PRETERIST-IDEALISM

JESUS CHRIST IS THE FOCAL POINT OF ALL ESCHATOLOGY

Jesus calls HIMSELF the Eschaton (Rev. 1:17) and the Telos (Rev. 1:8)
Why give His glory to a calendar year?

Introduction & Definitions
Color Coded by Classification

Luis de Alcasar (1614)
"I say a profound philosophy teaches, that in the Creation of things it was the intention of the Artificer and Builder, that in those objects of Creation which come within the reach of our vision, men might also be in possession of wonderful symbols and hieroglyphics, serving to point out to them mystically such lessons as would most highly concern them, viz., true instruction in faith and morals.

Origen, after pursuing the subject in a beautiful train of reasoning, concludes at last with the following words, 'Therefore may all things be referred upward from the visible to the invisible, from the corporeal to the incorporeal, from the manifest to the hidden ; so that the objects of the world may be understood to be created by divine Wisdom according to such a divine dispensation, as from visible things, by means of the things and exemplars themselves, teaches us the invisible, and transfers us from earthly things to those which are of heaven.'  Thus far Origen ; who doubts not that, in the creation of things corporeal, it was the principal design of the divine Artificer that they should be symbols and traces, as it were, of the mysteries of our faith.  Therefore the merely natural office proper to every particular thing, in virtue of which it ministers to other bodies, and in which the philosophy of Aristotle rests, by no means satisfies the infinite Wisdom of God, and His especial providence in the salvation of souls ; nor indeed His own wonderful counsel whereby He hath determined to raise us from the corporeal to the incorporeal.  It is probable, therefore, that the omnipotence of God, when He had the power of making infinite species of souls, plants, and stones, selected and created out of the infinite things which he had in his power, such as were the more apt to signify the mysteries of our salvation, and a conformably moral instruction. "And this was accomplished in such a manner, that the universal mechanism of things created should maintain a most beautiful harmony with the wonderful counsel of God in the salvation of men ; and that things corporeal should subserve to the representation of those which are spiritual."  Vestigatio Arcani Sensus in Apocalypsi

Robert G. Clouse
"A preterist is one who believes that most of the prophecies of the Apocalypse has been fulfilled in the past.. The idealist [herein labeled the "spiritual" approach] views the Revelation as a great drama involving the transcendent truths such as the conflict between righteousness and unrighteousness or the victory over Satan." (Revelation: Four Views, xiv.)

Todd Dennis
"The quickest and most revealing way to describe this preterist/idealist hybrid is to consider which is the true nation of Israel.  "Preterist Israel" -- aka "Israel after the flesh" -- found its beginning and end in the process of time.  "Idealist Israel" -- aka "the Israel of God" -- was always that eternal nation in Christ for which the temporal nation only served as a representative.  All elements associated with "Preterist Israel" in history are tools, given to reveal to our hearts the everlasting fullness found in Christ alone."

Steve Gregg
"What I am calling the spiritual approach (often called the idealist or symbolic approach) to Revelation does not attempt to find individual fulfillments of the visions but takes Revelation to be a great drama depicting transcendent spiritual realities, such as the spiritual conflict between Christ and Satan, between the saints and the antichristian world powers, and depicting the heavenly vindication and final victory of Christ and his saints.  Fulfillment is seen either as entirely spiritual or as recurrent, finding representative expression in historical events throughout the age, rather than in one-time, specific fulfillments.  The prophecy is thus rendered applicable to Christians in any age." (Revelation: Four Views, p. 2-3)

"..most modern commentators, both of the evangelical wing and of the literary-critical type, have mixed some of the ideas of the spiritual approach with one of the other historically-based approaches.  This is not a difficult merger to effect, as Pieters rightly observes: [Spiritual] interpretations combine readily with those of the Preterists or of the Historicists, because any symbol, understood by them to refer to a certain force or tendency may be considered fulfilled in any event in which such a force or tendency is dominant." (Revelation: Four Views, p. 44)

