Part 3： An Introduction to Partial Preterism #1
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Summary
In Part 3 of our series on eschatology, Pastor Ken continues the discussion of premillennialism and postmillennialism, and introduces the concept of partial preterism, which is a view of the future through the lens of the early Church Fathers.
Transcript
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Praise be to God. We are still here talking about eschatology. What a blessing. Today's
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sermon will be a little bit longer. All these sermons, by the way, are going to be a little
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bit longer just because they're topical and it's really difficult to figure out where to start and
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where to end. But I really do believe that this congregation will be blessed by the truths that
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we find here in Matthew 24. So this is part three of our series on eschatology. In part one,
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I offered an overview of the three Orthodox views, historic premillennialism, amillennialism,
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and postmillennialism. Last week, I focused, which was part two, on the origin of the kingdom of God,
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Addressing the kind of premillennial view that Christ's earthly kingdom is strictly a future event and it's not a present and growing reality.
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I believe we dealt with that and dedicated some time to looking at the scriptures.
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I argued from Daniel 2, the kingdom parables in Matthew 13, to demonstrate that Christ's kingdom began at his first advent, his first coming, and has been expanding progressively through time and over the ages by the proclamation of the gospel through the means of the church, his body, here on earth.
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I also presented eight additional scriptures, which I think might have actually been seven,
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but anyways, that refute the idea of a postponed kingdom,
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That a crown implies a throne, and that a king demands that there be a kingdom,
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and that earthly subjects requires it to have an earthly rule.
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All of those elements, logically, biblically, philosophically, we talked about all of those.
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Now, today, I want to introduce a vital, I mean vital, eschatological framework called partial preterism.
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Now, imagine trying to solve a puzzle, and you have all these pieces, but nothing seems to be able to fit together just right.
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right. And you're trying every combination, but it feels that it's just impossible to complete
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for some reason. You feel like you're missing pieces. Now, imagine that someone comes up to
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you and gives you this key piece, that from this piece, all the other pieces start to fit
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together. Suddenly, the whole picture comes out without forcing things in place.
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viewing eschatology through what i call and what many theologians call the partial
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preterist lens it's it's like receiving that key piece to that puzzle suddenly the the events and
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the timelines uh start to make sense uh the whole you know story of matthew 24 uh first and second
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Thessalonians, Revelations, Daniel 9, all of these things start to come together. Partial
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preterism has incredible explanatory power. You're going to see that. Incredible explanatory
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power. Now, the term preterism comes from the Latin term praetor, and it just means past.
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And so partial preterism is really just partial pastism.
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Well, it's the belief that many of the eschatological prophecies that we see in the Bible,
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Revelation chapter 1, all the way through chapter 20, verse 6,
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have been fulfilled in, say, Matthew and John's future, but in our past.
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Not all of the prophecies, but a significant portion of them.
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Specifically, it's the belief that those prophecies,
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including elements like the seven seals that we read about,
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the seven trumpets, the beast, the false prophet,
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The Antichrist, the fall of Babylon, the Battle of Armageddon, specifically all of those events leading are essentially all of those realities are the events leading up to the fall and the destruction of Jerusalem.
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They are not they're not future events to come down the road in generations to come.
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Those are speaking about events that have already been fulfilled in the past.
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Now, partial preterists use the term partial because there is a heretical group called full preterists or hyper preterists that they believe essentially everything has been fulfilled in prophecy.
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And that group of people have been rejected over and over and over again throughout millennia.
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In fact, the early church fathers held to a partial preterist view.
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Many of them did. Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea.
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Partial preterism is also supported in one of, well, I believe it's actually the earliest church document.
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It's called the Didache. It was written around 50 A.D.
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I mean, it was written before some scripture was written.
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and it it holds to this partial preteristic view showing that there was a prevalent group of people
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in the early church that were holding this position but this is also the position of many
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of the reformers so calvin held this position uh matthew henry who wrote the longest standing
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bible commentary on earth uh wrote this or held this position um john owen isaac watts
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Jonathan Edwards, who many of us claim to be the greatest theologian to ever come out of America.
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It's the position of Doug Wilson and Jeff Durbin.
