The Dilemma of Giving AD 70 Double Fulfillments–One Coming, One Appointed Time, One End, One Hope of Israel, and One New Jerusalem / Creation

Song to go with article:

I. Introduction: Fulfillment Does Not Return to Shadow

One of the most important—and yet often overlooked—questions in biblical interpretation concerns the nature of prophetic fulfillment itself. When Scripture declares that prophecy has been fulfilled, what precisely does that mean? Does fulfillment signify completion, consummation, and realization? Or may fulfilled prophecy somehow revert back into anticipation, becoming prophetic again for another future fulfillment thousands of years later?

This question lies at the center of modern eschatological debate. Many futurist systems acknowledge that significant prophetic events were fulfilled in connection with Christ’s first coming, His death and resurrection, and even the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Yet they maintain that these fulfillments often function as preliminary patterns pointing forward to another, greater fulfillment at the end of world history.

This hermeneutical approach is commonly described through categories such as double fulfillment, multiple fulfillment, prophetic telescoping, or already/not yet fulfillment. Although different traditions express this concept differently, the underlying assumption remains similar: a New Testament fulfillment can itself become another prophetic shadow awaiting a greater realization.

Before proceeding, an important distinction must be made. This chapter does not deny the existence of typology, patterns, partial fulfillments, or progressive revelation within Scripture. In fact, the New Testament explicitly teaches these realities. The Exodus typified redemption in Christ. The sacrificial system typified Christ’s atoning work. The temple typified God’s dwelling among His people. Israel’s history contained divinely ordained shadows pointing beyond themselves to greater realities in Christ and the New Covenant.

The issue is not whether the Old Testament contained types and anticipatory fulfillments. The inspired New Testament writers repeatedly affirm that it did. The issue is what happens once those realities reach their New Testament fulfillment. The consistent pattern of Scripture is movement from Old Testament type to New Testament antitype, from shadow to substance, from promise to fulfillment. What Scripture never teaches is a further movement from New Testament fulfillment back into another future antitype. Once fulfillment arrives, the New Testament never transforms fulfillment itself into another shadow awaiting a greater realization thousands of years later.

This distinction is crucial because advocates of double fulfillment frequently appeal to Old Testament typology as justification for multiplying New Testament fulfillments. Yet this confuses two fundamentally different concepts. The inspired apostles possessed authority to identify Old Testament types and reveal their fulfillment in Christ. Modern interpreters possess no comparable authority to transform the apostles’ imminent New Testament fulfillments into new shadows awaiting another consummation at the end of world history.

The apostles were inspired interpreters of prophecy. Later theological systems are not.

While sharing this basic assumption, Reformed and Dispensational approaches often develop double fulfillment differently.

Many Reformed and partial preterist theologians acknowledge that AD 70 was a genuine fulfillment of biblical prophecy. They correctly recognize Jerusalem’s destruction as covenantally significant. However, AD 70 is often then described as a smaller-scale fulfillment, a historical microcosm anticipating a greater macrocosmic fulfillment at the end of world history.

In this framework, AD 70 becomes Israel’s eschaton, while Genesis 2–3 (Adamic/Edenic) eschatology supposedly introduces a broader hope involving the defeat of death, removal of the curse, restoration of paradise, access to the tree of life, resurrection, and renewed fellowship with God that still awaits fulfillment.

The difficulty with this distinction is that the New Testament itself never makes it.

The apostles never present two separate eschatological hopes—one covenantal hope for Israel fulfilled in the first century and another Adamic hope fulfilled thousands of years later. Instead, Israel’s eschatology carries Adam’s eschatology within it because Israel was the covenant people through whom God promised to restore what was lost in Adam.

Paul explicitly teaches this unity. When defending his resurrection hope, he does not describe it as a separate universal hope detached from Israel’s promises. Rather, he declares: “And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers” (Acts 26:6).

He immediately identifies this hope: “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8).

Near the end of Acts, Paul summarizes his entire eschatological expectation: “for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain” (Acts 28:20).

For Paul, resurrection was not a different hope beyond Israel’s covenant story. Resurrection was Israel’s hope. The defeat of death, restoration of access to God, judgment, inheritance, and New Creation were the very promises made through Moses and the Prophets.

This is precisely why Paul’s resurrection argument in 1 Corinthians 15 unites Adam and Israel. The coming of Christ, resurrection, defeat of death, removal of sin, and victory over the Law converge in one eschatological climax: “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law” (1 Cor. 15:56).

Adam, sin, death, resurrection, and the Mosaic covenant all meet in the same redemptive consummation. Paul does not separate Adam’s problem from Israel’s story. He demonstrates that Israel’s covenantal consummation brings the solution to Adam’s curse.

John confirms the same reality in Revelation 21–22. The “new heaven and new earth” should not be read apart from the Old Testament covenantal background. Isaiah describes God establishing Israel as His covenant creation: “I have put my words in thy mouth… that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people” (Isa. 51:16).

This covenant heaven and earth was established when God formed Israel as His covenant people at Sinai (Ex. 19–24). Therefore, the passing of the first heaven and earth in Revelation 21 concerns the removal of the old covenant world and the arrival of the New Covenant creation in Christ.

Yet within that covenantal transition, the deeper Genesis 2–3 problem is also resolved. The curse is removed. The tree of life appears. God dwells with His people. Death is no more. Access to God’s presence is restored. And John repeatedly declares that the prophecy containing these realities would be fulfilled “shortly” because “the time is at hand” (Rev. 1:1–3; 22:6–10).

Therefore, the passing of Israel’s old covenant world and the restoration of what was lost in Adam are not two different hopes separated by thousands of years. They are fulfilled together in Christ.

Dispensationalism approaches the issue differently. AD 70 is generally treated as preliminary rather than consummative, while the climax of redemptive history is often located in a future restoration of Israel’s earthly institutions. Thus history culminates in a return to an earthly Jerusalem, rebuilt temple, renewed sacrifices, priesthood, land-centered kingdom, and ceremonial distinctions.

This creates a different problem. The New Testament moves from earthly shadows to heavenly realities, from the land to Christ, from temple to Christ’s body, from sacrifices to Christ’s once-for-all offering, and from old covenant types to New Covenant fulfillment. Dispensational eschatology often reverses that trajectory by making the consummation a return to the very shadows the apostles said were passing away.

Despite their differences, both approaches depend upon the same assumption—that New Testament fulfillment can become the foundation for another future fulfillment.

This chapter examines whether the Bible itself teaches such a concept. Did Moses, Daniel, Jesus, and the apostles anticipate one covenantal consummation or multiple prophetic endings? Did they teach one appointed time, one coming of the Son of Man, one resurrection, one judgment, one New Creation, and one fulfillment of the prophetic mystery—or repeated fulfillments across history?

The biblical evidence overwhelmingly favors one fulfillment.

II. Moses Predicted One Appointed Time of the End (Deuteronomy 31–32)

The foundation for understanding the unified eschatological expectation of the New Testament must begin where the biblical writers themselves began: with the covenantal testimony of Moses. Far from presenting an open-ended series of recurring prophetic fulfillments stretching indefinitely across redemptive history, Moses established a single, coherent covenantal horizon for Israel’s latter-days crisis. This framework—rooted in covenant lawsuit, divine jealousy, appointed judgment, and ultimate vindication—becomes the interpretive backbone for everything that follows in the prophets, in Jesus, and in the apostolic writings. To detach New Testament eschatology from this Mosaic foundation is to misread both the continuity and the climax of redemptive history.

