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Unraveling the End A Biblical Synthesis of Competing Views

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Title: Unraveling the End A Biblical Synthesis of Competing Views


1
Unraveling the EndA Biblical Synthesis of
Competing Views
2
  • Few doctrines unite and separate Christians as
    much as eschatology...
  • ...One of the most divisive elements in recent
    Christian history.
  • Christianity Today February 6,
    1987 p-1-I

3
2 Guidelines
  • Sola Scriptura
  • In Love

4
SUMMARY 7 Reasons Why Vital
  1. How much of the Bible is involved?
  2. How much salvation do we currently have?
  3. How much of the kingdom do we currently have?
  4. What do you do with the modern-day nation of
    Israel?
  5. Its the focal point of the liberal-skeptic
    attack on the Bible and Deity of Christ.
  6. It makes a difference in your worldview
  7. It makes a difference in your life and family

5
Four Abuses
  1. Tendency to import or add things not there in the
    text.
  2. Inconsistently applying literal or symbolic
    meanings.
  3. Accepting a belief because it was simply told
    us.
  4. Stubborn resistance to change when confronted
    with scriptural evidence.

6
Four Views(in order of prominence)
  • 1 Premillennial (Dispensational)
  • 2 Amillennial
  • 3 Postmillennial
  • 4 Preterist

7
Unraveling the EndA Biblical Synthesis of
Competing Views
8
3 Postmillennial View
  • Motivated our forefathers in the faith to come to
    America . . .
  • Not just to escape religious persecution.
  • But to expand the kingdom of God.
  • And help Christianize the world.
  • Better and better as society was transformed.
  • Each Christians individual responsibility.

9
3 Postmillennial View
  • discredited
  • World War I and World War II
  • Atom Bomb
  • Threat of a nuclear Armageddon
  • Moral decline of society,
  • Rebirth of the nation of Israel (1948)

10
3 Postmillennial View
  • . . . there used to be a group called
    postmillennialists. . . . World War I greatly
    disheartened this group and World War II
    virtually wiped out this viewpoint. No
    self-respecting scholar who looks at the world
    conditions and the accelerating decline of
    Christian influence today is a postmillennialist.
  • Hal Lindsey,
  • The Late Great Planet Earth, 164-165.

11
3 Postmillennial View
  • Are SURE Christs Second Coming is future
    (happens after the 1,000 years)
  • Be personal, visible, bodily, and in great glory
    ending history at the end of time.
  • But will not occur any time soon.
  • All three other Four Chief Moments are also
    future.

12
3 Postmillennial View
  • Optimistic kingdom orientation.
  • Rarely, if ever, charged with heresy.
  • A lot of Scripture to back their view . . . for .
    . .
  • Earthly and historical success of the gospel.
  • Growth of the present and earthly kingdom of God
    in this present age.
  • Victory within history . . . in terms of
    converting a sizeable portion of humankind to
    Christianity.
  • All of which must take place BEFORE Christ can
    return.

13
3 Postmillennial ViewScriptures
  • Genesis 128
  • Isaiah 96-7
  • Ezekiel 471-12
  • Daniel 235 244 727-28
  • Luke 133
  • Mark 115

14
3 Postmillennial ViewScriptures
  • Growth parables
  • SEED scattered on the ground produces the harvest
    (Mark 426-29).
  • MUSTARD SEED into a tree (Matt. 13 31-32 Mark
    430-32 Luke 1318-19).
  • YEAST throughout the dough (Matt. 1333 Luke
    1320-21).

15
3 Postmillennial ViewScriptures
  • Great Commission (Matt. 2818-20)
  • All authority in heaven and on earth has been
    given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of
    all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
    Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and
    teaching them to obey everything I have commanded
    you. And surely I will be with you always, to
    the very end of the age.

16
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17
3 Postmillennial ViewScriptures
  • Matthew 2414
  • And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached
    in the whole world as a testimony to all nations,
    and then the end will come.

18
  • During the past sixteen years I can recollect
    only two occasions on which I have heard sermons
    specifically devoted to the theme of the Kingdom
    of God. . . . I find this silence rather
    surprising because it is universally agreed by
    New Testament scholars that the central theme of
    the teaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of God.
  • quoting Dr. I. Howard Marshall of the
    University of Aberdeen
  • Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 59.