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Kenneth Gentry, which we will hear some quotes from him today.
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It is a very firm position backed with robust theological history.
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now in america we have been saturated with futurist or futurism it's the opposite of
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preterism it's the interpretation which believes that all the prophecies of matthew 24
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and of revelation are all to come in the future they weren't just in matthew and john's future
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Now, I believe the best way to demonstrate the validity
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is to take a section of scripture like Matthew 24
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and over a couple weeks, maybe two to three weeks,
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just demonstrate how the events that are in that text
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are speaking about a near future and local event 70 AD and not a distant future global event
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which is what many of the dispensational premillennial views are today now it's
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important to note that Matthew 24 is the cliff notes or the abridged version of revelation
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It's the, if Revelation is the movie, Matthew 24 is the trailer.
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It gives us a little glimpse of what's in Revelation.
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Now, Matthew is considered the Jewish gospel.
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R.C. Sproul says, Matthew was written for a Jewish audience.
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While the message of Jesus is universal, Matthew particularly focuses on how the kingdom was being rejected by the Jewish people during his earthly ministry.
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And he highlights the consequences of that rejection.
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He focuses on Jewish customs without explanation.
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His references to Christ as the Son of David and his emphasis on Old Testament themes
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all point to a gospel with a Jewish audience and a Messianic perspective, end quote.
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Now, Matthew 24 is part of what's called the Olivet Discourse.
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It's a discourse that was given on the Mount of Olivet.
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Now, many modern Christians interpret verses 1 through 35, or at least 3 through 35,
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Jesus in this section is not predicting the end of the world,
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but rather prophesying about the judgment on ethnic Israel for them rejecting him as their Messiah,
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which includes the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
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It also talks about the destruction of the entire Old Covenant age, or the Jewish era.
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of the of biblical history so i want to begin by offering some context on matthew before we jump in
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chapters 21 through 23 matthew is basically recording constant conflict between jesus
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and the temple i mean you could go back and read it later today if you'd like
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There's several arguments with temple officials.
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In 23, 29 through 39, which is the chapter right before us,
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Now, I want to set some context by looking at Matthew 23,
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This is Jesus' final pronouncement of judgment upon the Pharisees that he was rebuking in that chapter.
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And pay attention to the repeated use of the second person plural pronoun you.
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We don't have a second person plural pronoun in English, so we say y'all.
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You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
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I send you, prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify.
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And some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town.
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So that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth.
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From the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Achaia.
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Whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
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Truly, I say to you, he could almost be pointing at them.
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All these things will come upon this generation.
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This is Jesus foretelling his own crucifixion and the persecution of his apostles.
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And God's judgment that's coming upon them for rejecting their Messiah.
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Now, the word generation in the Greek is ganea, and it literally means this present age.
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It speaks to the kind of contemporaneous audience to whom Jesus is addressing.
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Now, we know this because every time Jesus or any of the gospel writers uses the word gania, it refers to people living in that specific time.
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To this generation that he's speaking to right in front of him.
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You can see it in Matthew 11, 16, 12, 41, 42, 24, 34, Mark 8, 12, 13, 30, Luke 7, 31, 11, 29, 30, 31, 32, 50, 51, 17, 25, and 21, 32.
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Every time, it's speaking to the contemporary audience that's before them.
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More precisely, Jesus was addressing, I would argue, the specific 40-year generation.
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Well, the concept of a 40-year generation was very, it still is, very popular among a Hebrew culture.
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It's throughout the Old Testament, but they really, I think, draw it originally from the generation that wandered 40 years in the wilderness.
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And that was always used to describe and break up generations.
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Now this is important because at the end of our passage in Matthew 24, verse 34,
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He says, truly, truly, I say to you, this generation will certainly not pass away
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okay keep that in mind for the next several weeks we'll get there
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and why is that important because in the last in less than 40 years from the words
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that came out of jesus's mouth all of those events that we will see in matthew 24 including
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the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple take place in 70 AD, just shy of 40 years.