As Moses neared death, he gathered Israel and issued what amounts to a covenant lawsuit against the nation. Having delivered the covenant stipulations and warned of blessings and curses, Moses was under no illusion concerning Israel’s future faithfulness. The nation that had pledged obedience would, in time, rebel against Yahweh and bring covenant wrath upon itself. Moses declares: “For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days” (Deut. 31:29).

This statement deserves careful attention. Moses does not speak vaguely of cyclical rebellions repeated endlessly throughout world history. Nor does he predict an indefinite future detached from covenantal context. He speaks specifically of “the latter days” (beʾaḥarît hayyāmîm), a covenantal period in which Israel’s rebellion would ripen to maturity and bring divine judgment.

Much confusion surrounds the biblical expression “latter days,” largely because modern readers instinctively import notions of the end of world history into the phrase. Yet within the Old Testament itself, “latter days” often refers not to the destruction of the physical cosmos, but to the climactic period of covenantal fulfillment. Moses’ concern was not twenty-first century geopolitics or the end of biological existence upon planet earth. His concern was covenant Israel—its rebellion, judgment, and ultimate restoration under God’s redemptive plan.

The theological centerpiece of Moses’ eschatology emerges most clearly in the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32). This chapter functions not merely as poetry but as covenant witness and prophetic indictment. Moses explicitly states its purpose: “Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel” (Deut. 31:19).

The Song traces a unified covenant drama. Israel would become prosperous yet apostatize (Deut. 32:15–18). Yahweh would hide His face in judgment (v. 20). Israel would be provoked to jealousy through a “no-people” (v. 21). Divine wrath would intensify (vv. 22–25). A covenantal “day of calamity” would arrive (v. 35). Yet finally, Yahweh would come and vindicate His faithful servants and judge His enemies (vv. 36–43).

The sequence is remarkably coherent. Moses describes one covenant story moving toward one covenant climax. This becomes especially important in Deuteronomy 32:35: “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time [or better translated “in the appointed time”]: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.”

Here Moses speaks not of repeated covenant judgments, but of an appointed time. The Hebrew expression translated “due time” conveys the notion of an appointed season or fixed moment of judgment. The Septuagint makes this even clearer through the language of kairos—an appointed season or determined time. This terminology becomes enormously significant because Daniel, Jesus, and the New Testament writers later employ precisely this kind of appointed-time language when describing the covenant consummation.

Equally important is Moses’ emphasis upon imminence: “the day of their calamity is at hand” and “the things that shall come upon them make haste.” The covenant lawsuit is moving toward a historical climax. Moses does not envision an endlessly deferred eschatology stretched across thousands of years. Rather, Israel’s rebellion would ripen until divine judgment arrived at its appointed season.

This background proves essential for understanding Jesus’ confrontation with first-century Jerusalem. In Matthew 23, Christ deliberately invokes Mosaic covenant lawsuit language against the scribes and Pharisees. After cataloging Israel’s long history of covenant rebellion and blood guilt, Jesus declares: “Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers” (Matt. 23:32). The allusion is unmistakable. Moses had predicted a covenant rebellion that would mature toward judgment. Jesus identifies His generation as the generation in which that measure had finally reached completion. The language of “filling up” parallels the covenant ripening anticipated throughout Deuteronomy 32. Israel’s sins had reached maturity. The appointed kairos had arrived.

Christ then delivers one of the clearest time statements in all of Scripture: “Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation” (Matt. 23:36). The same generation that rejected the prophets, murdered the Messiah, persecuted His apostles, and filled up the covenant measure would experience the covenant curses Moses had forewarned. As many scholars acknowledge, Matthew 23 consciously echoes covenant lawsuit themes rooted in Deuteronomy.

The apostle Paul likewise understood Moses to be reaching fulfillment in his own generation. Writing in Romans 10, Paul explicitly quotes Deuteronomy 32:21: “I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people” (Rom. 10:19). This is no incidental citation. Paul understands Gentile inclusion as the very mechanism Moses had foretold. Israel’s rejection of Messiah and the inclusion of the Gentiles constituted covenant fulfillment, not a postponed prophetic program. In Romans 11 Paul develops this point extensively. Gentile salvation provokes ethnic Israel to jealousy precisely as Moses predicted.

As J. Ross Wagner has demonstrated, Paul’s use of Deuteronomy is not superficial proof-texting but reflects a deep conviction that Israel’s covenant story had reached its decisive climax in Christ and the gospel mission to the nations. Moses’ prophecy was not being temporarily enacted while awaiting another fulfillment. It was happening.[1]

This creates a profound challenge for double-fulfillment theories. If Moses predicted one latter-days covenant crisis involving apostasy, Gentile jealousy, divine vengeance, and covenant vindication—and if Jesus and Paul explicitly apply that framework to their own generation—then on what exegetical basis may interpreters multiply covenant consummations across thousands of years? No such warrant appears in the text. Moses envisioned one covenant lawsuit. One latter-days rebellion. One appointed kairos of judgment. One covenantal vindication. Jesus said it came upon “this generation.” Paul said it was unfolding in his generation. The burden therefore rests upon advocates of double fulfillment to prove that Moses anticipated another covenant climax beyond the one Christ and His apostles explicitly identified. Such proof is conspicuously absent.

III. Daniel Predicted One Appointed Time of the End (Daniel 9 & 12)

Building directly upon the covenantal foundation laid by Moses, Daniel supplies the chronological precision and covenantal specificity that would shape all subsequent biblical expectation. Far from envisioning multiple eschatological horizons or a suspended prophetic program awaiting distant completion, Daniel consistently presents one appointed time (kairos) in which Israel’s rebellion would reach its full measure, Jerusalem and the sanctuary would be desolated, vision and prophecy sealed, the power of the holy people shattered, resurrection realized, and covenant vindication accomplished. The prophet’s visions do not fragment into disconnected prophetic dramas separated by vast chronological gaps. They form a unified covenantal tapestry reaching its God-ordained consummation.

This unity is evident from the very structure of Daniel 9. Having meditated upon Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years of Jerusalem’s desolation (Dan. 9:2), Daniel intercedes with fasting and confession on behalf of “thy people” and “thy holy city” (Dan. 9:16, 19). Gabriel’s response maintains this precise covenantal focus: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy” (Dan. 9:24).

The Hebrew term nechtak (“determined” or “decreed”) carries the force of something cut out or fixed for a definite purpose. As C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch long ago observed, the six infinitival clauses function together as coordinated aspects of one redemptive program to be accomplished within the seventy weeks rather than scattered across unrelated ages. There is no grammatical warrant for dividing these purposes or postponing the final three into a distant future dispensation. Daniel presents one covenantal horizon moving toward one consummation.[2]

The prophecy then explicitly ties this consummation to the destruction of “the city and the sanctuary” by “the people of the prince that shall come” (Dan. 9:26). Desolations are determined “until the end” (Dan. 9:27). The Old Greek (LXX) rendering heightens the covenantal finality, repeatedly employing language of an “appointed consummation” (kairos synteleias). This terminology directly echoes Moses’ covenantal kairos of vengeance in Deuteronomy 32:35. Daniel therefore does not suspend the prophetic clock or introduce a multi-millennial gap. He times its final movement.

