Hyper-Preterists often call their system “Consistent Preterism,” as they purport to hold a consistently preteristic view of Christian eschatology. Nevertheless, what 99% of them don’t reveal is that they are inconsistently embracing a Futuristic soteriology that is no longer in effect if “this age” has ended and the “age to come” arrived.
Let me explain. All New Testament Scriptures are addressed to believers living in “this age.” There is not a single verse Hyper-Preterists can cite which is directly addressed to believers living in the “age to come.” The reason is obvious. The purpose of the Gospel is to deliver us from this present evil age (Galatians 1: 4). Once “this age” has ended, there is no more need for salvation. If one should say there is, then let him answer: “Salvation from what?“ Certainly not from the law, which passed away in A.D. 70. Nor from Satan, who was destroyed (as Hyper-Preterists say) at the same time.
Hyper-Preterism conceals the fact that if Jesus Christ returned in A.D. 70 and all Biblical prophecy is fulfilled, there is nothing more to “deliver” anybody from. Under their scheme, the elements of the Old Testament law (including the moral law) have been completely dissolved, thus taking away the standard of condemnation. For “sin is transgression of the law” (1 John 3: 4); and “where no law is, there is no transgression“ (Romans 4: 15). Hence God and mankind are no longer at enmity. Or if they are, then on what is such enmity based?
Scripture teaches but one gulf between God and man, and that is sin. Bridge that gulf, and the controversy ceases. If death was destroyed in A.D. 70, then there is no more sin. For “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law” (1 Cor. 15: 56). Sin, death, and the law are all intimately connected. Take away one, and the others fall with it.
The consistent Preterist view holds that all salvation was perfectly consummated in A.D. 70. Those born after A.D. 70 never needed salvation, for they were never under the Old Covenant. This is the dirty secret that Hyper-Preterists don’t want you to know about.
Conservative Hyper-Preterists try to get around this evidence by stating that the application of realized eschatology is now individual. But the statement is absurd. In order to make their Hyper-Preterism stick, they must hold that there was a “general judgment” and “general resurrection” of all men in A.D. 70. Well, that which is universal in scope must also be universal in its effects. Therefore, if Hyper-Preterism is true, all men must be saved. For the individual is really part of the universal. Therefore, the universal effects of an A.D. 70 general judgment would cover individuals living past that event.
This universality of the parousia is verified in verses such as Rev. 21: 24, which speaks of the “nations which are saved” walking in the light of the New Jerusalem. It is clear that a preteristic second advent would have greatly altered the relation between God and man, insomuch that whole nations were saved in A.D. 70! This is surely much more than an individual matter, isn’t it?
Then, too, conservative Hyper-Preterists, in pleading for an individual fulfillment of realized eschatology, destroy their own theory by a fatal inconsistency. For some of them, to avoid the view that men are resurrected now claim that we actually receive our resurrection bodies when we die. Such teachers affirm that the “age to come” is entered at the death of the believer. And this of course allows the Gospel to continue past A.D. 70.
But the proposed solution falls apart at the slightest touch. If we enter the age to come at physical death, then we’re not in that age now. But if we’re not in the “age to come” now, then we must still be in “this age.” And if “this age” is still ongoing in A.D. 2008, then it couldn’t have ended in A.D. 70.
The need to be “saved” arises from an existence of those very conditions which Hyper-Preterists (in order to be consistent) must claim were destroyed in A.D. 70. Since Christ’s preterist advent was universal in scope and in effect, there is no way to carry His soteriological teachings past A.D. 70, whether corporately or individually. For those very teachings were given to address conditions which Hyper-Preterists teach (in theory, not in practice) no longer exist.
Either the elements of the Old Covenant age were dissolved, or they weren’t. There is no middle-ground. If they were, then there is no more need for ”deliverance.” If they were not, then it is clear that we are still living in “this age,” and Christ hasn’t returned.
But sometimes Hyper-Preterists employ an argument out of Revelation 21, which claims that in certain verses the standpoint of the Apocalypse has shifted from the time-frame of the writer (A.D. 66-67) to the “age to come.” This argument claims that the description of those left outside the city is a prophetic foreview of conditions existing after Christ’s second coming.
But this theory too breaks down when we realize that the whole book is addressed to Christians living in “this age.” Hyper-Preterists say that the invitation, “whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely” (Rev. 22: 17) is addressed to Christians living in the “age to come.” But what do they make of the next two verses?
(Revelation 22: 18-19) “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man should take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book.”
Clearly, if the invitation applies to Christians living in the “age to come,” then so do the warnings and curses. But the curses of “this book” were (according to Hyper-Preterists) exhausted by the vial judgments of A.D. 70. So what say ye, Hyper-Preterists? Why are you trying to hide the fact that consistent Preterism leads to Universalism. Having not a single Scripture which directly addresses believers in “the age to come,” can you not see what problems you create by saying that the age to come has already arrived? Not only is the whole New Testament canon thrown out of joint, but salvation by the Gospel is nullified.
We must keep in mind that salvation is preached to those living under the Old Covenant. You say the Old Covenant ended in A.D. 70. If it truly ended (and it had to, if all Bible prophecy was fulfilled 2,000 years ago) then the deliverance has been effected with such universal, worldwide, and all-encompassing results that it is impossible for anyone to still be living under the “elements.” Only acknowledge this, and you’ll do as many others have, and embrace a consistently universalistic view.
But I hope you don’t. Instead, my wish is that you repent of these perversion of Christ’s Gospel, and return to the faith that you once received–even the faith by which you claim to have been saved. Remember thy first love. Repent, and do the first works (Rev. 2: 4-5). Oh, how sweet is God’s grace that leadeth one from these errors to restore his soul beside the still waters! He can heal thee today, if thou wilt trust in Him.
But oh, Preterist, do something soon! for there is but a small step from Hyper-Preterism to atheism, and from that to the grave. Will you take that step? or will you return to the light from which you turned aside when you accepted the false Gospel of Hyper-Preterism? The choice is up to you. My only business is to warn others of what the leaders of Hyper-Preterism are hiding that people may avoid the snares and pitfalls of a “consistent Preterist” view.
. Khoury.
Brian,
Your view is a distortion of what the scriptures clearly teach.Nowhere does the Bible teach “end of time” but only time of the end.Scriptures clearly teach only two ages,the Mosaic age and the Christian age.
Eph 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Clearing teach the Cristian age is never ending. Are we in he Christian age Brian?
You have to totally ignore that verse Brian for your view to be correct. No matter how hard you try Brian,there is NO SCRIPTURE supporting your warped view of a return to the land of Israel in unbelief. These two points alone destroy your cultist tainted view.
Will