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Because it demonstrates that the substance of Matthew 24, as you will see, is not a distant
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future and global prophecy about the end of the world, but it's a near future and local
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of these things that we're about to learn about
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all come to pass in the generation of the audience that he is
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conflict over and over again with the temple and the Pharisees. And he's foretelling the Jews of
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their coming judgment. In fact, he even closes chapter 23 with a few phrases like, your house
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is left to you desolate. And he says, to close it off in 23, you shall see me no more.
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then in matthew 24 1 through 2 it says jesus came out from the temple okay now you can understand
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the gravity because he's been in the temple for three chapters and jesus goes i'm out now
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jesus came out from the temple this is verse 1 in chapter 24 and was going away
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temple gates and you you begin to ascend to the mount of olives which is east of the city
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you can see on the mount of olives the kidron valley runs between the mount of olives and the
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temple and it's elevated up so you can see all of the temple and all the temple buildings so they're
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walking up jesus left the gates they're walking up to the mount of olives crossing the kidron
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captures the essence of their conversation a little
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Tacitus records, quote, the Jewish temple was famous beyond all other works of men, end quote.
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The ancient Jewish historian Josephus, who lived through the destruction of Jerusalem, he says,
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Now the outward face of the temple in the front wanted nothing that was likely to surprise either the eyes of men or their minds.
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for it was covered all over with plates of great weights of gold.
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And the first rising of the sun reflected back a fiery splendor
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and made those who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away
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just as if they were looking at the sun or the glory of God himself, end quote.
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It would be like climbing a mountain and looking down at like the Cathedral of Notre Dame or the Cologne Cathedral in Germany.
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Do you not understand the judgment that I was proclaiming on them?
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I tell you, not one stone will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.
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In other words, the temple that they have grown up seeing,
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that it became one of the reasons he was crucified.
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And those who passed by Jesus blasphemed him, wagging their heads, saying,
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Aha! You who said that you will destroy the temple and build it in three days,
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So it was a widely known reality that Jesus was saying,
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it says as he was sitting on the mount of olives the disciples came to him privately
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they walked up imagine them walking up jesus says that they finally get to the top
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and now his disciples come to him privately because there's probably a crowd as always with
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jesus and they say tell us when these things will happen and what will be the sign of your coming
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and the end of the age the obvious response to such a massive claim is curiosity i'll tell you
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what that's exactly what i would ask jesus if i was walking with him and he's like that thing's
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about to go. Soon as I get a second, I'm going up to Jesus going, okay, wait. When? How? Fill me in.
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And Jesus says in verse 2, he says, do you not see all these things? And then in verse 3,
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the disciples go, when will these things happen?
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The question any wise interpreter must ask themselves is, what is the antecedent to these
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things? What is the object or the substance behind that pronoun? It's a demonstrative pronoun.
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it's referring to the claim that not one stone here will be left upon another
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In other words, their question is, when will the destruction of the temple happen?
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the antecedent to the demonstrative pronoun these things
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Nobody could imagine the temple being destroyed.
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this two-sided question what will be the sign of your coming to destroy it
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and put an end to this jewish or temple age that's the question that's being asked and i'll defend
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that in a second this is the question that is the catalyst for the entire all of it discourse
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What are the events that will precede this destruction of the temple?
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And what are the things that will come and bring an end to the temple or this covenant age or covenant era?
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Now, you have to understand that Jesus wants his disciples to know that he is establishing a new kingdom.
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That is the entire theme of the book of Matthew.
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And this kingdom is not to be confused with Jerusalem.
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It's not to be confused with the sacrificial system.
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It's not to be confused with the priesthood or the temple or any element of the Old Covenant way.
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quote, the end of the age is a reference to the transition between the old covenant and the new
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covenant, an event marked by the judgment of Israel in 70 AD. N.T. Wright says, Jesus's reference to
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the end of the age in Matthew 24 speaks to the end of the Jewish age and the coming of God's kingdom
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in a new form, inaugurated by Christ's death and resurrection,
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and finalized in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
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The end of the age is not the literal end of the world,
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but rather the conclusion of the Old Covenant age,
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which was signified by the destruction of the temple
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ultimately the end of the age is not referring to the end of the world why would it there is
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no context at all to be talking about the end of the world they're talking about the temple
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why would they bring up the conversation well what about the end of the world jesus
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no that's not the conversation whatsoever one theologian put it the end of all the it is the
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end of all those things that were always intended to be temporary first corinthians 10 11 speaks to
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the old testament saints or speaks of the old testament saints and it says now these things
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This happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the age has come.
