Brian,
Thanks for giving me this opportunity to speak with you about Preterism. Let me begin.
First of all, I go by the name of hamashiachagape on the internet. I do not like to disclose my name because it is a part of what I am called to do by God. The name is Hebrew and Greek combined, and I am called to share the love of the Messiah with everyone, by strictly following the meaning of what the Bible declares, and not steering from its meaning.
While getting involved in my initial stages of Christian Apologetics, I got involved with two things that were highly concerning to me. One was Neoplatonic Christianity. I was a huge admirer at one point in time of Augustine of Hippo. This has since seen a huge decline since my acceptance of Messianic Judaism and my strict adherence to the Torah. The second thing of concern to me was that I was a partial preterist. I became exposed to this by some of my fellow friends of Apologetics.
This is what I wish to write about today. Partial preterism, though not necessarily a hindrance to my Messianic Jewish faith in the form that I held it, was actually problematic once I began studying the Hebrew and Greek meaning behind words of the Bible. I basically was of the belief that everything up to the point of Revelation 20 had been fulfilled.
However, today, I'd like to give a couple of reasons why I do not believe this is the case any longer.
First of all, and I have a problem with this when I talk to anti-missionaries, how will a Jewish person, one who is well versed in Messianic prophecy, respond to Preteristic viewpoints about the Brit Hadashah? What they are going to do, and if anybody hasn't been to an Orthodox synagogue to try this out, I would encourage it, is ask you a few questions.
1) Have all of the Gentiles gone up to the holy place to celebrate Sukkot? In order to be honest, one would have to answer no.
2) Has world peace been restored to the Earth? Again, to be honest, one needs to answer no (this is fulfilled in the coming back of the Messiah, this is of great importance to some of the points I'm bringing up today).
3) Was the temple re-established when the Yeshua came the first time?
Again, the honest answer to declare is, no this has not happened yet.
We can go on and on. But the bottom line is, there are so many things within the Bible that haven't been fulfilled yet, and its very simple to see this given through just these three answers.
So why is it important to understand what a Jew understands? We're Christians right? Yes you are, but who were given the oracles according to Paul? The Jews were. Not to mention, the rabbis have a very clear and distinct understanding of the Hebraic scriptures that many Christians today take for granted, as the predicating basis for everything. You can not defend this by then wishing to get rid of this because you believe in a form of replacement theology.
Now, there are a few key words we need to look at with Revelation. First of all, we see and the given language is important to understand here, in Revelation 1:5 from the Wycleffe Brit Hadashah translation "5 and of Jesus Christ, that is a faithful witness, the first begotten of dead men [the first begotten of dead], and prince of kings of the earth; which loved us, and washed us from our sins in his blood." He's still the prince. He's not the king of kings yet. He hasn't fulfilled ALL of the prophecy yet. This all needs to be fulfilled, and it needs to be literally fulfilled by him, just in the same way his role as the high priest was fulfilled (it was fulfilled literally, to the letter and to the tee - see Rico Cortez - Is Yeshua truly the Messiah lecture).
Another key word is here - 1 Apocalypse of Jesus Christ [Apocalypse, or revelation, of Jesus Christ], which God gave to him to make open to his servants, which things it behooveth to be made soon. And he signified, sending by his angel to his servant John,
2 which bare witnessing to the word of God, and witnessing of Jesus Christ, in these things, whatever things he saw.
3 Blessed is he that readeth, and he that heareth the words of this prophecy, and keepeth those things that be written in it; for the time is nigh.
A couple to mention. This is the revelation of Yeshua ha Mashiach. This is not the revelation of John. The Christian community has made this mistake far too long. Secondly, this book is a book of prophecy given to John it is presumed in 90 A.D or possibly as late as 96 A.D. This is seen by Tertullian's writing here - " we infer, that perchance he who is to come shall be called "Titan." We will not, however, incur the risk of pronouncing positively as to the name of Antichrist; for if it were necessary that his name should be distinctly revealed in this present time, it would have been announced by him who beheld the apocalyptic vision. For that was seen no very long time since, but almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian's reign. 4. But he indicates the number of the name now, that when this man comes we may avoid him, being aware who he is." This has to do with the Anti-Messiah and demonstrates that the book of Revelation was written during Domitian's reign. Also Victorinus states in the 2nd century, once again closer to the events than any of the other early church fathers "
“When John said these things, he was in the Isle of Patmos,
condemned to the mines by Caesar Domitian. There he saw the Apocalypse;
and when at length grown old, he thought that he should receive his release
by suffering; but Domitian being killed, he was liberated.” So the timelines match. Both of these truths are hindrances to the position of Preterism, regarding Nero being the anti-christ, since he was the emperor in around 50 A.D. Not to mention, not only is this book a book of prophecy, its also the only book of prophecy within the Bible that lists things chronologically (and then). Because of the language given, if its truly from God, it must be completed in a sequential fashion. Lets move forward.
