Well, turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation 6, verse 1, this afternoon. Revelation 6, verse 1. We are right at the entrance of the prophetic section of the book of Revelation. And so I've I've seen fit to slow down just for a few weeks here and give you an overview of the four major views of Revelation. We have looked in past weeks at amillennialism, and this afternoon we will look at what is called preterism. Let's bow together for a word of prayer. Father, we do give you thanks for your word, which is to be held in great reverence by your people and to be carefully divided and applied. And we ask that you will give me the ability to do that here this afternoon. We thank you for the many godly men who have espoused the various views of the book of Revelation that we are looking at. And we pray that you would help us to receive truth from each one of these views so that we might profit from it in regard to our knowledge of the way that you deal with men and the things that you intend to accomplish in regard to the building of the Church of Jesus Christ in this present age. Be mindful of us, O Lord. Help us to be lifted up in our minds and hearts as we Listen to the sermon this afternoon. Give me strength to be able to preach it. And help each of us to profit by our time together here in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, Revelation 6-1 says this, Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, Come and see. As we go through this overview of the four views of the book of Revelation, we should ask ourselves, why is it so difficult to come to terms with what this book means? Why is it that there is four different views of the book of Revelation, major views? There's probably other views besides the four. There may be a good many more views besides the four, but I'm taking it in terms of four views. And I think as we study these views, we'll come to see why this is. It's because as we look at the text of the book, we find it hard to distinguish between what is literal and what is figurative. The prophetic words of the Scripture are often figurative, but they have a literal, spiritual reality related to Jesus Christ and some aspect of the advancement of his kingdom. Sometimes, as we shall see, it's an opposition to that kingdom that's being described. And ultimately, there is always given to all of God's people the sure and certain hope of the church advancing to victory in regard to the witness that she bears. That's why I've named this series of sermons We're going through this book, The Faithful and True Witness. That is the theme of this book. The church knows because of this book that God will give her the ability to see the cause of truth triumph on the earth. And as we think about interpreting pictures and symbols, every serious student of the Bible wants to take the words that are written there at face value. The book of the Revelation, we're forced to see the words written there as a picture of something other than what is literally being mentioned or described. Our mind wants to fight that. Because we do believe that God is truth and we do believe that his word is straightforward. We believe that when God speaks, that He would speak simply and straightforwardly in a literal way in every passage. But sometimes we forget that the Bible is a spiritual book. It is full of spiritual words. And the words which represent a literal reality are often given to us to convey an unseen spiritual reality either within ourselves or outside of ourselves. In the Gospels, in the epistles, especially in the Gospels, we find the reality of what our hearts are like and what needs to take place in us by God's grace. And it's pictured for us in various ways. The Bible is primarily a book of the heart. And Jesus often spoke in parables or picture stories and picture language. It has instructions, the Bible does, and principles that are wholesome for the body as well as for the soul. But it is the state and needs of the soul that come first. And when it comes to the book of Revelation, what we're seeing is the state and needs of Christ's church. in relation to how she can fulfill her witness to her Lord, how Christ's kingdom can come to reign upon the earth even as Christ now reigns in heaven. The advance of Christ's kingdom and the oppositions to that advance are given to us here with their final triumph. But as we look at the subject of preterism this afternoon, I must state that I am sure that many of the men who hold this position believe in the inerrancy of the Scriptures. I believe that the Word which God has given to us is credible. They believe that the Word of God which is given to us is credible. They believe that all the prophecies of the Bible have a definite fulfillment. They simply believe that those prophecies have had their fulfillment already and in the past. That's what the word preterist means. that the prophecies of Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation have had their fulfillment already in the past. So that's what we're looking at here this afternoon. We're studying the system which is called preterism. Full preterists. There's two different kinds of preterists, I should say. Full and partial preterists. Full preterists believe that these prophecies have all been fulfilled, and partial preterists believe that many or most of them have been fulfilled with the exception of our Lord's return and the resurrection of the dead. Some preterists are actually post-millennial. They are usually theonomists. Theonomy meaning the bringing of the Old Testament law, the principles of that law, and the punishments of that law into political society so that we would see We would see God's justice and God's word and God's law seen in every aspect of society. It has a number of advocates among the Presbyterians, especially the reformed Presbyterians, especially. And you may have heard the names Russus Rush Dooney and Gary DeMar and Ken Gentry. Junior, men like that are theonomic as well as being preterists, and many of them are post-millennial, not in the sense that I am post-millennial, but in the sense that Christ's kingdom will gradually, imperceptibly by degrees, conquer in time. Now, some preterists are post-millennial in their view of the triumph of the church gradually. And whether a person