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Okay, there's so many more scriptures that I just don't have time.
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This is speaking about the end of the covenant age.
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The famous Bible commentator John Gill, he writes in this verse, he says,
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and which now in times of the apostles were at an end.
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Everything in those periods that were figurative and emblematic
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Okay, ultimately, these disciples are living in what was called by theologians
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You're transitioning from the Old Covenant era to the New Covenant era.
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It's why people often say John the Baptist was the last Old Covenant prophet and the first New Testament preacher.
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He's crossing this barrier between two ages.
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The Old Covenant age would be definitively cut off
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because it would be impossible to fulfill all of the requirements of worship without a temple.
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And the reason this judgment came is because God's people had rejected their Messiah.
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Now, this should not shock us at all, that God is coming to destroy nations with military armies for unfaithfulness.
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Jesus is just acting like Ezekiel or David or Isaiah or Daniel.
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He's just prophesying in the same way that the Old Testament prophets would prophesy.
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The conquest of Canaan by Israel under Joshua.
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These are all God's judgments, destroying nations.
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The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was just another form of divine judgment.
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But it was, in my opinion, very unique in its severity and finality.
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Josephus, the Jewish historian who, again, witnessed the fall of Jerusalem,
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he wrote, it's a long quote, so just bear with me here.
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Now, as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder,
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because there remained none to be their objects of their fury,
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Titus gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and the temple.
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In order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison in the upper city,
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as were the towers, their three forts, also were spared.
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in order to demonstrate the posterity of what kind of city it was
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and how well fortified it was, which the Roman valor had subdued.
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But for all the rest of the walls surrounding Jerusalem,
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it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground
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that there was left nothing to make those that came there
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believed that Jerusalem had ever been inhabited.
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And truly, the very view itself was a melancholy thing,
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for those places which were adorned with trees and pleasant gardens
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Nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judea
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and the most beautiful suburbs of the city
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but lament and mourn sadly at such a great change,
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for the war had laid all signs of beauty quite waste.
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Nor had anyone who had ever known the place before, had come to it now, would have ever known it again.
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This is the fulfillment of those words in Matthew 23, 38.
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But then, Jesus offers a more detailed answer to his disciples' question.
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The when and the what will be the signs of his coming.
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So read with me chapter 24, verses 4 through 8.
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For many will come in my name, saying that I am the Christ, and will mislead many.
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You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars.
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See to it that you are not frightened, for those things must take place.
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And in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.
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But all these things, there's that word again, are merely the beginning of the birth pangs.
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I'm going to exposit this for the next probably 20 minutes.
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But that's as far as we're going in Matthew today.
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you. Greek is so wonderful. English is like black and white.
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is in the present tense possessive pronoun. It's a second
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person plural, which means again, y'all. You. Y'all.
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Jesus then tells his disciples three indicators.
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Three signs that will occur prior to the temple being torn down.
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Each of these signs are recorded by both Christians and secular historians as prevalent realities that occurred between 35 and 70 A.D.
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This is actually a really common thing in first century Israel.
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Well, because the Jews were experiencing increasing pressure from Rome.
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up. But remember, they were thinking of a political Messiah. They weren't thinking of a spiritual
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Messiah. They were thinking of a political king. And how do we know that? Well, because
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John 6.15 says, therefore, when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take him
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They all wanted kind of the Donald Trump of their day.
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So when it says that there are going to be many messiahs, it's not talking about many
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so when jesus says for many will come in my name saying that i am the christ
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he's talking primarily about military leaders and politicians and and maybe some spiritual
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gurus of sorts one jewish scholar writes the first century especially the generation before
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the destruction of the temple witnessed a remarkable outburst of messianic emotionalism
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This guy's not even a Christian, by the way. This is a Jew.
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This is to be attributed as what we shall see, not only the intensification of Roman persecution,
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but also to the prevalent belief induced by the popular chronology of the day that the age was on the threshold of the millennium.
