well-wishers”
1838: Daniel’s Last Vision and Prophecy, respecting which Commentators have greatly differed from each other, showing its Fulfilment in events recorded in authentic history”In the conclusion of our illustration of these last predictions, we present some additional considerations, which, in our view, compel us to reject any application of this last chapter of Daniel to the general resurrection, by their clearly directing us to apply the 11th verse of it to the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. ” // “The most approved commentators of modern times have applied much of the latter part to events, that have occurred since the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, and the last chapter to the general resurrection from the dead ; whereas the quotation from it, by Christ, obviously directs us to look for the fulfilment of the whole, in events that occurred at, or antecedently to, that destruction. “
George P. Fischer
1890: The Nature and Method of Revelation Differentiating Christianity from Judaism “Many Jewish Christians must have seen in the ruins of the Temple a sign of the passing away of the ancient system of worship. “
Jim Fowler
2001: Jesus – The Better Everything – An Introductory Commentary of the Epistle to the Hebrews “The Old Testament scriptures were lodged in Paul’s memory, and he quotes from them again to explain the “need for endurance” (36). “FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, THE ONE COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY.” Quoting from the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint (LXX), as he does throughout this epistle, Paul allows the words of Habakkuk 2:3 to speak to the situation of the Jerusalem Christians. The delayed consummation of Christ’s victory to be revealed in the second advent created an “enigma of the interim” for the early Christians, but Paul uses Habakkuk’s words as his words to indicate that “the Coming One,” Jesus, will come “in a very little while,” very soon, i.e. imminently. This may refer to the “second coming of the parousia, as in Revelation 2:25, “Hold fast until I come.” More likely, Paul is referring to the imminent coming of Christ in judgment, when (perhaps within a year after the receipt of this letter) the Romans came against the residents of Palestine from 66-70 AD, destroying everything and decimating the population. This is the same “coming of the Son of Man” (Matt. 24:27,30,37,42) that Jesus referred to in His Mount of Olives discourse (Matt. 24:3-45). Paul is warning the Hebrew Christians again that judgment is coming, and everything in the old covenant will “disappear” (8:13).”
1656: A Visitation to the Jews“Now he that sits on the throne of David, his seed witness him Lord and king, who is the prince of life, that hath dominion over death, and through death has destroyed him that hath the power of death; and repentance is preached, and remission of sins through faith in him, from whom comes the refreshing into the soul.”
Margaret Fox: A Call Out of Egypt’s Darkness(1668)“For the outward law, which was written in tables of Stone, which was to the Jews onely, is changed, and the circumcision which was outward, and the Sabboath which was outward, and the Priests which were outward, and the Temple which was outward; these were figures, tipes, and shadows of him, who was to come; the body, and substance of these is CHRIST JESUS, who comes to fulfil the Law, and is the end of the Law for Righteousness”
1869: The Second Coming of Christ and the Destruction of the World “But there is another class of scoffers that this discourse has to do with. They say the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ has long since occurred–that he came the second time at the destruction of Jerusalem; that he there judged the world; separated the righteous from the wicked, and, consequently, argue that the coming of Christ, the judgment, and punishment of the wicked are all long since gone by. This fallacy must now be refuted. It must be shown that the coming of the Lord is yet future.” (The Gospel Preacher, Ch. 18) – (Not BenjaminFranklin of 1706-1790)
Jack Fruchtman, Jr.
1983: Apocalyptic Politics: A Study in Late Eighteenth-Century English Republican Millennialism “In 1706, William Whiston, Boyle lecturer for 1707, declared in An Essay on the Revelation of Saint John that the beast would be slain as early as 1716. When his prediction failed to materialize, he neither despaired nor changed his mined. In the thiries and forties, he was still convined that the millennial paradise was imminent, perhaps only some twenty years off.”
1820: The Destruction of Jerusalem By the Wandering Jew “(Titus) then descended; and the Roman priests who attended the army having provided a number of oxen, a prodigious sacrifice was offered to the idolatrous gods of the Romans, and the remainder was distributed among the soldiery.”
1824: The Bachelor’s Wife The Wandering Jew & The Destruction of Jerusalem in a later reprint
“The topic entails another mode of interpreting Luke’s Gospel, complementing other accepted modes (apologetic, pastoral-horatory, doctrinal) and aptly describing described as “historical-typological.” This further mode is grounded in the preface to Luke’s presentation of his gospel as kind of history. It respects the narrative progression of Luke’s Gospel including some attention to the way in which he conditions his typed audience to reflect upon and personally to apply the intended lesson. The fate of Jerusalem is brought about by two major facts. First, the people are insensitive to the terms for peace. Although they are ostensibly favorable to Jesus’ teaching (as “Impressed unbelievers have been hitherto, and are warned rather than condemned, they will, as a matter of historical reality, perish for the more serious sins of others. 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?” (viii)
1769: Body of Divinity: On the Everlasting Covenant | Of the Abrogation of the Old Covenant “But still the carnal Jews continued them, and even sacrifices, until the destruction of Jerusalem, which put an end to them; for according to the law of God, no sacrifice might be offered but at Jerusalem, and upon the altar there; so that when the city, temple, and altar were destroyed, they ceased to offer any sacrifice, and never have offered any since; whereby that prophecy is remarkably fulfilled; “the children of Israel shall abide many days without a sacrifice” (Hosea 3:4).. not even a passover lamb is slain by them, as well as no other sacrifice offered; which yet they would gladly offer, in defiance of Christ, the great Sacrifice, were it not for the above law, which stands in their way, and by which they are awed; and which is no small instance of the wisdom and goodness of God in providence. Now it was a little before the destruction of Jerusalem the apostle wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, and therefore, with great propriety, he says of the old covenant, that it was not only decayed, and waxen old, but was “ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:13).”
1872: The Apocalypse Translated and Expounded – Early Dating Advocate, Sets at AD 51. “Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks presents an irrefragable proof that the whole of the New Testament, the Apocalypse included, must have been written before the fall of Jerusalem and the end of the Jewish kingdom.” “When did the seventy weeks end ? No date later than that of the fall of Jerusalem (a.d. 70) can with any truth or plausibility be supposed, for these weeks were “determined on the holy city.” But many say they ended earlier, — at the death of Christ. Against this, however, in the above, and some other particulars, there lie weighty objections, as Scaliger, Hales, and others have shown. Let us look at the objects which were to be accomplished before these weeks ran out. ” // “Many of the visions and words of the prophets are still receiving fulfilment ; and not until the end of the gospel age is all prophecy fulfilled. Some were fulfilled at the death of Christ, some in the fall of the city and dispersion of the people, and some in the progressive influx of the Gentiles ; while many regarding Gentiles and outcast Jews are yet to pass into fulfilment.”
1841: The Destruction of Jerusalem “Whilst the abominations of desolation, foretold by Daniel, was thus standing in the holy place, (St. Matt. xxiv. 15.) John of Grischala saw that the Zealots were too stupefied by the feastings to cause him any further alarm. He fell on the city, like a bird of prey, there to find the necessary provisions; and out of hatred for Simon, he destroyed by fire all he could not carry away. Simon, instead of quenching the fire, extended it in every part where John was likely to pass, hoping, by this means, to deprive the Galileans of all further victualling. Immense stores of corn and other provisions had been amassed by the Jewish leaders, as a necessary resource in case of a future siege; but all were now destroyed by these two men, who were greater enemies to their country than were the Romans themselves. Thus was spent the year 69 — a year of respite, which Rome, torn as she was by factions of her own, was compelled to allow, and which might have been of such incalculable benefit to the Jews.”
John Gwynn
1897: The Syriac Version of the Apocalypse “I have endeavoured to lead to the conclusion that this Apocalypse is a portion of the original “Philoxenian” New Testament, as translated A.D. 508, for Philoxenus of Mabug, by Polycarpus “the Chorepiscopus.” I have endeavoured to show, farther, that the other version of the Apocalypse, first printed by De Dieu in 1627, is a revision of this, and belongs probably to the Syriac New Testament of Thomas of Harkel, of A.D. 616.” // “I would remark, in passing, that the number 666 (Rev. xiiu 18) is represented by Irenaeus (Proleg. v. 30, 1), on the authority of St. John himself, to have been the name Lateinos (meaning the sixth Roman Emperor, Nero, who was born in Latium), not Laetinos, as B. H. C. found it.” (T.J. Buckton)
H. Rider Haggard
1901: Pearl-Maiden: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem “The city went mad beneath the weight of its abominable and obscene misery. Thousands perished every day, and every night thousands more escaped, or attempted to escape, to the Romans, who caught the poor wretches and crucified them beneath the walls, till there was no more wood of which to make the crosses, and no more ground whereon to stand them. All these things and many others Miriam saw from her place of outlook in the gallery of the deserted tower. She saw the people lying dead by hundreds in the streets beneath.”
1869: Children’s History of the Fall of Jerusalem “Suppose you take the history of some city of country, and study it, and in the evening tell me what you have learned. Would you like that?” “Oh yes,” they both said in a breath. “But what shall it be?” “Well, let me see,” said Mr. Sherman thoughtfully. “How would you like the Fall of Jerusalem?” “Oh father, I should like that very much,” said Charles. “I like to read of those old cities. There was old Troy, which fell through trick of the wooden horse. I wonder if the fall of Jerusalem would be as interesting?” “As interesting! Certainly, my child, far more so. Troy was no more than any other city, while Jerusalem is identified with the church of God in all ages. “
1653: A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament“Having gone through all the other parts of the New Testament, I came to this last of the Apocalypse, as to a rock that many had miscarried and split upon, with a full resolution not to venture on the expounding of one word in it, but onely to perform one office to it, common to the rest, the review of the Translation: But it pleased God otherwise to dispose of it ; for before I had read (with the design of translating only) to the end of the first verse of the book, these words, which must come to pass presently, had such an impression on my mind, offering themselves as a key to the whole prophecie, (in like manner as, this generation shall not passe till all these things be fulfilled, Matt. 24.34. have demonstrated infallibly to what coming of Christ the whole Chapter did belong) that I could not resist the force of them, but attempted presently a general survey of the whole Book, to see whether those words might not probably be extended to all the prophecies of it, and have a literal truth in them, viz., that the things foretold and represented in the ensuing vision ; were presently, speedily, to come to passe, one after another, after the writing of them.”
Daniel Mace: 1649-1660 – Henry Hammond and the Preterist School of Interpretation “This volume contained a brave but lonely attempt to introduce the preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation to English soil. Hammond laid great stress on the opening words of the Apocalypse in which the book is said to contain ‘things which must shortly come to pass.’ .. But those who argued for the preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation.. were playing to empty galleries, until at least the fourth decade of the nineteenth century. Their views were anything but popular and those who followed them could soon find themselves branded with the infamous mark of the papal beast.” Others who followed: Herbert Thorndike / “author of an anonymous tract on the Millennium published in 1693 (“Millennianism : or, Christ’s Thousand Years Reign upon Earth, considered, in a Familiar Letter to a Friend”)”
11/9/12: The History of the Works of the Learned, Or, An Impartial Account of Books Lately Printed in All A review of LeClerc’s Latin Hammond, from 1699
1894: The Christ Has Come – The second advent an event of the past. An appeal from human tradition to the teaching of Jesus and His apostles. (PreteristArchive Addition to Web!) Not Full Preterist: “In the New Testament, there are also clear and definite announcements of a world-wide resurrection and a world-wide judgment still future. “The times of the Gentiles” are to run their appointed course and have an end (Luke xxi. 24; Ephes. i. 10). Christ’s Millennial Kingdom in which we are now living is not to last for ever. To Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall own that He is Lord (Phil. ii. 10, 11), and then, having put all His enemies under His feet, He will surrender the Kingdom to the Father-that God may be all in all (1.Cor. xv. 28).”