"The most common tendency is to mix the spiritual approach with the preterist and then either call their view preterism, leave their view unlabeled, or give it an original name." (p. 44)

William Hendricksen
"PROPOSITION VI. The seals, trumpets, bowls of wrath, and similar symbols refer not to specific events, particular happenings, or details of history, but to principles - of human conduct and of divine moral government - that are operating throughout the history of the world, especially throughout the new dispensation. [idealism]

PROPOSITION VII. The Apocalypse is rooted in contemporaneous events and circumstances.  Its symbols should be interpreted in light of the conditions which prevailed when the book was written. [preterism]." (More than Conquerers, pp. 43-45, quoted and noted by Gregg)

Ron Maness
"It is here that we should note that the lines are not as clearly drawn as one might imagine. For example, one common tendency is to mix the spiritual approach with the preterist, such as Leon Morris and Michael Wilcock. Gregg also classifies William Hendriksen’s commentary as “essentially spiritual/idealist in character, with some preterist or historicist elements” (page 45). George Eldon Ladd is a futurist who believes that “the correct method of interpreting Revelation is the blending of the preterist and futurist methods” (page 46), but he also in some instances brings in spiritual/idealist views. The same can be said for futurist Robert Mounce." (review)

Albertus Pieters
"Today, scholars are prevailingly in favor of this system [preterism], either unchanged, or combines with the ideas of the Philosophy of History [spiritual] School." (The Lamb, the Woman and the Dragon, p. 44)

J. Denny Weaver
"Idealist and preterist views are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. The universal message derived from idealist interpretation supplies the contemporary relevance of a preterist interpretation. This comparison of views shows that the combination of a preterist approach with the general meaning of an idealist view is the only approach that takes seriously both the significance of symbolism for first-century readers along with relevance for contemporary readers." (Revelation as Nonviolent Rhetoric, Introduction)

PRINCIPLES AND APPROACHES
Color Coded by Classification

Lauren Hill's "Oh Jerusalem" - Seeing the Heart of Jerusalem
"Focused on the shadow, with my back turned to the light Too intelligent to see it's me in the way"
 

John Chrysostom
"Since Scripture addresses human beings and uses also human illustrations, which are indeed insufficient to represent the thing spoken of, those which exhibit the full proportions of the matter, suffice for the infirmity of the hearers". ("Homily 2: After Eutropius Having Being Found Outside the Church had been Taken Captive," Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1956) 258. The Greek text reads: "Επειδή ανθρώποις διαλέγεται (=η Γραφή) και ανθρωπίναις κέχρηται εικόσιν, ουκ αρκούσαις μεν παραστήσαι το λεγόμενον, αι δε δυναμέναις όλον το μέτρον αγαγείν εις το μέσον, αρκούσαις δε τη ασθενεία των ακουόντων". (PG 52, 404).

Alpheus Crosby
"It may be remarked alike of Dr. Lightfoot and of most of his successors in the figurative interpretation, and that without any disparagement of their merits, that they have been more successful in establishing the necessity of such an interpretation, than in rising to the fulness and spirituality of the figurative sense. They have rested too much in the outward, to the neglect of the inward; too much in the sign, to the neglect of the thing signified. Their thoughts have been too much occupied with the intense tragedy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and too little with those vast, those infinite spiritual transactions, of which that destruction was a mere circumstance. They have rested too much in the outward, to the neglect of the inward; too much in the sign, to the neglect of the thing signified." (The Second Advent: Or, What Do the Scriptures Teach, Respecting the Second Coming of Christ,  Page 131)