19
Supportive Quotes
  • "the great omission . . . why . . . today's
    church is so weak"
  • Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 40f.
  • "reductionism of the gospel"
  • Darrell Guder, The Continuing Conversion of
    the Church, xiiif.  
  • the gospel we proclaim has been shrunk
  • Robert Lynn, Far as the curse is found in
    Breakpoint Worldview magazine, Oct. 06, 14.
  • we have settled for a little gospel, a
    miniaturized version that cannot address the
    robust problems of our world
  • Scot McKnight, The 8 Marks of a Robust
    Gospel in Christianity Today magazine, March
    2008, 36.

20
Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe
  • 1) Fulfilling the assignment of preaching the
    Kingdom is the key to the timing of the return of
    Christ. Jesus said that the end will come after
    the gospel of the Kingdom is preached to all
    nations. . . . The fact that Jesus has not come
    back yet is proof that His assignment, which He
    delegated to His followers in every generation,
    has not yet been fulfilled.

21
Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe
  • 2) How many churches today are actively and
    conscientiously preaching the gospel of . . . .
    the Kingdom of God? Not just any message will
    do. . . . Jesus will return only when the message
    of the Kingdom has been proclaimed in all the
    earth, and that proclamation is the Churchs
    responsibility.

22
Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe
  • 3) In Africa, many African believers have
    never heard the gospel of the Kingdom of God.
    They know Jesus, but they have never been taught
    about their status and rights as sons and
    daughters of God and citizens and heirs of His
    Kingdom. . . . Even in Europe and the West . . .
    few people have heard the gospel of the Kingdom.
    Yet Many have heard about Jesus. . . .

23
Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe
  • 4) Some have heard the wrong message of the
    Kingdom. . . . that is perhaps the most serious
    deficiency of all. . . . The gospel of the
    Kingdom of God . . . must be carefully defined so
    that there are no ambiguities. . . .

24
Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe
  • 5) One of the reasons the Church is not more
    effective at reaching the nations is because we
    are not preaching the message they need to hear.
    . . . Unfortunately many in the Church have
    discovered the King but they have no clue about
    the Kingdom that He came to bring to mankind.

25
Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe
  • 6) So much time today we get the message wrong
    by preaching the good news of heaven. The two
    are not the same. We tell people to put their
    faith in Jesus for salvation and then we focus on
    heaven as our goal and destination. Jesus never
    preached heaven. The disciples never preached
    heaven, and neither should we. There may be a lot
    of appeal to the idea of going to heaven . . .
    but people struggling with daily life on earth .
    . . . need to hear the good news of the Kingdom
    of heaventhe rule of God has come to earth and
    all can experience the reality of that world.

26
Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe
  • 7) People everywhere are looking for the
    Kingdom, even if they dont recognize it by that
    name. . . . People are not looking for religion
    they are looking for power, and the Kingdom
    offers power. . . . If we preach the gospel of
    the Kingdom of God, people will respond.

27
Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe
  • 8) When we preach Christ without preaching also
    about the Kingdom of God, we do people a great
    disservice. . . . Jesus preached the Kingdom, but
    the Church preaches so many other things rather
    than the Kingdom. . . . Its the lost message of
    Jesus that needs to be resurrected in our times.

28
Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe
  • 9) The gospel of the Kingdom is the only true
    gospel. Anything else we preach is not the true
    gospel, or at least, not the complete gospel.
    Preaching about Jesus Christ is a vital and
    essential part of preaching the gospel of the
    Kingdom, because He is our way into the Kingdom.
    Just because we place our faith in Christ,
    however, does not mean that we automatically
    understand either what it means to be a citizen
    of the Kingdom or how to live like one.

29
Rediscovering the Kingdomby Myles Munroe
  • 10) Every one of the 7 billion people on planet
    earth is seeking the Kingdom of God, which is
    their ultimate fulfillment. Every religion and
    activity of mankind is mans attempt to find the
    Kingdom. It is the pearl that out-values all
    pearls, and the only treasure that is worth all
    the other treasures of life. The Kingdom is life
    itself. . . . and The king is the central
    component of a kingdom and embodies the essence
    of the kingdom.

30
3 Postmillennial View
  • Demise
  • 1) Negative world events.
  • 2) Absorbed into the social gospel movement.
  • 3) Charges of being triumphalistic.
  • 4) A small band of modern-day postmillennial
    scholars fight back.