1885: The Destruction of Jerusalem – The Book of Revelation History of the Church of God, Chapter 8 “By terrible events an end was at length put to the Mosaic economy; for, with the destruction of their city and temple, the whole Jewish polity and church state were also subverted. From that time the remnant of that once highly favored nation have been dispersed throughout the world; despised and hated by all; subjected, from age to age, to a perpetual succession of persecutions and miseries, yet under all these disadvantages, upheld by Divine Providence as a distinct people. They have ever since remained ‘without a king, without a prince and without a sacrifice; without an altar, without an ephod, and without Divine manifestations;’ as monuments everywhere of the truth of Christianity.” (Hosea 3:4, 5).—W. Jones.”
James Hastings, et al.
1915: Dictionary of the apostolic church (PDF)“A closer determination of the date depends mainly on the interpretation of a passage from ch. iv. This chapter contains a warning that ‘ the last offence’ is at hand ; for the Lord has shortened the times and the days that His beloved may come quickly. As a proof that the last offence, i.e. the Antichrist, is at hand, the writer quotes a prophecy from the Book of Daniel to the effect that ten kings shall reign, and after them shall arise a little king who shall subdue three of the kings in one (ii<t> l»). It is evident that the writer thinks that this prophecy has been, in part at least, fulfilled; he has seen something in recent history which corresponds with this vision. Thus much then seems clear; when he wrote this, there had been ten Ctesars on the Imperial throne. Unless we are to omit some of the Emperors from the list—a proceeding for which there seems no justification—the tenth Emperor brings us to the reign of Vespasian. If the ‘little horn’ had already appeared when the Epistle was written, then we must look for three Emperors subdued by the successor of Vespasian. And this, of course, Titus did not do. Hence it seems better to interpret the little horn as Antichrist, who has not yet been revealed, for this gets rid of the difficulty of finding pne Emperor who had already subdued three. The writer found this reference to three kings in his text of the prophecy, and meant to leave it to the future to show who the three were and how they would be overthrown. But no matter how this point is settled, the tenth horn can scarcely be other than Vespasian, and this fixes the date of the Epistle at between A.D. 70 and 79. “
1868: A History of the New Testament Times“The smoke rose up from the ashes of Jerusalem, but no sign of the Son of Man appeared in heaven. But the faith of their hearts was not crushed by the signs of the times. The ensuing years make it equally evident that Christianity continued to look for the advent. Indeed, immediately after the shock of deepest disillusion caused by the fall of the temple, within two years of the writing of the Apocalypse, the strong faith of an Egyptian Christian found it possible to repeat the gist of the prophecy. When the victorious Vespasian came to Alexandria, a Christian wrote the oracle which is to be read in the collection of the Sibyl V. 361—433. “
1633: A Priest to the Temple “There are two Prophesies in the Gospel, which evidently argue Christs Divinity by their success: the one concerning the woman that spent the oyntment on our Saviour, for which he told, that it should never be forgotten, but with the Gospel it selfe be preached to all ages, Matth. 26. 13. The other concerning the destruction of Jerusalem; of which our Saviour said, that that generation should not passe, till all were fulfilled, Luke 21.32. Which Josephus’s History confirmeth, and the continuance of which verdict is yet evident.”
1872: Second Adventism and Jewish History (PDF) “We are confident, moreover, that it can be proved by the light of history, that the evils then foretold by our Lord came upon the Jewish nation during their wars with Hadrian, the Roman Emperor, between the year 130 and the year 140 of the Christian era; and that this desolating war was the Second Coming of Christ—an event for which the Second Adventist is now looking with anxious concern ! .. Universalism, on the other hand, had found an anodyne for an uneasy conscience, in the theory that all these predictions referred to the single event of the destruction of Jerusalem. The gathering of all nations before Jesus Christ, as related by Matt. 25 : 31, etc., the separation of the wicked from the righteous, is the assembling of all the tribes of Israel in Jerusalem, at the time of its destruction.”
Huchown
The Siege of Jerusalem (1380-1390) Opinion #1: “it [Siege] mars the reputation of medieval chivalric literature; viewed another, it stains the good name of medieval piety. It seems ruined by rank anti-Semitism; since it transgresses ethically, it also must fail as literature. In short, its grossness is so palpable that it seems to merit the critical invisibility that has been its textual fate for most of its post-medieval existence.” — yet — Op#2: “the marginalization of Siege of Jerusalem in this politically correct world says far more about us as readers, and our own difficulties in coping with such charged topics, than it does about medieval perspectives on the material in question.” – Introductory Essay
J.M. Arvidson – The Language of Titus and Vespasian, or, The Destruction of Jerusalem(1916 PDF) “Original Provenance Unknown ; Northamptonshire” // Titus And Vespasian, or the Destruction of Jerusalem. In alliterative verse. Originally containing about 1300 lines, of which 1224 remain. English. // The present poem is headed :—”Hie Incepit Distruccio Jerrusalem [sic] Quomodo Titus et Vaspasianus obsederunt et distruxerunt Jerusalem et vi[n]dicarunt mortem domini Jhesu Christi. The Segge of Jerusalem off Tytus and Vaspasyaue.”
Theophania “From this reasoning of Eusebius, it is evident that he believed that the End had come. And in this there can be no doubt, I think, he was right; but as this involves a question very ill understood at this day, it may be right to offer a few words here, as to what is meant by the End.”
1827: Introduction to the Writings of the New Testament | Volume II (Translated into English PDFs) “Wetstein’s idea, that the Apocalypse is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, of the horrors of the Jewish war, and the civil wars of the Romans, is too forced in many of its parts to be fully admissible. Hug’s idea which combines those parts of Wetstein’s proposition, which seem to be demonstrated, with the opinions of those, who refer it to the persecutions of the Christians under the Roman Emperors, to the subjugation and dismemberment of Rome, and the subsequent happy days of the Church, is perhaps the most correct. This solution appears most naturally to arise from the Apostle’s circumstances and the existing state of things ; it was the belief of the primitive Fathers in general : it is the most critically supported by the scope and contents of the book. The more commonly received theories of Bishop Newton, Faber, and others, who have conceived it to have been prophetical of the Papal power, are too liable to objections”
Rebekah Hyneman
1845: Jerusalem At the Destruction of the Temple “Mourn! mourn! oh, Israel! for your house of prayer, Your sanctuary, lies in ruins now! ’Mid sounds of anguish that now rend the air, There comes a whisper faint, and each doth bow His head in fear and shame, while o’er his soul The bitter waters of repentance roll. “
1556: Scripture “Their city Jerusalem was sacked, their houses overthrown, their temple razed, and not a stone left upon a stone; their library destroyed, their books burnt, the tabernacle lost, the covenant broken. No vision, no revelation, no comfort for the people left; nor prophet, nor priest, nor any to speak in the name of the Lord.”
1805: Remarks on Ecclesiastical History “I would not willing be imposed upon, or impose upon the reader ; but I leave it to be considered whether in all this there might not be something extraordinary, as both Vespasian and Josephus were designed and reserved for extraordinary purposes, to assist in fulfilling and justifying the prophecies of Daniel and of our Lord.”
Josephus by Norman Bentwich (1914) “Josephus hardly merits a place on his own account in a series of Jewish Worthies, since neither as man of action nor as man of letters did he deserve particularly well of his nation.”
Maurice A. Williams: Prophet and Historian: John and Josephus: “I think the Four Winds and Three Woes in the Apocalypse took place long ago. Nero sent Vespasian to subdue Judea. His son, Titus, destroyed the Temple. I quote Josephus, Tacitus, and Suetonius describing this. This destruction fulfills the Four Winds and Two of the three Woes.”
Alexander King
1889: The Cry of Christendom“As previously, in the days of His flesh, He explicitly gave the signs of His coming, that the disciples might know when to flee from Jerusalem, before its fall; so here again, by the ministry of the disciple whom He loved, and whom He permitted to tarry till His coming, He emphatically warned the Churches, of the impending overthrow.”
Charles Kingsley
1881: Discipline and Other Sermons “And last of all (St. Paul) saw (unless he had died beforehand) the fall of the Emperor Nero himself – who very probably set fire to Rome, and then laid the blame on the Christians, – the man of sin, of whom St. Paul prophesied that he would be revealed – that is, unveiled, and exposed for the monster which he was; and that the Lord would destroy him with the brightness of his coming”
Abraham Kuenen (1828-1891)
Dutch Protestant
1874: Introduction to The Religion of Israel to the Fall of the Jewish State – “we ourselves, as Christians, are so greatly indebted to Israel, we should yet desire to become acquainted with the origin and growth of a religion which has achieved so many conquests. It appears here, if anywhere, how unreasonable it would be to ‘despise the day of small things’ for here we are reminded of ‘the grain of mustard seed, which indeed is the least of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.'”
Daniel Lamont
1944: Studies in Johannine Writings “What did our Lord mean by His Parousia, which He foretold was to take place some forty years from the time when He spoke of it? It was not the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. That Jewish catastrophe was only to be the sign of His Parousia (Matt. 24:3,30). His Parousia, in its essence, was something which was to happen in the unseen world. It was to be in the realm of superhistory (Matt. 24:31). John in the Apocalypse connects the historical event of the destruction of Jerusalem with the superhistorical event of our Lord’s Parousia, as our Lord Himself did, and brings out the meaning of the connection, thus correcting current misunderstandings. He does not use the word Parousia, perhaps because of these misunderstandings.” (Not published ‘for want of paper’ until 1950 ; The real reason seems to have been the preteristic contents… For, even upon printing, his section on “Parousia” was suppressed. Read it here)
1552: Master Doctor Latimer On Luke 21 “Therefore our Saviour, knowing what should come upon them, wept over the city, prophesying that it should so be destroyed ; that one stone should not be left upon another : and so it came to pass according unto his word. For Titus, the son of Vespasian, which was emperor at that time, destroyed that same city Jerusalem utterly, like a forty years after the death of our Saviour Christ. “
Deodat Lawson
Puritan Minister of Salem Village
1692: Christ’s Fidelity: The Only Shield Against Satan’s Malignity“He was Contemporary and Colleague with Haggai, beginning to Prophecy but two Months after him, and backing what the other had said, more briefly, with more full and mysterious Testimonies; especially as to the Coming of the Messiah, &c. He warns them of the Amazing Revolutions, were coming upon them, in the Destruction of Jerusalem, and the Second Temple by the Romans, and Foretells the Rejection of the Jews, for their Sins, and especially, for Rejecting of the MESSIAH, who was to be Born among them according to the Flesh.”
1830: Six Sermons on the Study of the Holy Scriptures“on the interpretation of prophecy generally, with an original exposition of the book of Revelation, shewing that the whole of that remarkable prophecy has long ago been fulfilled.”