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There are numerous people who came out between Jesus' time and 70 A.D. claiming to be the Messiah or the Savior of Israel.
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but interestingly about 15 years before the birth of Christ
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It was forced peace, but nevertheless it was peace.
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And this is important because that generation, since the birth of Christ, had not really seen or heard of many wars.
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Origen wrote, quote, the abundance of peace that began at the birth of Christ was astonishing, end quote.
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Pliny the Elder, Eusebius, Epictetus, and others
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wrote about this time of geopolitical harmony in the Roman Empire, which included
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initiating source of the destruction of Jerusalem. He died before it happened, but he was the one
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that initiated that reality. Ken Gentry writes, quote, at Nero's death in 68 AD, the Pax Romana
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was shattered, sparking the Roman civil wars, including the chaotic year of four emperors,
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which was 68 through 69 AD, which nearly led to the empire's collapse. As the events leading up
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to the Jewish war unfolded, Christians were called
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wow it's really peaceful when you start hearing
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famines are severe shortages of food to the point of death they are pretty rare actually
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which makes jesus's mention of them very helpful because you go you're not having famines every
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year so it'd be hard you know when the famines come that'll be a sign acts 11 verse 28 actually
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records a famine. It's stating, quote, then one of them, named Abagus, stood up and showed by the
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Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in
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the days of Claudius Caesar. End quote. That's Bible right there, okay? Two things I want to say
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about that verse. First, this prophecy aligns with the historical record of Josephus about the year
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46 AD, he said, quote, now during the time of the reign of Tiberius Alexander, who was
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the Roman governor of Judea at the time, different than Caesar, a great famine occurred, which
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was so severe that many of the people were forced to leave the city to find food. The
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famine was so distressing that it caused a widespread suffering. Queen Helena moved
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to the plight of the people, sent large sums of money to Alexandria and brought corn for
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the people to eat distributing it generously to the needy end quote second i want you to go back
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to the acts 11 28 verse i want you to look at luke's language real quick just for a second
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it says there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world
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okay you have to learn as a bible interpreter that when the scriptures say world
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okay I could give you a hundred examples I feel like it's just a
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use actually the word cosmos which is the word for
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kind of the universe of the whole world he uses the
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and in this instance refers to the whole known world
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basically the roman empire and this is important because in matthew 24 14 and 24 21 which we're
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going to discuss over the next couple weeks the term world is used there and it's also oikomene
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and you cannot interpret it as the whole earth because if you do you're going to get yourself
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stuck into the dispensational futuristic position again did a famine hit the whole world
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is that what he's talking about in Acts 11 28 no there's so much evidence that that was not true
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there's evidence in India there's evidence in China no it wasn't the whole it was the known
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world the Roman Empire and so we are going to be smart Bible interpreters when it comes to these
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words and we're going to understand it because we're going to be able to look at the Greek and
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see 4k about the usage of particular terms next there was also a famine
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leading up to and during the fall of jerusalem this is vital vital it was so intense
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this famine was so intense that josephus who again was an eyewitness to the fall of jerusalem
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he wrote this and this is really even hard to read okay so pay attention there was a certain
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woman that dwelt beyond the jordan her name was mary it was now become impossible for her to find
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any way to get food while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow when also
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her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself, nor did she consult with anything
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but with her passion and the necessity that she was in. She then attempted a most unnatural thing,
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a snatching up her own son, who was a child suckling at her breast. She said, O thou miserable
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infant for whom shall I preserve thee in this war this famine in this sedition as to the war
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with the Romans if they preserve our lives we must be slaves this famine also will destroy us
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even before that slavery comes upon us come on then be thou my food and be thou a fury to these
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seditious varlets. Josephus says, as soon as she had said this, she slew her son and then roasted
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him. And onlookers were seized with horror and amazement of mind and stood astonished at the
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sight when she said to them, this is my own son. And what has been done has been my own doing.
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Come and eat of this food, for I have eaten it for myself.
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Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman or more compassionate than a mother.
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But if you be so scrupulous and do not abominate this my sacrifice,
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as I have eaten the other half myself, lest the rest be reserved for me also.
