I have made it no secret that I'm a Partial-Preterist (and a Postmillennialist) along the eschatological lines of R.C. Sproul, Gary DeMar, and Kenneth Gentry. A quick survey of the eschatological views of American Evangelicalism would, no doubt, confirm that my position is most certainly a minority view. As such, I understand that my view is controversial and there are many good Christians who will critique my it and believe it to be aberrant -or even heretical.
Yesterday morning I was perusing a website of a certain author who has written a number of helpful books and tracts concerning the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement other cultic/abberant movements in the United States. Unfortunately, this author has also placed Partial-Preterism within his crosshairs and attacks it in several articles online.
Do you know what's ironic?
Like most Futurist scholars, this gentleman has authored an eschatological book that may be a bit embarrassing for him now. You see, the author in question once speculated that Saddam Hussein was the "little horn" of Daniel 11!
Instead of using Scripture to interpret Scripture, the author used the goings on of our modern world to be his lens for interpreting passages of Scripture written (and most likely fulfilled) thousands of years ago. As always, speculative books such as this end up worthless after time rolls by and proves them to be the rubish that they really are. There's no doubt the bottom dropped out of any market there may have been for this book when Saddam was executed on Dec. 30, 2006!
These wild futurist speculations might sell lots of books when a certain world leader can be made to fit some weird eschatological profile, but inevitably, as we have seen time and time again, these speculations will be proven wrong. What we end up with is a Christian author who is essentially tale-bearing and tarnishing the image of someone who has absolutely nothing to do with prophecies that have already been fulfilled. (I can think of numerous times I have watched Hal Lindsey, on TV, hint that various world leaders might be the Antichrist.)
The author also wants to speculate that the fulfillment of the "Abomination of Desolation" (that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24) as being a future Islamic takeover and destruction of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Now honestly folks, could anyone in Christ's audience have possibly conceived of such a thing as he foretold those events? I doubt it.
Think about it for a second; what could have been a greater abomination to the Jews of Jesus' generation than for the Roman army to sack Jerusalem and totally destroy their beloved Temple? Certainly, an Islamic takeover and destruction of the modern Wailing Wall would cause a real ruckus, but I simply cannot see how it would be more of an "abomination" than what Titus and his legions did in 70 A.D.
It has become clear to me that Futurist authors will always end up embarrassing themselves as long as they (continue to be Futurists and) ignore the time indicators given by Christ in the Olivet Discourse and in the book of Revelation.
In Matthew 24:34 Jesus said "Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." Was this some distant generation 2000+ years in the future? No! Did anyone in Christ's audience understand him to mean that the events would be thousand of years in the future? Again I say NO! (Furthermore, had you or I been in the crowd that day, we wouldn't have taken His words to mean that either!)
In the opening of the book of Revelation, John calls his book "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place." Thrice in the last chapter of Revelation, the Lord tells John he is "coming soon" (see Rev 22:7, 12, 20). I don't know about you, but when someone tells me something is "coming soon," I don't interpret it to mean 2000+ years in the future!
Did Jesus return "soon" as He told John? Yes, of course. He came in judgment upon Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Was this judgment coming the Second Advent? No it wasn't. That event is still future and will happen at a time only known to God. We have no business trying to determine when that will be...
Until then, let us refrain from wild-eyed eschatological libel against world leaders and be content to advance the Kingdom of God throughout the Earth!
Bryan at the ἀκολουθέω Χριστόν [I Follow Christ] blog has asked this question and posted a great article on what the Bible actually teaches concering the "millennial reign of Christ." Are we waiting on Jesus to return to Earth before He can take the throne? Or does He already rule and reign? These are important questions and I think Bryan has given a solid exegetical response.