1851: The Events and Times of the Visions of Daniel and St John investigated “It is, I think, impossible to find any questions wore determinately settled and fixed in the Scriptures than these are. In the question of Prophecy, declarations the most plain and positive are so bound up with facts, the occurrence of which is well known to all, that it is impossible to conceive of any thing more plain, certain, and determinate, than this question is. Again, our Lord, His Evangelist John, and His Apostles generally, connect this, beyond all possibility of doubt, with the generation then existing; and both these, as well as the Prophet Daniel, affirm, that, when the particular events so pointed out shall have taken place, then all is fulfilled; the purposes of God are finished, as declared by His Prophets, and the end is come.”
1896: A Brief Memoir of Samuel Lee Faber to Lee: “I was fully aware of the difference in our views on Prophecy. You, I know, are a Preterist”
“Samuel Lee of Boston” American
1859: Eschatology, Or, The Scripture Doctrine of the Coming of the Lord, the Judgment, and the Resurrection “The Coming of the Son of Man” is to be interpreted with the same latitude, and applies to the work of the Messiah from the time of his resurrection to the overthrow of the Jewish power. Not till then — when the seventh angel had sounded — were there great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Then the transition period closed.. As instances of the use of the language in application to Christ down to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the complete introduction of the Christian Dispensation, see Matt. 24:30, 37-39. Mark 13:24-26. Luke 21:25-27.” (p. 13)
1985: Jerusalem; Rome; Revelation – John’s Apocalypse Written Before AD70 “For the wrath had come upon them, to the uttermost, at the end of the 63-70 A.D. Seven Years’ ‘Great Tribulation.’ This was by far quite the greatest time of trouble or tribulation the World had ever seen, or ever would see. Not only in Judea, but also internationally.”
2000: Revelation Unveiled“For the wrath had come upon them, to the uttermost, at the end of the 63-70 A.D. Seven Years’ ‘Great Tribulation.’ This was by far quite the greatest time of trouble or tribulation the World had ever seen, or ever would see. Not only in Judea, but also internationally.”
2000: The Olivet Discourse and the Destruction of Jerusalem in prophecy “The beginning of that “abomination” refers to the desecration of the city by the ensigns of the Roman eagles (or unclean vultures) which surrounded Jerusalem in 66.5 A.D. So the Dordt Dutch Bible, Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke, Albert Barnes, and Marcellus Kik. The “desolation” itself would be engineered three and a half years later at the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 70 A.D.”
2004: The Promise of His Appearing ‘Leithart gives a preterist reading of 2 Peter. He defines preterism as “the view that prophecies about an imminent “day of judgement” scattered throughout the New Testament were fulfilled in the apostolic age by the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the event that brought a final end to the structures and orders of the Old Creation or Old Covenant.”
Thomas Lewin
English
1863: The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus, with the Journal of a Recent Visit to the Holy City “Of all the evidences, the one perhaps entitled to the greatest respect is the testimony of the Jews themselves by the immemorial custom of assembling at what is called the Wailing-place, to bemoan the loss of their beloved sanctuary. The tradition carries value with it, as one accompanied with a ceremony, and that not attractive from outward gaud, or as ministering to pleasure or amusement, but it is the outpouring of a broken spirit, and one which could only have originated in the destruction of their Temple, and must have been coeval with that event, and thence transmitted from generation to generation.”
John Lightfoot
Partially Responsible for Westminster Confession
1684: John Lightfoot’s Works – Volume One – Prefaces and Index (Later Edition of 1684 Works) (1825 PDF) – Finally! Lightfoot’s Works is making it to the WWW. Newly updated, with a more perfectly edited PDF than has been available offline in the past. All missing pages added, numbering system included, as well as file integration of all maps and pictures.
1658: A Commentary of the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica“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.”
1753: Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews (PDF) “Among the mountains of Palestine, the most remarkable, and consequently the most celebrated in the sacred poetry, are mount Lebanon and mount Carmel. The one, remarkable as well for its height as for its extent, magnitude, and the abundance of the cedars which adorned its summit, exhibiting a striking and substantial appearance of strength and majesty. The other, rich and fruitful, abounding with vines, olives, and delicious fruits, in a most flourishing state both by nature and cultivation, and displaying a delightful appearance of fertility, beauty, and grace. The different form and aspect of these two mountains is most accurately defined by Solomon, when he compares the manly dignity with Lebanon, and the beauty and delicacy of the female with Carmel la Each of them suggests a different general image, which the Hebrew poets adopt for different purposes, expressing that by a metaphor, which more timid writers would delineate by a direct comparison. Thus Lebanon is used, by a very bold figure, for the whole people of the Jews, or for the state of the church ; for Jerusalem ; for the temple of Jerusalem ; for the king of Assyria even, and for his army ; for whatever, in a word, is remarkable, august, and sublime: and in the same manner whatever possesses much fertility, wealth, or beauty, is called Carmel.”
1525: A Sermon on the Destruction of Jerusalem “The Lord, however, saw deeper into the future than they when he said: 0, Jerusalem! if thou hadst known what I know, thou wouldst seek thy peace. Peace in the Scriptures means, when all things go well with us. You now think you have pleasant days, but if you knew how your enemies will encamp round about you, compass you about and hedge you in on every side, crush you to the ground and demolish all your beautiful buildings, and leave not one stone upon another; you would eagerly accept the Word, which brings to you solid peace and every blessing. [The woeful history of the destruction of Jerusalem you can read in books, from which those who wish will easily understand this Gospel.]”
1540: On the Jews and Their Lies “I had made up my mind to write no more either about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that those miserable and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is, the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be found among those who opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews and who warned the Christians to be on their guard against them.”
1868: Memories of Olivet “the most solemn period of responsibility to the Jewish people, was when Jesus was in their midst. It was “that generation” – the generation who had rejected HIM – who were most guiltily culpable.”
1725: A Chronological Treatise upon the Seventy Weeks of Daniel 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“
Champion of the Kingdom – The Story of Philip Mauro “Although the name of Philip Mauro is not nearly as recognized by Christians today as it was 75 years ago, his works remain important contributions to the furtherance of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mr. Gardiner, urged as a young man to study Mauro’s books by Mrs. Martha Wing Robinson (the subject of Gardiner’s Radiant Glory), was allowed by God to not only develop a personal friendship with Mr. Mauro later in life but to write the only existent biography of his life.”
Chester Charlton McCown
1921: THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING: A Historical Interpretation and Revaluation of the Idea of the Second Advent“In A. D. 66 the inevitable happened. Pure repression without constructive statesmanship worked its customary result. Goaded by a series of tactless, incompetent, or cruel and rapacious procurators, the people put their theology to the test. The limit of endurance had been reached; God must intervene to save his people. Popular sentiment swept even many of the Pharisees into the great revolt against Rome. It would seem that the terrible defeat which the nation suffered, the destruction of the city and Temple and the cessation of the sacrifices, would have convinced the most bigoted that the political type of messianic hope was entirely mistaken. No doubt many did learn the lesson. Yet a generation later the Jews of the Diaspora rose against Rome—and were savagely punished. Again, after another short generation, under an adventurer who called himself Bar-Cochba, “son of the star,” and who was hailed by the great Rabbi Akiba as messiah, there came another Jewish revolt, as bitter and as severely punished as that of 66-70.”
The Way into the Holiest (1951) – “And the climax of all came in the fearful siege of Jerusalem, when, once and forever, the Jewish system was shattered, the Temple burned, the remaining vessels sunk in the Tiber, and the Jews were driven from the city which was absolutely essential for the performance of their religious rites. The whole New Testament is witness to the throes of one of the mightiest spiritual revolutions that ever happened”
2010: God Against Us: Alien Spaceman Jesus, the World Trade Center Attack and More“I should note that because I take a preterist perspective, I place less emphasis on seeing the events that occurred with the First Resurrection exactly duplicated on Judgment Day. For example, Nero was clearly the Antichrist for A.D. 70, but I don’t necessarily expect to see a new Antichrist prior to the Second Coming. If forced to, one could select from many twentieth century candidates. Similarly, I don’t expect to see the coming events occurring at the actual Jerusalem this time. I predict in Chapter Four they will more likely begin in one of the advanced Western nations.”
Henry Milman
1830: History of the Jews “We are called back, indeed, for a short time to Palestine, to relate new scenes of revolt, ruin, and persecution. Not long after the dissolution of the Jewish state it revived again in appearance, under the form of two separate communities–one under a sovereignty purely spiritual, the other partly spiritual and partly temporal..”
1966: The Parousia in the New Testament “II. The Background of N.T. Expectation; III. Consistent Eschatology; IV. Realised Eschatology; V. Continental Demythologizing ; VI. Salvation-History and the Parousia in the N.T. ; VII. The N.T. Insistence on the imminence of the Parousia ; VIII. Did the Early church delimit its expectation of the Parousia? ; IX. The early church’s near Expectation of the Parousia ; X. Did Jesus delimit his expectation of the Parousia? ; XI. Jesus’ near expectation of the Parousia ; XII. The Significance of the N.T. imminent expectation of the Parousia for the life of the church today
1917: Christ’s Second Coming Fulfilled “Not many years intervened between the great outpouring of the spirit and the great declension that followed. Finally “the last days” with the spiritual night came to an end, and we are now living in God’s eternal day. “The night is far spent,” said Paul, “and the day is at hand.”
1990: The Book of Jude the Essene: Herod’s Temple Demolished “It is time for the borthers to leave Jerusalem once more. The times are worse than when Yaqov ben Zebedee was begeaded by the first Agrippa, worse than during the rebellion led by the false Egyptian prophet, and worse than when Yaqov the Righteous was beaten to death by the fuller after being thrown off the cliff. In those times, we asked only our leaders to flee from the region to preserve their lives from our people’s unrighteous hatred.”
Alan Nairne American
Essays On The Book Of Revelation Providing A Key To Its Understanding With Commentary – A Preterist Interpretation“Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. – Even so. Amen. – (v.7). This verse has been recognised by many expositors as setting the theme of the Apocalypse. It is the repeated warning or encouragement throughout both the letters to the churches, and the chapters that follow, of impending events that will affect the Churches and the apostate nation of Israel. But futurist expositors would have difficulty in seeing this, for, in immediately relegating any passage coupling “Christ” with “coming” and “clouds” into the end times, they have had to interpret the Book speculatively of events far off in the future. We ask our futurist friends, if the theme of the Book is the “end times”, why does the Author set out letters to seven existing churches, warning them of immediately pending persecution? “Behold, I come quickly” is the repeated thought throughout the Book. Do I believe, then, that the Second Coming took place in 70AD? To set your minds at rest, be assured that I believe Christ’s Second Coming to final judgement and the resurrection and reward of His people will take place in the future “end times”. I am a futurist to that extent! “
Thomas Nashe English
1593: “Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem” “It is not unknown by how many & sundry ways God spake by visions, dreams, prophecies and wonders to his chosen Jerusalem, only to move his chosen Jerusalem wholly to cleave unto him. Visions, dreams, prophecies and wonders were in vain; this gorgeous strumpet Jerusalem, too too much presuming of the promises of old, went awhoring after her own inventions; she thought the Lord unseparately tied to his temple, & that he could never be divorced from the ark of his covenant, that, having bound himself with an oath to Abraham, he could not (though he would) removed the law out of Judah, or his judgment-seat from Mount Shiloh. They erred most temptingly & contemptuously”
1812: Letters Illustrative of the Gospel History “Upon the Interesting Subjects of the Coming of Christ, of the Man of Sin, of Antichrist, of Election and Reprobation, and of the New Heavens and New Earth. In Reply to Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Faber, and Other.” // ”it has been boldly asserted, in the Theological Repository, under the direction of the late Dr. Priestley, and never, that I know of, attempted to be contradicted, in any part of his numerous works, that our Lord is recorded by his historians Matthew, Mark and Luke, to have declared that his second earning was one of those events which would happen during the lives of some of his contemporaries. “
1802: The Coming of the Messiah The Whole being intended as an Illustration of the Necessity and Importance of Considering the Gospels as Histories, and Particularly as Histories of the great Controversy between our Lord and the Jews, Concerning the True Nature of the Messiah’s Character.