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being never so much affrighted at anything as they ever saw and with some difficulty they left
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the rest of the meat to that mother upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action
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and while everybody laid this miserable case before their own eyes they trembled as if they
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as if this unheard of action had been done by themselves so those that were distressed
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by the famine were very desirous to even die as those already dead were esteemed to be happy
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because they had not lived long enough to see or hear of such miseries end quote
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okay what makes this so incredible is that the old testament actually prophesies that this exact
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thing would happen. And that it would happen because the Jews broke their covenant by rejecting
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the Messiah. It literally says that mothers and fathers would eat their own kids. I'm going to
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read it to you. Deuteronomy 28, 54 through 57. It says, the sensitive and the very refined man among
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The tender and the delicate woman among you, who you would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground
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because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse to the husband of her bosom and her son and her daughter
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her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children from whom she bears,
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for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits
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in which your enemy shall distress you at all of your gates.
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Jesus is saying the Israelites rejected their Messiah.
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And what's the sign of this destruction of the temple?
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There's going to be false political leaders that are ruling up or rising up.
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When you start to see these things, it's best for you to leave the city.
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That's basically what's being communicated here.
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And when you find out that all the Christians in church history, prior to the fall of Jerusalem,
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actually did leave Jerusalem and went to Bethany,
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you realize, wow, they had some insider knowledge.
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They believed that Matthew 24 was about the fall of Jerusalem,
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Jesus also prophesies about that famine in Luke 1944.
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for days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you surround
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you and close in on you on every side and level you and your children within you to the ground
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and they will not leave you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of
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your visitation speaking to him as for earthquakes and i'm getting ready to wrap up here
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Philostratus mentions earthquakes in Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, and several other of the areas.
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Ken Gentry writes, Tacitus mentions earthquakes in Crete, Rome, Apamea, Figura, Campania, Laodicea of Revelation fame, and Pompeii.
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During the time just before Jerusalem's destruction,
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severe earthquakes plagued the reigns of the emperors Caligula 37 through 41 Claudius 41
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through 54 and according to Seneca uh 4 bc to 65 a.d others occurred in Asia Achaia Syria and
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Macedonia of this area and this era Ellicott's commentary observes this pay attention to this
00:54:01.220
Perhaps no period in world history has ever been so marked by these earthly convulsions
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as that which intervenes between the crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem.
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There is more earthquakes in that short period of time than of any other period of ancient history.
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And he's prophesying about the signs, about the birth pains that are coming to end, not just Jerusalem, not just the temple, but the entire Old Covenant economy.
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it's historically ignorant and very prideful now why because it makes prophecies that are
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not about us seem to directly apply to us today which ignores the original context of the text
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and the audience to whom these warnings were actually given
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we love in america the idea of this kind of future cinematic apocalyptic reality
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okay what partial preterism does is it allows you as a christian to realize that all of the
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things of revelation and all of the things of matthew 24 the hard things the tribulation 70
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AD. The difficulties, they're all in the past. And what that does is it frees you up now to be
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hopeful that Christ won and that he's triumphant and that he's victorious and the church will
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continue to triumph in history through the proclamation of the gospel and that the gates
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of hell will not prevail against the church and the kingdom will grow like a mustard seed that
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becomes the biggest kingdom or the biggest plant in the garden plants and that we will be like
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leaven that leavens the entire lump of mankind you're free to be hopeful and optimistic because
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you realize oh those things are not speaking about my future but the future of those original
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audience it really is that key that allows you to interpret eschatological history and make
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everything make sense and now be hopeful and optimistic about the kingdom that's coming
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And that is, and that will be consummated when Christ returns.
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So, in part four, I'm going to continue taking us through Matthew 24.
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Explaining how each of these things are speaking about the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
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And then I'll close with one to two sermons on a biblical defense of post-millennialism
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that will help you realize the optimistic nature of a victorious and reigning kingdom.
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We thank you that you are a reigning and ruling king.
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Lord, that your church, your body, is victorious because you are victorious, our head.
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Lord, we ask that you would give us wisdom and humility.
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Lord, that we would not make the scriptures about us, but that we would make them about you.
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Lord, that we would apply properly those passages which apply to us, but not those passages that do not.