Patrick Fairbairn
"the deliverance accomplished from the yoke of Babylon formed a fitting stepping-stone to the main subject of the prophecy - the revelation of God in the person and work in the Son.   The certainty of the one - a certainty soon to be realized - was a pledge of the ultimate certainty of the other ; and the character also of the former, as a singular and unexpected manifestation of the Lord's power to deliver his people and lay their enemies in the dust, was a prefiguration of what was to be accomplished once for all in the salvation to be wrought out by Jesus Christ. There are few portions of Old Testament prophecy, which altogether resemble the one we have been considering.  Perhaps that which approaches nearest to it, in the mode of combining type with prophecy, is the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, which is not a direct and simple delineation of the judgments that were destined to alight upon Idumea, but rather an ideal representation of the judgments preparing to alight on the enemies generally of God's people, founded upon the approaching desolations of Edom, which it contemplates as the type of the destruction which awaits all the adversaries."  (Typology, pp. 125-126)

Samuel Lee
"In all which cases it should be remembered, that language is the mere vehicle of things conceived of, or entertained, in the mind : and that the things themselves, so entertained, are the great objects of our inquiries ; and hence, that we should not confuse ourselves and others, by inconsiderately mistaking one for the other." (The Events and Times of the Visions of Daniel and St John investigated. . xxi)

Peter J. Leithart, Ph.D.
"[T]ropologically, the history of Jerusalem can be understood as a model for the history of the soul (secundum tropologiam).  Just as David conquered Jerusalem and set up the Lord's throne there, so Jesus, His Son, conquers the inner city of the sinner and consecrates him as a saint, a holy one." (Peter Leithart, Ascent to Love, pp. 22)

Frederick Whitfield
"We are to give to everything a heavenly meaning.  We are to invest everything with a spiritual character.  The mind of heaven is to be impressed upon our words and deeds, and on the way in which we look at all earthly things.  This will be the case if the mind is spiritual.  Everything will then take colouring of the mind.   It is not as Christians that we shall thus see all things reflecting the deep things of God.  It will only be as our own souls are living in God's presence." (Earthly shadows of the heavenly kingdom, p. 13)

JERUSALEM A MODEL OF THE HEART
Historically called the "Tropological Sense" of Scripture

"Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Sion"

John Cassian (420)
"The tropological sense is the moral explanation which has to do with improvement of life and practical teaching, as if we were to understand by these two covenants practical and theoretical instruction, or at any rate as if we were to want to take Jerusalem or Sion as the soul of man, according to this: "Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Sion." (Conferences)

Peter J. Leithart
 ""[T]ropologically, the history of Jerusalem can be understood as a model for the history of the soul (secundum tropologiam).  Just as David conquered Jerusalem and set up the Lord's throne there, so Jesus, His Son, conquers the inner city of the sinner and consecrates him as a saint, a holy one." (Ascent to Love, pp. 22)

Isaac Pennington (1658)
"Now for the sakes of such as have been truly exercised in their spirits by the Spirit of the Lord, (and have felt the powerful work of his grace, and a building raised up by him) and may yet be further exercised, I shall add this. Jerusalem was a type of an inward building in the spirits of God's people"

Writers on the "Tropological Sense" of Jerusalem: Origen, John Cassian, Gregory the Great, Isaac Pennington

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• Pseudo Clement: "Second Clement" (145) "Now the Church, being spiritual was manifested in the flesh of Christ, thereby showing us that if any of us guard her in the flesh and defile her not, he shall receive her again in the Holy Spirit: for this flesh is the counterpart and copy of the spirit. No man therefore, when he hath defiled the copy, shall receive the original for his portion. This therefore is what He meaneth, brethren; Guard ye the flesh, that ye may partake of the spirit." "For the Lord Himself, being asked by one when His kingdom would come, replied, "When two shall be one, that which is without as that which is within, and the male with the female, neither male nor female." And "that which is without as" that which is within meaneth this: He calls the soul "that which is within," and the body "that which is without." ""the Books and the Apostles teach that the church is not of the present, but from the beginning. For it was spiritual, as was also our Jesus, and was made manifest at the end of the days in order to save us. "

• John Cassian's Conferences (420) "The tropological sense is the moral explanation which has to do with improvement of life and practical teaching, as if we were to understand by these two covenants practical and theoretical instruction, or at any rate as if we were to want to take Jerusalem or Sion as the soul of man, according to this: "Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Sion."

