"A Gentleman"
-
The Destruction of
Jerusalem (1840) "Before Jerusalem he stands, And down his cheeks roll many a tear; See how He spreads his sacred hands, While He predicts its ruin near. "The days shall come, they're near at hand !! "When might armies shall surround "This favour'd spot where now I stand, "And lay your City with the ground. "Your measure's nearly full ! alas !! "Your sinful course is almost run ; "This generation shall not pass* "Till all the dreadful work is done."
American Sunday School Union
-
Destruction of Jerusalem, Abridged from the History of the Jewish Wars, by Josephus - together with Sketches of the History of the Jews, since their dispersion
(1827) - "Many learned commentators on the Scriptures have remarked,
regarding the writings of Josephus, that his history is so perfect a
delineation of certain passages of the Bible, and particularly those two
verses in the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew, -- "For there shall
be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world
to this time, no nor ever shall be. And except these days should
be shortened, there should no flesh be saved," &c. -- that they are not
only the exact counterparts of each other, but seem almost as if they
had been written by the same person (Newton). Yet Josephus was not
born till after our Saviour's crucifixion; he was not a Christian, but a Jew, and certainly never meant to give any testimony to the truth of the Christian religion."
Anglican Calendar
-
Religious and Secular Events in an 1578 (.pdf) "September 8: Jerusalem was as upon this day,
sacked with fire and sworde, and utterly rased, 73 yeeres after the
birth of Christ: who prophesied the same 40 yeeres before. Matt 24:2,
34; Joseph. lib 7 chap 26 // August 10: Titus soldiours, as on this day,
set the Citie and Temple of Jerusalem on fire, sithens which time
neither of them haue euer bin reedified. Joseph. lib. 6, Chap 26 //
October 23: Also Titus, sonne to Vaspasian, after the destruction of
Jerusalem, slaieth 3000 Jewes on the birth day of his brother Domition.
An. 73 // November 18: Titus as vpon this day, vsed no lesse crueltie
against the Jewes his prisoners, in the citie of Beryte in Syria,
keeping the birth day of his father Vespasian, then he did on the birth
day of his brother Domition. Jospeh. Lib 7, Chap 20
"
Anonymous
Aphrahat the Persian Sage -
Excerpts from Select Demonstrations (A.D.345) “The theology and writings of Aphrahat draw extensively on the Old Testament reflecting a religious milieu of 4th century Mesopotamia in which Christianity was seeking to define itself as separate from Judaism. (Aphrahat) praises Jesus Christ as the divine conqueror of death and fulfillment of all types and prophecies of the Old Law.” -
Introductory Dissertation on the Syrian Church
James Armstrong
Ben Asaph, pseud. -
The Moriad; or, The End of the
Jewish State (1857) By 'Ben Asaph, a Christian Jew of the Third Century' -
'Translated from the Syriac Hebrew by Anselm Korlstoff'
- "The wrath Divine, which sunk the Jewish State, and Salem piled in heaps, O muse relate"
Bahnsen and
Gentry -
House Divided, The Breakup of Dispensational Theology (1989) - 464 pages "In less than a dozen years, the world will change drastically. Will it be for the better or the worse? Dispensationalists automatically answer: "Worse!" But their system is in deep trouble. The year 1988 marked the beginning of Dispensationalism's "great tribulation": the Rapture did not take place."