The Doctrine of Last Things“This is an analysis of Judeo-Christian eschatology that delves into the Jewish roots of the Christian concept of the end of the world. He begins in the Jewish writings of antiquity, particularly the Tanach and the non-deuterocanonical apocrypha such as The Book of Enoch and The Book of Jubilees. Traces the development from a ‘Particularist’ apocalypse in the Jewish Bible and Apocrypha (limited to Jewish people), to a ‘Universalist’ apocalypse in Christian belief, in which everyone is judged equally. “
1851: Evidences of Christianity “The general agreement of the description with the event, viz. with the ruin of the Jewish nation, and the capture of Jerusalem under Vespasian, thirty-six years after Christ’s death, is most evident; and the accordancy in various articles of detail and circumstances has been shown by many learned writers. This part of the case is perfectly free from doubt.”
1660: Pensees “Here am I, and this is the time. That which the prophets have said was to come in the fullness of time, I tell you my apostles will do. The Jews shall be cast out. Jerusalem shall be soon destroyed. And the heathen shall enter into the knowledge of God. My apostles shall do this after you have slain the heir of the vineyard.”
1659: Some Questions And Answers For The Opening Of The Eyes Of The Jews Natural. That They May See The Hope Of Israel “I HAVE been treating of the inward work, as it is wrought in the heart by the power, and brought to the sensible experimental knowledge of the creature; yet would not be so understood as if I made void what was done without by Christ in his own person, or any of those ends and purposes for which it was wrought, and appointed so to be done by the Father: though this I know, that the knowledge of those things, with the belief therein, or any practices and observations therefrom, without the life, can no more profit now, than the Jews literal knowledge of the law could profit them, when they were rejected therewith.”
Donald James Perry American Idealist
2001: Redirectionalism: Idealism and the Revelation of Jesus Christ“When Christians are tempted to abandon the apostolic hope for a fulfilled apostolic eschatological hope, the Church is faced with dangers. Where man is accountable to know what the second coming means in the Bible, Preterism can move men to question its relevancy. Many questions therefore confront the believer, who abandon the apostolic hope. First, men ask themselves: Shall we speak those same words today? Are we still allowed to do so? Were those of days gone by of another age, a different time from ours that is now fulfilled? To what extent are we now in the new Jerusalem? To what extent did Christ accomplish the end of some redemptive age in A.D. 70? Does God Himself or does His way and salvation change?” (Preterist Idealism)
Robert L. Pierce
1976: The Rapture Cult: Religious Zeal and Political Conspiracy “If we are to conclude that the book of Revelation was indeed written as an urgent coded warning to the Christians of the first century, what then was the message? It warned of two things. One was the impending destruction of the City of Jerusalem and the Jewish theocratic state; the other was the impending persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire.”
Arthur T. Pierson
1886: Many Infallible Proofs“In this prophecy, there is no vague general prediction; but a startling array of minute particulars. Our Lord draws the portrait of the coming event in detail; time, place, persons, marked circumstances, all introducing peculiar features which leave no doubt as to our power to recognize the event, if it shall look like its portrait. We find some twenty-five distinct predictions, here, and, on the law of compound probability, the chance of their all meeting in one event, is as one in nearly twenty millions i. e. the fraction that represents the chance of probability is one-half raised to its twenty-fourth power or about one twenty millionth chance!”
1952: The Application of the Scriptures: A Biblical Refutation of Dispensationalism“Arthur Pink wrote these series of 5 articles just before his death on July 15, 1952. They were published in Mr. Pink’s Studies in the Scriptures for the June through (posthumously) October, 1952 issues. A number of contemporary Dispensationalists have been republishing some of Mr. Pink’s writings from his dispensational days, this is unfortunate, but as these articles show Mr. Pink’s position was against the dispensational school of thought up till the very month of his death.”
1870: The Early Years of Christianity “Every feature of this siege [of Jerusalem by the Romans] attests it to be a judgment of God. It is not an ordinary event of history; all the attendant circumstances are marked by an aggravation of suffering and woe; men appear to be led by a mysterious hand, which urges them on to commit acts not within their original intention.”
1873: L’Antechrist The Period from the Arrival of Paul in Rome to the End of the Jewish Revolution“The triumph of Rome was therefore legitimate in some measure. Jerusalem had become an impossibility; left to themselves the Jews would have demolished it. But a great lacuna was to render this victory of Titus unfruitful. Our Western races, in spite of their superiority, have always shown a deplorable religious nullity. To draw from the Roman or Gallic religion anything analogous to the church was impossible. Now every advantage gained over a religion is useless if it be not replaced by another, satisfying, at least as well as it can, the needs of the heart. Jerusalem will be avenged for her defeat. She shall conquer Rome by Christianity, Persia by Islamism, shall destroy the old fatherland, and shall become for all higher minds the city of the heart.” (pp. 271,272)
1890: History of Christianity in Seven Volumes“Never was a people so sadly undeceived as was the Jewish race on the morrow of the day when, contrary to the most formal assurances of the Divine oracles, the Temple which they had supposed to be indestructible collapsed before the assault of the soldiers of Titus. To have been near the realisation of the grandest of visions and to be forced to renounce them, at the very moment when the destroying angel had already partially withdrawn the cloud, to see everything vanish into space; to be committed through having prophesied the Divine apparition, and to receive from the harshness of facts the most cruel contradiction—were not these reasons for doubting the Temple, nay, for doubting God himself?”
Robert Roberts Christadelphian
1855: The Signs of the Son of Man’s Presence at the Destruction of Jerusalem “The parousia, or proximity, of the Son of Man to Jerusalem in the crisis of its overthrow was to be in the lifetime of that generation, according to the words of Jesus, who said, “This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.”
1879: Anglo-Israelism Refuted A lecture delivered February 20th, 1879 by Robert Roberts of Birmingham in reply to a lecture given the previous evening by Mr. Edward Hine.
1881: The Ways of Providence.. The Overthrow of the Jewish Commonwealth by the Romans and the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus “The survey of the ways of providence would be incomplete without something more than a glance at the events attending the overthrow of Jerusalem and disruption of the Jewish polity over thirty-five years after Christ left the earth. At first sight, it might seem as if this were outside the scope of the work which aims at the illustration of the subject from Biblical narrative alone. On a further consideration, however, the matter must appear otherwise. Although we have no scriptural narrative of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, yet we have much scriptural forecast of that terrible event, and therefore the particulars of the event are the particulars of a divine work.“
Frederick Robertson
1850: Sermons Preached at BrightonAD70 as template: “He was then on the Mount of Olives ; beneath Him there lay the metropolis of Judea, with the Temple in full sight; the towers and the walls of Jerusalem flashing back the brightness of an Oriental sky. The Redeemer knew that she was doomed, and therefore with tears He pronounced her coming fate : “The days shall come that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and shall not leave in thee one stone upon another.” These words, which rang the funeral knell of Jerusalem, tell out in our ears this day a solemn lesson ; they tell us that in the history of nations, and also, it may be, in the personal history of individuals, there are three times—a time of grace, a time of blindness, and a time of judgment . “Therefore, let us know the day of our visitation. It is not the day of refinement, nor of political liberty, nor of advancing intellect. We must go again in the old, old way; we must return to simpler manners and to a purer life. We want more faith, more love. The life of Christ and the death of Christ must be made the law of our life. Reject that, and we reject our own salvation ; and, in rejecting that, we bring on in” rapid steps, for the nation and for ourselves, the day of judgment and of ruin.”
1976: Redating the New Testament “Hort, together with Lightfoot and Westcott, none of whom can be accused of sitting light to ancient tradition, still rejected a Domitianic date in favour of one between the death of Nero in 68 and the fall of Jerusalem in 70. It is indeed a little known fact that this was what Hort calls [Apocalypse, x.] ‘the general tendency of criticism’ for most of the nineteenth century, and Peake cites the remarkable consensus of ‘both advanced and conservative scholars’ who backed it.”
1878: The Parousia(Revelation 20:5-10 Still Unfulfilled) “We must consequently regard this prediction of the loosing of Satan, and the events that follow, as still future, and therefore unfulfilled.” (p. 523) (Full Preterist Millennium “violent and unnatural”) “Some interpreters indeed attempt to get over the difficulty by supposing that the thousand years, being a symbolic number, may represent a period of very short duration, and so bring the whole within the prescribed apocalyptic limits; but this method of interpretation appears to us so violent and unnatural that we cannot hesitate to reject it. ” (p. 514)
1882: History of the Christian Church(Chapter 6: The Great Tribulation – The Roman Conflagration and Neronian Persecution) “The aforesaid Scribes and Pharisees, therefore, placed James upon the pinnacle of the temple, and cried out to him: “O thou just man, whom we ought all to believe, since the people are led astray after Jesus that was crucified, declare to us what is the door of Jesus that was crucified.” And he answered with a loud voice: “Why do ye ask me respecting Jesus the Son of Man? He is now sitting in the heavens, on the right hand of the great Power, and is about to come on the clouds of heaven.” And as many were confirmed, and gloried in this testimony of James, and said:, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” these same priests and Pharisees said to one another: “We have done badly in affording such testimony to Jesus, but let us go up and cast him down, that they may dread to believe in him.” And they cried out: “Ho, ho, the Just himself is deceived.” And they fulfilled that which is written in Isaiah, “Let us take away the Just, because he is offensive to us; wherefore they shall eat the fruit of their doings.” [Comp. Is. 3:10.]”
Cyril of Jerusalem“The next incident recorded in the life of S. Cyril is his alleged prediction of the failure of Julian’s attempt to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. “The vain and ambitious mind of Julian,” says Gibbon, “might aspire to restore the ancient glory of the Temple of Jerusalem. As the Christians were firmly persuaded that a sentence of everlasting destruction had been pronounced against the whole fabric of the Mosaic law, the Imperial sophist would have converted the success of his undertaking into a specious argument against the faith of prophecy and the truth of revelation.” | Julian the Apostate, and the Reaction of Paganism – “His object in the rebuilding of the temple was rather, in the first place, to enhance the splendor of his reign, and thus gratify his personal vanity; and then most probably to put to shame the prophecy of Jesus respecting the destruction of the temple (which, however, was actually fulfilled three hundred years before once for all), to deprive the Christians of their most popular argument against the Jews, and to break the power of the new religion in Jerusalem.”