• Dr. John Gill: On the Everlasting Covenant (1769) "When we speak of the Abrogation of the [Old] Covenant this is to be understood, not of the covenant of grace, as to the matter and substance of it, which remains invariably the same in all periods of time; it is an everlasting covenant; it is ordered in all things and sure; it can never be broken and made void; every promise of it is unalterable, and every blessing irreversible; the covenant of peace can never be removed; it will stand firm to all generations; but with respect to the form of the administration of it only, even the form of it, under the former, or Old Testament dispensation, before described; and in order to set this in its true and proper light"

Horatio Bonar (1875)
"The temple was not overthrown till about forty years after the Son of God died on the cross. The type was preserved for a season, that the antitype might be more fully understood. The shadow and the substance were thus for forty years exhibited together. " (The Rent Veil)

John Calvin
"we are to lay hold on that kingdom which cannot be shaken; for the Lord shakes us for this end, that he may really and forever establish us in himself." (Hebrews 12:27)

Patrick Fairbairn (1854)
"Thus, the deliverance accomplished from the yoke of Babylon formed a fitting stepping-stone to the main subject of the prophecy - the revelation of God in the person and work in the Son.   The certainty of the one - a certainty soon to be realized - was a pledge of the ultimate certainty of the other ; and the character also of the former, as a singular and unexpected manifestation of the Lord's power to deliver his people and lay their enemies in the dust, was a prefiguration of what was to be accomplished once for all in the salvation to be wrought out by Jesus Christ. There are few portions of Old Testament prophecy, which altogether resemble the one we have been considering.  Perhaps that which approaches nearest to it, in the mode of combining type with prophecy, is the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, which is not a direct and simple delineation of the judgments that were destined to alight upon Idumea, but rather an ideal representation of the judgments preparing to alight on the enemies generally of God's people, founded upon the approaching desolations of Edom, which it contemplates as the type of the destruction which awaits all the adversaries."  (The Typology of Scripture - Two Volumes in One 2nd., 1854; pp. 125-126)

George Fox
"And as Daniel's windows were opened towards outward Jerusalem , in the time of the informers, when he prayed to his God, as he did before in the time when they were not. And therefore should not all your windows and doors be open towards heavenly Jerusalem , your mother, that God may come in and help you against the false mother and her children. And therefore keep your meetings in the time of sufferings, as you did before, and preach the word in season, and out of season; the word, I say, that commands the clouds and storms, and was before they were. And therefore blessed are those eyes that see the sun of righteousness that never sets, the sun of righteousness that changes not; for the prophet speaks of a sun and moon that shall be turned into darkness, before the notable day of the Lord come; and where this notable day of the Lord is seen, and by whom it is seen, they see the glorious son of God, the son of righteousness, by whom were all things, who is over all things, who is the head of his people, and dwells in them, who is present with them, and who was, and will be, to all eternity; of whose kingdom there is no end, who is God over all, blessed for ever." ("Collection Of Many Select And Christian Epistles, Letters And Testimonies")

Ernest Hengstenberg
"The great variety of these references (preterist, historicist, futurist) has arisen solely from the circumstance, that the prophecy  has not been reduced to its fundamental idea.  This fundamental idea is, the manifestation of God's punitive justice upon all which is hostile to His kingdom, which runs parallel with the manifestation of His grace towards the subjects of His kingdom.  This idea appears here, in all its generality, without any temporal limitation whatsoever.  Not one of these interpretations, therefore, can be absolutely right.  They differ only in this, that some of them are altogether false, inasmuch as they assume a reference to events which do not at all fall under the fundamental idea ; while others are only limited and partial views of the truth." (Christology of the Old Testament, p. 251)