Daniel 12 consolidates the identical vision with even greater force. Following the unparalleled tribulation “such as never was since there was a nation,” Michael stands up, many awake from the dust of the earth—some to everlasting life, others to shame and contempt—and the wise shine as the brightness of the firmament (Dan. 12:1–3). When Daniel inquires concerning “the end of these wonders,” the angel answers with unmistakable covenantal specificity: “when he shall have accomplished to shatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished” (Dan. 12:7). The reference to the shattering of the holy people points directly to covenant judgment upon Israel. Daniel does not separate resurrection from the desolation of Jerusalem, nor tribulation from covenant consummation. All belong to one appointed time of the end.

Daniel locates resurrection, tribulation, and consummation at the single time when “the power of the holy people” is shattered (Dan. 12:7). Jesus likewise identified the destruction of Jerusalem, the tribulation, His coming upon the clouds, the gathering of the elect / resurrection, the fulfillment of all that had been written in the Old Testament with the end of the old covenant age—all coming within His generation (Matt. 23:36; 24:3-34; Luke 21:20-32). Therefore, Daniel’s resurrection and consummation belong to the covenantal transition culminating in AD 70—not to another future eschatological horizon.

This covenantal connection is vital. In Second Temple Jewish expectation, as reflected in texts like 1 Enoch, resurrection was not typically viewed as an isolated biological event detached from covenant history but as the vindication and restoration of God’s people at the climax of the age. Daniel stands within this stream, locating the awakening of the dead precisely when the power of the holy people is shattered in covenant judgment. Jesus Himself drew upon this framework when teaching that the resurrection and the judgment of the living and the dead would occur at “the last day” of the old covenant order (John 5:24–29; 6:39–40, 44, 54; 11:24). In John 5, the hour “is coming and now is” when the dead hear the voice of the Son of God and live—an already/not yet reality tied to covenant transition. The same pattern appears in Luke 16’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus, where covenant reversal and judgment occur within the framework of the old covenant age, and in Matthew 22:23–33 and Luke 20, where Jesus corrects the Sadducees by rooting resurrection hope in the God of the living, not the dead, within the age-to-come transition. Daniel 12’s resurrection is understood covenantally and spiritually as the transition from death under the old covenant to life in the new, fulfilled when the holy people were shattered in AD 70, the old age ended, and the new covenant people emerged vindicated as the true Israel of God.

The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 therefore marked not merely the end of a political entity but the covenantal shattering of the old order. At that moment, the corporate-covenantal resurrection hope of Daniel 12 reached its fulfillment as the saints were vindicated, the unrighteous judged, and the new covenant people emerged as the true Israel of God. This is resurrection understood covenantally and spiritually—as the transition from death under the old covenant to life in the new—not as a yet-future biological event detached from the first-century horizon. Hebrews 11–12 reinforces this by contrasting the temporary earthly inheritance with the heavenly country and unshakable kingdom that the patriarchs and prophets anticipated and that believers had already begun to receive (Heb. 11:10, 16; 12:22–28). The resurrection life Daniel foresaw was realized when the old covenant world passed away and the new stood fully revealed in Christ.

John Walvoord argues that Daniel 12 points to a future tribulation period after the Church has been removed, because the unparalleled tribulation, the shattering of the holy people, and the resurrection cannot be exhausted by the events of AD 70. He assigns these realities to a final consummation involving national Israel and a literal future fulfillment distinct from the first century. Similar views appear in Charles Ryrie, who treats the Church age as a parenthesis requiring Daniel’s prophecies to resume in a future dispensation, and in John MacArthur, who sees a future Antichrist and rebuilt temple as necessary for full fulfillment. Michael Vlach maintains that ethnic-national land promises remain unfulfilled, rendering AD 70 incomplete. Even Craig Blaising and Darrell Bock, while more nuanced, preserve a future national role for Israel that treats the first-century events as only partial. These approaches impose a gap that Daniel never authorizes and that Jesus explicitly closes.[3]

IV. Jesus Came to Fulfill All the Law and the Prophets

The decisive witness against double fulfillment comes from Jesus Himself. Throughout His ministry, Christ presented His mission not as the inauguration of a new prophetic program requiring future completion, but as the fulfillment of what the Law and the Prophets had long anticipated. This self-understanding leaves no room for treating AD 70 as merely preliminary or typological. If Jesus came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, and if He explicitly located that fulfillment within His own generation, then the hermeneutical structure of double fulfillment collapses.

At the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matt. 5:17).

He immediately adds the comprehensive temporal qualifier: “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matt. 5:18).

Jesus is not speaking merely of isolated predictions concerning His death and resurrection. “The Law and the Prophets” was the common Jewish designation for the entirety of Old Testament revelation. That revelation foretold not only Messiah’s suffering and resurrection, but also His enthronement, kingdom reign, coming upon the clouds in judgment, the resurrection of the dead, the vindication of the saints, the destruction of Jerusalem, the inheritance of the kingdom, and the arrival of the new creation. The same Scriptures that anticipated Christ’s first coming also anticipated the consummation of the old covenant age.

This means the “all” of Matthew 5:18 cannot be artificially restricted to the cross or resurrection. Jesus does not say that the Law would remain until some prophecies were fulfilled. Nor does He say it would remain merely until His death and resurrection. Rather, not one jot or tittle would pass from the Law until the entire prophetic program contained within the Law and the Prophets reached its appointed goal.

This creates a serious problem for every version of futurism and double fulfillment. If major portions of Old Testament eschatology remain unfulfilled today—including the coming of the Son of Man, the resurrection, the judgment, and the new creation—then Jesus’ stated condition for the passing of the Law has not yet been satisfied. The unavoidable implication is that every jot and tittle of the Mosaic order should still remain binding.

The dilemma may be stated simply:

Major Premise: Jesus taught that not one jot or tittle of the Law would pass away until all that the Law and the Prophets foretold had been fulfilled (Matt. 5:17–18).

Minor Premise: The Law and the Prophets foretold not only Christ’s death and resurrection but also His second coming in judgment, the resurrection, the kingdom, and the new creation.

Conclusion: Therefore, the Law could not pass away until all of those redemptive-historical realities reached fulfillment.

This is why the Olivet Discourse is so important. Having already declared in Matthew 5 that all must be fulfilled before heaven and earth pass away, Jesus later identifies the generation in which that fulfillment would occur. After describing the abomination of desolation, the great tribulation, the cosmic signs, the coming of the Son of Man, and the gathering of the elect, He declares: “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matt. 24:34). He then immediately adds: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35).

The parallel is unmistakable. In Matthew 5, the passing of heaven and earth marks the point at which all is fulfilled. In Matthew 24, all these things are fulfilled before that generation passes away, and Jesus again speaks of heaven and earth passing away. Jesus interprets His own prophecy. The covenantal “heaven and earth” of the old order would pass when the Law and the Prophets reached their appointed goal in the events surrounding Jerusalem’s judgment.

Luke’s account removes any remaining ambiguity. Concerning the desolation of Jerusalem, Jesus states: “For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22).

This is one of the most sweeping statements in the Gospels. The context is not merely the destruction of a city. Jesus has just referenced Daniel’s abomination of desolation and proceeds to describe great tribulation, cosmic signs, the coming of the Son of Man, the redemption of His people, and the end of the old covenant age. Therefore, “all things which are written” must include the prophetic expectations concerning Israel’s latter days: Daniel’s tribulation and resurrection, Isaiah’s swallowing up of death, Hosea’s redemption from Sheol, Deuteronomy’s covenant vengeance, the coming kingdom, and the passing of the old creation order.

