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Preterist Charts


The Parousia ; A Critical Study of the Scripture Doctrines of Christ's Second Coming, His Reign as King ; The Resurrection of the Dead

Israel P. Warren
1879

Christ Yet to Come:
Review of Warren's "Parousia"

Rev. Josiah Litch
1880


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Ernest Renan - L'Antechrist The Period from the Arrival of Paul in Rome to the End of the Jewish Revolution  (1873) "Now every advantage gained over a religion is useless if it be not replaced by another, satisfying, at least as well as it can, the needs of the heart. Jerusalem will be avenged for her defeat. She shall conquer Rome by Christianity, Persia by Islamism, shall destroy the old fatherland, and shall become for all higher minds the city of the heart." (pp. 271,272)


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A Dictionary of the Writers on the Prophecies (1835 PDF) | Google Books Bibliography of Judaism and Christianity | Rare Books at DTS

Henry Hammond: A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament (1653) - First Generation Modern Preterist Book! "before I had read to the end of the first verse of the book, these words, which must come to pass presently, had such an impression on my mind, offering themselves as a key to the whole prophecie, (in like manner as, this generation shall not passe till all these things be fulfilled, Matt. 24.34. have demonstrated infallibly to what coming of Christ the whole Chapter did belong"

Bishop Lightfoot Complete Works - Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica (1658)

"..one of the finest intellects of the Westminster Assembly.. a strong preterist."
Kenneth Gentry

Bishop John Lightfoot - Writer of Westminster Confession - Reformed, Reformation, Historicism, Historicist, Preterist
 John Lightfoot

 

RECENT ADDITIONS

  • Daniel Whitby: Additional Annotations to the New Testament (1710)  With Seven Discourses; and an Appendix Entituled Examen Variantium Lectionum Johannis Millii, S.T.P. in Novum Testamentum / The Treatifes added to this Addition are these:

    1. A Differtation concerning the Baptism of Infants, on Matth. xxviii. 19. p. 15.

    2. An Answer to Mr. Whifton's Difcourfe, on Matth. xxiv. p. 25.

    3. An Examination of his Difcourfe concerning Abiathar the High Priest, on Mark ii. 36.

    4. A Difcourfe concerning the Imputation of Chrift's perfect Righteoufnefs to us for Righteoufness or Juftification, p. 68

    5. A Defence of a Paffage in the Preface to the Epiflle to the Galatians.

    6. A Difcourfe enquiring whether the Apoftles, in their Writings, spake as conceiving that the Day of Judgment might be in their Days, p. 113.

    7.  A Parallel betwixt the Apoftacy of the Jewifh and the Papal Antichrift, p. 119.

  • James Glasgow: The Apocalypse Translated and Expounded (1872) - Early Dating Advocate, Sets at AD 51.  "Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks presents an irrefragable proof that the whole of the New Testament, the Apocalypse included, must have been written before the fall of Jerusalem and the end of the Jewish kingdom." "When did the seventy weeks end ? No date later than that of the fall of Jerusalem (a.d. 70) can with any truth or plausibility be supposed, for these weeks were "determined on the holy city." But many say they ended earlier, — at the death of Christ. Against this, however, in the above, and some other particulars, there lie weighty objections, as Scaliger, Hales, and others have shown. Let us look at the objects which were to be accomplished before these weeks ran out. " // "Many of the visions and words of the prophets are still receiving fulfilment ; and not until the end of the gospel age is all prophecy fulfilled. Some were fulfilled at the death of Christ, some in the fall of the city and dispersion of the people, and some in the progressive influx of the Gentiles ; while many regarding Gentiles and outcast Jews are yet to pass into fulfilment."

  • Arthur T. Pierson - Many Infallible Proofs (1886) "In this prophecy, there is no vague general prediction; but a startling array of minute particulars. Our Lord draws the portrait of the coming event in detail; time, place, persons, marked circumstances, all introducing peculiar features which leave no doubt as to our power to recognize the event, if it shall look like its portrait. We find some twenty-five distinct predictions, here, and, on the law of compound probability, the chance of their all meeting in one event, is as one in nearly twenty millions  i. e. the fraction that represents the chance of probability is one-half raised to its twenty-fourth power or about one twenty millionth chance!"

  • Henry Hammond: A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament (1653) - First Generation Modern Preterist Book! "Having gone through all the other parts of the New Testament, I came to this last of the Apocalypse, as to a rock that many had miscarried and split upon, with a full resolution not to venture on the expounding of one word in it, but onely to perform one office to it, common to the rest, the review of the Translation:   But it pleased God otherwise to dispose of it ; for before I had read (with the design of translating only) to the end of the first verse of the book, these words, which must come to pass presently, had such an impression on my mind, offering themselves as a key to the whole prophecie, (in like manner as, this generation shall not passe till all these things be fulfilled, Matt. 24.34. have demonstrated infallibly to what coming of Christ the whole Chapter did belong) that I could not resist the force of them, but attempted presently a general survey of the whole Book, to see whether those words might not probably be extended to all the prophecies of it, and have a literal truth in them, viz., that the things foretold and represented in the ensuing vision ; were presently, speedily, to come to passe, one after another, after the writing of them."

  • Newcombe - The New Testament in an Improved Version, Upon the Basis of Archbishop Newcombe's New Translation with a Corrected Text and Notes Critical and Explanatory (1808 PDF) With Notes From Modern Preterists Michaelis, Pearce, Newcombe, Le Clerc, Grotius, Wetstein, Clarke

  • S.W. Fullom: The Last Days of Jerusalem - A Song of Zion (1871 PDF)

  • William Reuber Farmer - Zealots, Maccabees and Josephus (1956)

  • F.D. Maurice - Lectures on the Apocalypse: Or, Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine (1861) "The principal historical allusions in these Lectures are to the state of the Roman world during the years preceding the fall of Jerusalem." (PDF File Here)

  • MP: Ovid Need - Matthew 24, Facts and Fiction (2000)

  • MP: William Newcombe - Observations on our Lord's Conduct as Divine Instructor (1853 Edition) "The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus is emphatically called the coming of Christ"

  • William Burkitt  PDF Files: Expository Notes - Vol. 1 | Expository Notes - Vol. 2 Life of Burkitt

  • HP:  David Brown: Christ's Second Coming, Will it be Pre-millennial? (1858)  That those words point ultimately to the personal advent of Christ and the final judgment, I have not the least doubt. But the first question ought to be, What is the direct and primary sense of the prophecy? Those who have not directed their attention to prophetic language will be startled if I answer, The coming of the Lord here announced is his coming in judgment against Jerusalem"

  • HP: An Exposition of the New Testament, Intended as an Introduction to the Study of the Scriptures, by Pointing Out the Leading Sense and Connection of the Sacred Writers Jesus, having thus silenced the chief priests, continued the subject, by setting before them, in the audience of the people, their hardened, impenitent and dangerous state, the ungrateful returns which the Jews had made to God, for all his calls of mercy, and, finally, God's intention of casting them off, and adopting the Gentiles in their room"

  • Gospel of Peter: The Gospel and Apocalypse of Peter - Recent Discovery (1892)

  • Bishop Bielby Porteus - Our Lord's Prophecies Regarding the Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem

  • Elizabeth Miller: The City of Delight - A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem (1908 - Added PDF and Pics) "Conflicting argument strove to turn him from his path, but the old instinct, final resource after the mind gives up the puzzle, kept him straight on the road to Pella."


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The Ballad of the White Horse - G.K. Chesterton (1911)

For the White Horse knew England When there was none to know; He saw the first oar break or bend, He saw heaven fall and the world end, O God, how long ago.

For the end of the world was long ago,
And all we dwell to-day
As children of some second birth,
Like a strange people left on earth
After a judgment day.

For the end of the world was long ago,
When the ends of the world waxed free,
When Rome was sunk in a waste of slaves,
And the sun drowned in the sea.

When Caesar's sun fell out of the sky
And whoso hearkened right
Could only hear the plunging
Of the nations in the night.

The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem as Related to the Scripture Prophecies
George Wilkins of Nottingham

"The prophecies of the Old Testament referring to the former destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, were most of them fulfilled a second time by Titus; indeed, they appear to bear a particular reference to this latter siege."