1906: Quest for the Historical Jesus“The apocalyptic discourses in Mark xiii., Matt. xxiv., and Luke xxi. are interpolated. A Jewish-Christian apocalypse of the first century, probably composed before the destruction of Jerusalem, has been interwoven with a short exhortation which Jesus gave on the occasion when He predicted the destruction of the temple.. His construction rests upon two main points of support; upon his view of the sources and his conception of the eschatology of the time of Jesus. In his view the sole source for the Life of Jesus is the Gospel of Mark, which was “probably written exactly in the year 73,” five years after the Johannine apocalypse.”
Thomas Scott
1869: Predictions Respecting the Second Advent of Jesus “The first attempt to assign all to the destruction of Jerusalem until we reach Matt. xxv. 31, is utterly untenable and indeed absurd. No words can be plainer than those of Matt. xxiv. 29, 30, 31. If they do not denote the visible coming of the Son of man in heaven to exercise judgment over all the tribes of earth, no words whatever suffice to enunciate this doctrine. Nothing but the extreme stress of the difficulty, extreme reluctance to admit the ignominious failure of prophecy, could ever drive a sensible man to pretend that these three verses mean nothing but the overthrow of one city—the dissolution of one nation.”
The visions of the Apocalypse and their lessons (Donnellan lectures for 1891-92) “The Praeterists—who think that the events with which the visions were concerned are altogether fulfilled, having taken place in the first centuries of Church history—are very numerous. And at present one section of the School—those who think that the book is concerned almost entirely with contemporaneous history—is very vigorously supported by Archdeacon Farrar.”
1764: The Rise and Fall of the Holy City and Temple of Jerusalem An argument in defence of Christianity. Being the substance of a discourse preached at the Temple Church. “This great event is foretold by almost all the prophets. The destruction of Jerusalem is expressed by The GREAT DAY OF THE LORD”
1884: Our Young Folks’ Josephus (PDF) A simplified retelling of Josephus’ great history of Israel. Covers from the time of Abraham until the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
1840: The Destruction of Jerusalem – The Whole Being Intended to Illustrate the Fulfillment of the Predictions of Moses and the Messiah “The history of Jerusalem, viewed as the fulfilment of prophecy, furnishes evidence of the truth of Christianity which neither Jew nor infidel can reject without positive infatuation. At the same time, it also reveals to us the awful depravity of human nature. Let nations look upon Judea, let cities look upon Jerusalem, let individuals look upon the personal calamities of the Jews, and let all fear God and fly from transgression. If, indeed, we would escape a destruction, of which that of Jerusalem was but a faint emblem, let us embrace proffered mercy, and “know the things that belong to our peace, before they are hid” FOREVER “from our eyes.”
1824: Sir Thomas More, or Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society “Sir Thomas More.--Remember that the Evangelists, in predicting that kingdom, announce a dreadful advent! And that, according to the received opinion of the Church, wars, persecutions, and calamities of every kind, the triumph of evil, and the coming of Antichrist are to be looked for, before the promises made by the prophets shall be fulfilled. Montesinos.–To this I must reply, that the fulfilment of those calamitous events predicted in the Gospels may safely be referred, as it usually is, and by the best Biblical scholars, to the destruction of Jerusalem. “
Rev. Joseph Spillman
1900: Lucius Flavius“An historical tale of the time immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem”
1885: Israel and Britain: A Note of Warning “They went so far as to crucify him, and cried as they did so, “His blood be on us, and our children,” words so sadly verified when Jerusalem was destroyed, and her children slaughtered, sold as slaves, or scattered to the four corners of the earth. It was indeed, a terrible blindness which happened unto Israel. But although this blindness was a punishment for former sin, it was itself a sin. They willfully rejected the testimony of God against themselves; they refused the self-evident Christ who would so greatly have blessed them. This wilful rejection was carried out so effectually that it became impossible to convert and heal them; they could not be instructed, or reformed, and therefore they were given over to destruction. Nothing remained but to allow the Romans to burn the temple and plough the site of the city. It was a dreadful thing that they should deliberately choose destruction, and obstinately involve themselves in the most tremendous of woes. Poor Israel, we pity thee! It was sad indeed to fall from so great a height! Yet we are bound to admit that God dealt with thee justly, for thou didst choose thine own delusions. The Lord cries, “Oh that my people had harkened unto me.”
1705: A Paraphrase and Comment on the Epistles and Gospels “For this ambiguous manner our Lord’s expressing himself, some of the Disciples imagined, that St. John should never die, but he found among those that shall be alive at Christ’s Second Coming. Whereas, in Truth, those words of Jesus imply no such matter foretel, that that Disciple should survive the Destruction of Jerusalem ; which is probably believed to be called our Lord’s Coming (as a most eminent Judgment, and instance of his Truth and Power) in sundry places of the New Testament.” (A paraphrase and comment upon the Epistle and Gospels, vol. 1., p. 262)
1835: Life of Jesus Critically Examined “Thus in these discourses Jesus announces that shortly (XXIV. 29),after that calamity, which (especially according to the representation in Luke’s gospel) we must identify with the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and within the term of the cotemporary generation (h genea auth, V. 34), he would visibly make his second advent in the clouds, and terminate the existing dispensation. “
Moses Stuart (1780-1852) Considered the First American Scholar of Repute Mentored by Timothy Dwight while student at Yale
1833: Walter Balfour – Letters to Moses Stuart “The following letters, were published in the Universalist Magazine, in the years 1820, and 1821, and signed ‘ An Inquirer after truth They were addressed to Moses Stuart, associate Professor of Sacred Literature, in the Theological Seminary at Andover. In presenting them to the public, now in a small book, and with my real name affixed to them, a brief statement of the circumstances which gave rise to them, seems to be necessary. Without this, some might suppose, they were written since I became a Universalist, whereas they were expressly written to avoid becoming one.” (Pastoral partner of the earliest known FP author, Robert Townley, who converted to Preterist Universalismshortly after the publication of his book in 1845. (PDF File)
1842: Hints on the Interpretation of Prophecy “The destruction of Jerusalem put an end of course to the Jewish persecuting power in Judea. Consequently the period in which Christianity becomes triumphant over persecution there, is contemporaneous with the destruction of Jerusalem. Nothing can be more clear, than that the period of the two witnesses is the same as that of “treading the holy city under foot by the Gentiles,” Rev. 11:2,3. Two witnesses, and but two, are specified, as we may very naturally suppose, because “by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word is established. The sum of Rev. xi. is, then, that the Romans would invade and tread down Palestine for 3 1/2 years, and that Christians, during that period, would be bitterly persecuted and slain ; but still, that, after the same period, the persecution would cease there, and the religion of Jesus become triumphant. The words of the Saviour in Matt. xxiv. compared with the tenor of Rev. xi., seem to lead us plainly and safely to these conclusions.” (p. 113)
1843: George Duffield: Millenarianism Defended: Reply to Prof. Stuart’s “Strictures on the Rev. G. Duffield’s Recent Work on the Second Coming of Christ” (PDF) “Now, after all this, what shall we think of those who will tell us UNFULFILLED PROPHECY needs not to be studied—is of no use, but dangerous–— till the events have fulfilled them ? Assuredly such instructors deserve reproof, and to be sent back to their Bibles, themselves to study, more carefully, lest they should mislead others. They have reason to fear that the charge, and censure of the Saviour, for hypocrisy may be applicable ;” and in proof of this statement, I have shown that it was the very circumstances of the Pharisees’ neglecting prophecy, on which the Saviour founded his charge of hypocrisy against them.”
1845: A Commentary on the Apocalypse“The manner of the declaration here seems to decide, beyond all reasonable appeal, against a later period than about A.D.67 or 68, for the composition of the Apocalypse.”
1850: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel “Now in what part of the Roman invasion did all this happen ? When did they suspend the temple services ? And where shall we find the three and a half years of suspension ? And above all, where, after the suspension, are we to find the restoration of the temple-services ? for this is implied in Daniel. The Roman suspension remains from that day to this. Last, but not least, the desolator in this case is given over to a decreed destruction, to take place soon after the three and a half years were ended. Was this true, now, of either Vespasian or Titus ? Not at all. Both died a natural death, and in peaceful circumstances, Vespasian A. D. 79 and Titus in 82. Both were greatly beloved and honored as princes. What resemblance did either of them bear to the abhorred tyrant in Dan. 9: 26, 27?
1996: A Commentary on Revelation “The author moves forward from the foundational position that John was inspired to write the Revelation prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman legions in 70 A.D. This is an equally tenable position as that held by most people who place John’s writing after 90 A.D. In fact, in many aspects it is a more tenable position. (Refer to the article, “Tenable dates of John’s writing Revelation,” page vii). Based upon that interpretive foundation, the mystery of the figurative language opens up like a flower after a refreshing Spring rain. “
G.F. Taylor
1912: The Second Coming of Jesus “Others think that all the Scriptures about the coming of the Lord refer to the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus in A. D. 70. Such teachers substitute Titus for the Lord. However, if this is probable, what shall we do with Rev. 22: 12: “Behold, I come quickly”? Jesus spoke these words twenty-six years after the destruction of Jerusalem. So we are driven to look elsewhere for the coming of the Lord.” | The Jerusalem Tribulation not the Great One
1883: Biblical Hermeneutics “My purpose is to write a comprehensive and readable book, adapted to serve as a suggestive help toward the proper understanding of those scriptures which are regarded as peculiarly obscure”
1898: Apocalypse of the Gospels – Making the connection between the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Revelation
Biblical Dogmatics – The Doctrine of the Resurrection / Adam Clarke thus comments: “I do not think that he refers to the resurrection of the body, but to the resurrection of the soul in this life; to the regaining of the image which Adam lost.” (1907)
Sibylline Oracles – Translated by Milton S. Terry “As the translator notes, this collection should more properly titled ‘the Pseudo-Sibylline Oracles’. The original Sibylline Books were closely-guarded oracular scrolls written by prophetic priestesses (the Sibylls) in the Etruscan and early Roman Era as far back as the 6th Century B.C.E. These books were destroyed, partially in a fire in 83 B.C.E., and finally burned by order of the Roman General Flavius Stilicho (365-408 C.E.).”
Dr. John Thomas
1861: When was the Apocalypse Written? – An Exposition on the Apocalypse “But it really matters not whether it be assumed to be written before, or after that event. The interpretation is in no way affected. The destruction of Jerusalem with its times and circumstances cannot be accommodated so as to interpret what is written in the Apocalypse about a “holy city,” a “temple” and “altar,” a “court,” a “Jerusalem,” and so forth. These are symbols, and represent something else than what the words stand for in common, or historical discourse.”
John Samuel Thompson
1825: Christ’s Coming in Judgment| PDF HereAdded: “This prophecy fixes the time of Christ’s coming before the destruction of the second temple, which by the Romans under Vespasian, was levelled with the ground.” [One of the clearest early expressions of Full Preterist Universalism.]