Robert Baillie -
A Dissuasive From the Errors of the Time - The thousand years of Christ his visible Reign upon earth, is against Scripture (1645) "AMONG all the Sparkles of new light wherewith our Brethren do entertain their own and the people’s fancy, there is none more pleasant than that of the thousand years; a conceit of the most Ancient and gross Heretic Cerinthus, a little purged by Papias, and by him transmitted to some of the Greek and Latin Fathers, but quickly declared, both by the Greek and Latin Church to be a great errour, if not an heresy. Since the days of Augustine unto our time, it went under no other notion, and was embraced by no Christian we hear of, till some of the Anabaptists did draw it out of its grave"
James Austin Bastow
-
A (Preterist) Bible Dictionary ! (1842) "Third, the Preterist, which regards the book as having to do with events long since fulfilled. To the Preterist scheme of interpretation we incline, regarding the predictions of the book as having been fully accomplished before the close of the year 135, within less than seventy years from the time when the book was written. The Apocalypse was evidently written to the Asiatic churches during a period of furious persecution, when the Christians greatly needed encouragement, consolation, and admonition. The writer has made a full disclosure of the persecuting powers of the Jews and Romans, and declared that their respective fall and ruin "must shortly come to pass.'" The fearful destruction of these persecuting powers, is, to the faithful, in all times and places, a type of the destruction of anti-christianism, and a pledge of the final and universal triumph of Christianity. "
Norman Bentwich
-
Josephus
(1914)
"Yet did they occasion the fulfilment of prophecies relating to
their
country. For there was an ancient oracle that the city
should be taken
and the sanctuary burnt when sedition should affect the
Jews." Josephus
shares the pagan outlook of the Roman historian Tacitus, who
is horrified at the Jewish disregard of the omens and portents which
betokened the fall of their city, and speaks of them as a people prone
to superstition (what we would call faith) and deaf to divine warnings
(what we would call superstition). Josephus and his friends were looking
for signs and prophecies of the ruin of the people as an excuse for
surrender; the Zealots, men of sterner stuff and of fuller faith, were
resolved to resist to the end, and would brook no parleying with the
enemy."
William Blake
|
 |
-
Jerusalem
(1804) "I also hope the reader will be with me Wholly One in
Jesus our Lord, who is the God and Lord to whom the Ancients
look'd and saw his day afar off with trembling and
amazement.. These are the destroyers of Jerusalem! these are the
murderers Of Jesus! who deny the Faith and mock at Eternal
Life.. These are the Sexual Garments, the Abomination of
Desolation, Hiding the Human Lineaments, as with an Ark and
Curtains Which Jesus rent, and now shall wholly purge away with
Fire, Till Generation is swallow'd up in Regeneration."
|
Horatius Bonar (1808-1899)
John L. Bray
David Brown
Dr. John Brown ("of Edinburgh")
-
Discourses and Saying of our Lord (1850) "Heaven and earth passing,' understood literally, is the dissolution of the present system of the universe, and the period when that is to take place, is called the 'end of the world.' But a person at all familiar with the phraseology of the Old Testament Scriptures, knows that the dissolution of the Mosaic economy, and the establishment of the Christian, is often spoken of as the removing of the old earth and heavens, and the creation of a new earth and new heavens" (vol. 1, p. 170)
Sir Thomas Browne
-
Vulgar Errors (1646) Of the Jewes
"Againe, they were mistaken in the Emphaticall apprehension, placing the consideration upon the words, If I will, whereas it properly lay in these, when I come: which had they apprehended as some have since, that is, not for his ultimate and last returne, but his comming in judgement and destruction upon the Jewes; or such a comming as it might be said, that that generation should not passe before it was fulfilled: they needed not, much lesse need we suppose such diuturnity; for after the death of Peter, John lived to behold the same fulfilled by Vespasian:7 nor had he then his Nunc dimittis, or went out like unto Simeon;8 but old in accomplisht obscurities, and having seen the expire of Daniels prediction, as some conceive, he accomplished his Revelation." (Chapter 10)
A.B. Bruce
E.W. Bullinger (1837-1913) -
The Witness of the Stars - Symbolism in the Heavens (1893) -
Numbers in Scripture - Its Supernatural Design and Spiritual Significance (1921) -