Commentary Compilations
From Primarily Preterist Authorities


"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."

A.L.O.E.

  • Stories of the Wars of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity to the Destruction of Jerusalem (1884) "The Lord had foretold that false prophets should arise and deceive many, and that fearful sights and great signs should be from heaven; and these words were literally fulfilled. The miserable Jews desperately grasped at the hope of a coming Messiah, and eagerly listened to deceivers, who only lured them to ruin. A wonder in the sky, resembling a fiery sword, hung over the devoted city ; appearances as of chariots and assembling armies in the clouds terrified the astonished beholders ; and one night the priests in the temple were alarmed by a quaking of the earth, accompanied by a strange sound, and a voice which uttered the mysterious words, "Let us depart !"

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 (1578)  "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. "

Ulrich R. Beeson

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)

  • The Rent Veil "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. "

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

David S. Clark

  • The Message From Patmos: A Postmillennial Commentary on the Book of Revelation (1921 PDF) "This early twentieth-century Postmillennial commentary on the Book of Revelation, written by the father of theologian Gordon Clark, offers an easy-to-read alternative to the popular Pre-millennial/Dispensational views of the best-selling Scofield Reference Bible and a multitude of other dissertations on end-time prophecy that litter the shelves of the average Christian bookstores. "

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 Past Second Advent: The Coming of Christ (1887 PDF HERE) "The Unseen King of men is near, and nearer than we know ; and if we listen to the voice of those that call us to His feet, the vision of Christ when it suddenly comes at a moment we look not for it. — Christ, King, and Judge, sitting on the clouds of heaven with power and with great glory — will occasion no mourning to us. It will be the fulfilment of all our most passionate hopes and the beginning of our eternal blessedness. What lies beyond we cannot tell. There are intimations in Holy Scripture elsewhere that the presence and glory of Christ in the invisible and eternal world, where He has ascended His throne as King and Judge of all, will, at last, after He has gathered through age after age His elect to Himself, break through even into the material order, and the last generation of mankind will suddenly pass into His presence."

  • 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."

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


Dead Sea Scrolls

Historical Witness to
First Century Preterist View

war scroll

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

Thomas Dekker

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

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

  • The Nature and Method of Revelation (1890)

  • - Differentiating Christianity from Judaism "Many Jewish Christians must have seen in the ruins of the Temple a sign of the passing away of the ancient system of worship. "

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

  • Children's History of the Fall of Jerusalem (1869) "Suppose you take the history of some city of country, and study it, and in the evening tell me what you have learned. Would you like that?"  "Oh yes," they both said in a breath. "But what shall it be?"  "Well, let me see," said Mr. Sherman thoughtfully. "How would you like the Fall of Jerusalem?" "Oh father, I should like that very much," said Charles. "I like to read of those old cities. There was old Troy, which fell through trick of the wooden horse. I wonder if the fall of Jerusalem would be as interesting?"  "As interesting! Certainly, my child, far more so. Troy was no more than any other city, while Jerusalem is identified with the church of God in all ages. "

Henry Hammond

  • A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament (1653) - First Generation Modern Preterist Book! "Having gone through all the other parts of the New Testament, I came to this last of the Apocalypse, as to a rock that many had miscarried and split upon, with a full resolution not to venture on the expounding of one word in it, but onely to perform one office to it, common to the rest, the review of the Translation:   But it pleased God otherwise to dispose of it ; for before I had read (with the design of translating only) to the end of the first verse of the book, these words, which must come to pass presently, had such an impression on my mind, offering themselves as a key to the whole prophecie, (in like manner as, this generation shall not passe till all these things be fulfilled, Matt. 24.34. have demonstrated infallibly to what coming of Christ the whole Chapter did belong) that I could not resist the force of them, but attempted presently a general survey of the whole Book, to see whether those words might not probably be extended to all the prophecies of it, and have a literal truth in them, viz., that the things foretold and represented in the ensuing vision ; were presently, speedily, to come to passe, one after another, after the writing of them."

    • Daniel Mace: 1649-1660 - Henry Hammond and the Preterist School of Interpretation "This volume contained a brave but lonely attempt to introduce the preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation to English soil.  Hammond laid great stress on the opening words of the Apocalypse in which  the book is said to contain 'things which must shortly come to pass.'  .. But those who argued for the preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation.. were playing to empty galleries, until at least the fourth decade of the nineteenth century.  Their views were anything but popular and those who followed them could soon find themselves branded with the infamous mark of the papal beast."  Others who followed: Herbert Thorndike / "author of an anonymous tract on the Millennium published in 1693 ("Millennianism : or, Christ's Thousand Years Reign upon Earth, considered, in a Familiar Letter to a Friend")"

Ernest Hampden-Cook - Preterist | Assistant Editor of "Weymouth's New Testament"

  • The Christ Has Come - The second advent an event of the past. An appeal from human tradition to the teaching of Jesus and His apostles. (PreteristArchive Addition to Web!) Not Full Preterist:  "In the New Testament, there are also clear and definite announcements of a world-wide resurrection and a world-wide judgment still future. "The times of the Gentiles" are to run their appointed course and have an end (Luke xxi. 24; Ephes. i. 10). Christ's Millennial Kingdom in which we are now living is not to last for ever. To Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall own that He is Lord (Phil. ii. 10, 11), and then, having put all His enemies under His feet, He will surrender the Kingdom to the Father-that God may be all in all (1.Cor. xv. 28)."

S. Hassell

  • THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM—THE THREE PERIODS OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE—THE BOOK OF REVELATION (1885) - History of the Church of God, Chapter 8 "By terrible events an end was at length put to the Mosaic economy; for, with the destruction of their city and temple, the whole Jewish polity and church state were also subverted. From that time the remnant of that once highly favored nation have been dispersed throughout the world; despised and hated by all; subjected, from age to age, to a perpetual succession of persecutions and miseries, yet under all these disadvantages, upheld by Divine Providence as a distinct people. They have ever since remained ‘without a king, without a prince and without a sacrifice; without an altar, without an ephod, and without Divine manifestations;’ as monuments everywhere of the truth of Christianity.” (Hosea 3:4, 5).—W. Jones."

"Hegesippus"

  • On the ruin of the city of Jerusalem (370-375) "About which the Jews themselves bear witness, Josephus a writer of histories saying, that there was in that time a wise man, if it is proper however, he said, to call a man the creator of marvelous works, who appeared living to his disciples after three days of his death in accordance with the writings of the prophets, who prophesied both this and innumerable other things full of miracles about him, from which began the community of Christians and penetrated into every tribe of men nor has any nation of the Roman world remained, which was left without worship of him. If the Jews don't believe us, they should believe their own people."

G.A. Henty

  • For The Temple (1888) - This all-time great Fulfilled Eschatology novel was written for all ages, using the events of the Roman-Jewish war as a backdrop for our hero's John of Gamala's coming of age.

Matthew Henry

George Herbert

  • A Priest to the Temple (1633) "There are two Prophesies in the Gospel, which evidently argue Christs Divinity by their success: the one concerning the woman that spent the oyntment on our Saviour, for which he told, that it should never be forgotten, but with the Gospel it selfe be preached to all ages, Matth. 26. 13. The other concerning the destruction of Jerusalem; of which our Saviour said, that that generation should not passe, till all were fulfilled, Luke 21.32. Which Josephus's History confirmeth, and the continuance of which verdict is yet evident."

  • GEORGE HERBERT, HENRY VAUGHAN, AND THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS ,  By: Matar, Nabil I., Studies in English Literature (Rice), 00393657, Winter 90, Vol. 30, Issue 1

George Peter Holford

Robert Holmes

T.M. Hopkins ; James R. Boyd

  • Second Adventism and Jewish History (1872 PDF) "We are confident, moreover, that it can be proved by the light of history, that the evils then foretold by our Lord came upon the Jewish nation during their wars with Hadrian, the Roman Emperor, between the year 130 and the year 140 of the Christian era; and that this desolating war was the Second Coming of Christ—an event for which the Second Adventist is now looking with anxious concern ! .. Universalism, on the other hand, had found an anodyne for an uneasy conscience, in the theory that all these predictions referred to the single event of the destruction of Jerusalem. The gathering of all nations before Jesus Christ, as related by Matt. 25 : 31, etc., the separation of the wicked from the righteous, is the assembling of all the tribes of Israel in Jerusalem, at the time of its destruction."