is full or partial preterist, they believe that the book of Revelation was not written at the end of the first century, but rather it was written before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. And some men have gone to great lengths to try to prove that this is so. The prophecies have been fulfilled for them specifically in the time frame of the generation in which Jesus and the apostles lived. They are fulfilled in that approximately 40 year period of time from 40 to 70 or 30 year period of time from 30 AD to 70 AD, that 40 year period of time. The climax of those prophecies is the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. It may be shocking to some of us who are so used to hearing about prophecy from the standpoint of the premillennial dispensational view of things, which is the predominant viewpoint in the United States of America in the 20th century and 21st century now. We're so used to hearing about the rapture and the seven year tribulation and a millennium to follow in which Christ will reign personally and visibly in Jerusalem in a rebuilt temple, that it is hard for us to understand why we should even begin to consider such a view as Preterism has to offer. But there are some important truths to be gleaned from this system of prophetic interpretation as well. So this afternoon, I'm going to attempt to give to you some of the reasons why some Christian people our preterists. I'm going to use R.C. Sproul's recent book, The Last Days According to Jesus, as a source book to attempt to convey this position. We're going to look first at the preterist view of time reference, first this week, and then we will look at the preterist view of the resurrection of the dead next week, and then I'm going to attempt to draw conclusions after I've described each of these. First of all, the Preterist view of time reference. There are a number of key words which are found in Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation that cause Preterists to believe that the fulfillment of prophecies in both of these sections of Scripture is limited to the first generation after our Lord. I want you to turn with me over to Matthew 24. Matthew 24. Matthew 24 is what is known as the Olivet Discourse from verse 3, where it says there, Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us when these things shall be, and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? These questions given to Jesus by His disciples are set in the context of Jesus and His disciples coming out of the temple and the disciples' desire to show Jesus the buildings of the temple. In the parallel passage in the Gospel of Mark, it says in chapter 13, verse 1, Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here. And Jesus answered and said to them, Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down. And it says in verse three that Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately. This is in the Mark text now in chapter 13. Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of all these things? the sign when all these things will be fulfilled. Now remember the questions. They regard the destruction of the temple, when that will take place, the sign of Christ's coming, and the end of the age or the world as it is called in the King James Version. When will these things be? Then in both passages follows the description in which many people in our day who are premillennial and dispensational, they apply major parts of the things that are mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 to our own day and the days preceding the rapture of the church and the time of what they call the Tribulation, the Great Tribulation. But the preterist, the full preterist, sees from the context of these verses that all these things, the sign of Christ's coming and the end of the age, have been fulfilled in that generation in which Jesus and the Apostles lived. They believe that the word generation, which is genea in the original Greek, does not refer to the Jewish race, as many Christians have believed, But it refers to the people who were contemporaries of Jesus, people alive in that generation. A man named J. Stuart Russell, who is prominent among them as a full preterist, has tried to prove that every usage of this word by Jesus in the Gospels is referring to his contemporaries. and that therefore it's right to consider the fulfillment of the prophecies in Matthew 24 as taking place in that day. Now, in order to be consistent in his conclusion, he also has to go on to assert that the second coming of our Lord took place in 70 A.D. That's what he has to come to to be able to be consistent with his theology at that point. To conclude that not only has Christ come to judgment in 70 A.D. against Israel, but they also believe that Christ has returned in his second coming. They do not like the idea that the The text of Scripture, once established in its meaning, should be interpreted to apply to two different events, thousands of years apart, when the meaning of the word generation only applies to that generation. They would say something like this, when in the text in Matthew 24, 34, it says, Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Does it mean what it's saying? And they're saying, yes, it does, including Christ's second coming. The partial preterists, though they see the coming of Christ predicted in the Olivet discourse as having been fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem, they also believe in a future consummation of Christ and his kingdom in Christ coming again personally and visibly in the future. So among preterists, they're divided. The full preterists believe that all these things of Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation have been fulfilled already in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and Jesus Christ coming. And the partial preterists say we believe that Christ came in judgment upon Jerusalem in 70 A.D., but we look for a future coming of Christ personally and visibly in the future. Now another word or phrase that's very central to the understanding of the Preterist position, which ties into our trying to understand in what sense Christ returned a second time for the full Preterist, is the phrase, the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord. Now the Preterist, in