The Apocalypse - "Preterist Expositors differ among themselves as to whether "great Babylon" means the City of Rome, or the Church of Rome: Rome Pagan or Rome Papal. But, if this is all that these solemn chapters mean, we may well say with Dr. Seiss, "If we cannot find more solid ground than that on which the Rome theory rests, we must needs consign the whole subject to the department of doubt and uncertainty; and let all these tremendous foreshadowings pass for nothing." -
How to Enjoy the Bible (1914) "The words are exactly the same in both passages (in the Greek): "He that endureth to the END the same shall be saved." The command is continued in the next verse (10:23): "But when they persecute you in this city flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come." (Greek, elqh (elthe), shall have come.) If this coming be the same as the destruction of Jerusalem (as is generally supposed) then it is perfectly certain that the Twelve could not have gone on proclaiming the kingdom as being "at hand" for nearly forty years after it had been rejected, and the King crucified!" -
Things to Come
John Bunyan
- Baptist
Lord George Gordon Byron
John Calvin -
Commentary on the Harmony
of the Gospels (1555) "For God had promised two things seemingly
opposite; that
the throne
of David would
be eternal, (Psalm
89:29, 36,) and that, after it had been destroyed, he would
raise up its ruins, (Amos
9:11;) that the sway of his kingly power would be eternal, and yet
that there should come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, (Isaiah
11:1.) Both must be fulfilled. That supremacy, therefore, which God
had bestowed on the tribe of Judah, was suffered by him to be
broken down for a time, that the attention of the people might be more
strongly directed to the expectation of Christ’s reign. But when the
destruction of the Sanhedrim appeared to have cut off the hope of
believers, suddenly the Lord shone forth."
-
Covenant Enforced (1556) - Studies of Deuteronomy 27 and 28
Alexander Campbell -
Essays on the Work of the Holy Spirit (1824) "we shall proceed to notice a prophecy of great utility, which respected an event about forty years distant. This prediction was designed for public conviction, and was perfectly adapted to this end. It was of that character of events which must necessarily be notorious and eminently conspicuous. Let us attend to it." -
Evidences of Christianity: A Debate - Alexander Campbell and Robert Owen (1829) "beside the predictions uttered by the Savior concerning his own demise, and all the circumstances attendant upon it, he foretold one event of such notoriety and importance as to confirm the faith of one generation and to produce faith in all subsequent generations."
Joseph M. Canfield -
The
Incredible Scofield and His
Book - "The Christian Church still awaits a definitive
comprehensive study of the entire subject of the second advent of Christ as it
is revealed in the New Testament, including a careful investigation of the
history of interpretation and the influence of this profound truth in the creeds
and literature of the church.." | BJU faculty member David O. Beale -
"There is a spiteful and inadequately documented attack on Scofield's
character.. Canfield attempts to discredit the pretribulation rapture, concludes
that Scofield possibly was not even a Christian.."
-
Neither Land Nor City Are Holy! - Booklet
Walter Chamberlain
-
The National Restoration and Conversion of the
Twelve Tribes of Israel (1854) "The mistake of the
Professor and those who hold his sentiments lies here -- that they are
not careful to remember that the spiritual exposition of certain
prophecies for the edification of the Church is perfectly permissible,
and harmonises with the literal interpretation of the same for
the benefit of Israel." (p. 21) "there
are, probably, many learned Hebrews who will be astonished to hear that
he who propounded them has maintained that all prophecy, extending to
Israel as a nation, has already been fulfilled." (Perhaps Earliest Book
Written Against Modern Preterism)
Robert Chambers
R.H. Charles
Stephen Charnock
(Puritan)
-
A Discourse of God's being the Author of Reconciliation (1680) "The time of his coming was fixed in Jacob's prophecy about the time of the fall of the Jewish government, Gen. xlix. 10, before the ruin of the second temple, Mall iii.1, after seventy weeks of years from the time of Daniel's prophecy." "You know how he armed the Romans against them, discharged his wrath upon them, gave up the city and temple, which they (and even their enemies) studied to preserve, for the death of his Son, as a prey to the fury and avarice of the enemies."
