Think Wink.

This is my final post on the moderate preterist arguments for the Olivet Discourse referring not to some distant post-twentieth century event but rather a prophecy describing the fall of the Second Temple and the end of the Jewish era in AD 70. I have been following R. C. Sproul’s book The Last Days According to Jesus. So let us further immerse ourselves in Dr. Sproul’s arguments that he presents from J. Stuart Russell. I will post two more posts in this series: one documenting the fall of Jerusalem and the other using the resurrection to distinguish between radical/full preterists and moderate/partial preterists.

In Matthew 13:38-40, Jesus is giving a parable about the end and his coming. The KJV translates his statement like this, “The field is the world (ho kosmos); the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world (aionos); and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world (tou aionos).” If one were to just read the KJV, they would have no idea that “the world” in Matthew 13:38 is not the same as “this world” in Matthew 13:39-40. Most people would understand “the end of the world” to be an end to human history, and this would be the case if the Greek word for world was kosmos. However, the word used in Matthew 13:39-40 is aion which speaks of an age or an epoch. In fact, the last phrase in Matthew 13:40 should be translated “the close of the age.”

The traditional Jew in the first century viewed the coming of the Messiah as the end of the previous age and the beginning of the new age, the Messianic Age, the coming of “the kingdom of heaven.” This message was key to John the Baptist and his preaching ministry for he preached that this time was “at hand.” The New Testament views the coming of Jesus as a time of crisis, which comes from the Greek word krisis meaning “judgment.” John called the Jewish people to repent because they were not ready for the Judge to come and visit his judgment upon them, the righteous to salvation and the wicked to damnation. John’s father, Zacharias, prophesied in Luke 1:68, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.” The Greek word for the term “visited” is the verb epeskepsato. The noun form is where we get episcopus, which is often translated “episcopal” or bishop in church government. Originally the bishop was a military officer that judged the readiness of the troops and punished those who weren’t ready for battle. The term scopus is where we get the English term “scope”, to look or to watch. The prefix of epi- serves to intensify the scoping. Hence the term means to look intently. The episcopus is a “supervisor” or as Sproul puts it, “one who gives ’super-vision.’” When God “visits” his people, he comes to scrutinize his people and either praise and redeem or judge and damn accordingly. All of this by way of introduction to further discussion.

Let us turn our attention to the Day of the Yahweh as found in some Old Testament passages. The prophet Malachi writes in Malachi 4:1-5,

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

Sproul comments on this passage, “The coming day is a ‘burning oven [NKJV]‘ that will consume the wicked, yet this day will also herald the Sun of Righteousness who will come with healing in his wings. Elijah will appear before this ‘great and dreadful [NKJV]‘ day.The day of the Lord will be a great day for Israel, but it will be a dreadful day. This is the crisis of the coming of the Son on Man” (The Last Days According to Jesus 76). Sproul cites a commentator who notes the significance of this theme in the prophet Joel’s writings. This commentator says that Joel refers to this day as a day of judgment for the wicked and salvation for the righteous. He also notes the connection of the Olivet Discourse and Joel’s prophecy as Jesus alludes to the book of Joel in Matthew 24:29. The commentator cited by Sproul does not see Joel 2:30-31 fulfilled by Pentecost. However it is of worthy note to mention that Peter sees this text at least partially fulfilled when he quotes the text in Acts 2:16-21.in his address to the Jews. The commentator would have us think that only one part of the prophecy was fulfilled and the rest has gone unfulfilled for thousands of years.

Listen to Amos on the Day of Yahweh, Amos 5:18-20 says, “Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?” Amos has an entirely pessimistic view of the Day of Yahweh because the remnant who were to look for the day could not be found among the people of Israel. The entire nation had willingly turned from Yahweh in the full light of the revelation of Yahweh in his Torah; they had become the chief enemy of Yahweh which he was to vindicate himself against on his Day. Other prophets however take a more optimistic view of the Day of Yahweh. Zephaniah 1:7-17 echoes the same gloom as does Amos 5:18-20. However listen to what Zephaniah preaches in Zephaniah 2:1-3, “Gather together, yes, gather, O shameless nation, before the decree takes effect—before the day passes away like chaff—before there comes upon you the burning anger of the Lord, before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the Lord. Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.” He takes an optimistic approach and gives hope, like his fellow prophets Isaiah and Hosea. J Stuart Russell argues that the OT prophecies of the Day of Yahweh point to AD 70 fall of Jerusalem. He says that we must place the events within close proximity to the time of John the Baptist because Jesus says that John the Baptist is the Elijah spoken of in Malachi 4:5 (Matthew 11:14). He argues that it is a certain time (cf. Acts 2:16-21) and a specific event because of John being Elijah. Russell argues that the Day of Yahweh is not the first coming of Christ but the second coming.