Significantly, Luke 21:22 echoes Daniel 9:24, where the seventy weeks would “finish the transgression,” “make an end of sins,” “make reconciliation for iniquity,” “bring in everlasting righteousness,” and “seal up vision and prophecy.” Both passages describe comprehensive prophetic consummation. Neither describes the beginning of another prophetic cycle awaiting fulfillment thousands of years later. If Jesus declares that these realities would reach fulfillment in Jerusalem’s days of vengeance, then the claim that AD 70 was merely typological requires one to argue that “all” does not actually mean all.

A second syllogism follows naturally:

Major Premise: Jesus taught that the passing of the Law awaited the fulfillment of all that the Law and the Prophets foretold (Matt. 5:17–18).

Minor Premise: Jesus taught that all things written would be fulfilled in Jerusalem’s days of vengeance within His generation (Matt. 24:34; Luke 21:22).

Conclusion: Therefore, the passing of the Law and the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophetic expectation coincided with the events culminating in AD 70.

Jesus’ post-resurrection teaching provides one of the clearest refutations of double-fulfillment theology. On the road to Emmaus He rebuked His disciples: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25).

Notice carefully what Jesus does not say. He does not accuse them of failing to believe some of what the prophets had spoken. He rebukes them for failing to believe all that the prophets had spoken. The issue was not whether the prophets had spoken clearly enough, but whether the disciples had believed the totality of the prophetic witness concerning the Messiah.

Jesus then immediately explains the nature of that prophetic expectation: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). The precise extent of Christ’s “glory” need not be settled here. Whether one understands the term primarily as referring to His resurrection, ascension, and exaltation, or more broadly as His royal triumph as Messiah, the point remains unchanged. Jesus presents the prophetic story as moving from promise to fulfillment. The prophets foretold the Messiah’s sufferings and subsequent glory, and Jesus declares that those prophetic expectations had reached their intended goal in Him.

Luke then records: “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Later that evening Jesus repeated the same principle: “These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me” (Luke 24:44).

Again, the context controls the meaning. The “all things” are the things written concerning Christ. Jesus is speaking specifically of the prophetic witness to His messianic mission. The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms had collectively testified concerning His suffering, resurrection, exaltation, and redemptive work.

No Christian interprets these passages according to a double-fulfillment paradigm. No one argues that Isaiah 53 was fulfilled in Christ’s first coming but awaits a greater fulfillment thousands of years later. No one claims that Psalm 22 received an initial fulfillment at Calvary but will receive a more complete fulfillment in the future. No one teaches that Psalm 16’s resurrection prophecy was partially fulfilled and remains awaiting another realization.

Why? Because Jesus Himself treats these prophecies as having reached their intended goal in His messianic work and passion. Promise became fulfillment. Type became antitype. Shadow became substance.

Yet this same hermeneutical principle must govern Jesus’ teaching in Luke 21.

There, Jesus is discussing a different category of prophetic expectation. He is no longer focusing primarily on His suffering and resurrection but on Jerusalem’s coming judgment, Israel’s covenantal end, the vindication of the saints, the coming of the Son of Man, the resurrection hope of God’s people, and the consummation of the age.

In that context He declares: “For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22).

The scope of “all” in Luke 21 is therefore broader than the scope of “all” in Luke 24. In Luke 24 the reference is to all the Scriptures concerning Christ’s messianic mission. In Luke 21 the reference is to all the Scriptures concerning Israel’s covenantal consummation. But while the scope differs, the hermeneutic remains identical.

Jesus does not suggest that the prophecies concerning His suffering would be fulfilled once and then fulfilled again thousands of years later. Neither does He suggest that the prophecies concerning Jerusalem’s judgment, resurrection, kingdom consummation, and covenantal end would be fulfilled once and then fulfilled again thousands of years later.

The pattern throughout Scripture is singular fulfillment, not recurring fulfillment.

This creates a serious dilemma for the advocate of double fulfillment. Futurists rightly insist that the “all” of Luke 24 means exactly what it says because it concerns Christ’s first coming. Yet when Jesus uses the same comprehensive language in Luke 21:22 concerning His coming in judgment and the consummation of the age, “all” suddenly becomes “some,” with major portions postponed for thousands of years. Such a distinction is not derived from the text. It is imposed upon the text.

The burden of proof therefore rests upon the futurist. If the prophecies concerning Christ’s messianic mission reached their intended fulfillment without requiring a second fulfillment, why should the prophecies concerning Israel’s covenantal consummation require one?

The logic may be stated simply:

Major Premise: “All” the prophecies concerning Christ’s messianic mission reached their intended fulfillment without requiring a second fulfillment (Luke 24:25–44).

Minor Premise: Jesus used the same comprehensive “all” fulfillment language concerning Israel’s covenantal consummation coming in His “generation” (Luke 21:22-32).

Conclusion: Therefore, the prophecies concerning Israel’s covenantal consummation likewise reached their intended fulfillment without requiring a second fulfillment.

This fulfillment hermeneutic explains why Jesus could speak with such urgency and audience relevance throughout the Olivet Discourse. The signs, the tribulation, the abomination, the cosmic signs, the gathering of the elect, and the coming of the Son of Man all belonged to one covenantal climax. There was no need for another fulfillment because the one God had promised had arrived. To treat AD 70 as merely foreshadowing another eschatological drama is therefore not merely to extend chronology. It is to reverse the redemptive trajectory Jesus Himself established—from promise to fulfillment, from shadow to substance, from the land to Christ.

V. Paul Taught No Other Eschatology Than Moses and the Prophets

The apostolic witness confirms and extends Jesus’ fulfillment hermeneutic. Nowhere is this clearer than in Paul’s explicit claim that his entire ministry proclaimed nothing beyond what Moses and the Prophets had already announced. Standing before Agrippa, Paul summarized his gospel: “Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come” (Acts 26:22).

This statement is hermeneutically decisive. Paul does not present a new eschatological system, a postponed prophetic program, or a separate destiny for national Israel detached from the Church. He insists that his message remained in complete continuity with the covenantal expectation already revealed in Israel’s Scriptures. The resurrection hope itself was not innovative but “the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers” (Acts 26:6). When Paul taught resurrection, judgment, and the coming of Christ, he understood himself as proclaiming the fulfillment of what Moses and the Prophets had long foretold.

As we have already seen, both Moses and Daniel spoke of one appointed time (kairos) of covenantal consummation. Deuteronomy 32 located Israel’s final covenant lawsuit, judgment, and vindication at an appointed time that would come in Israel’s latter days. In the Septuagint, this “appointed time” is explicitly connected with nearness: “for the day of their calamity is near, and the things prepared for them hasten” (Deut. 32:35 LXX). In other words when the appointed time would come in Israel’s last days perverse and crooked generation, Israel’s eschatological end and God coming in vengeance and salvation would be “near” at that time.  Likewise, Daniel’s visions repeatedly focused upon the appointed time of the end, the tribulation, resurrection, and destruction of the city and sanctuary. Together, Moses and Daniel anticipated one climactic covenantal end associated with the close of the old covenant age. They did not predict multiple covenantal consummations, repeated endings of the age, or successive fulfillments of the same eschatological events.

What is remarkable is that Paul adopts this same prophetic vocabulary and applies it directly to his own generation. Writing to the Corinthians, he declares: “But this I say, brethren, the appointed time is short” (1 Cor. 7:29).