David Chilton - Early
Works
Alfred Church
-
The Story of the Last
Days of Jerusalem (1902)
-
The Burning of Rome: A Story of Nero's Days (1912) "He threw himself
down on the couch and buried his face in the cushions. The Empress and
the Minister watched and waited in serious disquiet. There was no
knowing what wild resolve he might take. That he had set his heart to no
common degree on this new scheme was evident. In all his life he had
never given so much serious thought to any subject as he had to this,
and disappointment would probably result in some dangerous outburst.
After about half an hour had passed, he started up. "I have it,"
he cried; "it shall be done,—the plan, the whole plan." "Sire, will you
deign to tell us what inspiration the gods have given you?" said
Tigellinus. "All in good time," said the Emperor. "When I want your help
I will tell you what it is needful for you to know. But now it is time
for my harp practice."
-
To the Lions: A Tale of the Early Christians (1923) "No spoil that
he could have carried off from the sack of Jerusalem could have proved
such a treasure to him as the little Rhoda. She had learnt from her
Christian mother, who, happily for herself, had passed to her rest just
before Jerusalem was finally invested, some Gospel truths, and Manilius
listened with attention which he might not have given to an older
teacher when she told him in her childish prattle the story of the life
and death of Jesus. When the rewards for services in the great siege
were distributed, he received a permanent appointment at Ephesus. Here
he came under the influence of St. John, and here he, his wife, and the
little Rhoda were received into the Christian community. "
Ralph Churton
Chrysostom (346-407)
Adam Clarke
- Methodist
Henry Cowles
-
The Revelation of John :
With Notes On Revelation 13-19 "At this
stage of the discussion I need only say that, guided by these
limitations of time, by these points of character, and by these special
explanations, it is simply impossible to make any thing else of the
first beast save the Roman Empire--the civil power of the Roman
Emperors; while the second beast (v. II), judging from the description
given of him here, from his influence as sketched here, and also from
the further description of him which appears in chap. 16: 13, 14, and in
19: 20--" the false prophet that wrought miracles before him" [the first
beast] "with which he deceived them that had the mark of the beast,
etc., we must interpret to be the Pagan Priesthood--every-where
ministering to the idolatrous homage paid to the Roman Emperors;
every-where inspiring the animus of Paganism, and by virtue of their
character, naturally active in the persecution of Christians. Beyond all
question this second beast is co-ordinate and co-operative with the
first and therefore contemporaneous, doing its work at the same
time; receiving its final doom in the same fearful hour of judgment"
B.H. Cowper -
SYRIAC MISCELLANIES - EXTRACTS RELATING TO THE FIRST AND SECOND GENERAL COUNCILS, AND VARIOUS OTHER QUOTATIONS, THEOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL, & CLASSICAL. (1861)
Homersham Cox
-
The First Century of Christianity (1886 HTML) "This removal of
the Christian Jews to a neighbouring town has been sometimes represented
as a base and traitorous desertion of their countrymen in their sorest
need. But the same thing was done by many of those who adhered to the
Jewish faith. A large party among them, altogether opposed to the war,
saw plainly that resistance to the overwhelming Roman power- was futile,
and considered that the best interests of their country would be served
by submission. In large numbers they escaped from the fated city as from
a sinking vessel. Why, then, should the Christians be reproached for
taking the same course ? They simply obeyed the command— And when ye
shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation
thereof draweth nigh. Then let them which are in Judsa flee to the
mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let
not them which are in the countries enter thereinto."
David P. Crews
-
Prophecy Fulfilled: God's Perfect Church (1994) "We
have briefly mentioned the prophecy passage that comprises Matthew 24 and its
parallel recordings in Mark 13 and Luke 21. Now we can take a detailed, in–depth
look at this great prophecy, spoken by Jesus Christ himself and see how it fits
into the events of the times. Many people have understood that portions of
this passage refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, but they have
made divisions in the prophecy in order to assign some parts of it to the far
future. Our purpose here is to examine the prophecy in fine detail to see how it
fits the events of the destruction of the Jewish nation, and to see how such
man–made divisions in the text are unjustifiably imposed."