Huchown

  • The Siege of Jerusalem (1380-1390) Opinion #1: "it [Siege] mars the reputation of medieval chivalric literature; viewed another, it stains the good name of medieval piety. It seems ruined by rank anti-Semitism; since it transgresses ethically, it also must fail as literature. In short, its grossness is so palpable that it seems to merit the critical invisibility that has been its textual fate for most of its post-medieval existence." -- yet -- Op#2: "the marginalization of Siege of Jerusalem in this politically correct world says far more about us as readers, and our own difficulties in coping with such charged topics, than it does about medieval perspectives on the material in question." - Introductory Essay

    • George Nielsen: Huchown of the Awle Ryale: The Alliterative Poet (1902 PDF) Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Glasgow Archaeological Society

    • J.M. Arvidson - The Language of Titus and Vespasian, or, The Destruction of Jerusalem (1916 PDF) "Original Provenance Unknown ; Northamptonshire"  // Titus And Vespasian, or the Destruction of Jerusalem. In alliterative verse. Originally containing about 1300 lines, of which 1224 remain. English. // The present poem is headed :—"Hie Incepit Distruccio Jerrusalem [sic] Quomodo Titus et Vaspasianus obsederunt et distruxerunt Jerusalem et vi[n]dicarunt mortem domini Jhesu Christi. The Segge of Jerusalem off Tytus and Vaspasyaue."

Dr. John Leonard Hug

  • Introduction to the Writings of the New Testament | Volume II (Translated into English 1827 PDFs) "Wetstein's idea, that the Apocalypse is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, of the horrors of the Jewish war, and the civil wars of the Romans, is too forced in many of its parts to be fully admissible.  Hug's idea which combines those parts of Wetstein's proposition, which seem to be demonstrated, with the opinions of those, who refer it to the persecutions of the Christians under the Roman Emperors, to the subjugation and dismemberment of Rome, and the subsequent happy days of the Church, is perhaps the most correct.  This solution appears most naturally to arise from the Apostle's circumstances and the existing state of things ; it was the belief of the primitive Fathers in general : it is the most critically supported by the scope and contents of the book.  The more commonly received theories of Bishop Newton, Faber, and others, who have conceived it to have been prophetical of the Papal power, are too liable to objections"

David Hume

  • The Better Resurrection (2005) "Without the change made within us through the earnest of the Holy Spirit, we cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The rebirth precedes the entry into this Kingdom, for the resurrection is the culmination of the conception of Christ within us. We may proclaim by faith we are born again, but the manifestation of fully-fledged Son of God only occurs at the redemption of our body, which is the great hope of salvation. To those who think they are already manifesting what they in fact hope to be, I say go back and read the context in the book of Romans. I Believe the Lord Christ has fulfilled what he has promised to do. And my Faith in the veracity of my Saviours’ words has been strengthened by this exercise of mine, I hope yours is as well. If we never meet in this life, I hope to see you in the better resurrection clothed in the Glory of the wedding garment at marriage supper of the Lamb."

Rebekah Hyneman

  • Jerusalem At the Destruction of the Temple  (1845) "Mourn! mourn! oh, Israel! for your house of prayer, Your sanctuary, lies in ruins now! ’Mid sounds of anguish that now rend the air, There comes a whisper faint, and each doth bow His head in fear and shame, while o’er his soul The bitter waters of repentance roll. "

Irenaeus

John Jahn

Marcus Jastrow (1903)

John Jewel

  • Scripture (1556) "Their city Jerusalem was sacked, their houses overthrown, their temple razed, and not a stone left upon a stone; their library destroyed, their books burnt, the tabernacle lost, the covenant broken. No vision, no revelation, no comfort for the people left; nor prophet, nor priest, nor any to speak in the name of the Lord."

Jerome (347-420)

Dr. John Jortin

  • Remarks on Ecclesiastical History (1805) "I would not willing be imposed upon, or impose upon the reader ; but I leave it to be considered whether in all this there might not be something extraordinary, as both Vespasian and Josephus were designed and reserved for extraordinary purposes, to assist in fulfilling and justifying the prophecies of Daniel and of our Lord.

Samuel Lee

Preliminary Dissertations on Eusebius' Theophany (1843) On the Theophania  "From this reasoning of Eusebius, it is evident that he believed that the End had come. And in this there can be no doubt, I think, he was right; but as this involves a question very ill understood at this day, it may be right to offer a few words here, as to what is meant by the End."


Flavius Josephus - Jewish General & Historian

A. Kuenen

  • Introduction to The Religion of Israel to the Fall of the Jewish State   (1874) - "we ourselves, as Christians, are so greatly indebted to Israel, we should yet desire to become acquainted with the origin and growth of a religion which has achieved so many conquests. It appears here, if anywhere, how unreasonable it would be to 'despise the day of small things' for here we are reminded of 'the grain of mustard seed, which indeed is the least of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.'"

Deodat Lawson - Puritan

  • Christ's Fidelity: The Only Shield Against Satan's Malignity (1692) "He was Contemporary and Colleague with Haggai, beginning to Prophecy but two Months after him, and backing what the other had said, more briefly, with more full and mysterious Testimonies; especially as to the Coming of the Messiah, &c. He warns them of the Amazing Revolutions, were coming upon them, in the Destruction of Jerusalem, and the Second Temple by the Romans, and Foretells the Rejection of the Jews, for their Sins, and especially, for Rejecting of the MESSIAH, who was to be Born among them according to the Flesh."

Samuel Lee

  • An Inquiry into the Nature, Progress and End of Prophecy (1849) "One great and valuable result of the whole is, that the question of Prophecy is not a difficult one; and another, that all has been fulfilled."

  • The Events and Times of the Visions of Daniel and St John investigated (1851) It is, I think, impossible to find any questions wore determinately settled and fixed in the Scriptures than these are. In the question of Prophecy, declarations the most plain and positive are so bound up with facts, the occurrence of which is well known to all, that it is impossible to conceive of any thing more plain, certain, and determinate, than this question is.  Again, our Lord, His Evangelist John, and His Apostles generally, connect this, beyond all possibility of doubt, with the generation then existing; and both these, as well as the Prophet Daniel, affirm, that, when the particular events so pointed out shall have taken place, then all is fulfilled; the purposes of God are finished, as declared by His Prophets, and the end is come.

  • Preliminary Dissertations on Eusebius' Theophany (1843)

  • A Brief Memoir of Samuel Lee (1896) - "I was fully aware of the difference in our views on Prophecy. You, I know, are a Preterist"

"Samuel Lee of Boston"

  • Eschatology,  Or, The Scripture Doctrine of the Coming of the Lord, the Judgment, and the Resurrection  (1859)  "The Coming of the Son of Man" is to be interpreted with the same latitude, and applies to the work of the Messiah from the time of his resurrection to the overthrow of the Jewish power.  Not till then -- when the seventh angel had sounded -- were there great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.   Then the transition period closed.. As instances of the use of the language in application to Christ down to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the complete introduction of the Christian Dispensation, see Matt. 24:30, 37-39. Mark 13:24-26. Luke 21:25-27." (p. 13)

Dr. Francis Nigel Lee

  • Jerusalem; Rome; Revelation - John's Apocalypse Written Before AD70 (1985) "For the wrath had come upon them, to the uttermost, at the end of the 63-70 A.D. Seven Years' 'Great Tribulation.'  This was by far quite the greatest time of trouble or tribulation the World had ever seen, or ever would see.  Not only in Judea, but also internationally."

  • The Olivet  Discourse and the Destruction of Jerusalem in prophecy (2000) "The beginning of that "abomination" refers to the desecration of the city by the ensigns of the Romaneagles3089 (or unclean vultures)3090 which surrounded Jerusalem in 66.5 A.D.   So the Dordt Dutch Bible, Matthew  Henry,  Adam  Clarke,  Albert  Barnes,  and  Marcellus  Kik.      The  "desolation"  itself  would  be engineered three and a half years later at the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 70 A.D."