The phrase literally reads, “the appointed time has been shortened” (ho kairos synestalmenos estin). Paul then describes the passing character of the present order: “for the fashion of this world passeth away” (1 Cor. 7:31). Thus, just as Deuteronomy 32 connects Israel’s appointed time with nearness and hastening judgment, Paul connects the appointed kairos with shortness, urgency, and the passing away of the existing world. The very appointed time foretold by Moses and developed by Daniel had drawn near and was rapidly approaching its consummation.

Paul immediately reinforces this covenantal framework in his discussion of Israel’s wilderness history: “Now these things happened unto them as types, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11).

The Greek term is stronger than the common translation “examples.” Paul says these events happened typologically (typikōs). Israel’s history was not merely illustrative; it was divinely designed to function as a system of types pointing forward to their fulfillment in Christ and the New Covenant age.

This observation is highly significant for the present discussion. Throughout this book we have acknowledged that the Old Testament contains genuine types, patterns, and partial fulfillments. The Exodus, wilderness generation, conquest, kingdom, exile, restoration, temple, sacrifices, priesthood, and even Israel herself functioned typologically. Yet the biblical pattern consistently moves from Old Testament type to New Testament imminent antitype, from shadow to substance, from promise to fulfillment. Scripture nowhere establishes a pattern of Old Testament type, then New Testament antitype, then turning that imminent New Testament antitype into another future antitype repeating the same fulfillment!

The expression “the ends of the ages” has been interpreted in two primary ways. Some understand the plural to emphasize the convergence of multiple covenant ages—patriarchal, Mosaic, kingdom, prophetic, and Second Temple—upon one climactic consummation. Others understand it as a superlative expression stressing the fullness or consummation of the age. In either case, Paul’s point remains the same. The plural does not require multiple future endings any more than “Holy of Holies” requires multiple Most Holy Places or “King of kings” requires multiple supreme kings. The emphasis falls upon the culmination and fulfillment of all previous redemptive-historical epochs.

Indeed, the immediate context favors precisely this conclusion. The wilderness generation functioned as a type. Paul’s Corinthian readers were experiencing the antitypical fulfillment. The movement is forward—from type to fulfillment—not forward and then backward again into another cycle of fulfillment. Thus, whether one understands “the ends of the ages” as referring to the convergence of many covenant ages into one consummation or as a superlative expression emphasizing the fullness of that consummation, the result is the same: Paul places his own generation at the one climactic goal toward which the entire Old Testament redemptive drama had been moving.

The same idea appears in Hebrews 9:26, where Christ appeared at “the consummation of the ages.” Neither Paul nor the author of Hebrews expected a succession of future covenant endings. Both viewed the old covenant age as standing at its divinely appointed conclusion. The many ages had reached their one appointed end.

Paul uses the same pattern in Romans 13: “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Rom. 13:11–12).

Here again, Paul uses kairos: “knowing the time” (ton kairon). He then immediately attaches that appointed time to nearness: “now is our salvation nearer,” and “the day is at hand.” This is precisely the pattern already seen in Deuteronomy 32:35 LXX, where Israel’s appointed day of calamity is said to be near and hastening. Paul is not inventing a new eschatological horizon. He is announcing that the appointed covenantal day foretold in the Law and the Prophets had become imminent in his generation.

This same covenantal climax appears in Paul’s warning to the Corinthians: “upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11).

The plural expression “ends of the ages” does not imply multiple future endings. Rather, it reflects a common Jewish idiom emphasizing fullness, culmination, or consummation. All previous covenant ages converged upon a single climactic end experienced by Paul’s generation. The same idea appears in Hebrews 9:26, where Christ appeared at “the consummation of the ages.” Neither Paul nor the author of Hebrews expected a succession of future covenant endings. Both viewed the old covenant age as standing at its divinely appointed conclusion.

Paul repeatedly reinforces this same imminence. “The Lord is at hand” (Phil. 4:5). The appointed kairos had been shortened (1 Cor. 7:29). Salvation was nearer than when believers first believed (Rom. 13:11). The covenantal day was at hand (Rom. 13:12). The ends of the ages had come upon Paul’s contemporaries (1 Cor. 10:11). These statements are not disconnected expressions of general Christian watchfulness. They are Paul’s inspired declaration that the very appointed time previously foretold by Moses and Daniel was now near.

This observation is devastating to double-fulfillment theories. If Moses, Daniel, Jesus, and Paul all spoke of the same appointed time, the same covenantal end, and the same climactic fulfillment, then there is no exegetical basis for multiplying endings, consummations, or fulfillments. The prophets anticipated one covenantal climax. Jesus placed that climax within His generation. Paul proclaimed that the appointed time was now short, near, and at hand. The apostolic message was therefore not the announcement of another future consummation but the proclamation that the long-awaited consummation foretold by Moses and the Prophets was at hand.

This continuity is particularly evident in Romans 9–11, where Paul returns repeatedly to Deuteronomy 32, Isaiah, and Hosea to explain the dynamics of Israel’s hardening and Gentile inclusion. The jealousy Moses predicted through a “no-people” (Deut. 32:21) was unfolding through the gospel’s advance to the nations (Rom. 10:19; 11:11). The remnant principle seen throughout Israel’s history was again at work “at the present time” (Rom. 11:5). The Deliverer coming from Zion to banish ungodliness from Jacob (Rom. 11:26; Isa. 59:20–21) belonged to the same covenantal climax. Paul does not shift to a distant future age. He interprets the present crisis as the outworking of the one covenant drama foreseen by Moses and the Prophets.

Even Paul’s teaching on the Parousia in 1 Thessalonians 4–5 remains anchored in this Mosaic-Danielic framework. The descent of the Lord, the trumpet, the gathering, and the resurrection echo the covenantal theophany patterns of Sinai, the second-exodus expectations of Isaiah, Daniel’s resurrection hope, and Jesus’ own description of His coming in Matthew 24. Paul does not introduce a secret rapture detached from covenant history. He comforts the Thessalonians within the same eschatological horizon Jesus had established. The “we who are alive and remain” language (1 Thess. 4:15, 17) reflects genuine audience relevance, not abstract theological generality. Paul expected the Parousia to occur within the lifetime of at least some in his generation, consistent with Jesus’ own time statements.

Paul’s conduct in Acts 21 further illustrates this covenantal framework. Upon arriving in Jerusalem, James and the elders informed Paul that many thousands of Jewish believers remained zealous for the Law and urged him to join four men under a vow, purify himself with them, and pay the expenses associated with the completion of their vow (Acts 21:20–26). The narrative culminates with the required offerings being presented for each participant. Whatever questions remain concerning the precise details of the ceremony, the passage demonstrates that Paul did not regard the old covenant order as having already disappeared from history. The Temple still stood. The priesthood still functioned. Sacrifices were still being offered. This historical reality harmonizes naturally with Jesus’ teaching that not one jot or tittle of the Law would pass until all had been fulfilled (Matt. 5:17–19). The old covenant world had been judged and rendered obsolete through Christ’s redemptive work, but its final removal awaited the approaching consummation. Paul’s actions therefore fit comfortably within the covenant-transition period anticipated by Jesus.