Former Full Preterist
-
My Journey From
Religion to Rationalism
John Crowne
-
The Destruction of
Jerusalem (1677) "Amongst the angel's pronouncements is the statement "Thy weeks are finish'd." The phrase
derives from Daniel 9. There, the angel Gabriel has come to explain
to Daniel the meaning of his visions. Thus, we can clearly link Crowne's play not
simply with Josephus and Suetonious, but also with two of the chief
examples of Judeo-Christian apocalyptic literature, Revelation and
Daniel. This certainly distinguishes this play from Racine and
Otway, whose plays lack anything remotely like this kind of imagery."
Ephraim Currier
-
The Second
Coming of Christ, and the Resurrection;
Showing by an Appeal to the Bible as
it Reads, Aside From All Human Creeds and Commentaries, the Opinions of all
Sects of Religionists of this Vastly Interesting Subject, to be Merely Human
Opinions, and Wholly Irreconcilable with the Word of God (1841) "If
any thing can be proved by the word of God, I pledge myself to prove
beyond a reasonable doubt, that the resurrection of the Jews and all
Christian believers, was at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem
by the Romans."
Arthur Custance -
Hidden Things of God's Revelation (1977) | III: A Tale of Two Cities "The temple itself -- though Titus actually tried to preserve it against being destroyed -- was nevertheless put to fire. Its vast treasures were plundered, and as much as possible of the gold sheeting which covered the walls and doors and columns was removed by the soldiers. However, the heat of the fire was so intense that much of the gold was melted and ran between the stones of the building, which had been laid without mortar. For the next twenty-five years or more, men continued to pry these stones apart, one by one, to obtain the gold which they knew had run between them. And thus it came about the Lord's words were exactly fulfilled: "There shall not be left here one stone upon another" (Matthew 24:2)."
Cyprian
R.W. Dale
-
The
Jewish Temple and the Christian Church - A Series of Discourses on the
Epistle to the Hebrews (1871 PDF) "The end of all things is at
hand." "His voice then shook the earth, but now hath He promised,
saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only but also heaven." In
His last revelation to mankind, God's purposes are reaching their
perfect accomplishment. Empires which had overshadowed the whole earth
had decayed and perished. The institutions and laws which God Himself
had originally established, the temple He had consecrated, the priests
He had anointed, were now ready to vanish away." (DALE, R. W., D.D. "The
Coming of Christ" ; a Sermon (1878) now out of print, which taught that
AD70 was a Coming of Christ)
Steven Davis
-
Don't Be "Left Behind"
- "This is my new book which examines the popular doctrine of a
pretribulation rapture and shows that it is unbiblical. Rather, this
book takes a partial preterist, amillennial approach to eschatology. The
book is available for free download a. Just download the preview
("Preview the book); the preview is the entire book."
Samuel G. Dawson
The Faithless Foundation of Premillennialism
- "The arrogance of premillennialism and its endless speculations
and updates of failed prophecies of the return of Christ continue to
produce skepticism and unbelief in Christ. Multitudes, who don't
recognize the foundation of assumed superiority over God, help
spread its ignorance." |
Dead Sea Scrolls
Historical Witness to
First Century Preterist View
Christian and Jewish refugees from Jerusalem's impending besiegement stored numerous documents east of the city near Qumran. Key writings discovered immediately prior to the formation of the Jewish State reflect the Palestinian Christianity of James the Just.
Visual Timeline of the Desolation
These writings are all of utmost significance for first century studies in fulfilled eschatology because:
1) They show a highly developed Preterist view: Daniel and the Habakkuk Commentary specifically identify the Romans (the 'Kittim') as the primary apocalyptic enemy, making them the earliest known "Preterist Commentaries" (This view was in currency prior to the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey in 63 B.C.)