Johnathan Edwards
Typological Connection Between Sodom and Jerusalem "Jerusalem was like Sodom, in that it was devoted to destruction by special divine wrath; and indeed to a more terrible destruction than that of Sodom. Therefore the like direction is given concerning fleeing out of it with the utmost haste, without looking behind, as the angel gave to Lot, when he bid him flee out of Sodom.  If it be inquired why Christ gave this direction to his people to flee out of Jerusalem, in such exceeding haste, at the first notice of the signal of her approaching destruction; I answer, it seems to be, because fleeing out of Jerusalem was a type of fleeing out of a state of sin. Escaping out of that unbelieving city typified an escape out of a state of unbelief. Therefore they were directed to flee without staying to take anything out of their houses, to signify with what haste and concern we should flee out of a natural condition, that no respect to any worldly enjoyment should prevent us one moment, and that we should flee to Jesus Christ, the refuge of souls, our strong rock, and the mount of our defense, so as, in fleeing to him, to leave and forsake heartily all earthly things." (Folly of Looking Back in Fleeing Out of Sodom)

Isaac Penington
"To the Jews, who were an outward people, there was an outward rule given, a law of commandments, statutes, judgments, and ordinances, proper to that  state wherein they were, and to that thing to which the ministry was: but all this was to be done away, and to end in that which all this represented. So that to Christians, Christ the substance being come, which is the end of all these shadows, the true Jew being raised in the immediate life, now there is a necessity for the immediate life for the rule." (Axe Laid to the Root of the OLD CORRUPT TREE; and the Spirit of Deceit struck at in its Nature)

Prophetic & Typological Imagery Pointing to Personal Realities in Christ

Ludwig Eichrodt
"But while in prophecy the messenger of God proclaims the future which has been opened to him and seen by him, a type possesses its significance, pointing into the future, independently of any human medium and purely through its objective factual reality; and in many cases its function is still hidden for contemporary people and is disclosed only when the gaze is turned backward from the New Testament time of salvation. From this point of view one might designate typology as "objectivized prophecy." It differentiates it, first from allegory, which has often been lumped together with typology, so that the latter has often had to bear the burden of the former's errors. Yet it is quite impossible to confuse the two if we look at them closely. For typology, the historical value of the text to be interpreted forms the essential presupposition for the use of it. For allegory, on the contrary, this is indifferent or even offensive, and must be pushed to one side to make room for the 'spiritual' sense which lies behind."  (EOTH: 229)

J. Nelson Kraybill
"Because Revelation is poetry and metaphor, it is inappropriate to "nail down" a precise meaning for every image. It is possible, though, to discern overall contours of what the book meant to the first readers. Then we listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church today through the same images." (Christianity Today, 10/25/99)

M. Guyon
"When Jesus Christ directs us in the “Lord’s prayer” to ask for “His kingdom to come,” He desires us next to say: “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” In other words, He asks us to say this: That you might reign, O God, we must make such a complete renunciation of self that, having no longer a will of our own, we do “your will” only, never our own, and do it as perfectly as the blessed “in heaven.” They do it the more perfectly as they are most completely free from the encumbrances of self. That the kingdom of Jesus Christ must come is beyond question: this takes place by the loss of our will in God’s after the gospel of the kingdom has been preached. The Gospel has been preached in all the world, but the gospel of the kingdom has been welcomed in but few hearts. When men learn, however, what it means to let Jesus Christ be King by complete self-renunciation, then they will endeavor to enter this kingdom. Then will the “Dragon” be chained. The Dragon is none other than self-love." (OF THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD BY THE INWARD LIFE)

William Edward Painter (1858)
"The real point and full force of the apostle Paul's argument is seldom apprehended : it is not that the Jewish symbols and service typified Christ and the service of the Christian Church ; this they did, but this is not the argument.  The argument is, that the whole Jewish economy, though upon earth, prefigured an economy not confined to the earth ; and that although the correspondency between the different parts of the Jewish economy prefigured a relationship which should subsist between the analogous ordinances in the Christian Church, yet the sphere and the locality being enlarged to heaven, by the ascension thither of the Head of the Church, this enlargement and transference rendered our service toto coelo different from that of the Jewish economy." ("Church of England Quarterly Review", vol. xi., p. 277)

