John MacArthur
“Most would agree there is a degree of symbolism in Matthew 24:29. Almost no one expects the stars to fall to earth literally. It’s possible, too, that the sun might not be extinguished literally; rather, the sun’s light could simply be partly or totally obscured from the earth…So I agree that wooden literalism is not necessary to get the right sense of Jesus’ words.”
“The hyper-preterist error is exactly like that of Hymenaeus and Philetus, who “strayed from the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past . . .they overthrow the faith of some” (2 Tim. 2:18). The apostle Paul was not reluctant to speak plainly about the seriousness of such soul-destroying error. Nor should we be hesitant to point out the dangers posted by such a serious departure from biblical truth. It is, after all, heresy of the worst stripe to deny the bodily return of Christ, and this particular brand of that heresy is currently overthrowing the faith of many.” (quoted by Dennis Swanson, Reformation or Retrogression?)
“Worse, far too many Christians actually do break fellowship with other Christians who differ with them on speculative and secondary eschatological issues. But our humility as we approach such mysterious eschatological matters ought to be accompanied by charity for others whose perspectives are different.”
(The Second Coming, p. 21)
(The Significance of AD70)
“A more moral and a more religious America will not escape divine judgment, any more than Pharisaic Judaism in Jesus’ time escaped the devastating judgment of God in 70 A.D. when hundreds of thousands of Jews were slaughtered by godless Romans. Jesus warned about that on several occasions. There is only one thing God blesses, just one. And that is He blesses saving faith in and love for His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the only thing He blesses. Anybody who does not believe in and love the Lord Jesus Christ is among the cursed, right? Verse 38 He says: “Your house is being left to you desolate. Desolate.” And He was looking ahead to the destruction in 70 A.D., as well as the profound spiritual judgment.”
“Most would agree there is a degree of symbolism in Matthew 24:29. Almost no one expects the stars to fall to earth literally. It’s possible, too, that the sun might not be extinguished literally; rather, the sun’s light could simply be partly or totally obscured from the earth…So I agree that wooden literalism is not necessary to get the right sense of Jesus’ words.” (End Times Controversy, Ibid., p 112)
“Herod the Great, one of Esau’s descendants, tried to kill Jesus shortly after He was born. The Edomites were eventually wiped out during the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem that occurred in A.D. 70. Their extinction fulfilled Obadiah’s longstanding prophecies that they would be “cut off forever” (verse 10/ and that “no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau (verse 18).” (Quick Reference to the Bible, p. 143)
(On Deuteronomy 28:68)
“but no one will buy you. Israel would be so abandoned by God that she would not even be able to sell herself into slavery. The curse of God would bring Israel into a seemingly hopeless condition (cf. Hos. 8:13; 9:3). The specific mention of Egypt could be symbolic for any lands where the Jews have been taken into bondage or sold as slaves. But it is true that after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D.70., which was a judgment on the apostasy of Israel and their rejection and execution of the Messiah,, this prophecy is actually fulfilled. The Roman general Titus, who conquered Jerusalem and Israel, sent 17,000 adults Jews to Egypt.” (MacArthur Study Bible, p. 279)
(On Eschatology)
“My advice to budding systematic theologians is this: master the fundamental issues of soteriology, hamartiology, pneumatology, Christology, bibliology, theology proper, and other essential points of Christian doctrine before settling into such a dogmatic stance on the eschatological fine points.” (The Second Coming: Signs of Christ’s Return and the End of the Age, p. 20)
(On 1 Cor. 15:16-17)
“The apostle Paul seemed to have a theology very much like modern hyper-preterism in mind when he penned that verse.”
“Since they already deny so many cardinal doctrines of Christianity, it is no wonder that hyper-preterists are often seen slipping even further into unorthodox ideas. To give one example, Ward Fenley (arguably hyper-preterism’s most influential author) claims that Christ actually became a sinner on the cross.” Quoting Fenley : “He was not made sin while He lived His life. Yet upon the cross He became every terrible and unholy thing we ever committed….”
“Walt Hibbard, founder of the mail-order Christian book service Great Christian Books (GCB), also embraced hyper-preterism and was aggressively peddling hyper-preterist literature in the front pages of his book catalogs before GCB went out of busines in early 1999.”
“One of the works Hibbard was promoting most vigorously is hyper-preterism’s main manifesto, Ward Fenley’s ‘The Second Coming of Jesus Christ Already Happened (Sacramento: Kingdom of Sovereign Grace, 1997).”
“Several large hyper-preterist Web sites are now promoting the view via the Internet…..”
” According to them, it was a spiritual, not a bodily, resurrection–and it is the only resurrection that will ever occur. Hyper-preterists have thus given up any hope of a literal, bodily resurrection of the saints.”
“Real salvation is not only justification. It cannot be isolated from regeneration, sanctification and, ultimately, glorification. Salvation is an ongoing process as much as it is a past event. It is the work of God through which we are “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29, cf. Romans 13:11). Genuine assurance comes from seeing the Holy Spirit’s transforming work in one’s life, not from clinging to the memory of some experience.” (The Gospel According to Jesus, p. 23).
“This view is known as “preterism.” But it is a serious error. The preterist interpreter has to read into these passages allegorical meanings that don’t fit normal exegetical study methods.” (MacArthur’s Quick Reference Guide To The Bible, p. 181)