"The new leather fragment now provided a first-century B.C.-A.D. testimony to the accuracy of the text as it has been preserved - Kasidim was clearly in the text used by the copyist. The next line, however, begins, "Its interpretation concerns the Kittim...." The modern theory had already been propounded by interpretation by the ancient community two thousand years earlier!" - John C. Trever, The Untold Story of Qumran
2) The "Pella Flight Tradition," which explains the deposit of many scrolls, substantiates that the Preterist view was the early Christian interpretation of Christ's Olivet Discourse (Such as found in Matthew 24:16).
3) The eschatology of the DSS reflects the view that their period was the "End of Days" for Israel:
"And we recognize that some of the blessings and curses have come, (24) those written in the Bo[ok of Mo]ses; therefore this is the End of Days" (4Q397 - 399)
Considering that the New Testament writers taught that "the end of all things (was) at hand,"
as did these writers of the DSS, Rapture-minded Christians seem to stand all alone in teaching that ours are the last days!
"..from the day of the gathering in of the unique teacher, until the destruction of all the men of war who turned back with the man of lies, there shall be about forty years." (Damascus Document, xx, 14-15)
- "I will stare at his place and he will no longer be there. Its interpretation concerns all the evil at the end of the forty years, for they shall be devoured.." (Commentary on Ps 37:10, 4QPsalms Pesher [4Q17, ii, 6-8]).
DEAD SEA SCROLLS (DSS) EXCERPTS
|
P.S.
Desprez - Later Work
James DeMille
-
Helena's Household
(1867) "ROME; in the year of the city, 814; in the year of grace, 61;
Nero on the throne; the apostles preaching Christianity; the ancient
world in the period of its highest civilization, when petty divisions
had become extinguished, and all the nations bowed to the one central
city: -- such is the time of this story."
Douay-Rheims Version of the Holy Bible (1586) William Allen, Richard Bristow, Thomas Worthington
-
"Zacharias Chapter 11 - The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. God's dealings with the Jews, and their reprobation.
11:1. Open thy gates, O Libanus, and let fire devour thy cedars. O Libanus. . .So Jerusalem, and more particularly the temple, is called by the prophets, from its height, and from its being built of the cedars of Libanus.--Ibid. Thy cedars. . .Thy princes and chief men." "A fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, etc. . .Viz., the fountain of grace in the church militant, and of glory in the church triumphant: which shall water the torrent or valley of thorns, that is, the souls that before, like barren ground brought forth nothing but thorns; or that were afflicted with the thorns of crosses and tribulations."
Alfred Edersheim
E.B. Elliot - Historicist
Jonathan Edwards
(1703-1758)
-
The History of Redemption:
From
the Resurrection of Christ to the Destruction of Jerusalem
"That coming
of Christ which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem, was preceded
by a glorious spiritual resurrection of souls in the calling of the
Gentiles, and bringing home multitudes of souls to Christ by the
preaching of the gospel."
-
Miscellanies
"'Tis evident that when Christ speaks of his coming; his being revealed; his coming in his Kingdom; or his Kingdom’s coming; He has respect to his appearing in those great works of his Power Justice and Grace, which should be in the Destruction of Jerusalem and other extraordinary Providences which should attend it."
George Edmundson
Fredrick Engels - A Father of Communism -
On the Early History of Christianity (1894) "But we have in the New Testament a single book the time of the writing of which can be defined within a few months, which must have been written between June 67 and January or April 68; a book, consequently, which belongs to the very beginning of the Christian era and reflects with the most naive fidelity and in the corresponding idiomatic language the ideas of the beginning of that era. This book is the so-called Revelation of John.. John describes his book at the very beginning as the revelation of "things which must shortly come to pass ; an immediately afterwards, I, 3, he declares "Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy ... for the time is at hand." To the church in Philadelphia Christ sends the message: "Behold, I come quickly." And in the last chapter the angel says he has shown John "things which must shortly be done" and gives him the order: "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand." And Christ himself says twice (XXII, 12, 20) "I come quickly." The sequel will show us how soon this coming was expected.."