Total fulfillment of all shadows, which are but applications of eternal realities in Christ

Todd Dennis

• Matthew 16:27-28 is Not About AD70 (2008) "Why would we expect the Lord to perform his acts of power and glory just once — be it in the past or the future? What good does that do all the other generations?  It seems to me that all prophecy ultimately finds its accomplishment in Christ internally and personally, as opposed to externally and historically. Even the cross must be received, and each follower must bear it as Jesus said."

• On Leaving Full Preterism After a Decade (2006)

• An Interview with Virgil Vaduva on Preterist Terminology and Hybrids (2006)

• Hebrews 12:25-29: Jerusalem as the Heart (2006) "Looking closer at the "promised land," we can see how the spiritual intent was revealed through fulfilled prophecy in Israel's day.  Though there was an appearance in the promises to Abraham of an ultimate fulfillment in reference to the everlasting possession of a particular tract of land in history, we know from New Testament revelation that the intent was regarding spiritual things in Christ.  Though the promise found natural fulfillment in "Preterist Israel", it was given to signify the true, greater fulfillment in "Ideal Israel" -- with actual participants from all nations, throughout all generations (including ours).

Gen 18:18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him

That is not to say, again, that the land promises weren't totally fulfilled in typological fulfillment of the promise to Israel (Joshua 11.23; Joshua 21.43,45; Joshua 23.14; 1 Kings 4.21; 1 Kings 8.56)... just that this possession of the natural land only looked to something eternal in nature.

Heb 11:9,16 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly.

This same principle is true of all visible, historical signs.. such as circumcision (which was a physical sign of spiritual things, Ro 4:11), the resurrection of Christ (which was a physical sign of spiritual things, Mt 12:39) and the fall of Jerusalem (which was also a physical sign of spiritual things, Mt 24:30)."

"We should not, however, bypass the shadows and only focus on the ultimate fulfillments, as though the accomplishment of the outward show is irrelevant.   Likewise, we should not consider the accomplishment of the natural to be the substance of what is being revealed, as though the giving of the sign is the substance of the sign... after all, symbols do not symbolize themselves." 

• Sam Frost: Todd Dennis and Preteristic Idealism (2007) "Just because some universalists are using preterism for a framework that they think helps there case does not make Dennis' accusations here true.  Dennis should be above such types of obvious fallacies. "

Nathan DuBois

• Scripture Interprets Scripture: Part One - The Covenants, The Jerusalems, The Flesh and The Spirit "Since most preterists agree that the kingdom is within and written on the heart and that the Spirit brought us to life and into an eternal covenant (the new covenant on the heart), then isn't the description of the Jerusalem from above warranted and accurate as a portrayal of our heart in Christ vs. the Jerusalem from below as our heart under the law?"

• The Nature of the Christ: The Dilemma of Chronology "Jesus was Messiah from the foundation, He did not become the Messiah only after He did the work. He did the work to reveal Himself as Messiah.. Are we really putting the "Type" as being the purpose and fulfillment over the "anti-type" to which they pointed?

• Why I Needed to Repent: A Letter to a Friend... Among Friends (2006) "Am I saying full preterists are the Pharisees of today? NO! But I am saying I AM ONE! I was so caught up in the system of things that I could SEE that I was missing, and causing others to miss, the things that can only be seen by the heart. I saw the purpose and will of God in AD 70, the "new" (though very old) law of God being advented, but I missed the heart behind it. I have been guilty of Phariseeism."