Why is all of this important? We're going to take a look at this now. In Matthew 24:30-36 it is declared by Yeshua himself "29"Immediately after the distress of those days " 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'[c] 30"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
32"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it[a]is near, right at the door. 34I tell you the truth, this generation[b] (another way of expressing this is race of people in the Greek) will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."
Furthermore, it is stated in Acts that God's angel says Yeshua will come back to the Earth. We haven't heard the 7th shofar blow (revelation 11). None of this has happened yet.
So when is Yeshua coming back to the Earth? We can tell based off of this that it will happen after the tribulation period. This is important to understand. Why?
Essentially when Preterists see the temple in Revelation, they see the 2nd temple. Problematic with that is this specific portion in Revelation 11. "1I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, "Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there. 2But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles."
This is important! The court of the Gentiles did not exist within the 2nd temple period. So, its amazing, but we can connect the temple in Ezekiel 40-46 with this picture. One is compelled to answer this with "but that temple of Ezekiel was supposed to be built soon." Soon by whose standards? God's standards. So this goes beyond man's capacity to understand when this would occur. The next objection to the re-establishment of the temple is "Ezekiel's temple was metaphorical to the picture of Yeshua." Problem with this, and we're going to see. Ezekiel 40 declares something of interest. "2 In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city." At first glance, this doesn't look too problematic. But, when understanding the land of Israel, and to those who have actually visited there, we realize that there are not mountains in Israel. This obviously is talking about something physically fulfilled within the future. Animal sacrifices in the temple must be resumed (for what purpose, we do not know, thats God's business) and this shall come with the 2nd parousia of the Messiah. That is all we are told.
Lets move on now. We were talking about world peace earlier. Preterists have a problem when we're looking at this. Has Revelation 21 been fulfilled, where there will be no more tears or sorrows within mankind? Simple answer. Watch the 5 o'clock news.
The simple answer IMHO is that there is a whole other role to be fulfilled. When we follow the events fulfilled by Yeshua and the timeline of God's appointed times in Leviticus 23, not all of these events have been fulfilled. As a matter of fact, only 3 have been fufilled. Exodus 40 ties in perfectly with Yeshua being born on Aviv 1, or on the Graeco Roman Calendar March 20, 6 B.C. Amongst other rabbinical commentary, Hippolytus has this written on his gravestone, and admits it in his writings. Pesach, Aviv 15, has been fufilled, and in the exact same fashion that Yeshua declares it would happen. 3 days he spent in the earth. Wednesday until Saturday evening once again on the Graeco Roman calendar. His resurrection was the fulfillment of Aviv 15, another fulfillment of God's appointed times. The third was Shavuot. This was fulfilled on that very same day with the giving of the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit) to 120 believers at one time.
The best thing, and ultimate challenge to those who wish to believe in a Preteristic outline is to find when the other 3 have been fulfilled. These appointed times by God have not been fulfilled. They are going to be fulfilled in Yeshua's second coming, his parousia.
So the answer to the questions at hand can easily be seen within the language presented. Yeshua has not returned to the earth a second time, has not fulfilled all of the prophecies. Most replacement theologians do not like this because they know that they then must follow the Torah to the tee. But Yeshua declares even still his words would last forever. If he's God, that means the Torah as well. This call I make to those of understanding. Anyone who wishes to follow Preterism, read www.jewsforjudaism.org. Their attacks are levied directly at Christians of this breed. Preterism is not a sound Biblical approach to scripture. It is incorrect doctrine. It is growing within the body of believers, and its our responsibility, within our community to put a stop to it before it spreads too far.
hamashiachagape
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