Eusebius of Caesarea
Patrick Fairbairn
-
The Typology of Scripture - Two Volumes in One
(2nd., 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." (pp. 125-126)
Canon F.W. Farrar - Anglican | Chaplain to Queen Victoria
The History
of Interpretation
"He (Irenaeus) makes the highly questionable statement that the Apocalypse was not written till the reign of Domitian." (History, p. 176) -
Darkness and Dawn, or, Scenes in the days of Nero : an historic tale
(1891)
-
The Early Days of Christianity (1889)
-
Life of Christ -
"Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!" And has not that denunciation been fearfully fulfilled? Who does not catch an echo of it in the language of Tacitus—"Expassac repente delubri fores, et audita major humana vox excedere Deos." Speaking of the murder of the younger Hanan, and other eminent nobles and hierarchs, Josephus says, "I cannot but think that it was because God had doomed this city to destruction as a polluted city, and was resolved to purge His sanctuary by fire, that He cut off these their great defenders and well-wishers" -
Gathering Clouds: A Tale of the Days of St. Chrysostom
Guglielmo Ferrero -
Characters and Events of Roman History: From Caesar to Nero (1906 Lowell Lectures) "The case of Nero is particularly instructive. He was half insane and a veritable criminal: it would be absurd to attempt in his favour the historical rehabilitation to which other members of the family, Tiberius for instance, have a right. And yet it has not been enough for succeeding generations that he atoned for his follies and crimes by death and infamy. They have fallen upon his memory: they have overlooked that extenuating circumstance of considerable importance, his age when elected; they have gone so far as to make him into a unique monster, no longer human and even the Antichrist!"
George P. Fischer
Jim Fowler
-
Jesus -
The Better Everything - An Introductory Commentary of the Epistle to the
Hebrews (2001) "The Old Testament
scriptures were lodged in Paul’s memory, and he quotes from them again
to explain the “need for endurance” (36). “FOR YET IN A VERY
LITTLE WHILE, THE ONE COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY.”
Quoting from the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint (LXX), as he
does throughout this epistle, Paul allows the words of Habakkuk 2:3 to
speak to the situation of the Jerusalem Christians. The delayed
consummation of Christ’s victory to be revealed in the second advent
created an “enigma of the interim” for the early Christians, but Paul
uses Habakkuk’s words as his words to indicate that “the Coming One,”
Jesus, will come “in a very little while,” very soon, i.e. imminently.
This may refer to the “second coming of the parousia, as in Revelation
2:25, “Hold fast until I come.” More likely, Paul is referring to the
imminent coming of Christ in judgment, when (perhaps within a year after
the receipt of this letter) the Romans came against the residents of
Palestine from 66-70 AD, destroying everything and decimating the
population. This is the same “coming of the Son of Man” (Matt.
24:27,30,37,42) that Jesus referred to in His Mount of Olives discourse
(Matt. 24:3-45). Paul is warning the Hebrew Christians again that
judgment is coming, and everything in the old covenant will “disappear”
(8:13)."
George Fox
-
A Visitation to the Jews
(1656)
"Now he that sits on the throne of David, his seed witness him Lord
and king, who is the prince of life, that hath dominion over death,
and through death has destroyed him that hath the power of death;
and repentance is preached, and remission of sins through faith in
him, from whom comes the refreshing into the soul."