1823: Dissertations introductory to the study and right understanding of the Apocalypse “I think with Grotius, and with Michaelis, (if that continued to be his opinion,) that it was written in the time of Claudius;—-or, at all events, not later than the reign of Nero, as maintained by Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, and others.” (HIGHLY recommended text on the study of John’s Apocalypse)
Matthew Tindal
1730: Christianity is as Old as the Creation “If most of the Apostles, upon what Motives soever, were mistaken in a Matter of this Consequence, how can we be certain, that any One of them may not be mistaken in any other Matter ? If they were not inspir’d in what they faid in their Writings concerning the then Coming of Christ; how cou’d they be inspir’d in those Arguments they build on a Foundation far from being so ?” (p. 262)
St. Cyril(1790) From the church historians, and his works collected by Dom Touttee in his edition of them at Paris
Robert Travers
1917: The effect of the fall of Jerusalem upon the character of the Pharisees“I mean that those who wrote the Apocalyptic books which have come down to us, held some such view of the function of Israel as I have suggested, and might be expected to take up arms rather than allow the sanctuary to be defiled. I do not know whether any actual Apocalyptic writer was amongst those who fought in the last struggle of Jerusalem. I only mean that those of the Pharisees who did so, being in sympathy with the war party, were of the same circle or group or way of thinking as that to which the Apocalyptists belonged.” (PDF File HERE)
Charlotte M. Tucker
English
1884: Stories of the Wars of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity to the Destruction of Jerusalem “The Lord had foretold that false prophets should arise and deceive many, and that fearful sights and great signs should be from heaven; and these words were literally fulfilled. The miserable Jews desperately grasped at the hope of a coming Messiah, and eagerly listened to deceivers, who only lured them to ruin. A wonder in the sky, resembling a fiery sword, hung over the devoted city ; appearances as of chariots and assembling armies in the clouds terrified the astonished beholders ; and one night the priests in the temple were alarmed by a quaking of the earth, accompanied by a strange sound, and a voice which uttered the mysterious words, “Let us depart !”
David B. Updegraff
1892: Old Corn: Or, Sermons and Addresses on the Spiritual Life “THE effort to make people believe that the promised parousia [coming] of our Lord took place at the “destruction of Jerusalem” tends to mislead souls, blot out the Christian’s hope, and destroy the value of Scripture as a definite testimony to anything.”
Urantia
1925: The Urantia Book (1925-55) “Jesus paused while he looked down upon the city. The Master realized that the rejection of the spiritual concept of the Messiah, the determination to cling persistently and blindly to the material mission of the expected deliverer, would presently bring the Jews in direct conflict with the powerful Roman armies, and that such a contest could only result in the final and complete overthrow of the Jewish nation. When his people rejected his spiritual bestowal and refused to receive the light of heaven as it so mercifully shone upon them, they thereby sealed their doom as an independent people with a special spiritual mission on earth. Even the Jewish leaders subsequently recognized that it was this secular idea of the Messiah which directly led to the turbulence which eventually brought about their destruction. “
1900: Christ Came Again The Parousia Of Christ A Past Event; The Kingdom Of Christ A Present Fact; With A Consistent Eschatology
James Ussher
1650: Annals of the World – From Creation to A.D.70 “The Origin of Time, and Continued to the Beginning of the Emperor Vespasian’s Reign and the Total Destruction and Abolition of the Temple and Commonwealth of the Jews.”
1834: The truth of Christianity proved from ancient propheciesCHAPTER IV. ANCIENT PROPHECIES FORETELLING THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. “In treating of the prophecies which relate to the final destruction of Jerusalem, I would first draw the reader’s attention to the 28th chapter of the hook of Deuteronomy, in which is an eminent instance of God’s merciful kindness, when the prophets are commanded to declare God’s judgments against the rebellious, in providing them with previous gracious promises towards the obedient, and with compassionate offers of favour and pardon to those who, although they have strayed, are willing to repent and return.
1966: The Book of Revelation“The repeated reference to the period of the Destruction of Jerusalem as indicative of the author’s inclination toward that view.”
1885: The Book of Revelation: an exposition based on the principles of Professor Stuart’s Commentary, and designed to familiarize those principles to the minds of non-professional readers “If a book we had never before seen, and of whose contents we were ignorant, were placed in our hands, we should turn at once to the title- page to ascertain its subject. If we found that subject distinctly stated there, we should deem it conclusive as to the import of the book. We should not regard ourselves at liberty to assume that it was designed to refer to something else without clear and positive evidence to that effect. If, for instance, the title-page declared it to be a history of the American Revolution, we should not think it reasonable to expect in it the history of the late Rebellion, or the life of Napoleon III. The language of the title-page we should inevitably regard as the key to the. book. Now the title-page of the Book of Revelation gives us such a key. We marvel that it should ever have been misapprehended: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants THINGS WHICH MUST SHORTLY COME TO PASS.”
1879: The Parousia, A Critical Study of the Scripture Doctrines of Christ’s Second Coming, His Reign as King ; The Resurrection of the Dead ; and the General Judgment “Of the doctrine thus presented, I desire to remark in review: 1. That it is to be regarded neither as a praeterist nor a futurist view ; rather does it include both. If it be affirmed that the Parousia began at the ascension, it is not meant that it is not also a fact of all time coming ages. I ask especially that I may not be represented as saying that the resurrection is “past already,” or that the day of judgment occurred at the destruction of Jerusalem. The Parousia, including under it Christ’s reign as King, Life-giver, and Judge, is not an event, but a dispensation.. The past, present, and future meet in one grand whole.”
Rev. Josiah Litch (Millerite) Christ Yet to Come: A Review of I.P. Warren’s Parousia(1880) “There is ” the end of the age ” which came at the destruction of Jerusalem — the termination of the Jewish economy ; and there is “the end of the age ” which is the harvest, when ” the Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend,” etc. — the termination of the Christian economy. It seems to us that these are so clearly distinguished and so distinctly separated, that it is utterly impossible to confound them. All our ordinances, all our commissions, all our endowments as the Church of Christ, are timed and terminated by the end of the age and the return of our Lord. If the end of the age has come, and if Christ’s advent has really taken place, then these commissions have run out, and these endowments are outlawed.”
1852: The Apocalypse: with notes and reflections “But the presence of the Lamb has rendered that easy which before was difficult.” The six Seals appear to be fulfilled in the forty years in which the Spirit pleaded with Jerusalem before its destruction; this may be the writing “without,” as understood by all: but every Seal seems also to have an ulterior fulfilment, which is the hidden sense “written within”.
Thomas Scott: “The Praeterists—who think that the events with which the visions were concerned are altogether fulfilled, having taken place in the first centuries of Church history—are very numerous. And at present one section of the School—those who think that the book is concerned almost entirely with contemporaneous history—is very vigorously supported by Archdeacon Farrar. He thinks that the crash, and the coming of the Lord, to which the visions all point, refer to the Lord’s coming at the destruction of Jerusalem, and the breaking up of the entire Jewish polity. Others of this School allow a more extended scope for the visions, and refer the predicted crash to the breaking down of heathenism before Christianity, or to the breaking up of the Roman empire. But many of the most thoughtful of the Praeterists admit (or strongly advocate) that the visions and these events have lessons for all ages, and look forward as well as back. Thus there are commentators—such as Isaac Williams, Maurice, Hengstenberg, Boussett, Vaughan, and others—who may be classed among the interpreters of both the Spiritual and Praeterist Schools; and all of the Spiritual School can recognize in the events to which both the Historic and Praeterist Schools point, illustrations of the principles which we think the Apostle depicted in these visions.” (1891)
Maurice Williams
Prophet and Historian: John and Josephus: “I think the Four Winds and Three Woes in the Apocalypse took place long ago. Nero sent Vespasian to subdue Judea. His son, Titus, destroyed the Temple. I quote Josephus, Tacitus, and Suetonius describing this. This destruction fulfills the Four Winds and Two of the three Woes.”
1991: Armageddon Now!“For years premillennial dispensational authors have been predicting that Armageddon is just around the corner – and for years their false prophecies have failed to come true. In this update of his 1977 book, Armageddon Now!, Dwight Wilson examines these predictions concerning Armageddon, particularly as they apply to Russia from the time of the Russian revolution unto today.”
1898: Christ’s Last Prophecy Concerning the Destruction of Jerusalem and His Own Second Advent “But the fact that they believed the “coming” of Christ to be in a measure identical with the end of the Jewish Age, does not prove that such was his teaching. This prophecy itself proves that he did not thus teach. We therefore may regard the prophecy as an answer to two questions,—one regarding the Destruction of the Temple, one respecting the Second Coming of Christ. Hence, in studying this prophecy, we must carefully discriminate between that which is designed to answer the first query and that which has sole reference to the second. And we shall find that there is generally a very plain line of demarcation between the two.”
W.P.G.
1867: The Lord the Spirit“We must distinguish between the Lord’s coming as the Lord the Spirit, which is an eternal truth or fact, and the merely parabolic form of speech “coming to destroy Jerusalem,” as though He came in a personal or outward form and manner. His coming meant His revelation of Himself, that is, of the divine truths of His word, to man and in man. For His words do not pass away (Matt. xxiv., 35) as wind, but remain as envelopes of truths, and these truths as envelopes of Himself. Such a revelation of Himself He gave to His Apostles, by which they were enabled to declare the whole truth or counsel of God. This is a coming or revelation of Himself which has no end or terminus, for it is spiritual or His Spirit, which has nothing to do with the natural idea of an end or terminus, an idea belonging to nature, space, and time. This coming, therefore, must not be regarded as ending with the abrogation of the law or the fall of Jerusalem, but as revealed the more clearly by the dispersion of that dark cloud which had served to conceal the brightness of the sun of righteousness. This coming in power and great glory is not to be confounded with the miraculous manifestations which attended it.”
“For as God’s reign over the Jews, entirely ended with the abolition of the temple, so the reign of Christ, in spirit and in truth, had then its first beginning.”William Warburton
EARLY DOCUMENTS
B.H. Cowper
Syriac Miscellanies – Extracts relating to the first and second general councils, and various other quotations, theological, historical and classical (1861)
On the ruin of the city of Jerusalem (370-375) “About which the Jews themselves bear witness, Josephus a writer of histories saying, that there was in that time a wise man, if it is proper however, he said, to call a man the creator of marvelous works, who appeared living to his disciples after three days of his death in accordance with the writings of the prophets, who prophesied both this and innumerable other things full of miracles about him, from which began the community of Christians and penetrated into every tribe of men nor has any nation of the Roman world remained, which was left without worship of him. If the Jews don’t believe us, they should believe their own people.”
Commentary on Daniel(408) “And so there are many of our viewpoint who think that Domitius Nero was the Antichrist because of his outstanding savagery and depravity.”
Homily of the Pascha (Peri Pascha) “But when that which is the model arises, that which once bore the image of the future thing is itself destroyed as growing useless having yielded to what is truly the real image of it; and what was once precious becomes worthless when what is truly precious has been revealed.” (ll 224-44)
“As to Titus, he accepted more and more the idea that he was fulfilling a mission in providence. He was pleased to hear them quote the prophecies which they said referred to him. Josephus claims that he connected this victory with God, and recognised that he had been the object of a supernatural power. What is striking is that Philostratus, 120 years after, admits clearly these data and makes them the basis of an apocryphal correspondence between Titus and Apollonius (Book VI). To believe him, Titus would have refused the crowns which were offered him, alleging that it was not he who had taken Jerusalem—that he had done nothing but lend his services to an irritated God. It is scarcely to be admitted that Philostratus had known the passage in Josephus. He drew the legend, which had become common, from the moderation of Titus. ” (Renan)
Odes of Solomon (First Century) – “Because He is my Sun and His rays have lifted me up and His light hath dispelled all darkness from my face. In Him I have acquired eyes and have seen His holy day: The way of error I have left, and have walked towards Him and have received salvation from Him, without grudging. I have put on incorruption through His name: and have put off corruption by His grace. 9 Death hath been destroyed before my face: and Sheol bath been abolished by my word”
Ecclesiastical History (443-450) – “The Jews entered upon the undertaking (of rebuilding the temple) without reflecting that, according to the predictions of the holy prophets, it could not be accomplished”
An Answer to the Jews (210) “IT happened very recently a dispute was held between a Christian and a Jewish proselyte. Alternately with contentious cable they each spun out the day until evening. By the opposing din, moreover, of some partisans of the individuals, truth began to be overcast by a sort of cloud. It was therefore our pleasure that that which, owing to the confused noise of disputation, could be less fully elucidated point by point, should be more carefully looked into, and that the pen should determine, for reading purposes, the questions handled.”