• God, The Judge of the Heart (2006) "The gospel is living, it is active. Today men are judged righteous or unrighteous by being "in Christ" or not.  Judgment accompanied the kingdom because it was at the "revelation of Christ" in AD 70, to the world, that men were judged by the gospel vs. the law. "

• My Thoughts and Understanding of Preterist Idealism (2006) "Any theology which looks to the temporal things as its finality, any theology which takes ANY scripture and applies them to the temporal realm, and does not apply them to the spiritual truth behind it for which it was written, is an incorrect theology."

• Blog: Nate4OneNation - "Where do we put the value of the truth. In the event? Or the pre-existing fact, kept in secret, from the very beginning. Is it us in AD 2006 seeing the cross made of wood, and the temple made of stone that crumbled, that can boast, because of those events (AD 30-70), that our salvation is true? Or was it true, because God declared it before the foundation of the world ever existed."

John Hedges

• The Preterist Train (2005) "Instead of being “TIMING” people, let us rather be known as the ones who proclaim the NATURE of our present kingdom. Lets go back to the parables of the kingdom once again, concentrating on what the Bible really says about the NATURE of the kingdom in which we NOW RESIDE."

Timothy James

• Preterist Eschatology in the Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries "Within the Catholic tradition, the only other scholar of note was Bossuet, bishop of Meaux.   Bossuet saw the Preterist position more as a new weapon to antagonize the Protestants with than a discovery of new truths forgotten as Alcazar did. Educated in the Jesuit tradition, Bossuet (1627-1704) held that since pagan Rome and Judaism had long since fulfilled the predictions, the Protestants were besieging the New Jerusalem. (Froom, Prophetic Faith, vol. 2, p.636). Bossuet sadly lacked the insight to see that the first century fulfillments were divine examples to all ages of any system that raises itself above God's truth; whether Protestant or Catholic."

John Noē - Preterist-Idealist

• He Never Left "..if you insist on limiting the comings of Jesus to only two times, then this second time occurred, chronologically, when Jesus came and appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:4-5) or to John on the isle of Patmos (Rev. 1). How do you count or discount those comings of Jesus?—and there are more."  My working definition for “a coming of Jesus” is this: it’s a personal and bodily intervention and/or manifestation of Jesus into the life of an individual, a group, or a nation on this earth. As we shall see, there are many different types of comings for different purposes, and they occur at different times and places.  Some are visible appearances; some are invisible interventions."

• An Exegetical Basis for a Preterist-Idealist Understanding of the Book of Revelation (2007) “The revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev 1:1) has a fuller significance and deeper character beyond its AD 70 eschatological fulfillment.  Consequently, the preterist notion that it only applies to AD 70 when Christ supposedly came in “finality” is a weakness to be amended.  And in a preterist-idealist synthesis, the strength of idealism remains that it “secures its relevance for all periods of the church’s history.”  But its major weakness—i.e. “its refusal to see a firm historical anchorage”— is removed.  That missing anchorage is supplied by Revelation’s A.D-70 fulfillment." 

SHADOW VS. SUBSTANCE OF PROPHECY ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS
Is the Ultimate Focus of Bible Prophecy on Natural/External or Heavenly/Internal Things?

BY FOCUSING ON THE SPIRITUAL/INTERNAL TRANSFORMATION
PRETERIST IDEALISM ANSWERS:

"HORIZONTAL" OR "VERTICAL" ?

A good many partial preterists have rightly recognized the typological nature of the fall of Jerusalem in AD70.  Unfortunately, what good could come from this is sabotaged by the belief that the historical shadows and types of that period point "horizontally" to even more historical events (al a the "personal return of Christ" at "the end of the world").   If they were to, rather, apply the historical signs "vertically" to higher, eternal realities in Christ, then they would find their insight to be more profitable.  This also applies to futurist systems which see some fulfillment of prophecy in AD70 yet more in the future.

IN HISTORY OR IN CHRIST?