  • John's Revelation Revealed (1999)- "I much respect many elements in Preterism. Yet I believe the consistent eschatological teaching of the infallible Word of God ¾ is Classic Historicalism. Certainly that is the position of the mainline Christian Church reflected in: the Patristic Fathers; the Mediaeval Scholastics; all of the many Protestant Reformers; the 1561 Belgic Confession (arts. 28 & 29); the Preamble to the 1619 Canons of Dordt; the 1645 Westminster Directory for the Publick Worship of God (in the middle of its Publick Prayer before the Sermon); and the unadulterated Westminster Confession of Faith 23 to all of which documents I myself am a Strict Subscriptionist.

  • The Non-Preterist Historicalism of John Calvin and the Calvinistic Standards (1993) - "Historicalists would agree with Preterists that there is indeed a very important sense in which Christ did come (invisibly) to Jerusalem, in punitive judgment, during A.D. 70."

Peter J. Leithart

  • The Promise of His Appearing (2004) FULL BOOK at Google Books  'Leithart gives a preterist reading of 2 Peter. He defines preterism as "the view that prophecies about an imminent "day of judgement" scattered throughout the New Testament were fulfilled in the apostolic age by the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the event that brought a final end to the structures and orders of the Old Creation or Old Covenant.”

Thomas Lewin

  • The Siege of Jerusalem by Titus, with the Journal of a Recent Visit to the Holy City (1863) "Of all the evidences, the one perhaps entitled to the greatest respect is the testimony of the Jews themselves by the immemorial custom of assembling at what is called the Wailing-place, to bemoan the loss of their beloved sanctuary.  The tradition carries value with it, as one accompanied with a ceremony, and that not attractive from outward gaud, or as ministering to pleasure or amusement, but it is the outpouring of a broken spirit, and one which could only have originated in the destruction of their Temple, and must have been coeval with that event, and thence transmitted from generation to generation."

John Lightfoot - Partially Responsible for Westminster Confession

Robert Lowth  (Bishop of London)

  • Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews (1753 PDF) "Among the mountains of Palestine, the most remarkable, and consequently the most celebrated in the sacred poetry, are mount Lebanon and mount Carmel. The one, remarkable as well for its height as for its extent, magnitude, and the abundance of the cedars which adorned its summit, exhibiting a striking and substantial appearance of strength and majesty. The other, rich and fruitful, abounding with vines, olives, and delicious fruits, in a most flourishing state both by nature and cultivation, and displaying a delightful appearance of fertility, beauty, and grace. The different form and aspect of these two mountains is most accurately defined by Solomon, when he compares the manly dignity with Lebanon, and the beauty and delicacy of the female with Carmel la Each of them suggests a different general image, which the Hebrew poets adopt for different purposes, expressing that by a metaphor, which more timid writers would delineate by a direct comparison. Thus Lebanon is used, by a very bold figure, for the whole people of the Jews, or for the state of the church ; for Jerusalem ; for the temple of Jerusalem ; for the king of Assyria even, and for his army ; for whatever, in a word, is remarkable, august, and sublime: and in the same manner whatever possesses much fertility, wealth, or beauty, is called Carmel."

Sir David Lyndesay

Martin Luther - Sparked Protestant Reformation

  • On the Jews and Their Lies (1540) "I had made up my mind to write no more either about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that those miserable and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is, the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be found among those who opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews and who warned the Christians to be on their guard against them."

J.R. MacDuff

  • Memories of Olivet (1868) - "the most solemn period of responsibility to the Jewish people, was when Jesus was in their midst.  It was "that generation" - the generation who had rejected HIM - who were most guiltily culpable."

Justin Martyr

Mathetes

F.D. Maurice

Philip Mauro - 20th Century Supreme Court Lawyer | On Carpathia when Titanic Survivors Rescued

Joseph Mede - Historicist

Melito of Sardis

  • Homily of the Pascha (Peri Pascha) "But when that which is the model arises, that which once bore the image of the future thing is itself destroyed as growing useless having yielded to what is truly the real image of it; and what was once precious becomes worthless when what is truly precious has been revealed." (ll 224-44)

  • Different Reading of Melito

Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer

F.B. Meyer

  • The Way into the Holiest (1951) - "And the climax of all came in the fearful siege of Jerusalem, when, once and forever, the Jewish system was shattered, the Temple burned, the remaining vessels sunk in the Tiber, and the Jews were driven from the city which was absolutely essential for the performance of their religious rites. The whole New Testament is witness to the throes of one of the mightiest spiritual revolutions that ever happened"

Elizabeth Miller

  • The City of Delight: A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem (1908) "Somewhere in the city a voice that was heard even by the fighting-men on the wall in Akra cried: “The Sacrifice has failed! The Oblation is ceased! There is no Offering for the Altar; none is left to offer it!” The vast gathering heard it, and immediately from the high place of the prophetess came back the words, prompt and effective: And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease!

Henry Milman

  • History of the Jews (1830) "We are called back, indeed, for a short time to Palestine, to relate new scenes of revolt, ruin, and persecution. Not long after the dissolution of the Jewish state it revived again in appearance, under the form of two separate communities--one under a sovereignty purely spiritual, the other partly spiritual and partly temporal.."

Marion Morris

  • Christ's Second Coming Fulfilled (1917) "Not many years intervened between the great outpouring of the spirit and the great declension that followed.  Finally "the last days" with the spiritual night came to an end, and we are now living in God's eternal day.  "The night is far spent," said Paul, "and the day is at hand." (p. 48)

John Laurence von Mosheim (1694-1755)

Andrew Murray

Lawrence A. Murray

  • The Book of Jude the Essene: Herod's Temple Demolished (1990 - Drama) "It is time for the borthers to leave Jerusalem once more.  The times are worse than when Yaqov ben Zebedee was begeaded by the first Agrippa, worse than during the rebellion led by the false Egyptian prophet, and worse than when Yaqov the Righteous was beaten to death by the fuller after being thrown off the cliff.  In those times, we asked only our leaders to flee from the region to preserve their lives from our people's unrighteous hatred."

Alan Nairne

  • Essays On The Book Of Revelation Providing A Key To Its Understanding With Commentary - A Preterist Interpretation "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.   Even so.  Amen. (v.7).  This verse has been recognised by many expositors as setting the theme of the Apocalypse.   It is the repeated warning or encouragement throughout both the letters to the churches, and the chapters that follow, of impending events that will affect the Churches and the apostate nation of Israel.   But futurist expositors would have difficulty in seeing this, for, in immediately relegating any passage coupling “Christ” with “coming” and “clouds” into the end times, they have had to interpret the Book speculatively of events far off in the future.   We ask our futurist friends, if the theme of the Book is the “end times”, why does the Author set out letters to seven existing churches, warning them of immediately pending persecution?    “Behold, I come quickly” is the repeated thought throughout the Book.   Do I believe, then, that the Second Coming took place in 70AD?     To set your minds at rest, be assured that I believe Christ’s Second Coming to final judgement and the resurrection and reward of His people will take place in the future “end times”.  I am a futurist to that extent! "

Thomas Nashe

  • "Christ's Tears over Jerusalem" (1593) - "It is not unknown by how many & sundry ways God spake by visions, dreams, prophecies and wonders to his chosen Jerusalem, only to move his chosen Jerusalem wholly to cleave unto him. Visions, dreams, prophecies and wonders were in vain; this gorgeous strumpet Jerusalem, too too much presuming of the promises of old, went awhoring after her own inventions; she thought the Lord unseparately tied to his temple, & that he could never be divorced from the ark of his covenant, that, having bound himself with an oath to Abraham, he could not (though he would) removed the law out of Judah, or his judgment-seat from Mount Shiloh. They erred most temptingly & contemptuously"

August Neander (1789-1850)

Ovid Need, Jr.

