Preterism is a belief system that teaches that either partially or in full, the prophecies concerning the Great Tribulation and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ have already come to pass.
We know that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, He does not change. The time frame that God gave to fulfill His prophecies was in hundreds of years into the future, not in the first century of the people whom the prophecies were told.
Let’s start at the very beginning.
Genesis 3:14-15
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
The author of the Book of Genesis was Moses who lived 1600 B.C. before the Son of God came in human form. But the prophecy was given to the serpent/Satan which was in the time of Adam’s fall. If Abraham was born in 2166 B.C. then Adam would be close to 4000 years before the prophecy would be fulfilled of the coming Messiah.
The prophecy was about Satan’s defeat with the cross of Calvary, Jesus’ death and resurrection (30 A.D.).
Let’s see another prophecy.
Genesis 12:1-2
The Lord said to Abram:
Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
We know that the promise that God gave Abraham would take 400 years according to Genesis 15:13-14 which says, 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. 14 However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions.
We see that this prophecy took four generations to be accomplished not one hundred years. The reason why God fulfills His prophecies way into the future is to give time for people either to repent of their sins or have the generation that He has chosen to exist go through it or see it.
For examples:
Genesis 15:16
In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
Luke 2:25-26
25 There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel’s consolation, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s Messiah.
Let’s rewind and go back to the prophet Isaiah who prophesied the first coming of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross for all humanity.
Isaiah 52:13-15
13 See, my servant will be successful; he will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted.
14 Just as many were appalled at you— his appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man, and his form did not resemble a human being—
15 so he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of him, for they will see what had not been told them, and they will understand what they had not heard.
Isaiah 53:1-6
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him.
4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.
6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the LORD has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah lived in the 8th century B.C. which the prophecies above were written. Around 700 years before what he wrote about the Messiah would be fulfilled, take place, which detailed Jesus’ scourging, nails on His body, and His death on the cross.
As you can see, the prophecies of the Old Testament was always for the future.
That is how God timed the prophecies that He gave. Remember, God does not change.
Malachi 3:6
“Because I, the Lord, have not changed, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
If that is the timeline of prophecies being fulfilled in the Old Testament, what makes a Preterist or any other group similar think that God would do differently in the New Testament prophecies?
This will end Part 1. In Part 2, I will tackle some of the N.T. prophecies.
Spiritual Minefield 