Throughout his letters, Paul’s covenant theology consistently moves from shadow to substance and from old covenant forms to their fulfillment in Christ. Believers are no longer defined by geography but by union with Christ (Eph. 1:3; 2:6). The Jerusalem below gives way to the Jerusalem above (Gal. 4:26). The earthly shadows give way to heavenly realities. The apostle’s entire theological trajectory runs from promise to fulfillment, not from fulfillment back to shadow.

This trajectory directly contradicts any eschatology that requires another covenant consummation beyond the one foretold by Moses and the Prophets. Paul’s message contains no second prophetic program, no postponed eschatological ending, and no future covenant climax distinct from the one anticipated throughout the Old Testament. He taught no other eschatology than Moses and the Prophets because the one eschatology they foretold had reached its appointed goal in Christ and was rapidly approaching its consummation in his own generation.

The argument may be summarized as follows:

Major Premise: As previously demonstrated, Moses and Daniel foretold one appointed time (kairos) of covenantal consummation and one climactic end, and Deuteronomy 32:35 LXX connects that appointed time with nearness and hastening judgment.

Minor Premise: Paul taught that this same appointed time had become short, near, and at hand in his generation which he understood as the one Moses prophesied of (1 Cor. 7:29–31; Rom. 13:11–12; 1 Cor. 10:11; Phil. 2:15; 4:5).

Conclusion: Therefore, Paul understood the prophetic “appointed time of the end” foretold by Moses and Daniel to be reaching a “near” fulfillment in his own day, not awaiting another distant fulfillment.

Double-fulfillment theories therefore face the same problem in Paul that they face in Jesus. The apostle knew of one prophetic program, one appointed time, one covenantal climax, and one end of the age. To multiply those fulfillments beyond the horizon established by Moses, Daniel, Jesus, and Paul is not to follow the apostolic hermeneutic but to replace it.

 VI. Hebrews: Fulfillment Does Not Return to Shadow

If Moses established one appointed time of covenant consummation, Daniel identified one appointed end, Jesus declared that all things written would be fulfilled within His generation, and Paul proclaimed that the appointed kairos had drawn near, then the Epistle to the Hebrews explains the theological significance of that fulfillment. More than any other New Testament book, Hebrews demonstrates why double-fulfillment theories collapse. Its central argument is that redemptive history moves in one direction—from shadow to substance, from type to antitype, from the old covenant to the new. Once the substance arrives, revelation never returns believers to the shadows.

This argument is woven throughout the structure of the book itself. The author repeatedly contrasts the temporary and typological nature of the old covenant with the permanent and heavenly realities inaugurated through Christ. The Levitical priesthood was a shadow. Christ is the reality. The earthly sanctuary was a copy. Christ ministers in the true sanctuary. Animal sacrifices could never perfect the worshiper. Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice accomplished what they never could. Everywhere Hebrews moves in a single direction: from anticipation to fulfillment.

Nor is the movement merely from one covenant administration to another. It is a movement from the inferior to the superior, from the earthly to the heavenly, from the temporary to the eternal, and from the shadow to the true reality. Throughout the epistle, the author repeatedly describes Christ’s priesthood, covenant, sacrifice, sanctuary, promises, and inheritance as “better” than their old covenant counterparts. The old covenant realities were never ends in themselves. They were temporary pedagogical shadows pointing forward to the greater and more enduring realities that were soon to be fully manifested. The old covenant was good, but the New Covenant was better. The earthly was real, but the heavenly was true. The temporal was meaningful, but the eternal was superior.

This movement becomes particularly important in Hebrews 8–9. The writer declares that Christ has obtained a more excellent ministry and serves as the mediator of a better covenant established upon better promises (Heb. 8:6). He then cites Jeremiah’s New Covenant promise and concludes: “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:13).

Significantly, the old covenant had not yet vanished when Hebrews was written. The Temple still stood. The priesthood still functioned. Sacrifices continued daily. Yet the author describes that entire covenant world as growing old and standing on the brink of disappearance. The old covenant age was not merely old—it was “ready” to vanish away.

This transitional framework helps explain the argument of Hebrews 9. The tabernacle consisted of two compartments. The first was the Holy Place; the second was the Most Holy Place (Heb. 9:2–5). The author then makes a remarkable theological observation: “The Holy Spirit this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while the first tabernacle was yet standing” (Heb. 9:8).

The Greek carries the idea of continuing validity or covenantal standing. As long as the first order remained standing, full access into the antitypical Most Holy Place had not yet been publicly manifested.

Many commentators have recognized that the two compartments function typologically. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown note that the arrangement symbolized two covenantal orders. The first compartment represented the old covenant economy with its earthly ordinances and restricted access to God. The second represented the heavenly realities inaugurated through Christ and fully manifested in the New Covenant. The movement from the first chamber to the second mirrors the movement from old covenant shadow to new covenant fulfillment.

The writer himself confirms this interpretation. The first compartment, with its gifts and sacrifices, was: “a figure for the time then present” (Heb. 9:9).

The term parabolē denotes a symbolic representation. The earthly sanctuary was not the final reality. It was a divinely appointed symbol pointing beyond itself. Thus the tabernacle, priesthood, sacrifices, feast days, sabbaths, and covenantal order all functioned typologically.

This becomes even clearer in Hebrews 10: “For the law having a shadow of the good things to come…” (Heb. 10:1).

Notice that the shadows belong to “the law” itself. The sacrifices were not isolated shadows detached from the Mosaic covenant. They were part of a larger covenantal system that included the priesthood, Temple, feast days, new moons, sabbaths, and ceremonial ordinances.

Paul makes the same point in Colossians: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ” (Col. 2:16–17).

The feast days and sabbaths were not merely memorial observances. They were prophetic shadows pointing to Christ and the realities secured through His redemptive work.

Many dispensational scholars openly acknowledge this. J. Dwight Pentecost argued that the spring feasts found fulfillment in Christ’s first coming while the fall feasts await future fulfillment in connection with Israel’s restoration and kingdom. Likewise, John Walvoord viewed the feasts of Leviticus 23 as prophetic rehearsals extending from Christ’s first advent to His future kingdom program.

Yet this admission creates a significant problem. The feasts were not independent prophetic symbols detached from the Mosaic Law. They were part of the Law itself. Jesus declared: “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matt. 5:18).

If major portions of the feast-day system remain prophetically unfulfilled, then the condition Jesus established for the passing of the Law has not yet been met. The unavoidable implication is that the Law itself—including its feast days, sabbaths, and ceremonial ordinances—should still remain covenantally binding.

Yet virtually no futurist wishes to embrace that conclusion. They insist that believers are no longer obligated to observe Israel’s feast days and sabbath system while simultaneously claiming that the prophetic realities embedded within those observances remain unfulfilled.

The dilemma is unavoidable. If the feast-day shadows still await fulfillment, then according to Jesus’ own logic the Law that contained those shadows should still remain standing. But if the Law has passed away as a covenantal order, then the prophetic realities embedded within its feast days, sabbaths, sacrifices, and ordinances must likewise have reached their intended fulfillment.

Hebrews provides the solution. The shadows belonged to the Law. The body belongs to Christ. The inferior pointed to the better. The earthly pointed to the heavenly. The temporary pointed to the eternal. Once the better reality arrives, the shadow has fulfilled its purpose. The movement is from shadow to substance, not from shadow to substance and then back again to shadow.

The author’s eschatological horizon is equally clear. The better realities were not postponed for thousands of years. They were imminent for the original audience. Hebrews 10:1 speaks of “the good things to come,” using language of realities standing on the threshold of manifestation. A few verses later the readers are exhorted not to forsake assembling together: “and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:25).

