This gets a little technical but I think it’s worth looking at because it shows a fatal flaw in a core tenet of Preterism. To review Preterism is the doctrine that attempts to claim that all prophesy was fulfilled in AD 70. That Jesus has already returned and all the promises of his return have been delivered. On the surface, for those of us that were raised in orthodox doctrine, this can seem ridiculous. But even though preterism is a relatively new idea, (1940s) it is growing into a robust doctrine.
One of the core arguments of Preterism is that the 70 weeks of Daniel were continuous and there is no gap. Let’s look at the scripture.
“Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.” – Daniel 9:24
Now the ‘all is fulfilled’ teachers will say that all this has been done. The claim is that Jesus accomplished all this by AD 70 AD. Why 70? Because that is when the armies of Rome put down a rebellion in Jerusalem by a tortuous siege and ended by destroying the Temple, which is mentioned in verse 26 “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.”
Let’s take a look at the claim of accomplishment. I would argue by looking at the Jewish people and Jerusalem that these things have not been done. There is still sin, transgression, iniquity, and no everlasting righteousness existing in the Hebrews and especially in Jerusalem. So how do they resolve this? Well, the claim is that all of these things exist “in Christ”. Jesus’s death and resurrection did provide the way for freedom from sin for the whole world, not just for the Jews, a relationship with God and an end of condemnation for sin for believers. It is categorically nonsensical to say that sins are ended, that transgression is finished. But when we remember that this doctrine was put forward almost exclusively by Universalists then it begins to come clear as to the motivations. If we view even the most outrageous sin as mere illusion and that “because of the blood of Christ, God sees only goodness and righteousness, there is no more judgment, we must set aside our perspective to embrace the omni-will of God. -that’s their words. And of course, this position fails utterly. We know God is just and sin is the fruit of evil.
But if we look at this passage in context we find many more issues. Let’s look at verse 25:
“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.”
Now it’s important to note that Preterists do hold to the orthodox view of prophetic weeks. Meaning that they are weeks of years. And the scripture divides the seventy “weeks” of years into three periods of time: a seven-week period spanning forty-nine years, a sixty-two-week period spanning 434 years, and leaving a period of one week spanning seven years. The central difference is that historic orthodox teaching as been that the last week or seven years has not begun yet and the preterist view is that it did happen right after the 434 years with no gap in time completing the 470 years. This approach, however, causes three very serious problems.
The Gap
One, there is still a gap. One of the big claims of preterist is how dispensationalists made up a gap in Daniel’s 70 weeks. I am not a dispensationalist but I disagree with the preterist claim that there is no gap and their dirty little secret is that they do too. But first the dispensationalist gap. They didn’t invent the dividing of the 70 weeks mentioned at the first of Daniel’s prophecy in verse 24. No, the prophecy is divided in the very next verse: “There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;(Da 9:25).
So the scripture its self divides the 70 weeks into 3 parts. Part one (7 weeks or 49 years) is the time it took to rebuild the temple. Part two (62 weeks or 483 years) coincides perfectly with Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem in AD 30. So far almost everyone is in agreement. But is there a third part? I am a math teacher so let me handle this one for you. 7 + 62 is 69. What about the last week or the last 7 years? Preterists claim it was completed in AD 70 and the rest of us claim it has not been completed yet. We are in a gap. A gap of mercy and grace talked about by all the New Testament authors (2 Peter 3:9). The preterist says there is no gap. But hold on!
From the resurrection of Christ was in 30 and the destruction of the temple was in 70. So….. Math again. There is a 40-year gap. Not immediate. Both views have a gap but that’s not the end of the problems. Did the siege of Jerusalem last 7 years? No. Not even close. It took about four months.
What is their explanation? Well, to be as generous as I can they are really not sure. Well, they back up and claim the 70th week was Jesus’s ministry. They place the beginning of the 70th week at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry and that he was cut off in the middle of it. So there is three and half years of the prophecy that actually never happened. To me this is very dangerous in that causes Daniel’s prophecy to be incomplete. So some put in a gap here and claim it was completed in 70 but again was the siege 3.5 years? No, it was four months. And there is still a gap. To be clear, the preterist view on the 70th week is not consistent and many different writers are very sure about very different explanations. They are still working towards a consensus, but remember the idea is not very old compared to understanding the church has always had that we are waiting for Jesus’s return.
Let’s look at more issues this view has in Daniel.
Abomination of Desolation
Second, and more serious issue: Who is he that makes the desolation of abomination? Who is it “HE” that confirms the covenant with many for one week? Preterists teach that this is Jesus. This event is mentioned 3 times. First in Daniel 9:26-27, second in Daniel 11:30-32, and third by Jesus himself in Mt 24:14-16. Let’s take a look at the passages.
And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined. (Da 9:26).
Notice that there are 2 people mentioned in verse 26. One is Messiah and the second is the prince who is to come. The preterist claims that these are two mentions of the same person: Jesus. So in the next verse “He” is Jesus. Lets look:
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate (Da 9:27).
So who is the “he” that confirms the covenant for one week? Ends sacrifice and offering? And one who makes desolate? Is it Jesus? Hard to tell from this passage but lets look at the next description which contains more detail.
Ships from Cyprus shall come against him; therefore he shall be grieved, and return in rage against the holy covenant, and do damage.
“So he shall return and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant. 31 And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation. 32 Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong (Da 11:30–32).
Now it becomes clear that Jesus is not the HE that causes the abomination of desolation. This person rages against the holy covenant, shows regard for those who forsake the holy covenant, and corrupts with flattery and places the abomination of desolation in the temple. Does that sound like Jesus? And it is also said that the people who know God will fight against him in the rest of Chapter 11.
So when Jesus refers to this event in Matthew he is not suggesting that his followers flee from himself at his return. That would not make sense, especially in the light of the fact that we will always be with him (1 Thes 4:17). Let’s look at Matthew:
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains (Mt 24:14–16).
Now, this is prophecy and I don’t pretend to understand it all. But the bible clearly teaches that when Jesus returns he will gather is own (Mt 24:31, Mk 13:27) not cause them to flee from him. Also, we know that Jesus in Matthew 24 is not talking about his return because he goes on to make it very clear that he did not know when he was returning and that it was not for him or us to know (Mt 24:36).
The Statue
And now for the third problem from Daniel. The statue of Chapter 2. King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream with a statue and Daniel makes it clear that the different parts of the statue are kingdoms of the world. Then a rock comes and destroys the feet of the statue when turns the entire thing to dust. It is generally understood by everyone including preterists that the feet of the statue is Rome in some form. If that is true then how were they destroyed in AD 70? The early preterists like Samuel Lee understood this and pushed fulfillment of all prophecy to AD 312. The created more gaps and more issues with other scripture especially their interpretation of Luke 21:22 and modern preterist ignore the issue of the statue and stick with AD 70. Claiming for the most part that the sacking of Jerusalem “signaled” or “ensured” the destruction of Rome. It is very unclear, however, how those two things are related.
You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. (Da 2:34).
(A complete fulfillment of Daniel 2:34 I think would be Christ putting an end to all earthly government. – But this is not about me and my opinions.)
History
The claim that Jesus has already returned does not match history and you really have to squint and hold your tongue just right to suggest that it matches prophecy in almost any kind of way. No other bible prophecy is subject to so much allegorizing. When prophecy is fulfilled it is clear and obvious that it has been. No Christian writing in the first or second century understood AD 70 to be anything but the fulfillment of Jesus’s prophecy that the Temple would be torn down brick by brick. No Christian writer claimed that Jesus returned in AD 70 until 1845. But we will look at the history and categories of preterism and their claims in the next article.
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