his thinking, believes that the Old Testament references to the day of the Lord And many, if not all, of the New Testament references to the day of the Lord, both have their fulfillment in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, rather than a time yet future from our day. These Old Testament prophecies, which are found in Malachi 4, verses 1 to 5, Amos chapter 5, verses 18 to 20, Zephaniah 1, 7-17, find their fulfillment not in the more immediate context of the invasion of the Chaldeans upon Jerusalem and Judah, but rather in the destruction of Jerusalem and the ending of the Jewish theocracy. The Day of the Lord is a day of visitation from their perspective. A visitation in judgment, but it's also a visitation in deliverance of Christ's true people. In this sense, the day of the Lord begins for the preterists in Christ's first coming from the time when He first engaged in His public ministry. A great prophet has risen up among us, it says in Luke 7, 16, and God has visited His people. Because this time of Jesus' visitation is not recognized by the nation at large, then the stage is set for His visitation in judgment. in 70 A.D. And that day of judgment would not be hundreds or thousands of years off. It would just simply be a few decades away. This man, J. Stuart Russell, believes that the day of the Lord's visitation of wrath and judgment on Jerusalem is the same time predicted in Malachi 3.1. Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. But who can endure the day of his coming? and who can stand when he appears. So what he's saying is that Christ's first coming and Christ's second coming are much closer together than what most people have ever believed was so, who have not come to this view of the preterists. For partial preterists, it does mean that Christ came to judgment against the Jewish nation, but they still look for the future return. of Jesus Christ. The full Preterist says that His coming was secret, it was invisible, it was not open and public, and that's how they can justify that strange view of theirs. Now the way that Preterists view chapter 24 of Matthew is the same way that they view the book of Revelation. Since they believe that it can be demonstrated to satisfaction that the book was written by the Apostle John before 70 A.D. and the destruction of Jerusalem, they believe that its correct interpretation is found in relation to all the trials and oppositions that the early church would face in that generation. Nero is asserted to be the Antichrist. The number 666 is thought to correspond numerically to him, and this they attempt to prove at great length. You can read the proofs for this in R.C. Sproul's book of the writings of the various authors. I'm not going to take time to give it to you here. But understanding the time frame reference of Revelation is key to all the preterist interpretations of the book. J. Stuart Russell says, must it not of necessity refer to matters of contemporary histories referring to the book of Revelation? In other words, contemporary history, history in that generation rather than history way out in front in the future. He says, the only tenable, the only reasonable hypothesis is that it was intended to be understood by its original readers. But this is as much as to say that it must be occupied with the events and transactions of their own day. And these comprise within a comparatively brief space of time. Those are his words. He says further, if there be one thing which more than any other is explicitly and repeatedly affirmed in the Apocalypse, it is the nearness of the events which it predicts. This is stated and reiterated again and again in the beginning, the middle, and the end of the book. We are warned the time is at hand. These things must shortly come to pass. Behold, I come quickly. Surely, I come quickly. And yet, in the face of these express and oft repeated declarations, he says, most interpreters have felt a liberty at liberty to ignore the limitations of time altogether and to roam, he says, at will over ages and centuries regarding the book as a syllabus of church history and almanac of political ecclesiastical events. for all Christendom to the end of time." He says, this has been a fatal and inexcusable blunder, he says. Well, how should I respond to what Mr. Russell has said and what I have laid out before you this afternoon regarding Preterism? I'd like to say this. The book of Revelation, as it is the Word of God, like other books of the Bible, must have its reference to every generation of Christians and not simply the first generation. I think that's where we have to begin. All scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. It is that to us just as much as to the first generation of Christians. And I believe that prophecy in the Bible is not just a document stating events that were to take place in relation to the Jewish nation alone. And I think it is one of the fatal flaws of this preterist view. Mr. Russell condemns the historical view of Revelation applying to all generations generally, and he thus blunts and cuts off the application of its truth to all succeeding generations. The New Testament explicitly says that there has been the breaking down of the barrier between Jew and Gentile. So prophecy must have its fulfillment to both Jew and Gentile all the way down through the church age and not simply at the generation that lived from 30 to 70 AD. There is the truth, I believe, is something that we need to consider here about amillennialism and this view of preterism that I'm talking to you about here this afternoon. Amillennialism is much too broad and general in its scope in terms of prophetic fulfillment, whereas preterism is much too specific in its fulfillment and limits it thus to that first generation. The truth, I believe, lies somewhere in between. There's a specific fulfillment, and there are also specific principles which govern the fulfillment of prophecy and its application to ourselves today. This is why both amillennialism and preterism have application to ourselves today. They do. the Preterists have done a great service for all Christians in this one respect, in showing us that much of Matthew 24 has reference to the immediate contemporary context which was the coming of Christ in judgment upon Jerusalem. Now I think that