31
Onward, Christian Soldiers (1865)
  • Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to
    war,With the cross of Jesus going on
    before.Christ, the royal Master, leads against
    the foeForward into battle see His banners go!
  • At the sign of triumph Satans host doth
    fleeOn then, Christian soldiers, on to
    victory!Hells foundations quiver at the shout
    of praiseBrothers lift your voices, loud your
    anthems raise.

32
Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus (1858)
  • Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
  • Ye soldiers of the cross,
  • Lift high His royal banner,
  • It must not suffer loss
  • From victory unto victory His army shall He lead,
  • Till every foe is vanquished
  • And Christ is Lord indeed.

33
Joy to the World! (1719)
  • (1) Joy to the world, the Lord is come!Let
    earth receive her KingLet every heart prepare
    Him room,And heaven and nature sing,And heaven
    and nature sing,And heaven, and heaven, and
    nature sing.

34
Joy to the World! (1719)
  • (2) Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!Let men
    their songs employWhile fields and floods,
    rocks, hills and plainsRepeat the sounding
    joy,Repeat the sounding joy,Repeat, repeat, the
    sounding joy.

35
Joy to the World! (1719)
  • (3) No more let sins and sorrows grow,Nor
    thorns infest the groundHe comes to make His
    blessings flowFar as the curse is found,Far as
    the curse is found,Far as, far as, the curse is
    found.

36
Joy to the World! (1719)
  • (4) He rules the world with truth and grace,And
    makes the nations proveThe glories of His
    righteousness,And wonders of His love,And
    wonders of His love,And wonders, wonders, of His
    love.

37
???
  • For the darkness shall turn to dawning,
  • And the dawning to noonday bright,
  • And Christs great kingdom shall come to earth,
  • The kingdom of peace and light.
  • Weve a Story to Tell to the Nations
  • (1896)

38
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39
  • the most serious error in much of the current
    prophetic teaching is the claim that the future
    of Christendom is to be read not in terms of
    revival and victory, but of growing impotence and
    apostasy.
  • Oswald T. Allis, in Foreword to Roderick
    Campbell, Israel and the New Covenant, ix.

40
3 Postmillennial View
  • The bottom line for why postmillennialists think
    their view is hated so much nowadays is this
  • Their view of exercising dominion in history .
    . . . teaches responsibility.
  • Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.,
  • He Shall Have Dominion, back cover.

41
3 Postmillennial View
  • Duration of the Millennium
  • Some say figuratively.
  • Lasts longer than a literal thousand years.
  • We are living in it now.
  • Not something to come cataclysmically at some
    future time.

42
3 Postmillennial View
  • Duration of the Millennium
  • Others believe we are not now living in the
    millennium.
  • See it as a special and future golden age of
    peace and prosperity, of gospel success, and the
    triumph of good over evil.
  • May or may not be a literal thousand years in
    length.

43
3 Postmillennial View
  • End of the Millennium
  • The end of time and the end of history coming
    after the millennium at Christs Second Coming.
  • Proceeded by a brief period of apostasy and
    conflict between Christian and evil forces . . .
  • Headed up by the end-time antichrist.

44
3 Postmillennial View
  • End of the Millennium
  • Christ taking his Church to be with Him.
  • The resurrection of the righteous and the wicked.
  • An end to all earthly existence and to the earth
    itself.
  • The final judgment.
  • The beginning of the eternal state.
  • A totally new or renewed earththe new heavens
    and new earth.

45
  • This does not mean that there ever will be a
    time on this earth when every person will be a
    Christian, or that all sin will be abolished.
    But it does mean that evil in all its many forms
    eventually will be reduced to negligible
    proportions, that Christian principles will be
    the rule, not the exception, and that Christ will
    return to a truly Christianized world.
  • Loraine Boettner, The Millennium, 14.

46
  • C.S. Lewis condemn it as
  • the idea which here shuts out the Second Coming
    from our minds.
  • Idea for the world slowly ripening to
    perfection as a myth . . . which distracts us
    from our real duties and our real interest.
  • C.S. Lewis, The Worlds Last Night
    (1960), in The Essential C.S. Lewis, Lyle
    W. Dorsett, ed., 388.

