Objections to Preterism Overruled
OBJECTION #1: We are living today in the end times. You can see the signs all around us. ANSWER: That idea is based on “newspaper eschatology.” How about letting the Bible define the last days? There are 19 mentions of the last days/end times in the New Testament. Without exception, the writers proclaimed that THEY were in the last days. So, the last days were the end of the old covenant order which ended in finality in AD 70 with the destruction of the temple (Hebrews 1:1-2; 1 Peter 1:20; 4:7; etc.)
Contrary to those who think the last days started in the first century and continue today, several passages eliminate that as a possibility. For example: Peter said the “end was at hand” (1 Peter 4:7). Paul said the “time was very short” (1 Corinthians 7:29-31). John said “it was the last hour” (1 John 2:18).
Read more about the last days here: https://prophecyquestions.com/the-biblical-last-days-a-summary
OBJECTION #2: In Matthew 24:34, Jesus meant “that” generation rather than “this” generation (as the text reads in virtually all English translations)―i.e. some future generation that will witness all the things listed in the chapter. ANSWER: Scripture interprets Scripture. To confirm that it refers to the first century contemporaries of Jesus we need only to look at the other times the phrase “this generation” is used in the New Testament. It ALWAYS refers to those living in the first century. There is no serious disagreement on these other passages.
Here are all the times the phrase is used outside of the Olivet Discourse. Look up these passages for yourself: Matthew: 11:16-24; 12:38-45; 16:4; 17:17; 23:35-36; Mark: 8:12; 8:38-9:1; 9:19, and Luke: 7:31; 9:41; 11:29-32, 49-51; 17:25; Acts: 2:40.
Or perhaps the word for “generation” means “race.” The Greek word translated “generation” is genea (Strongs G1074). While genea can mean race among other meanings in addition to generation, if Jesus meant “race,” the Greek word used here would have been genos (Strongs G1085), which is the clearest Greek word for race.
Further, the several uses of “you” in Matthew 24 confirm that Jesus was speaking to his contemporaries, not to us thousands of years later. James Stuart Russell in his book The Parousia (page 69) said, “To imagine that the ‘you’ in this address applies, not to the disciples to whom Christ was speaking, but to some unknown and yet non-existent persons in a far distant age, is so preposterous a supposition as not to deserve serious notice.”
OBJECTION #3: We cannot know when Jesus will return because He said, “No one knows the day or the hour.” (Matthew 24:36) ANSWER: Jesus said He didn’t know the day or the hour, but He DID know the generation―the generation of his contemporaries (Matthew 23:35-36; 24:2, 34). Here’s an analogy. When a woman is pregnant, we do not know the day or the hour she will give birth, but we do know the window of time. So, what Jesus was teaching can be summarized thusly: “I cannot tell you the day or the hour when all these things will take place, but I assure you that they will happen in this very generation, before some now living have died.” There are some three dozen statements by Jesus and the writers of the New Testament that his return would be while some of those living in the first century were still alive. See my article here: https://prophecyquestions.com/what-does-the-bible-say-about-the-timing-of-the-second-coming
BTW, “With the Lord a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day” (2 Peter 3:8) doesn’t work as a valid objection either. Does that mean Jesus was in the tomb three thousand years, and his resurrection is still a thousand years off? Does that mean that a thousand years of Revelation 20 could mean a single day? Good grief, can God tell time? See my article here: https://prophecyquestions.com/no-one-knows-the-day-or-the-hour-and-a-day-is-as-a-thousand-years/
OBJECTION #4: In Matthew 24:3, the disciples asked Jesus two different questions about (a) the destruction of the temple and (b) the Parousia/end of the age, so they must have different times of fulfillment. ANSWER: That assertion is merely an assumption not found in the text. The parallel accounts in Mark and Luke make it clear that the questioning was about different aspects of the same event. See for yourself:
Here’s Matthew’s account: ‘”Tell us, when will this [temple destruction] happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3)
Here’s Mark’s account: “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to be fulfilled?” (Mark 13:4)
Here’s Luke’s account: “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place.” (Luke 21:7)
Furthermore, Jesus proclaimed in Matthew 24:34, “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until ALL these things take place.” Jesus couldn’t have made it any clearer.