William Newcombe

Sir Isaac Newton

Bishop Thomas Newton

Nehemiah Nisbett

Dr. Gary North - Postmillennialist

John Humphrey Noyes (1811-1886)

W.O.E. Oesterly

  • The Doctrine of Last Things "This is an analysis of Judeo-Christian eschatology that delves into the Jewish roots of the Christian concept of the end of the world. He begins in the Jewish writings of antiquity, particularly the Tanach and the non-deuterocanonical apocrypha such as The Book of Enoch and The Book of Jubilees. Traces the development from a 'Particularist' apocalypse in the Jewish Bible and Apocrypha (limited to Jewish people), to a 'Universalist' apocalypse in Christian belief, in which everyone is judged equally. "

Dr. John Owen (1616-1683) - Puritan

Thomas Paine - Atheist

William Paley

  • Evidences of Christianity (1851) "The general agreement of the description with the event, viz. with the ruin of the Jewish nation, and the capture of Jerusalem under Vespasian, thirty-six years after Christ’s death, is most evident; and the accordancy in various articles of detail and circumstances has been shown by many learned writers. This part of the case is perfectly free from doubt."

Blaise Pascal - Roman Catholic

  • Pensees (1660) "Here am I, and this is the time. That which the prophets have said was to come in the fullness of time, I tell you my apostles will do. The Jews shall be cast out. Jerusalem shall be soon destroyed. And the heathen shall enter into the knowledge of God. My apostles shall do this after you have slain the heir of the vineyard."

Rev. William Patton - Congregational, Abolitionist

Isaac Penington

  • Some Questions And Answers For The Opening Of The Eyes Of The Jews Natural. That They May See The Hope Of Israel (1659) "I HAVE been treating of the inward work, as it is wrought in the heart by the power, and brought to the sensible experimental knowledge of the creature; yet would not be so understood as if I made void what was done without by Christ in his own person, or any of those ends and purposes for which it was wrought, and appointed so to be done by the Father: though this I know, that the knowledge of those things, with the belief therein, or any practices and observations therefrom, without the life, can no more profit now, than the Jews literal knowledge of the law could profit them, when they were rejected therewith."

Robert L. Pierce

  • The Rapture Cult: Religious Zeal and Political Conspiracy "If we are to conclude that the book of Revelation was indeed written as an urgent coded warning to the Christians of the first century, what then was the message? It warned of two things. One was the impending destruction of the City of Jerusalem and the Jewish theocratic state; the other was the impending persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire."

Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)

Edgar Allen Poe

Philostratus

  • "As to Titus, he accepted more and more the idea that he was fulfilling a mission in providence. He was pleased to hear them quote the prophecies which they said referred to him. Josephus claims that he connected this victory with God, and recognised that he had been the object of a supernatural power. What is striking is that Philostratus, 120 years after, admits clearly these data and makes them the basis of an apocryphal correspondence between Titus and Apollonius (Book VI). To believe him, Titus would have refused the crowns which were offered him, alleging that it was not he who had taken Jerusalem—that he had done nothing but lend his services to an irritated God. It is scarcely to be admitted that Philostratus had known the passage in Josephus. He drew the legend, which had become common, from the moderation of Titus. " (Renan)

E. De Pressence

  • The Early Years of Christianity (1870) "Every feature of this siege [of Jerusalem by the Romans] attests it to be a judgment of God. It is not an ordinary event of history; all the attendant circumstances are marked by an aggravation of suffering and woe; men appear to be led by a mysterious hand, which urges them on to commit acts not within their original intention."

Ernest Renan (1823-1892) - French Freethinker

  • The Life of Jesus (1861)

  • L'Antechrist The Period from the Arrival of Paul in Rome to the End of the Jewish Revolution  (1873)  "The triumph of Rome was therefore legitimate in some measure. Jerusalem had become an impossibility; left to themselves the Jews would have demolished it. But a great lacuna was to render this victory of Titus unfruitful. Our Western races, in spite of their superiority, have always shown a deplorable religious nullity. To draw from the Roman or Gallic religion anything analogous to the church was impossible. Now every advantage gained over a religion is useless if it be not replaced by another, satisfying, at least as well as it can, the needs of the heart. Jerusalem will be avenged for her defeat. She shall conquer Rome by Christianity, Persia by Islamism, shall destroy the old fatherland, and shall become for all higher minds the city of the heart." (pp. 271,272)

  • History of Christianity in Seven Volumes (1890) "Never was a people so sadly undeceived as was the Jewish race on the morrow of the day when, contrary to the most formal assurances of the Divine oracles, the Temple which they had supposed to be indestructible collapsed before the assault of the soldiers of Titus. To have been near the realisation of the grandest of visions and to be forced to renounce them, at the very moment when the destroying angel had already partially withdrawn the cloud, to see everything vanish into space; to be committed through having prophesied the Divine apparition, and to receive from the harshness of facts the most cruel contradiction—were not these reasons for doubting the Temple, nay, for doubting God himself?"

Robert Roberts - Christadelphian

Edward Robinson (Editor)

John A.T. Robinson

  • Redating the New Testament (1976) "Hort, together with Lightfoot and Westcott,  none of whom can be accused of sitting light to ancient tradition, still rejected a Domitianic date in favour of one between the death of Nero in 68 and the fall of Jerusalem in 70. It is indeed a little known fact that this was what Hort calls [Apocalypse, x.] 'the general tendency of criticism' for most of the nineteenth century, and Peake cites the remarkable consensus of 'both advanced and conservative scholars' who backed it."

James Stuart Russell

  • The Parousia (1878) (Revelation 20:5-10 Still Unfulfilled) "We must consequently regard this prediction of the loosing of Satan, and the events that follow, as still future, and therefore unfulfilled." (p. 523) (Full Preterist Millennium "violent and unnatural") "Some interpreters indeed attempt to get over the difficulty by supposing that the thousand years, being a symbolic number, may represent a period of very short duration, and so bring the whole within the prescribed apocalyptic limits; but this method of interpretation appears to us so violent and unnatural that we cannot hesitate to reject it. " (p. 514)

  • Pdb (Isilo PC) | Text | PalmReader | Clie | Online Bible | Spanish: La Parusía - A Careful Look at the New Testament Doctrine of our Lord's Second Coming.

Philip Schaff (1819-1893) - Lutheran

  • The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1951), ed. by Samuel Macauley

  • History of the Christian Church (1882) 3rd cd., vol. 1: Apostolic Christianity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans])  (Chapter 6: The Great Tribulation - The Roman Conflagration and Neronian Persecution)  "The aforesaid Scribes and Pharisees, therefore, placed James upon the pinnacle of the temple, and cried out to him: "O thou just man, whom we ought all to believe, since the people are led astray after Jesus that was crucified, declare to us what is the door of Jesus that was crucified." And he answered with a loud voice: "Why do ye ask me respecting Jesus the Son of Man? He is now sitting in the heavens, on the right hand of the great Power, and is about to come on the clouds of heaven." And as many were confirmed, and gloried in this testimony of James, and said:, "Hosanna to the Son of David," these same priests and Pharisees said to one another: "We have done badly in affording such testimony to Jesus, but let us go up and cast him down, that they may dread to believe in him." And they cried out: "Ho, ho, the Just himself is deceived." And they fulfilled that which is written in Isaiah, "Let us take away the Just, because he is offensive to us; wherefore they shall eat the fruit of their doings." [Comp. Is. 3:10.]"

  • History of the Christian Church

  • Cyril of Jerusalem "The next incident recorded in the life of S. Cyril is his alleged prediction of the failure of Julian’s attempt to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem.  “The vain and ambitious mind of Julian,” says Gibbon, “might aspire to restore the ancient glory of the Temple of Jerusalem.  As the Christians were firmly persuaded that a sentence of everlasting destruction had been pronounced against the whole fabric of the Mosaic law, the Imperial sophist would have converted the success of his undertaking into a specious argument against the faith of prophecy and the truth of revelation.”  | Julian the Apostate, and the Reaction of Paganism - "His object in the rebuilding of the temple was rather, in the first place, to enhance the splendor of his reign, and thus gratify his personal vanity; and then most probably to put to shame the prophecy of Jesus respecting the destruction of the temple (which, however, was actually fulfilled three hundred years before once for all), to deprive the Christians of their most popular argument against the Jews, and to break the power of the new religion in Jerusalem."

Samuel M. Schmucker

Albert Schweitzer

  • Quest for the Historical Jesus (1906) "The apocalyptic discourses in Mark xiii., Matt. xxiv., and Luke xxi. are interpolated. A Jewish-Christian apocalypse of the first century, probably composed before the destruction of Jerusalem, has been interwoven with a short exhortation which Jesus gave on the occasion when He predicted the destruction of the temple..  His construction rests upon two main points of support; upon his view of the sources and his conception of the eschatology of the time of Jesus. In his view the sole source for the Life of Jesus is the Gospel of Mark, which was "probably written exactly in the year 73," five years after the Johannine apocalypse."