-
Margaret Fox: A Call Out of Egypt's Darkness (1668) "For the outward law, which was written in tables of Stone, which was to the Jews onely, is changed, and the circumcision which was outward, and the Sabboath which was outward, and the Priests which were outward, and the Temple which was outward; these were figures, tipes, and shadows of him, who was to come; the body, and substance of these is CHRIST JESUS, who comes to fulfil the Law, and is the end of the Law for Righteousness"
John Foxe
Benjamin Franklin -
The Second Coming of Christ and the Destruction of the World - (1869) "But there is another class of scoffers that this discourse has to do with. They say the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ has long since occurred--that he came the second time at the destruction of Jerusalem; that he there judged the world; separated the righteous from the wicked, and, consequently, argue that the coming of Christ, the judgment, and punishment of the wicked are all long since gone by. This fallacy must now be refuted. It must be shown that the coming of the Lord is yet future." (The Gospel Preacher, Ch. 18) - (Not Benjamin Franklin of 1706-1790)
Jack Fruchtman, Jr.
-
Apocalyptic Politics: A Study in Late Eighteenth-Century English
Republican Millennialism (1983) "In 1706, William Whiston, Boyle
lecturer for 1707, declared in An Essay on the Revelation of Saint
John that the beast would be slain as early as 1716. When his
prediction failed to materialize, he neither despaired nor changed his
mined. In the thiries and forties, he was still convined that the
millennial paradise was imminent, perhaps only some twenty years off."
John Galt
-
The
Destruction of Jerusalem By the Wandering Jew
(1820) "(Titus) then descended; and the Roman
priests who attended the army having provided a
number of oxen, a prodigious sacrifice was
offered to the idolatrous gods of the Romans,
and the remainder was distributed among the
soldiery."
-
The
Bachelor's Wife (1824) - The Wandering Jew
& The Destruction of Jerusalem in a later
reprint
Don Garlington
Kenneth L. Gentry - Reconstructionist Partial Preterist
Dr. John Gill
(1697- 1771)
-
Body of Divinity: On the Everlasting Covenant (1769) |
Of the Abrogation of the Old Covenant "But still the carnal Jews continued them, and even sacrifices, until the destruction of Jerusalem, which put an end to them; for according to the law of God, no sacrifice might be offered but at Jerusalem, and upon the altar there; so that when the city, temple, and altar were destroyed, they ceased to offer any sacrifice, and never have offered any since; whereby that prophecy is remarkably fulfilled; "the children of Israel shall abide many days without a sacrifice" (Hosea 3:4).. not even a passover lamb is slain by them, as well as no other sacrifice offered; which yet they would gladly offer, in defiance of Christ, the great Sacrifice, were it not for the above law, which stands in their way, and by which they are awed; and which is no small instance of the wisdom and goodness of God in providence. Now it was a little before the destruction of Jerusalem the apostle wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, and therefore, with great propriety, he says of the old covenant, that it was not only decayed, and waxen old, but was "ready to vanish away" (Heb. 8:13)."
Madame Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Mothe (Guyon) (1647-1717)
-
A Short and Easy Method of Prayer - PDF (1685) "The method they should practice is this: They should first learn this fundamental truth, that "the kingdom of God is within them "(Luke xvii.21),and that it is there, only it must be sought. They should be taught to begin by an act of profound adoration and abasement before God; and closing the corporeal eyes, endeavour to open those of the soul: they should then collect themselves inwardly, and, by a lively faith in God, as dwelling within them, pierce into the Divine Presence; not suffering the senses to wander abroad, but withholding them as much as may be in due subjection." -
Other Works
H. Rider Haggard
Pearl-Maiden: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem
(1901) "The city went mad beneath the weight of its abominable and obscene misery. Thousands perished every day, and every night thousands more escaped, or attempted to escape, to the Romans, who caught the poor wretches and crucified them beneath the walls, till there was no more wood of which to make the crosses, and no more ground whereon to stand them. All these things and many others Miriam saw from her place of outlook in the gallery of the deserted tower. She saw the people lying dead by hundreds in the streets beneath."
I.M. Haldeman
Mrs. M.A. Hallock |