OBJECTION #5: If Jesus has already come, people would have seen Him. ANSWER: How do you think of the Second Coming of Jesus? As a five-foot-five Jewish man―with long hair and ancient Jewish clothing (like the paintings), literally riding on a cloud down to earth―perhaps on a white horse?
Many Christians have misunderstood what Jesus meant by his Parousia (his “Second Coming”) because they do not know their Old Testament. He was not to come physically, but rather to “come” in the sense of judging the apostate old covenant Jewish nation—just as God came multiple times in the Old Testament to judge the Jews or their enemies. Compare the language in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24:29-31) or John’s Apocalypse (Revelation 6:12-17) to the apocalyptic language set in cosmic expressions in the Old Testament of past judgments by God. Here are some of them:
2 Samuel 22:8-15 (comes riding on a cherub in the clouds, in judgment against David’s enemies)
Isaiah 13:9-13 (day of the LORD coming, making the earth move out of her place, in judgment against Babylon)
Isaiah 19:1-22 (comes riding on a cloud, in judgment against Egypt)
Isaiah 34:1-10 (descends making the sky roll up like a scroll, in judgment against Edom)
Micah 1:3-13 (comes down making the mountains melt, in judgment against Israel and Judah)
Nahum 1:1-12 (comes on clouds as the earth heaves, in judgment against Nineveh)
In these instances, nobody saw YHWH, but certainly saw the effects of his coming. Jesus came similarly―in the manner and at the time predicted in the New Testament. See the article “What Does the Bible Say about the Nature of the Second Coming”: https://prophecyquestions.com/what-does-the-bible-say-about-the-nature-of-jesus-second-coming
OBJECTION #6: Yes, I know what Jesus said in Matthew 16:27-28, “For the Son of man is ABOUT TO COME in the glory of His Father, with His messengers, and then He will reward each according to his work. Truly I say to you, there are certain of those standing here will not taste of death until they may see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Literal Standard Version) But we know Jesus hasn’t come yet, so He must have been speaking about the Transfiguration or Pentecost. ANSWER: First, there was no judgment at the Transfiguration or Pentecost as demanded by the text. Second, there are clear imminency statements in both verses: about to come and while some of the disciples were still alive.
OBJECTION #7: Futurists charge preterists with committing the “Hymenaean Heresy.” In 2 Timothy 2:17-18, Paul says that Hymenaeus and Philetus were wrong about the resurrection having already happened. Here is the text: “And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.” ANSWER: Preterists believe that the general resurrection of the dead happened in AD 70 when souls in hades were taken to their final destination―the faithful going to heaven per Revelation 20:4, 13-15 in their glorified new bodies (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).
Actually, this passage in 2 Timothy supports the preterist view, if you take the time to think about it. If the common belief in the early church was that the resurrection was to take place at the end of the physical universe, how could Hymenaeus and Philetus have influenced anybody? Or if the early Christians had believed that the resurrection would involve physical bodies coming out of the graves, as is taught today, Hymenaeus and Philetus could never have convinced anyone that the resurrection had already happened. People could have just checked the graves for the physical evidence—or observed formerly dead people walking around.
When Paul corrected Hymenaeus and Philetus, he said nothing about those men getting the NATURE of the resurrection wrong. Paul disagreed only with their TIMING of the resurrection, which Paul taught was soon BUT NOT YET (“about to be” per Acts 24:15, Young’s Literal Translation).
The first-century Christians, including Paul himself, obviously must have believed in the type of resurrection consistent with what preterists believe—a resurrection of the faithful in their NEW after-life bodies/souls directly to heaven, leaving the old fleshly ones behind. The damned went to hell, alternatively understood as eternal conscious punishment or annihilation. Thus, Paul and the early Christians believed that the general resurrection of the dead could be MISSED! They believed that the general resurrection would take place at the end of their age—the old covenant age—not some future age (Daniel 12). They must also have believed that life on earth would go on without material change for people living after the resurrection. See: https://prophecyquestions.com/the-general-resurrection-of-the-dead
OBJECTION #8: In Revelation 22:7, 12, 20 Jesus declared “I am coming soon.” God’s time is not our time, so that could mean thousands of years later. ANSWER: If you think soon means thousands of years later, you don’t need a Bible; you need a dictionary. Can God tell time? The context of the rest of Revelation is consistent. We find at the beginning and end of the book: “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show his servants the things that MUST SHORTLY [‘soon’ in some translations] take place. . . for the TIME IS NEAR” Revelation 1:1, 3; 22:6, 10. There are over two dozen additional passages in Revelation that demand imminent fulfillment. You just cannot twist Scripture to make these passages mean thousand years in the future, unless you think Jesus was a false prophet. For more detail, see the articles on my website in the Revelation section of my website: https://prophecyquestions.com/category/revelation-2
OBJECTION #9: Revelation could not have been fulfilled in AD 70 because it was written in AD 95. ANSWER: I’ve identified 20 evidences, both internal and external to the Bible, that conclusively support that Revelation was written before AD 70. There are too many to discuss in this article, so I’ll just mention a couple:
Revelation 17:10 says that the book was written during the reign of the sixth king, who was Nero, who reigned from AD 54-68.