William Shepard

  • Our Young Folks' Josephus (1884 PDF) A simplified retelling of Josephus' great history of Israel. Covers from the time of Abraham until the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

J.C. Simmons

"Solomon" Author

  • Odes of Solomon (First Century) - "Because He is my Sun and His rays have lifted me up and His light hath dispelled all darkness from my face. In Him I have acquired eyes and have seen His holy day:  The way of error I have left, and have walked towards Him and have received salvation from Him, without grudging. I have put on incorruption through His name: and have put off corruption by His grace. 9 Death hath been destroyed before my face: and Sheol bath been abolished by my word"

Sozomen

Daniel Smith

  • The Destruction of Jerusalem - The Whole Being Intended to Illustrate the Fulfillment of the Predictions of Moses and the Messiah (1840) "The history of Jerusalem, viewed as the fulfilment of prophecy, furnishes evidence of the truth of Christianity which neither Jew nor infidel can reject without positive infatuation. At the same time, it also reveals to us the awful depravity of human nature. Let nations look upon Judea, let cities look upon Jerusalem, let individuals look upon the personal calamities of the Jews, and let all fear God and fly from transgression.  If, indeed, we would escape a destruction, of which that of Jerusalem was but a faint emblem, let us embrace proffered mercy, and “know the things that belong to our peace, before they are hid” FOREVER “from our eyes.”

Larry T. Smith

Robert Southey

  • Sir Thomas More, or Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society (1824) "Sir Thomas More.--Remember that the Evangelists, in predicting that kingdom, announce a dreadful advent! And that, according to the received opinion of the Church, wars, persecutions, and calamities of every kind, the triumph of evil, and the coming of Antichrist are to be looked for, before the promises made by the prophets shall be fulfilled.  Montesinos.--To this I must reply, that the fulfilment of those calamitous events predicted in the Gospels may safely be referred, as it usually is, and by the best Biblical scholars, to the destruction of Jerusalem. "

Rev. Joseph Spillman

  • Lucius Flavius (1900) "An historical tale of the time immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem"

C.H. Spurgeon

  • Israel and Britain: A Note of Warning (1844) "They went so far as to crucify him, and cried as they did so, "His blood be on us, and our children," words so sadly verified when Jerusalem was destroyed, and her children slaughtered, sold as slaves, or scattered to the four corners of the earth. It was indeed, a terrible blindness which happened unto Israel. But although this blindness was a punishment for former sin, it was itself a sin. They willfully rejected the testimony of God against themselves; they refused the self-evident Christ who would so greatly have blessed them. This wilful rejection was carried out so effectually that it became impossible to convert and heal them; they could not be instructed, or reformed, and therefore they were given over to destruction. Nothing remained but to allow the Romans to burn the temple and plough the site of the city. It was a dreadful thing that they should deliberately choose destruction, and obstinately involve themselves in the most tremendous of woes. Poor Israel, we pity thee! It was sad indeed to fall from so great a height! Yet we are bound to admit that God dealt with thee justly, for thou didst choose thine own delusions. The Lord cries, "Oh that my people had harkened unto me."

  • Commenting on Commentaries (1890)

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley

David Friedrich Strauss

  •  Life of Jesus Critically Examined (1835) "Thus in these discourses Jesus announces that shortly (XXIV. 29), after that calamity, which (especially according to the representation in Luke’s gospel) we must identify with the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and within the term of the cotemporary generation (h genea auth, V. 34), he would visibly make his second advent in the clouds, and terminate the existing dispensation. "

Moses Stuart (1780-1852)

  • A Commentary on the Book of Daniel

  • Hints on the Interpretation of Prophecy (1842) "The destruction of Jerusalem put an end of course to the Jewish persecuting power in Judea. Consequently the period in which Christianity becomes triumphant over persecution there, is contemporaneous with the destruction of Jerusalem.  Nothing can be more clear, than that the period of the two witnesses is the same as that of "treading the holy city under foot by the Gentiles," Rev. 11:2,3.  Two witnesses, and but two, are specified, as we may very naturally suppose, because "by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word is established.   The sum of Rev. xi. is, then, that the Romans would invade and tread down Palestine for 3 1/2 years, and that Christians, during that period, would be bitterly persecuted and slain ; but still, that, after the same period, the persecution would cease there, and the religion of Jesus become triumphant.  The words of the Saviour in Matt. xxiv. compared with the tenor of Rev. xi., seem to lead us plainly and safely to these conclusions." (p. 113)

  • A Commentary on the Apocalypse (1845) “The manner of the declaration here seems to decide, beyond all reasonable appeal, against a later period than about A.D.67 or 68, for the composition of the Apocalypse.”

    • George Duffield: Millenarianism Defended: Reply to Prof. Stuart's "Strictures on the Rev. G. Duffield's Recent Work on the Second Coming of Christ"  (1843 PDF) "Now, after all this, what shall we think of those who will tell us UNFULFILLED PROPHECY needs not to be studied—is of no use, but dangerous--— till the events have fulfilled them ? Assuredly such instructors deserve reproof, and to be sent back to their Bibles, themselves to study, more carefully, lest they should mislead others. They have reason to fear that the charge, and censure of the Saviour, for hypocrisy may be applicable ;" and in proof of this statement, I have shown that it was the very circumstances of the Pharisees' neglecting prophecy, on which the Saviour founded his charge of hypocrisy against them."

G.F. Taylor

  • The Second Coming of Jesus (1912) "Others think that all the Scriptures about the coming of the Lord refer to the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus in A. D. 70.  Such teachers substitute Titus for the Lord.  However, if this is probable, what shall we do with Rev. 22: 12: “Behold, I come quickly”?  Jesus spoke these words twenty­-six years after the destruction of Jerusalem.  So we are driven to look elsewhere for the coming of the Lord." | The Jerusalem Tribulation not the Great One

Milton S. Terry

  • Biblical Hermeneutics (1883) "My purpose is to write a comprehensive and readable book, adapted to serve as a suggestive help toward the proper understanding of those scriptures which are regarded as peculiarly obscure"

  • Apocalypse of the Gospels - Making the connection between the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Revelation (1898)

  • BIBLICAL APOCALYPTICS | Preface | Introduction  - Focuses on the Prophetic portions of Scripture (1898)

  • BIBLICAL DOGMATICS - The Doctrine of the Resurrection (Pages 212 – 251) Adam Clarke thus comments: "I do not think that he refers to the resurrection of the body, but to the resurrection of the soul in this life; to the regaining of the image which Adam lost." (1907)

  • Sibylline Oracles - Translated by Milton S. Terry "As the translator notes, this collection should more properly titled 'the Pseudo-Sibylline Oracles'. The original Sibylline Books were closely-guarded oracular scrolls written by prophetic priestesses (the Sibylls) in the Etruscan and early Roman Era as far back as the 6th Century B.C.E. These books were destroyed, partially in a fire in 83 B.C.E., and finally burned by order of the Roman General Flavius Stilicho (365-408 C.E.)."

Tertullian

  • An Answer to the Jews (210) "IT happened very recently a dispute was held between a Christian and a Jewish proselyte. Alternately with contentious cable they each spun out the day until evening. By the opposing din, moreover, of some partisans of the individuals, truth began to be overcast by a sort of cloud. It was therefore our pleasure that that which, owing to the confused noise of disputation, could be less fully elucidated point by point, should be more carefully looked into, and that the pen should determine, for reading purposes, the questions handled."

  • Against Marcion

Dr. John Thomas

  • When was the Apocalypse Written? - An Exposition on the Apocalypse (1861) "But it really matters not whether it be assumed to be written before, or after that event. The interpretation is in no way affected. The destruction of Jerusalem with its times and circumstances cannot be accommodated so as to interpret what is written in the Apocalypse about a "holy city," a "temple" and "altar," a "court," a "Jerusalem," and so forth. These are symbols, and represent something else than what the words stand for in common, or historical discourse."