47
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48
3 Postmillennial View
  • Many Comings of Christ
  • Includes his return in judgment coming in A.D.
    70.
  • His future final coming in glory and consummation
    at the end of time.
  • In the meantime and in between there have been,
    are, and will be many comings of Christ in
    various ways.

49
3 Postmillennial View
  • One More Big Problem Re Matt. 2414
  • According to the Bible itself, the gospel of the
    kingdom was preached to all nations and to the
    world in that 1st century.
  • Col 16, 23
  • Rom. 18 1018 1626
  • Acts 18 25 245
  • Luke 21
  • The Greek word world is oikoumene, meaning
    land . . . specifically the Roman Empire.
  • Jesus prerequisite is past in fulfillment and
    was satisfied over 1900 years ago.

50
4 Preterist View
  • The least known.
  • But now the chief recipient of heresy charges.
  • The easiest view to present.
  • But perhaps the hardest to believe.

51
4 Preterist View
  • Preterist is derived from the Latin word
    praeterwhich means past.
  • Used in verb forms (past tense).
  • In eschatology it means past in fulfillment.

52
4 Preterist View
  • Two Basic Types
  • Full preterists
  • Partial preterists.

53
4 Full Preterist View
  • All Four Chief Moments are past in fulfillment.
  • During the Jewish-Roman War of A.D. 66-70.
  • Sure this was Christs Second Coming and Return.
  • A non-visible coming in judgment.
  • But it was personal and glorious.
  • No future coming or comings of Jesus following
    A.D. 70.

54
Criticisms
  • the position sounds so bizarre that some may
    wonder if it seriously deserves to be refuted.
  • . . . of sacrificing the plain sense of every
    other prophecy about the return of Christ and
    end-times events.
  • heresy of the worst stripe
  • sub-Christian heresy.
  • is currently overthrowing the faith of many.
  • John MacArthur,
  • The Second Coming, 11, 13, 223.

55
Critical Assessment
  • the debate is shaping up as a showdown between
    preterism and futurism.
  • Thomas Ice and Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.,
  • The Great Tribulation Past or Future?, 6.
  • early forms of preterism were mild and
    underdeveloped by todays standards.
  • Thomas Ice Timothy Demy,
  • When the Trumpet Sounds, 14.

56
9.5 Theses
  • 1. Everything Jesus said would happen, happened
    exactly as and when He said it wouldwithin the
    lifetime of his contemporaries.
  • 2. Everything every New Testament writer
    expected to happen, happened exactly as and when
    they expected it wouldwithin their lifetimeas
    they were guided into all truth and told the
    things that were to come by the Holy Spirit (John
    1613).

57
9.5 Theses
  • 3. Scholars across a broad spectrum are in
    general agreement that this is exactly how every
    NT writer and the early Church understood Jesus
    words. If they were wrong on something this
    important, how can we trust them to have conveyed
    other aspects of the faith accurately, such as
    the requirements for salvation?

58
9.5 Theses
  • 4. No inspired NT writer, writing twenty or
    more years later, ever corrected their
    Holy-Spirit-guided understanding and fulfillment
    expectations (John 1613). Neither should we.
    Instead, they intensified their language . . . .
  • 5. Partial fulfillment is not satisfactory. 3
    out of 5, 7 out of 10, etc., wont work. Partial
    does not pass the test of a true prophet (Deut.
    1818-22). Again, Jesus time-restricted all of
    his end-time predictions to occur within the
    1st-century time frame.

59
9.5 Theses
  • 6. God is faithful (2 Pet. 39) and not a man
    that he should lie (Num. 2319). Faithfulness
    means not only doing what was promised, but also
    doing it when it was promised.

60
9.5 Theses
  • 7. 1st-century, fulfillment expectations were the
    correct ones and everything happened, right on
    timeno gaps, no gimmicks, no interruptions, no
    postponements, no delays, no exegetical
    gymnastics, and no changing the meaning of
    commonly used and normally understood words.
    Such manipulative devices have only given
    liberals and skeptics a foothold to discredit
    Christs Deity and the inerrancy of Scripture.

61
9.5 Theses
  • 8. What needs adjusting is our understanding of
    both the time and nature of fulfillment, and not
    manipulation of the time factor to conform to our
    popular, futuristic, and delay expectations.
  • 9. The kingdom of God was the central teaching
    of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a present but
    greatly under-realized reality, and must again
    become the central teaching of his Church.