At this point, Sproul turns the discussion to understanding how the Day of Yahweh relates to the concept of the divine visitation (episcopus). Luke records that prophecy of Zacharias in Luke 1:68 to put the context of episcopus in the incarnation of Jesus. Then in Luke 7:11-17 we see that the “visitation” describes his ministry as he raises the son of the widow from Nain. Jesus again uses divine visitation in Luke 19:39-44 to lament over Jerusalem’s rejection of her Messiah and God when he “visited” her in a mission of mercy. He then speaks of the Roman army invading and destroying Jerusalem. Thus the divine visitation refers to Jesus’ first coming and sets the stage for the visitation of wrath. Divine visitation is a double-edge sword: mercy to the righteous and wrath to the wicked.

Russell believes that the visitation of wrath, the Day of Yahweh, is the sudden coming of Yahweh to his temple in Malachi 3:1. He notes that as Jesus neared the end of his ministry, he spoke more and more of a national catastrophe and divine wrath. He points to parables like the parable of the pound (Luke 19:11-27), the cursing of the fig tree, the parable of the wicked husband, the parable of the marriage of the king’s son (Matthew 22:1-14), the second lamentation over Jerusalem, the woes pronounced upon “that generation.” For the parable in Luke 19:11-27, Russell would say that for Christ to be known as King, for he was not known as king, he must leave for a little while. But he will return; thus telling the disciples that the kingdom will not come immediately but rather quickly and soon. However, Russell would not argue that the interim period is thousands of years away. The near return of Christ was the hope of the church. This depends on reading “the end of the age” as “the end of the Jewish age” rather than the end of history or the physical world as we know it. However, this is not found explicitly in Scripture; Russell rather deduces it from the New Testament’s teaching of the “Age of the Gentiles” and the end of the age being near.

So we must now try to understand the meaning of “the age of the Gentiles.” This is first found in the New Testament in Luke 21:20-24. This refers to Jerusalem being occupied by non-Jewish people, Gentiles. The question becomes, in light of 1967 and the Jewish retaking of Jerusalem from the Palestinians and Muslims and the parousia happening in right after Luke 21:24, does this mean that the parousia is after the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled and Jerusalem is given back to the Jews? Or is does Luke 21:27 signify a parousia at the end of one age and the beginning of the next? Which one is it? Several ways to answer these questions have arisen over the centuries. One is that the Jewish dispensation has stopped temporarily (i.e. dispensationalism). Another is that the Christian era is the “times of the Gentiles.” A third is that the time between the siege and destruction of the city of Jerusalem is “the times of the Gentiles.” But this distinguishing between a Jewish age and Gentile age lends credence to the idea that the Jewish age has concluded.

To the preterist, the Day of Yahweh is that time between John the Baptist and the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Here are about sixteen texts that show the nearness of the Day of Yahweh to the New Testament’s readers.

Matthew 10:23, “When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you [twelve apostles] will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
Matthew 26:64, “You have said so. But I tell you [high priest], from now on you [high priest] will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Romans 13:11-12, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand.”
1 Corinthians 7:31, “For the present form of this world is passing away.”
1 Corinthians 10:11, “Now these things happened to them [Israel] as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.”
Philippians 4:5, “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.”
James 5:8-9, “You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.”
1 Peter 4:7, “The end of all things is at hand.”
1 John 2:18, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.”
Revelation 1:1, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.”
Revelation 1:3, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”
Revelation 3:11, “I am coming soon.”
Revelation 22:6-7, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon.”
Revelation 22:12, “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done.”
Revelation 22:20, “Surely I am coming soon.”

Many of these texts have led to higher-critical scholars to reject the New Testament and say that it has left unfulfilled prophecies and thus cannot be trusted. But texts like 1 Corinthians 10:11 show that there is an age of the Jews coming to a close and is ending.

Related posts:

Matthew vs Mark

What Do You Say?

The Olivet Discourse Summarized