this is a very significant point. If you've ever tried to study prophecy and you've looked at Matthew 24, I'm sure that you've just struggled with it. But I believe that the preterists are right, at least the partial preterists are right, that most of Matthew 24 is referring to the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem. And that should be understood as we look down through Matthew 24, you can see the Jewish context of it. very clearly and all the instructions given very explicitly by Jesus about the abomination of desolation, which was the Roman troops bringing their ensigns of their eagles and everything right into the temple, which desecrated the temple during that time period. And that the Christians among the Jews were to flee and not look back at that point in time. And you read Josephus and you see how the Roman armies came up. And then suddenly they just pulled back for a short period of time. That allowed all those Christians to flee to Pella, where a place was prepared for them that they might be protected during that time period. All of these things are fulfilled in that time period. Most of them in Matthew 24. It's verses 29 to 34 that are in question. It was that generation that saw all those things of verses 4-34. And verses 29-34 of Matthew 24 can refer in the primary sense to the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of that Jewish age or the end of that Jewish world. That's what took place right there at 70 AD. There was no longer a theocratic Jewish nation. It didn't mean that there was an end to the Jews. as a race, or that they wouldn't, as we're seeing them now, come back into their land, setting the stage for their future conversion. But as I said to you before, it's the end of the Jewish state as God ruling over them as a theocracy with all of their ceremonial law and their temple worship and all of those things have been destroyed, they have been abrogated, they have been set aside. And so now when Jewish people are converted, they will be brought into the church of Jesus Christ. They will be brought in and Jews and Gentiles are in the one church. There is not two separate programs for Jews and Gentiles any longer because of Jesus Christ. Verses 29 to 34 can refer in the primary sense to the destruction of Jerusalem, but a secondary sense also have a reference to Christ's second coming at the end of the world. The words seem to swell up there in verses 29 to 34 to a tremendous height that goes beyond what you see even at the destruction of Jerusalem. Now those things did have application to the destruction of Jerusalem, but there is a greater sense yet to come in the judgment of the great day and the return of Jesus Christ. And so the Preterist, having brought this truth to light, he doesn't need to be so wooden in his interpretations of those verses as to insist that verses 29 to 34 do not have reference to Christ's second coming at the end of the world. There is a near fulfillment and there is a far fulfillment. And you'll see in prophetic matters that that is often the case, especially in regard to the phrase, the day of the Lord. You look at it in the Old Testament context, and there was a fulfillment of what was written in Joel and Amos and Zephaniah to the nation of Israel of that day or the generations succeeding them in the Jewish nation. But it also has an application to us who live thousands of years down the road in terms of the day of the Lord that is yet to come. The day when Christ will come back and judge the world. And we need to understand it so. We need to understand that there is a near fulfillment and a far fulfillment in prophecy and prophetic matters as we look at the Bible. In the prophecies of the Old Testament, the day of the Lord's mention to those people and to that day are coming days. And there was a judgment of God on their Jewish society because of their persistent sin And the prophecy could apply in the first sense to that generation who would see the Chaldeans coming and the destruction of the temple of that day and take them away captive. But it also has a most definite word of application to us as well. So we find that there are prophecies even in the Old Testament related to Old Testament Babylon, which also then can be applied in a near sense, in a far sense. There is a New Testament Babylon. And this New Testament Babylon in the book of Revelation will be destroyed as well here yet in the future. So we find that there have been in the history of the church a number of major spiritual comings of Jesus Christ. There is only one literal, physical, bodily coming and return of Jesus Christ. But there are many comings of Christ, both in judgment and revival, in order that God's purpose might be fulfilled among the nations and in the preaching of the gospel. Theologians such as Jonathan Edwards and commentators such as Thomas Scott, David Brown, John Gill and others have done a good job of giving us much help on the application of these prophecies to ourselves and to our day, even if the timing and dates of great events in the history of the church are not fully known or understood. Yet there is much profit in the application of truth which is in or which surrounds the prophecies. We have seen this already in the book of Revelation and we will see it more. as we go through the book of Revelation. I haven't time to show you these things in detail, but we will see and understand more as the exposition of the book continues. Next week, we're going to look at Preterism from the standpoint of the resurrection of the dead. Let's bow together for prayer. Father, we do thank you for the truth that we learn from even this system, which we cannot agree with at a number of points. But we do thank you, Lord, for the study of many godly men trying to bring the truth to light concerning what will become of the church here upon the earth and what we are to expect in the future and what you would have us to think about in order to be good witnesses to your truth. And so help us, we pray, to carefully think about the meaning of these prophecies, that we might find the blessing that is in them for ourselves and for our church, and indeed for the forward progress of truth in our lifetime. We ask for your mercy in helping us to understand these things correctly. In Jesus' name, Amen.