62
9.5 Theses
  • 9.5 We have been guilty of proclaiming a
    half-trutha partially delivered faith to the
    world and to fellow Christians. We must repent
    and earnestly contend for the faith that was
    once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
  • If Christianity has been as effective as it has
    by proclaiming that Jesus Christ, the Messiah,
    came, died for our sins, bodily arose from the
    dead, and ascended to Heaven at just the right
    time (Rom. 56 Dan. 924-27), how much more
    effective might it be if we started preaching,
    teaching, and practicing the whole truthi.e., a
    faith in which everything else also happened at
    just the right time, exactly as and when Jesus
    said it would and every NT writer expected (John
    1613). Dare we continue to settle for less?

63
4 Preterist View
  • The Three Biggest Problems
  • 1) I just cant believe everything is fulfilled
    and over.
  • My eyes arent seeing what these words are
    saying!
  • If all was fulfilled, wheres our hope?

64
4 Preterist View
  • Great Service
  • The first is the time-frame references of the
    New Testament regarding eschatological prophecy.
    The preterist is a sentinel standing guard
    against frivolous and superficial attempts to
    downplay or explain away the force of these
    references.
  • R.C. Sproul,
  • The Last Days According to Jesus, 202-203.

65
4 Preterist View
  • Great Service
  • The second major issue is the destruction of
    Jerusalem. This event certainly spelled the end
    of a crucial redemptive-historical epoch. It must
    be viewed as the end of some age. It also
    represents a significant visitation of the Lord
    in judgment and a vitally important day of the
    Lord. Whether this was the only day of the Lord
    about which Scripture speaks remains a major
    point of controversy among preterists.
  • R.C. Sproul,
  • The Last Days According to Jesus, 202-203.

66
4 Partial Preterist View
  • For some it means some or most end-time
    prophecies were fulfilled, but not all.
  • For others it means all or most were fulfilled
    in some sense but and await a more complete,
    final, or ultimate fulfillment when the Lord
    returns in the future at the end of time.

67
  • I am convinced that the substance of the Olivet
    Discourse as fulfilled in A.D. 70 and that the
    bulk of Revelation was likewise fulfilled in that
    timeframe. . . .
  • While partial preterists acknowledge that in
    the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 was a
    parousia or coming of Christ, they maintain that
    it was not the parousia. That is, the coming of
    Christ in A.D. 70 was a coming in judgment on the
    Jewish nation, indicating the end of the Jewish
    age and the fulfillment of a day of the Lord,
    Jesus really did come in judgment at this time,
    fulfilling his prophecy in the Olivet Discourse.
    But this was not the final or ultimate coming of
    Christ. . . . which will be universal in scope
    and significance. It will come . . . at the end
    of human history as we know it. It will be, not
    merely a day of the Lord, but the final and
    ultimate day of the Lord.
  • R.C. Sproul, The Last Days According to Jesus,
    158.

68
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69
  • The modern revival of preterism represents an
    interesting and important paradigm shift in
    eschatology.
  • The advantage of preterism is that is saves the
    phenomena of the New Testament time-frame
    references it interprets biblical prophecy
    according to the images used in Scripture itself
    and it offers a framework for consistent
    interpretation of the difficult apocalyptic
    literature of the Bible, such as that found in
    Daniel and Revelation....
  • Serious study and dialogue are needed if we are
    to reach agreement as to how far preterism is to
    go and what remains for the hope of the churchs
    and the cosmos future in the full plan of
    redemptive history.
  • R.C. Sproul, in Foreword, And It Came To Pass
  • The Third Annual C.E.F. Symposium Preterism,
    vii.

70
Four Views(in order of prominence)
  • 1 Premillennial (Dispensational)
  • 2 Amillennial
  • 3 Postmillennial
  • 4 Preterist

71
Recap 2 Questions
  • How much end-time prophecy was relevant to his
    original audience?
  • Premillennialists, none of it or little of it
    was.
  • Amillennialists, some of it was.
  • Postmillennialists, most of it was.
  • Preterists, all of it was relevant and
    fulfilled, right on time.
  • What do you say?