The Gospel of Thomas(Pre-AD70?) His disciples said to him, “When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?” He said to them, “What you are looking forward to has come, but you don’t know it.” “Another proof of the earlier dating of the Thomas Gospel, according to Barnstone: He says it doesn’t mention the destruction of Jerusalem at all, which happened in 70 A.D. Had the Thomas Gospel been written after the destruction of Jerusalem, he believes it would have recounted the cataclysmic event. Barnstone thinks the Thomas Gospel was written about 55 A.D.”
Veronica, Legend of
The Avenging of the Saviour (7th Century) “(God) commanded Titus and Vespasian, whom I knew in that place where thy throne is. And it pleased God Almighty that they went into Judaea and Jerusalem, and seized thy subjects, and put them under that sentence, as it were, in the same manner as they did when thy subjects seized Jesus and bound him. “
Commentary on the Apocalypse (260) “Alcasar, a Spanish Jesuit, taking a hint from Victorinus, seems to have been the first (AD 1614) to have suggested that the Apocalyptic prophecies did not extend further than to the overthrow of Paganism by Constantine.” (J. Murray, A Dictionary of the Bible, 1863)
The Destruction of Jerusalem (1840) “Before Jerusalem he stands, And down his cheeks roll many a tear; See how He spreads his sacred hands, While He predicts its ruin near. “The days shall come, they’re near at hand !! “When might armies shall surround “This favour’d spot where now I stand, “And lay your City with the ground. “Your measure’s nearly full ! alas !! “Your sinful course is almost run ; “This generation shall not pass* “Till all the dreadful work is done.”
Ben Asaph, pseud.
The Moriad; or, The End of the Jewish State(1857) By ‘Ben Asaph, a Christian Jew of the Third Century’ – ‘Translated from the Syriac Hebrew by Anselm Korlstoff’ – “The wrath Divine, which sunk the Jewish State, and Salem piled in heaps, O muse relate”
The Fall of Jerusalem: Coleridge’s Unwritten Epic“(Coleridge’s) epic would have employed the historical events of the fall of Jerusalem to show the re-creation of the ancient religious constitution of man in the new Jerusalem.”
John Crowne
English
The Destruction of Jerusalem(1677) “Amongst the angel’s pronouncements is the statement “Thy weeks are finish’d.” The phrase derives from Daniel 9. There, the angel Gabriel has come to explain to Daniel the meaning of his visions. Thus, we can clearly link Crowne’s play not simply with Josephus and Suetonious, but also with two of the chief examples of Judeo-Christian apocalyptic literature, Revelation and Daniel. This certainly distinguishes this play from Racine and Otway, whose plays lack anything remotely like this kind of imagery.”
James DeMille
Helena’s Household (1867) “ROME; in the year of the city, 814; in the year of grace, 61; Nero on the throne; the apostles preaching Christianity; the ancient world in the period of its highest civilization, when petty divisions had become extinguished, and all the nations bowed to the one central city: — such is the time of this story.”
On the Fall of Jerusalem “the siege that seems to epitomise all the horrors of such contests, forming, as it were, the last crowning scene of a nation’s tragedy, was the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, A.d. 70. “
For The Temple(1888)– This all-time great Fulfilled Eschatology novel was written for all ages, using the events of the Roman-Jewish war as a backdrop for our hero’s John of Gamala’s coming of age.
The City of Delight: A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem (1908) “Somewhere in the city a voice that was heard even by the fighting-men on the wall in Akra cried: “The Sacrifice has failed! The Oblation is ceased! There is no Offering for the Altar; none is left to offer it!” The vast gathering heard it, and immediately from the high place of the prophetess came back the words, prompt and effective: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease!”
The Idumean Covenant: A Novel of the Fall of Jerusalem(2010) “Inexplicably, however, Josephus relates in his Jewish Wars that the insurrectionists against Rome called upon “the Idumeans” for support in order to prevent the Judean sect of Sadducees from turning Jerusalem over to the Romans. In addressing this enigma, The Idumean Covenant becomes a locomotive taking the intelligent reader on a historical adventure of cynical plots, unconventional alliances and impossible loves pitting the most powerful men of the Roman Empire against each other resulting in a dramatic transformation of the existing world order. “
I. Darling – A New Commentary or Explanation of What is Commonly Called the Revelations of St. John the Divine – Adapted to Ordinary Minds; Showing the Fulfillment of Prophecies, in Establishing the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, and Destroying the Idol Kingly Government of Men (1849) “The Writer is of the opinion that all prophesy has been fulfilled, and that the visions of St John was a Revelation of the fulfillment of what was before written by the Prophets.”
Thomas Rattray – The Regal Advent and the Resurrection, of the Past (1878) “The subject of the regal advent as accomplished in A.D.70 is not a novelty. The learned Grotius of the seventeenth century, and some others of note in that and subsequent times advocated it.
12/16/12: Cambridge Digital Library Texts “THE NASH PAPYRUS, along with lots of other textual goodies, has been digitized and placed online in the Cambridge Digital Library”
11/11/12: Revere Franklin Weidner: Annotations on the Revelation of St John, the Divine (Chicago Lutheran: 1898) “There is some difficulty in determining the date of the Apocalypse. The majority of modern critical historians and commentators, diverse as may be their views on other points, agree in this, that the Apocalypse, no matter by whom written, was composed between the death of Nero (June 9, 68 A.D.) and the destruction of Jerusalem (August 10, 70 A.D.)”
9/30/12: Thomas Hayne (1645) Quoted in Heaven Upon Earth “But the famous Kindome of Christ and Christians began moe years then one thousand five hundred agon.. Therefore the notable binding of Satan began one thousand five hundred years agon, and therefore is past long before our time.” (Christs Kindome on Earth, p. 72)
9/23/12:Bunsen and Wordsworth on the Date of the Apocalypse (1855) Intense debate between brilliant scholars from different fields on the issue of the early dating of the Book of Revelation. (Bunsen is cited by Bahnsen and Gentry as a source — but how well do his arguments fare?)
9/22/12: John Lightfoot on the Fall of Jerusalem (1684 Edition) “Section 79: Christ foretelleth the destruction of Jerusalem, the signs and miseries preceeding and accompanying it”
9/22/12: A new translation of Isaiah By ‘A Layman’ (1784) “It deserves to be considered whether the persons here described as written for life in Jerusalem, be not intended the Christians mentioned in Matt. 24:22,24.. who were wonderfully preserved at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.” (Lots of early Modern Preterism)
9/15/12: An Exposition of the 39 Articles of the Church of England (1700) Art. 22 “Others at the same time were daubing with a profane mixture, both of Judaism and Gentilism, joining these with some of the precepts of Christianity; a day would soon appear, which probably is meant of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish Nation”
9/13/12: Apocalypse (1831) “The opinion, that the book of Revelation refers to the Jewish church and polity, and was all fulfilled in the apostolic age, appears to be gaining ground in our denomination. But we should not hastily embrace any new theory without carefully examining its various parts, and comparing them with the sacred text. In avoiding the errors and extremes of Orthodoxy, there is a danger that we run into the extremes of Heterodoxy.” (investigating further to see if the writings of “J.W.H.” represent earliest expression of full preterism)
9/12/12: Tertullian Against the Jews “Tertullian seems to return to the topic at hand – the fulfillment of those events that were prophesied to take place after the Christ had been on earth. One would expect him to have examined the fulfillent of the prophecies about the fall of Jerusalem, yet he did not. Instead he turned his attention to other events that were to take place in the aftermath of the coming of the Christ.. yet only after that did he return to the significance of the fulfillment of the prophecy about the fall of Jerusalem.”
9/12/12:End of Days: Essays on the Apocalypse from Antiquity to Modernity (2009) “The idea of the complete annihilation of all life is a powerful and culturally universal concept. As human societies around the globe have produced creation myths, so too have they created narratives concerning the apocalyptic destruction of their worlds. This book explores the idea of the apocalypse and its reception within culture and society, bringing together 17 essays which explore both the influence and innovation of apocalyptic ideas from classical Greek and Roman writings to the foreign policies of the contemporary United States. The book begins with an essay which serves as a microcosm for the remaining collection, exploring the points of convergence and divergence among medieval Christian and contemporary secular apocalyptic ideas. The first half of the book invites readers to explore ancient, medieval, early modern, and modern popular conceptions of the apocalypse. The second half focuses on the continuance of apocalyptic expectations and how they are understood within the realms of contemporary politics and popular culture.”
9/10/12: To the Preterists… 1880 “To the Preterists – The position I take as a Futurist has not been, so far as I am aware, assailed, and because I deem it impregnable, I shall be glad if some preterist will disclose to me, its weak point, if it has one.” – Nathaniel Starkey, 1880
9/10/12:A Reply to Nathaniel Starkey by T. May (1880) – “Mr Nathaniel Starkey, in the January Rainbow, wishes a preterist to reply to his note on the 5th chapter of Revelation. Would you kindly allow me a short space?”
9/8/12: An amicable Controversy with a Jewish Rabbi (1832) “The abrogation of the law, and the promulgation of the Gospel, are foreshewn under the types of the Old and the New Jerusalem; which symbolically signify the Old and New Covenant, the one abolished and the other established, in reality at the coming of Christ, but ostensibly at the destruction of the city and temple, which is probably on this account employed symbolically, to represent the spiritual change.” (p. 135)
9/6/12: NT Wright: Surprised by Hope – “Nor will it do to say, as do some who grasp that part of the point but have not worked it through, that the events of A.D. 70 were themselves the second coming of Jesus so that ever signce then we have been living in God’s new age and there is no further coming to wait. This may seem to many readers, as indeed it seems to me, a bizarre position to hold, but there are some who not only hold it but also eagerly propagate it and use some of my arguments to support it.”
Michael Bull: Bible Matrix II: The Covenant Key – Free PDF of the Preface, Introduction and first two chapters of The Covenant Key. / “the five-fold Covenant model of the Torah made a hyperpreterist interpretation of Revelation 20-22 impossible.”
The bulk of His argument lies in this: “the destruction of Jerusalem, and rejection of the Jewes, by Alcasars owne confession was fulfilled XXV yeeres before the Revelation was given.”