The Day was not distant. They could see it approaching.

The warning immediately intensifies: “a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Heb. 10:27).

The covenant enemies stood under imminent judgment. Significantly, the author then quotes Deuteronomy 32: “Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord” (Heb. 10:30).

The same Deuteronomy 32 covenant lawsuit we have traced throughout this study now appears again. Moses located that judgment in Israel’s latter days. Jesus applied it to His generation. Paul proclaimed it was near. Hebrews likewise presents it as approaching.

The argument reaches its climax a few verses later: “For yet a very little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Heb. 10:37).

This is one of the strongest imminence statements in the entire New Testament. The author does not merely say Christ will come. He says Christ will come in “a very little while” and explicitly adds that He “will not delay.” The old covenant world was ready to vanish. The covenantal Day was approaching. The enemies were about to be consumed. The coming of the Lord would not be delayed.

The same imminent transition governs Hebrews 12–13. The writer contrasts Mount Sinai with Mount Zion, the earthly Jerusalem with the heavenly Jerusalem, and the old covenant order with the unshakable kingdom believers were already receiving (Heb. 12:22–28). He then cites Haggai’s prophecy: “Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven” (Heb. 12:26). The author immediately interprets the prophecy: “Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken… that those things which cannot be shaken may remain” (Heb. 12:27).

The contrast is covenantal. The old covenant world—with its Temple, sacrifices, priesthood, earthly Jerusalem, and ceremonial order—was destined for removal. The New Covenant kingdom would remain.

This same expectation appears in the closing chapter: “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one soon to come” (Heb. 13:14).

The city “to come” (mellousan) is the city about to or soon to come. The earthly Jerusalem was passing away. The heavenly Jerusalem was about to remain as the enduring covenant reality. This is entirely consistent with Hebrews 12:22, Galatians 4:26, and Revelation 21–22.

The result is the exact opposite of double fulfillment. Hebrews does not teach that believers should expect a return to old covenant structures after the shaking. It teaches that the shaking removes them forever. The old covenant order passes away so that the unshakable kingdom may remain.

The trajectory therefore could not be clearer:

Type → Antitype

Shadow → Substance

Copy → True Reality

Inferior → Better

Temporary → Eternal

Earthly Sanctuary → Heavenly Sanctuary

Old Jerusalem → New Jerusalem

First Covenant → Better Covenant

Shakable Kingdom → Unshakable Kingdom

To introduce another future fulfillment that returns believers to old covenant forms is not merely to extend biblical prophecy. It is to reverse the central argument of Hebrews itself.

Major Premise: Hebrews teaches that the old covenant institutions were types and shadows pointing to their fulfillment in Christ and the New Covenant (Heb. 8–10).

Minor Premise: Types reach their intended goal when the antitype arrives and are removed through the covenantal transition from old covenant shadow to new covenant reality (Heb. 8:13; 9:8–10; 10:25–37; 12:26–28).

Conclusion: Therefore, fulfillment cannot return to shadow through another future covenantal fulfillment. Once the antitype has arrived, the type has permanently reached its goal.

The argument of Hebrews therefore strikes at the heart of every double-fulfillment scheme. The old covenant realities were shadows. The New Covenant realities were the better, true, heavenly, eternal, and imminent fulfillment of those shadows. The readers of Hebrews stood at the threshold of that covenantal transition as the old order was ready to vanish away and the unshakable kingdom was about to remain alone. Once the better reality arrives, the shadow has fulfilled its purpose. Fulfillment does not return to shadow, and the true does not yield again to the copy.

VII. Peter Taught One Fulfillment, Not Two

Peter’s eschatology is fully consistent with the prophetic and apostolic pattern we have already traced throughout Scripture. Like Moses, Daniel, Jesus, Paul, and the author of Hebrews, Peter knew of one covenantal consummation, not multiple fulfillments separated by thousands of years. His contribution is especially significant because he explicitly addresses both the timing and the nature of Old Testament fulfillment. The prophets searched for the appointed time of fulfillment and the manner in which God’s promises would come to realization. Peter identifies both.

Peter begins by reminding his readers that they had obtained: “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:4).

This inheritance was not a distant hope reserved for believers thousands of years removed from Peter’s audience. Rather, they were being: “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:5).

The language is unmistakably imminent. Their salvation was not merely possible. It was “ready” to be revealed. Peter presents his readers as standing on the threshold of the consummation anticipated by the prophets.

Importantly, Peter immediately identifies the nature of this inheritance and salvation. A few verses later he writes: “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet. 1:9).

This statement provides the interpretive key for the entire passage. The inheritance reserved in heaven (v. 4), the salvation ready to be revealed (v. 5), and the goal (telos) of their faith (v. 9) are inseparably connected. Peter does not direct his readers to an earthly land inheritance, a political kingdom, or a transformed planet. Rather, the inheritance culminates in the salvation of the soul.

This observation is crucial because it establishes the nature of the prophetic fulfillment Peter is discussing. The prophets were ultimately pointing beyond the earthly shadows of the Old Covenant to the greater spiritual realities secured in Christ. Just as Hebrews moves from shadow to substance, Peter moves from earthly expectation to spiritual fulfillment. The inheritance is redemptive rather than geographical. It concerns the consummation of salvation itself.

Peter then explains that this salvation was the very subject of Old Testament prophecy: “Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you” (1 Pet. 1:10).

Again, the audience relevance could hardly be clearer. The prophets were not primarily ministering to a generation thousands of years beyond Peter’s readers. Peter says they prophesied of the grace that would come unto you.

The prophets searched diligently: “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify” (1 Pet. 1:11).

Peter indicates that the prophets searched for both the time and the manner of fulfillment. They desired to know when God’s promises would be fulfilled and how those promises would come to realization.

This harmonizes perfectly with the argument developed throughout this study. The New Testament repeatedly teaches that fulfillment arrived in a manner far greater than many anticipated. The promises were not simply transferred from one earthly administration to another. They were transformed from shadow to substance, from earthly types to heavenly realities, and from fleshly forms to spiritual fulfillment in Christ.

The prophets anticipated a holy nation. Peter identifies the Church as: “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9). The prophets anticipated a restored temple. Peter identifies believers as: “lively stones… built up a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:5). The prophets anticipated a priesthood. Peter identifies the Church itself as that priesthood. The prophets anticipated the restoration of God’s covenant people. Peter applies Hosea’s restoration promises directly to the Church: “which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God” (1 Pet. 2:10).

Thus, Peter answers both aspects of the prophetic inquiry. The time was his own generation. The manner was New Covenant fulfillment in Christ and His Church.

Indeed, Peter explicitly states: “Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister” (1 Pet. 1:12). This declaration is devastating to double-fulfillment theories. Peter does not say the prophets were primarily serving a generation thousands of years beyond his audience. He says they were serving us.

The inheritance, salvation, and glory anticipated by the prophets were therefore not postponed. They stood ready to be revealed. This same imminence governs the remainder of Peter’s first epistle. He writes: “Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead” (1 Pet. 4:5). The Judge was not merely coming someday. He was ready. Peter then declares: “But the end of all things is at hand” (1 Pet. 4:7).

This is one of the clearest time statements in the New Testament. Peter does not place the end thousands of years beyond his audience. It was at hand.

Even more significant is Peter’s use of covenantal timing language a few verses later: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Pet. 4:17).