In Revelation 11:1, John was told to measure the temple. This implies that the temple was still standing when the book was written, thus prior to AD 70. While some argue that this is about a spiritual temple, it would be a bizarre instruction if given at a time when the physical temple was just a bunch of rubble. And of particular note, the destruction of the physical temple in AD 70 is not mentioned by John in Revelation. It is inconceivable that, if John was writing after AD 70, he would not have mentioned the destruction of the temple, it being the center of the Jewish faith.
For all 20 evidences, go to my article here: https://prophecyquestions.com/twenty-evidences-why-revelation-was-written-before-ad-70
OBJECTION #10: Preterism is a relatively new concept in church history. ANSWER: That is not true. Works by Gary DeMar, Francis Gumerlock, and Kenneth Gentry, Jr. and others have shown that the preterist view was part of the early church, and may have been the dominant view. While differing views can be found in the writings of theologians throughout history, in his book Is Jesus Coming Soon (page 17), DeMar states “On the other hand, preterism–the belief that the key New Testament prophecies were fulfilled in the first century–is by far the dominant eschatological perspective within the whole history of the church.” For documentation, see my article here: https://prophecyquestions.com/preterism-and-the-early-church
OBJECTION #11: The gospel hasn’t been preached to the whole world yet (Matthew 24:14). ANSWER: If you believe the inspired writer St. Paul, the gospel had been preached to the whole world by the time he was writing (Romans 1:8; 10:18; 16:25-27; Colossians 1:6; 23).
OBJECTION #12: In the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24-25; Mark 13; Luke 21) Jesus changes somewhere in the middle of his sermon from near events to distant events. ANSWER: There is not a hint of that in the text. If that’s what Jesus meant, He would have told his hearers.
OBJECTION #13: The prophecies may have been fulfilled in the first century but will have another, dual fulfillment later on. ANSWER: There is not a hint or clue of dual fulfillment of prophecies in the New Testament. Here’s how James Stuart Russell in his book The Parousia (p. 47) put it: “In our opinion, all this foisting of human hypotheses and double senses into the predictions of our Lord is utterly incompatible with sober criticism, or with true reverence for the Word of God. It is not criticism, but mysticism; and obscures the truth instead of elucidating it. At the risk, then of being considered superficial and shallow, we shall hold fast to the plain teaching of the words of Scripture, turning a deaf ear to all fanciful and conjectural speculations of merely human origin, no matter how learned or dignified the quarter from which they come.”
OBJECTION #14: What about the creeds? ANSWER: There are things we know and some things we do not know about the creeds, especially the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. First of all, we know that they have been changed. The Nicene Creed was originally established at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, and was later modified at the First Council of Constantinople in 381. The Apostles’ Creed was used as early as 150-200 AD but the version commonly used today was codified in the 8th century. We also know that the creeds are not inspired like Scripture itself. And we know that the creeds left out a host of important doctrines such as salvation by grace through faith.
We do not know (a) who wrote them, nor (b) the minority opinions that may have been squelched, and (c) we do not have biblical proof texts that the compilers used so that we could check for biblical authenticity ourselves.
Only the Bible does not change. We believe that God does not lie or deceive, and ultimately, we rely on the Holy Scriptures. What happened to Sola Scriptura? We appeal to the famous testimony of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521:
“My conscience is held captive to the Word of God. Unless convinced by the testimony of Scripture and evident reason, here I stand. God help me.”
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