72
Recap 2 Questions
  • 2) Whos right?
  • Premillennialists the very-soon future
    fulfillment of all things.
  • Amillennialists some past partial fulfillment
    but mostly future fulfillment whose time we
    cannot know.
  • Postmillennialists a lot of past partial
    fulfillment but significant far-away future
    fulfillment.
  • Preterists past fulfillment of all things.
  • What do you think?

73
Early Church Fathers(2nd-4th centuries)
  • At least four subscribed to a preterist (past
    fulfillment) understanding that . . .
  • At least some of Jesus all these things (Mt.
    2434) had indeed occurred within the time span
    Jesus had specified.
  • i.e., this generation.

74
Eusebius a preterist view
  • It is fitting to add to these accounts the true
    prediction of our Saviour in which he foretold
    these events . . . .For there shall be great
    tribulation . . . . These things took place in
    this manner, in the second year of the reign of
    Vespasian A.D. 70, in accordance to the
    prophecies of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ .
    . . .
  • Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 3,
    Ch.7, in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,
    Vol. 1, 141.

75
Eusebius a preterist view
  • . . . the abomination of desolation, proclaimed
    by the prophets Dan. 927, stood in the very
    temple of God . . . which was now awaiting its
    total destruction by fire.
  • Ibid, Book 3, Ch.5., 138.

76
Eusebius a preterist view
  • Moses had foretold this very thing and in due
    course Christ sojourned in this life, and the
    teaching of the new covenant was borne to all
    nations, and at once the Romans besieged
    Jerusalem and destroyed it and the Temple there.
    At once the whole of the Mosaic law was
    abolished, with all that remained of the Old
    Covenant.
  • Eusebius, Proof of the Gospel, Book. I, Ch. 6,
    35.

77
Eusebius a preterist view
  • Recorded that in obedience to the Lords Olivet
    Discourse instructions, 1st-century Christians
    fled from Jerusalem to Pella in Transjordan
    around A.D. 68 after the first siege and before
    the second one,(1) . . . . and no Christians were
    trapped and destroyed in the siege of Jerusalem
    which concluded in A.D.70.(2)
  • (1) Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book III,
    V. 86, 138.
  • (2) Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 3,
    Ch. 5, 138.

78
Eusebius a preterist view
  • For so it was prophesied concerning the
    destruction of the royal glory of the Jewish
    nation . . . . Yea, in return for their insults
    to the Lord who thus prophesied, there has not
    failed for them lamentation, mourning and
    wailing. And it was only after our Saviour came
    . . . . laying their Temple low, and driving them
    from their country, to serve their enemies in a
    hostile land . . . .
  • Eusebius, W.J. Ferrar, ed., The Proof of the
    Gospel, Book 7, Ch. 4, 144, 146 on Zechariah
    141-5.

79
Eusebius a preterist view
  • When, then, we see what was of old foretold for
    the nations fulfilled in our own day, and when
    the lamentation and wailing that was predicted
    for the Jews, and the burning of the Temple and
    its utter destruction, can also be seen even now
    to have occurred according to the prediction,
    surely we must also agree that the King who was
    prophesied, the Christ of God, has come, since
    the signs of His coming have been shewn in each
    instance I have treated to have been clearly
    fulfilled.
  • Ibid., 147.

80
Clement of Alexandria a preterist view
  • . . . in the one week, was He Lord. The
    half of the week Nero held sway, and in the holy
    city Jerusalem placed the abomination and in the
    half of the week he was taken away, and Otho, and
    Galba, and Vitallus. And Vespasian rose to the
    supreme power, and destroyed Jerusalem, and
    desolated the holy place.
  • Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or
    Miscellanies, Vol. 2, Book 1, in The
    Ante-Nicene Fathers, 329.

81
Athanasius a preterist view
  • And Jerusalem is to stand till his coming, and
    thenceforth, prophet and vision cease in
    IsraelAnd this was why Jerusalem stood till
    then?namely that there they might be exercised in
    the types as a preparation for the realitybut
    from that time forth all prophecy is sealed and
    the city and temple taken, why are they so
    irreligious and so perverse as to see what has
    happened, and yet to deny Christ,
  • Who has brought it all to pass? What then has
    not come to pass, that the Christ must do? What
    is left unfulfilled, that the Jews should now
    disbelieve with impunity?
  • Athanasius, Incarnation of the Word,
  • Section 39 Verse 3, Section 40 Verses 1-7 in
    The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 57-58.
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