Thomas, Gospel of

  • The Gospel of Thomas (Pre-AD70?) His disciples said to him, "When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?" He said to them, "What you are looking forward to has come, but you don't know it." "Another proof of the earlier dating of the Thomas Gospel, according to Barnstone: He says it doesn't mention the destruction of Jerusalem at all, which happened in 70 A.D. Had the Thomas Gospel been written after the destruction of Jerusalem, he believes it would have recounted the cataclysmic event. Barnstone thinks the Thomas Gospel was written about 55 A.D."

Dom Touttee

  • St. Cyril (1790) From the church historians, and his works collected by Dom Touttee in his edition of them at Paris

Robert Travers

  • The effect of the fall of Jerusalem upon the character of the Pharisees (1917) "I mean that those who wrote the Apocalyptic books which have come down to us, held some such view of the function of Israel as I have suggested, and might be expected to take up arms rather than allow the sanctuary to be defiled. I do not know whether any actual Apocalyptic writer was amongst those who fought in the last struggle of Jerusalem. I only mean that those of the Pharisees who did so, being in sympathy with the war party, were of the same circle or group or way of thinking as that to which the Apocalyptists belonged." (PDF File HERE)

David B. Updegraff

  • Old Corn: Or, Sermons and Addresses on the Spiritual Life (1892 - 383 pages) "THE effort to make people believe that the promised parousia [coming] of our Lord took place at the "destruction of Jerusalem" tends to mislead souls, blot out the Christian's hope, and destroy the value of Scripture as a definite testimony to anything."  (p. 278)

Urantia

  • The Urantia Book (1925-55) "Jesus paused while he looked down upon the city. The Master realized that the rejection of the spiritual concept of the Messiah, the determination to cling persistently and blindly to the material mission of the expected deliverer, would presently bring the Jews in direct conflict with the powerful Roman armies, and that such a contest could only result in the final and complete overthrow of the Jewish nation. When his people rejected his spiritual bestowal and refused to receive the light of heaven as it so mercifully shone upon them, they thereby sealed their doom as an independent people with a special spiritual mission on earth. Even the Jewish leaders subsequently recognized that it was this secular idea of the Messiah which directly led to the turbulence which eventually brought about their destruction. "

Veronica, Legend of

  • The Avenging of the Saviour (7th Century) "(God) commanded Titus and Vespasian, whom I knew in that place where thy throne is. And it pleased God Almighty that they went into Judaea and Jerusalem, and seized thy subjects, and put them under that sentence, as it were, in the same manner as they did when thy subjects seized Jesus and bound him. "

Victorinus

  • Commentary on the Apocalypse (260) "Alcasar, a Spanish Jesuit, taking a hint from Victorinus, seems to have been the first (AD 1614) to have suggested that the Apocalyptic prophecies did not extend further than to the overthrow of Paganism by Constantine."  (J. Murray, A Dictionary of the Bible, 1863)

Henry Wace

Dr. Israel P. Warren

  • The Parousia, A Critical Study of the Scripture Doctrines of Christ's Second Coming, His Reign as King ; The Resurrection of the Dead ; and the General Judgment (1879) "Of the doctrine thus presented, I desire to remark in review: 1. That it is to be regarded neither as a praeterist nor a futurist view ; rather does it include both.   If it be affirmed that the Parousia began at the ascension, it is not meant that it is not also a fact of all time coming ages.   I ask especially that I may not be represented as saying that the resurrection is "past already," or that the day of judgment occurred at the destruction of Jerusalem.  The Parousia, including under it Christ's reign as King, Life-giver, and Judge, is not an event, but a dispensation.. The past, present, and future meet in one grand whole."

    • Rev.  Josiah Litch (Millerite) Christ Yet to Come: A Review of I.P. Warren's Parousia (1880) "There is " the end of the age " which came at the destruction of Jerusalem — the termination of the Jewish economy ; and there is "the end of the age " which is the harvest, when " the Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend," etc. — the termination of the Christian economy. It seems to us that these are so clearly distinguished and so distinctly separated, that it is utterly impossible to confound them. All our ordinances, all our commissions, all our endowments as the Church of Christ, are timed and terminated by the end of the age and the return of our Lord. If the end of the age has come, and if Christ's advent has really taken place, then these commissions have run out, and these endowments are outlawed."

Max Weremchuk

  • Weil ihr aber Sohne seid (2004 - Deutsche) - "But because ye are sons" Gal. 4:6 "I tackle the problem of Israel and the Church and go into the important concept of being "in Christ" and what that implies. In a nutshell my effort is show from Scripture that the Church has not replaced Israel, or that the Church is a parenthesis, but rather that the Church is Israel "grown up"

George Wilkins

Maurice Williams

  • Prophet and Historian: John and Josephus: "I think the Four Winds and Three Woes in the Apocalypse took place long ago. Nero sent Vespasian to subdue Judea. His son, Titus, destroyed the Temple. I quote Josephus, Tacitus, and Suetonius describing this. This destruction fulfills the Four Winds and Two of the three Woes."

Dwight Wilson

  • Armageddon Now! (1991) "For years premillennial dispensational authors have been predicting that Armageddon is just around the corner - and for years their false prophecies have failed to come true. In this update of his 1977 book, Armageddon Now!, Dwight Wilson examines these predictions concerning Armageddon, particularly as they apply to Russia from the time of the Russian revolution unto today." - 305 pages

Marcius Willson

Daniel Whitby

  • Additional Annotations to the New Testament (1710)  With Seven Discourses; and an Appendix Entituled Examen Variantium Lectionum Johannis Millii, S.T.P. in Novum Testamentum

    The Treatifes added to this Addition are these:

    1. A Differtation concerning the Baptism of Infants, on Matth. xxviii. 19. p. 15.

    2. An Answer to Mr. Whifton's Difcourfe, on Matth. xxiv. p. 25.

    3. An Examination of his Difcourfe concerning Abiathar the High Priest, on Mark ii. 36.

    4. A Difcourfe concerning the Imputation of Chrift's perfect Righteoufnefs to us for Righteoufness or Juftification, p. 68

    5. A Defence of a Paffage in the Preface to the Epiflle to the Galatians.

    6. A Difcourfe enquiring whether the Apoftles, in their Writings, spake as conceiving that the Day of Judgment might be in their Days, p. 113.

    7.  A Parallel betwixt the Apoftacy of the Jewifh and the Papal Antichrift, p. 119.

     


Jesus Studies

 

Bible Studies: Apocalypse

  • John Gwynn - The Syriac Version of the Apocalypse (1897) "I have endeavoured to lead to the conclusion that this Apocalypse is a portion of the original "Philoxenian" New Testament, as translated A.D. 508, for Philoxenus of Mabug, by Polycarpus "the Chorepiscopus." I have endeavoured to show, farther, that the other version of the Apocalypse, first printed by De Dieu in 1627, is a revision of this, and belongs probably to the Syriac New Testament of Thomas of Harkel, of A.D. 616." // "I would remark, in passing, that the number 666 (Rev. xiiu 18) is represented by Irenaeus (Proleg. v. 30, 1), on the authority of St. John himself, to have been the name Lateinos (meaning the sixth Roman Emperor, Nero, who was born in Latium), not Laetinos, as B. H. C. found it." (T.J. Buckton)

  • William Hewson - The Oblation and Temple of Ezekiel's Prophetic Visions ; and, a Brief and Practical Exposition of The Apocalypse, or Revelation of St. John (An interesting book... perhaps Idealist, perhaps Hyper Preterist... haven't read in entirety to determine with certainty.  If anyone would like to read and offer an explanation of Hewson's doctrine, it would be much appreciated.)

  • Francis Bodfield Hooper - The Revelation of Jesus Christ By John | Volume Two (1861 PDFs) Seems like an important preteristic commentary on the Apocalypse of John.  If you think so, please send an email of explanation.