Full Preterists do not recognize the events of the Roman-Jewish war as being typological in nature.  Of ALL the imagery in the history of Old Testament Israel, the events of the first century are remarkably seen as the only events exempt from typological employment!  This is due to the conviction that all previous typology generally points "horizontally" to that fall -- and to nothing beyond.  Though some recognize that spiritual realities are to be associated with that event, they are treated as either "moral applications" of fulfillment, or are considered to be spiritual events which took place within the natural realm "in AD70."  A few believe that eternity follows the same track as time does, and that AD70 in the natural realm is also AD70 in the eternal realm... when events (such as the gathering of the previously living saints into the kingdom) are supposed to have taken place. 

By focusing on AD70 as the critical turning point for the world, the ultimate fulfillment of eschatology is seen as being accomplished "in history" as opposed to finding their consummation "in Christ."  The secondary place generally given to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ in this system is also unfortunate.  This tendency leads to many debatable conclusions, such as the destruction of the law, sin, death and devil as being a historical reality for all humanity in the post AD70 era.

THE ULTIMATE INTENT OF PROPHETIC IMAGERY... POINTING TO EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL THINGS?

The Mosaic Law, for instance, was only the external show of that greater law of death and condemnation as likewise shown in Adam.  Its passing in history was given to signify our passing from death to life in Christ.  To focus solely on the Mosaic institutions themselves as the focus of "the law" is to miss its schoolmaster role.

• The Passing of the Law in History vs. in Christ - Externally Done Away in the Past FOR ALL.. or Internally Done Away in Christ FOR SOME :

• "Old & New Jerusalem" - External, Historical Cities showing the Internal Condition of the Heart (Bondage/Free)

• Aion = "Age to Come" - External Material Age for All showing Internal Kingdom "Without End" for Redeemed

• Eretz = World/ Land - External Geographic Locale (Planet or Palestine) showing Internal Locale (The Kingdom Within)

• "End of the Age" - External Destruction of the Mosaic Law "in AD70" showing Internal Overthrow of Old Things (2 Cor. 5:17)

• The "New Heavens and Earth" - External Material World for All showing Internal Spiritual Renewal for Redeemed

• "The Parousia of Christ" - An External, Historical Event "in AD70" showing Internal, Spiritual Presence of the Word

• "At Hand" - External Historical Proximity showing Internal Spatial Proximity

• Mystery Babylon - External Material City showing Internal Spirit of Antichrist

• "The Temple" / Mt. Zion - External Center of Worship in Building showing the Internal Center of Worship in the Heart

• "the Death", "the Sin" & "the Devil" - Externally Defeated For All "in AD70" showing Internal Spiritual Defeat on Behalf of Redeemed

• "The Millennium" - External, Historical Epoch for All (AD30-70) showing Internal Era of transition for Redeemed

• "Day of the Lord" - A Single Temporal, Historical Period of Judgment showing the Never-Ending Spiritual Judgment Seat of Christ

• "The Return of High Priest"  - Externally to those alive "in AD70" showing Internally to Each as Kingdom Comes to Them

• "The Resurrection" - An Historical Event "in AD70" showing Internal, Spiritual Awakening in Christ

• "The House of Israel" / Tabernacle of David - The External, Historical Nation Which Ceased "in AD70" showing Spiritual Nation of Redeemed

• "The Gentiles"  - The External, Not Racially Jewish, Nations showing Internal "Children of Disobedience" of all Races/Nations

• "The Millennium" - External, Historical Epoch for All (1000 Years) showing Internal Era of Transition for Redeemed

• Mystery Babylon - External Material City (Rome) showing Internal Spirit of Antichrist

• "The Temple" - External Center of Worship in Building (To Be Rebuilt) showing the Internal Center of Worship in the Heart

• "The House of Israel"  - The External, Historical Nation Which Ceased "in AD70" showing Internal, Spiritual Nation of Redeemed

• "The Gentiles"  - The External, Not Racially Jewish, Nations showing Internal "Children of Disobedience" of all Races/Nations

ETERNALITY OF SPIRIT / HISTORICITY OF MANIFESTATION

If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Jesus in John 3:12

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