Ludovicus ab Alcazar called “Upstart” (Earliest Modern Preterist; “Divine of Granata”)
“Now that, besides these scopes that upstart Inquirer labours to wrest the Revelation to this purpose, as if it should teach, that R O M E, of old the head of Pagan Idolatry, by an admirable vicissitude was to bee changed into the Metropolis of the Catholicke Church, that the Romane Church wot gloriously to triumph both in respectt of the Romane Citie, and the whole Empire, and that the soveraigne authority of the Romish Pope should alwayes remaine in the height of honour’, is such a filthy and impudent depravation of this most Sacred Prophesie: that even the Divell himselfe ought to blush thereat: and I should wonder if these goodly trifles do not cause laughter, or shame even to the Romish Court it selvse. But these things a little after are to be more neerly examined, when we come to the Argument. Enough touching the Order.” (p 16)
“The upstart Interpreter of the Revelation (before mentioned) having thought upon a new Stratagem, I know not whether to curry favour with the Pope, or the more to harden him to his destruction, doth hence forge to himself new Oracles touching the Church , and the Monarchicall Empire of the Pope of Rome, and with his Hypotheses doth wholly stray from the Scope of this Prophesie, and to speake the truth, doth foully deprave the Argument thereof.
His Hypotheses or Positions are principally four: One general; Three Special.
The generall is of the Argument of the whole Revelation: that it describes a two-fold warre of the Church: one with the Synagogue, the other with Paganisme, and a two-fold viclory and triumph over both adversaries.
But the former warre with the Synagogue was already fought before the Prophesie was revealed: and the Synagogue with the Temple lay in ashes. To what purpose then should this warre have been shewed unto John as being to come afterward? Like as, faith he, things done are representedin a Comoedie. As if forsooth, Christ would represent unto John things done, and not rather, which were to come to passe afterward. As for the latter warre with Paganisme, although it was then on foot very hot already, and was further to lie more heavy upon the Christians: notwithstanding a more fierce conflict by farre with Antichrist was to befall them (not to speake ofthe Gogish Warre) by whom the Church (as is prefigured in the Apocalyps) should grievously be oppressed unto the very last times, and against whom victory and triumph is promised unto the Saints, the which all Interpreters, the Papists not excepted, do confesse.
Of his Speciall hypotheses the first is, that in the first eleven Chapters is represented the rejection of the Jewish Nation, and the desolation of the City Jerusalem by the Romanes.
The Second: That in the nine following chapters is portended the Empire of the Romane Church over Rome and the whole world, and the overthrow of Paganisme: the which forsooth should bee that horrible judgement of the Great Whore and destruction of Babylon, effected by Constantine the Great and his Successours.
The Third: That in the two last Chapters under the Type of the Lambes Bride and the New Jerusalem, is set forth the glorious and triumphant state of the Romane Church in Heaven.
But these most idle vanities will soon vanish away, if thou doest but even put them to the Touch-stone, that is, the very Text of the Prophesie; for Christ did reveale those things to John which should shortly bee done, Chap. 1. 1. and afterward Chap. 4.1. whereas therefore the destruction of Jerusalem, and rejection of the Jewes, by Alcasars owne confession was fulfilled XXV yeeres before the Revelation was given.
Who then should believe that Christ would have revealed unto John for a great mysterie, a History so generally known, under such obscure Types: Johns Revelation prophesieth of things present and to come, faith Andreas out of a Treatise of Methodius, intitled Symposium or “Banket”. Therefore the first Hypothesis is undoubtedly false.
Neither is the second more true. For the judgement of the Great Whore, and the ruine of Babylon is represented not as a grace of conversion, but as a punishment of whoredom to be inflicted on the kingdom & seat of Antichrist in the last times. Therefore to interpret this of the conversion of Rome and Paganisme unto the Faith of Christ, which came to passe three hundred yeers after Christ under Constantine and his Successours, is to make a mocke of reason.
The third is no better then the rest. The Spouse of the Lambe, and the New Jerusalem, is the whole Church of Christ, gloriously triumphing in Heaven, from whom God hath wiped away all teares: in which shall bee nothing that is defiled and abominable, as shall be afterward shewed in its place: but that the now Romane Apostaticall Church, worshipper of Idols, mother of fornications, and driver, not of Christs, but of the Beast of Antichrist (while she remains such on earth) should also belong unto the Spouse of Christ in Heaven shall then be true, when that of the Apostle is false: “Be not deceived, neither Fornicators, nor Idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankinde, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor blasphemers, nor extortioners shall enherit the Kingdom of God. Shall I take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot: which shall be ad Calendas Graecai, that is, never.
But what need I trouble my self: This new fiction of the Inquirer is abundantly refuted by the judgement of Ribera, Bellarmine, and other most acute Doctors of his owne order: although scarcely there be any one of them, whom be doth not most freely censure.
But of late a certaine learned and judicious Divine scemeth to have set forth in lively colours the argument of that painfull and most polished Inquiry, in an Epistle, which I shall here annexe.” (pp. 17,18)
David Pareus (1618) “What Pareus refers to as “preterperfect” is in a modern grammar the second aorist active indicative. The “dramatic” aorist states a result “on the point of being accomplished” with the emphatic “certitude of a past event,” although the aorist has “no essential temporal significance” (John Charles Hawley ; Dana and Mantey 1955: 198, 193 – A Commentary upon the Divine Revelation of the Apostle and Evangelist John(p. 342)
Bishop John Lightfoot: PDF Index of 1825 Edition (9Mb) “Day of the Lord, Christ’s coming in glory and in the clouds, signify only Christ’s taking vengeance on the Jewish nation, xi. 303. xii. 433. The Son cometh was expressed to be the same, xi. 304. Day of judgement, and day of vengeance, put for Christ’s coming with vengeance to judge the Jewish nation; there are six different ways of expressing it, 404.” (Index, “Day of the Lord”, Bishop J. Lightfoot’s Works; 1825 Edition)
Matthew Zolezzi Romero: Numismatics, Meteorology, and the Apocalypse (86 pages; 2011) Master Thesis at Point Loma Nazarene Univ. // “Revelation 13:15-17 describes a situation in which economic transactions were disrupted for Jews and Jewish Christians living in Palestine and Asia Minor, resulting in an economic crisis. This crisis found its roots in events prior to the destruction of the temple in 70 C.E., specifically to a series of numismatic reforms initiated by Nero. The author of Revelation, most likely a Jewish Christian, was describing the use of coins in Palestine and Asia Minor rather than prophesying future eschatological calamity.”
Leon Morris: The Gospel According to Matthew – “Matthew’s story of the temple tax (17:24-27) implies that it is proper for Jewish followers of Jesus to pay that tax. This would apply before A.D.70, for dueing that period the tax went to maintain the temple at Jerusalem. But after that date the Romans insisted that, while the tax must be paid by all Jews, it was to be used for the support of idol temple. It is not easy to see why the story should be included without qualification if it was written after A.D.70.”
Date: 12 Oct 2003 Time: 13:00:01
Comments
“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.’ If you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit as you conjecture, or witness to the non-believers or the lost, from the so-called preterist standpoint, then I would say you felt the chills of validity. However, I dare say you don’t. If the preterist, skeptic, or the atheist wants to focus on the literal or present tense of the first statement above, then I would say consider the same when reading the second. If Jesus words do not pass away, as they haven’t, then they must always be in the present tense. Therefore his words are always applicable to this generation. The great I am, is beyond time, and our miniscule comprehension of it. May the grace and peace of our Lord be with you, Yours in Christ, Porter +++ P.S. When an old pawnbroker repents and starts getting signs from the Lord, you better get your copy of the book out.
Date: 07 Nov 2003
Time: 10:07:21
Comments
one brother thinks the 1000 years refers to the time of davids kingdom to christ’s time on earth when satanic activity and demon possession was limited. in messiah s day we see a flurry of such activity as demon possession etc. but christ won complete victory over tese powers so we see them no more.
Date: 12 Nov 2003
Time: 05:21:55
Comments
gooday sir, am pastor joshua of christ ressurection of chapel my ministry is into visting prison inminate telling them about the good new of the gospel, i will love to place an order for old and new testement bibles writhing together.for my ministry and i will need about 50 piceces,and my method of payment is with my visa cradit card.as soon as i hear from you i will e mail my payment to you and my shipping adress in lagos nigeria god bless. expecting to hear from you pls. regards, my e mail adress chimbex@justice.com
Date: 11 Dec 2003
Time: 22:12:39
Comments
c. Jonathin Seraiah: “The End of All Things”
Biblical Studies in Final Things, by William E. Cox
Date: 9 Mar 2004
Time: 02:24:52
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1. Destruction of Jerusalem by John Crowne
2. Destruction of Jerusalem by George Wilkins
3. Destruction of the City of Jerusalem by Thomas Brown
4. Destruction of Jerusalem by Stephen Attai
5. Destruction of Jerusalem by Daniel Smith
6. Destruction of Jerusalem by Thomas White
7. Destruction of Jerusalem by Henry Milman
8. Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by David Roberts
Date: 16 Mar 2004
Time: 22:10:14
Comments
referring to the first post above (“Verily I say unto you…”) Are you suggesting that by including the phrase, “Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away,” that Jesus is saying that the preceding sentence can be interpreted to refer to any time in history? The plain and clear teaching of the passage is that the generation to whom he was speaking would experience what he was speaking about. And the inclusion of the the second phrase was merely the exclamation point! It is very common for God or Jesus to say such things. He is simply saying that “What I have said will come to pass, will come to pass. There is a better chance of heaven and earth passing away than there is of my words not coming to pass.” I have heard a lot of explanations as to why this passage can refer to future generations, but never this one. Of course, since this is a pretty old post, you may not check this again. But I has to say something. Maybe I am misunderstanding you. But if I am not, I would humbly suggest that you reconsider your thoughts about this passage.
Date: 21 Jun 2004
Time: 19:59:18
Comments
Hello! May I ask here if there were any limits concerning Philip Mauros books to be translated in Finnish language and showed in printed forms or by web pages? In Christ, Kyösti Malmirae, kmalmir@saunalahti.fi, Finland (TDD: Translate! Publish!)
Date: 03 Oct 2004
Time: 18:30:30
Comments
overwhelming
Date: 28 Oct 2004
Time: 14:28:56
Comments
The Once and Future Israel by R.B. Yerby. Reiner Publications, Swengel, PA. 17880. 1977. We have had this book for years and have not been able to find copies for others. Some of Philip Mauro’s titles are listed on the back cover of this book. Thanks! Angie Wewel
Can the alledged Bible Codes be found using the same computer programs in any book, say one of Shakespere’s books?
Date: 27 Jan 2005
Time: 06:46:47
Comments
Answering the Bible Codes question: Yes. It has been done with Moby Dick.
Date: 13 Dec 2005
Time: 08:49:12
Comments:
Pastor y maestro Reynaldo Estrada
Preterismo 70 Español
www.graciaypaz.com
http://www.graciaypaz.com/librograciaypaz17.html
reynaldoestrada@hotmail.com
Date: 27 Dec 2005
Time: 15:07:31
Comments:
Pregunto, tienen estos materiales en Español!
Graciasm mi E-mail es jrizo@prodigy.net.mx
Gracias
Date: 05 Aug 2006
Time: 23:30:32
Comments:
Ordene ya “EL ULTIMO ENEMIGO DE LA BIBLIA” http://www.lamuertedelabiblia.com Un libro hipper preterista,preterista total. Se los recomiendo..
Ozcar
Date: 10 May 2007
Time: 19:11:28
Comments:
I just wanted to say thank you for your very extensive offering of online books. I found what I was looking for. Blessings, D.Miller