Foreign Works

Digital Archives of Neo-Latin Texts | Biblioteca Andalucia

  • Firmin Abauzit: Discours Historique Sur L' Apocalypse (1770 French PDF) "Abauzit left behind him some writings, chiefly theological. Of these the principal was, an "Essay upon the Apocalypse," written to show that the canonical authority of the book of Revelation was doubtful, and to apply the predictions to the destruction of Jerusalem. This work was sent by the author to Dr. Twells, in London, who translated it from French into English, and added a refutation, - with which Abauzit was so well satisfied, that he desired his friend in Holland to stop an intended impression." (Lange)

  • Johann Gottfried von Herder - Mara-natha, das Buch von der Zukunft des Herrn, des Neuen Testaments Siegel [Maran-atha; the Book of the Coming of the Lord: the Seal of the New Testament.] (1799 German PDF) "The historical perspective of this book is, like that of Abauzit, barren and contracted in the extreme: it consists of Jerusalem and the Jewish war. The formal treatment of the Apocalyptic theme, on the contrary, is enthusiastic, full of idealization, and appreciation of the figurative language of the Orient (see Lucke's commendation). Herder called the Apocalypse : "A picture-book, setting forth the rise, the visible existence, and the future of Christ's Kingdom in figures and similitudes of His first Coming, to terrify and to console."  (Lange)

 

History of AD70

  • John Carling - The Doomed City (1910 PDF)

  • Nigel Cawthorne - History's Greatest Battles: Masterstrokes of War (2005 PDF) Jerusalem, Defending the Temple - AD70 (p. 31-)  "By crushing Jewish resistance in Jerusalem, the Romans consolidated their eastern empire, driving Jews out of their homeland in a diaspora that has religious and political consequences to this day."


Reference Works


Spurious Works

  • Book of Adam and Eve | Second Book of Adam and Eve

  • Essene Book of Revelation

  • Essene Books Translated | Links

  • Essene Gospels and Apocalypse (A.D. 66 or 1923)

  • | Found in the "Secret Vatican Library" in 1930 - Most likely Forgery : "Another amazing discovery was made in 1923. Edmond Bordeaux Szekely was able to discover Essene documents in the secret archives of the Vatican. In his book The Discovery of the Essene Gospel of Peace, he tells the story of how two chess players helped him meet the renowned Msgr. Angelo Mercati, Prefect of the Vatican Archives. He told the Prefect of his desire to learn all he could of the Saint called Francis. He was allowed to research the vast 25 miles of bookshelves containing scrolls, parchments, paper manuscripts and codices. Within the labarinth he found an aramaic translation of The Essene Gospel of Peace as well as the The Essene Book of Revelation. His research led him to seek out the Benedictine monastary of Monte Cassino. He was allowed, because of a letter of Msgr. had written granting access to the large vitrines in the Scriptorium. There he found the original Hebrew codices of The Essene Gospel of Peace, the source for the Aramaic version found at the secret Vatican Archives."
  • Ignatian Epistles Entirely Spurious (1886) - W.D. Killen

  • Lost Years of Jesus

 

 


 

"For as God's reign over the Jews, entirely ended with the abolition of the temple, so the reign of Christ, in spirit and in truth, had then its first beginning."William Warburton

 

  • Mary Tileston  Daily Strength for Daily Needs (1896) "To be at the centre of that motion, where is everlasting rest; to be sheltered in the peace of God; even now to dwell in heaven, where all hearts are stayed, and all hopes fulfilled. "Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee."

  • Richard Baxter - The Saints' Everlasting Rest (1650) "O blessed rest, how unworthily art thou neglected! O glorious kingdom, how art thou undervalued! Little know the careless sons of men what a state they so neglect. If they once knew it, they would surely be of another mind."


Date: 12 Oct 2003
Time: 13:00:01

Comments

"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.' If you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit as you conjecture, or witness to the non-believers or the lost, from the so-called preterist standpoint, then I would say you felt the chills of validity. However, I dare say you don't. If the preterist, skeptic, or the atheist wants to focus on the literal or present tense of the first statement above, then I would say consider the same when reading the second. If Jesus words do not pass away, as they haven't, then they must always be in the present tense. Therefore his words are always applicable to this generation. The great I am, is beyond time, and our miniscule comprehension of it. May the grace and peace of our Lord be with you, Yours in Christ, Porter +++ P.S. When an old pawnbroker repents and starts getting signs from the Lord, you better get your copy of the book out.


Date: 07 Nov 2003
Time: 10:07:21

Comments

one brother thinks the 1000 years refers to the time of davids kingdom to christ's time on earth when satanic activity and demon possession was limited. in messiah s day we see a flurry of such activity as demon possession etc. but christ won complete victory over tese powers so we see them no more.


Date: 12 Nov 2003
Time: 05:21:55

Comments

gooday sir, am pastor joshua of christ ressurection of chapel my ministry is into visting prison inminate telling them about the good new of the gospel, i will love to place an order for old and new testement bibles writhing together.for my ministry and i will need about 50 piceces,and my method of payment is with my visa cradit card.as soon as i hear from you i will e mail my payment to you and my shipping adress in lagos nigeria god bless. expecting to hear from you pls. regards, my e mail adress chimbex@justice.com


Date: 11 Dec 2003
Time: 22:12:39

Comments

c. Jonathin Seraiah: "The End of All Things"
Biblical Studies in Final Things, by William E. Cox


Date: 9 Mar 2004
Time: 02:24:52

Comments

1. Destruction of Jerusalem by John Crowne
2. Destruction of Jerusalem by George Wilkins
3. Destruction of the City of Jerusalem by Thomas Brown
4. Destruction of Jerusalem by Stephen Attai
5. Destruction of Jerusalem by Daniel Smith (Coming in 2005)
6. Destruction of Jerusalem by Thomas White
7. Destruction of Jerusalem by Henry Milman (Coming in 2005)
8. Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by David Roberts


Date: 16 Mar 2004
Time: 22:10:14

Comments

referring to the first post above ("Verily I say unto you...") Are you suggesting that by including the phrase, "Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away," that Jesus is saying that the preceding sentence can be interpreted to refer to any time in history? The plain and clear teaching of the passage is that the generation to whom he was speaking would experience what he was speaking about. And the inclusion of the the second phrase was merely the exclamation point! It is very common for God or Jesus to say such things. He is simply saying that "What I have said will come to pass, will come to pass. There is a better chance of heaven and earth passing away than there is of my words not coming to pass." I have heard a lot of explanations as to why this passage can refer to future generations, but never this one. Of course, since this is a pretty old post, you may not check this again. But I has to say something. Maybe I am misunderstanding you. But if I am not, I would humbly suggest that you reconsider your thoughts about this passage.


Date: 21 Jun 2004
Time: 19:59:18

Comments

Hello! May I ask here if there were any limits concerning Philip Mauros books to be translated in Finnish language and showed in printed forms or by web pages? In Christ, Kyösti Malmirae, kmalmir@saunalahti.fi, Finland  (TDD: Translate!  Publish!)


Date: 03 Oct 2004
Time: 18:30:30

Comments

overwhelming


Date: 28 Oct 2004
Time: 14:28:56

Comments

The Once and Future Israel by R.B. Yerby. Reiner Publications, Swengel, PA. 17880. 1977. We have had this book for years and have not been able to find copies for others. Some of Philip Mauro's titles are listed on the back cover of this book. Thanks! Angie Wewel


Date: 05 Dec 2004
Time: 15:53:11

Comments

severus  - Sulpicius Severus (360-425)


Date: 29 Dec 2004
Time: 22:43:02

Comments

Can the alledged Bible Codes be found using the same computer programs in any book, say one of Shakespere's books?


Date: 27 Jan 2005
Time: 06:46:47

Comments

Answering the Bible Codes question: Yes. It has been done with Moby Dick.


Date: 13 Dec 2005
Time: 08:49:12

Comments:

Pastor y maestro Reynaldo Estrada
Preterismo 70 Español
www.graciaypaz.com
http://www.graciaypaz.com/librograciaypaz17.html
reynaldoestrada@hotmail.com


Date: 27 Dec 2005
Time: 15:07:31

Comments:

Pregunto, tienen estos materiales en Español!
Graciasm mi E-mail es jrizo@prodigy.net.mx

Gracias


Date: 05 Aug 2006
Time: 23:30:32

Comments:

Ordene ya "EL ULTIMO ENEMIGO DE LA BIBLIA" http://www.lamuertedelabiblia.com Un libro hipper preterista,preterista total. Se los recomiendo..

Ozcar


Date: 10 May 2007
Time: 19:11:28

Comments:

I just wanted to say thank you for your very extensive offering of online books. I found what I was looking for. Blessings, D.Miller