The word translated “time” is kairos—the very term we have already traced from Deuteronomy 32, Daniel, Jesus, and Paul. As we have seen, Deuteronomy 32:35 LXX connects Israel’s appointed time with nearness: “the day of their calamity is near.”

Peter now declares that the appointed kairos had arrived. The covenant lawsuit anticipated by Moses had reached its climactic moment. Judgment was beginning at the house of God.

Peter’s covenantal framework becomes even clearer when viewed against the backdrop of Deuteronomy 32. Moses described Israel’s last-days apostasy as a “perverse and crooked generation” (Deut. 32:5, 20) whose appointed judgment would be near when their rebellion reached its climax (Deut. 32:35 LXX).

Peter had already applied this prophecy in his Pentecost sermon. After proclaiming the last-days fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, he exhorted his hearers: “Save yourselves from this crooked generation” (Acts 2:40). The language echoes the covenant-breaking generation of Deuteronomy 32. Peter understood his contemporaries to be living within the very generation Moses had anticipated.

This same Deuteronomic background appears in Peter’s description of the false teachers. He calls them: “spots they are and blemishes” (2 Pet. 2:13). The language deliberately recalls Deuteronomy 32:5: “Their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.”

Peter’s false teachers therefore represent the same covenantally corrupt generation condemned by Moses.

Significantly, Peter immediately connects them with imminent judgment: “whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (2 Pet. 2:3).

This language closely parallels Deuteronomy 32:35 LXX, where the appointed day of judgment is near and hastening. Just as Hebrews declared that Christ would come and “would not delay” (Heb. 10:37), Peter insists that the judgment of the covenant breakers was not sleeping and was not lingering. The Deuteronomy 32 lawsuit was reaching its divinely appointed conclusion.

Peter also connects this imminent judgment with imminent glory. He identifies himself as: “a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that is about to be revealed” (1 Pet. 5:1).

The Greek employs the participle mellousēs—the glory about to be revealed. This language closely parallels Paul’s statement: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18 YLT).

In both apostles, the emphasis is remarkably similar. The glory was imminent, and the glory was redemptive. Paul speaks of glory about to be revealed “in us.” Peter speaks of an inheritance ready to be revealed, a salvation ready to be revealed, and a glory about to be revealed. The focus is not upon geopolitical transformation but upon the consummation of redemption within God’s covenant people.

This perspective ultimately reaches back to Jesus Himself. Christ taught: “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation” (Luke 17:20). He then explained when it would come at His coming: “he kingdom of God” would be “within a person” (Luke 17:21).

The consummation of the kingdom would therefore not be discerned through merely outward and earthly expectations. Its realization would be manifested in the redemptive reign of Christ within His covenant people. Peter’s salvation of the soul, like Paul’s glory revealed in us, points to this same spiritual and covenantal fulfillment.

This observation becomes crucial when Peter’s two epistles are read together. Peter explicitly states: “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you… by way of remembrance” (2 Pet. 3:1). The second epistle is therefore not introducing a different eschatology. It is reminding the readers of the same inheritance, salvation, judgment, glory, and consummation already discussed in the first.

This means the New Creation of 2 Peter 3 must be interpreted through the lens of 1 Peter 1. The inheritance reserved in heaven, the salvation ready to be revealed, the salvation of the soul, and the glory about to be revealed are not abandoned in the second epistle. They are expanded and brought to their covenantal climax.

The salvation “ready to be revealed” in 1 Peter becomes the New Heavens and New Earth in 2 Peter. The salvation of the soul becomes the realized inheritance. The glory about to be revealed becomes the fully manifested New Covenant order. Peter is not changing subjects; he is describing the same covenantal consummation from a different perspective.

This interpretation is strengthened by Peter’s description of the passing heavens and earth and the dissolution of the elements. As we have already demonstrated, the language of heaven and earth throughout the prophets frequently refers to covenantal worlds and redemptive orders rather than the physical universe itself. As we have seen earlier, Jesus employed this same covenantal language when He taught that not one jot or tittle of the Law would pass until all was fulfilled and the old covenant heaven and earth passed away (Matt. 5:17–18). Likewise, He declared that heaven and earth would pass away within the generation that witnessed Jerusalem’s judgment (Matt. 24:34–35).

Peter stands squarely within this same prophetic tradition. The stoicheia (“elements”) are elsewhere associated with the elementary structures and principles of the old covenant order (Gal. 4:3, 9; Col. 2:8, 20; Heb. 5:12). Significantly, Peter describes them as already in the process of dissolution. The LEB translates 2 Peter 3:11: “Since all these things are being dissolved…”

Peter does not merely speak of a future dissolution. He describes the old order as already being dissolved.

This harmonizes perfectly with the broader New Testament witness. Paul taught that “the form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31), that the appointed time had grown short (1 Cor. 7:29), and that the glory of the Mosaic covenant was “being abolished” (2 Cor. 3:7–13). The author of Hebrews declared that the old covenant was “growing old” and was “ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:13). John likewise taught that “it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18) and that the darkness of that world was already “passing away” (1 John 2:8).

This is not the language of the second law of thermodynamics or the gradual decay of the physical universe. Peter is not describing a cosmic process operating since creation. Rather, he is describing a specific redemptive-historical transition occurring within his own generation. The old covenant world was passing away because its promises, institutions, and prophetic expectations were reaching fulfillment in Christ and through His Church. The Temple, priesthood, sacrifices, feast days, and covenant order that had governed Israel for centuries were being dissolved precisely because the realities to which they pointed were being manifested.

Just as the glory on Moses’ face was fading because a greater covenant glory had arrived, so the old covenant heaven and earth were passing away because the New Creation was being revealed. The dissolution of the old order was not evidence of cosmic collapse but evidence of covenant fulfillment. The shadows were disappearing because the substance had come. The type was passing because the antitype had arrived. The promises of that world were being fulfilled in Christ and in His redeemed people.

Thus, the inheritance ready to be revealed, the salvation of the soul, the glory about to be revealed, the end of all things at hand, the appointed kairos of judgment, the destruction of the false teachers, the dissolution of the old covenant world, and the New Creation all belong to the same imminent covenantal consummation. They are not separate fulfillments scattered across thousands of years. They are different descriptions of the same redemptive reality anticipated by the prophets and realized in the generation to whom Peter wrote.

Major Premise: The Old Testament prophets foretold a coming salvation, inheritance, judgment, kingdom, glory, and New Creation while searching for both the time and manner of fulfillment.

Minor Premise: Peter identifies his own generation as the recipients of that fulfillment and declares that the inheritance, salvation, glory, judgment, and New Creation were standing on the threshold of realization—ready to be revealed, at hand, about to occur, and having reached their appointed kairos (1 Pet. 1:4–12; 4:5–7, 17; 5:1; 2 Pet. 2:3; 3:1–13).

Conclusion: Therefore, Peter understood the prophetic expectations of the Old Testament—including the promised inheritance and New Creation—to be reaching fulfillment in his own generation, not awaiting another fulfillment thousands of years later.

Peter’s testimony therefore agrees completely with Moses, Daniel, Jesus, Paul, and Hebrews. The prophets anticipated one appointed time, one inheritance, one salvation, one judgment, one glory, one New Creation, and one consummation. Peter identified his readers as the generation standing at the threshold of that fulfillment and explained the manner in which it would occur—not through a return to Old Covenant shadows, but through the greater spiritual realities found in Christ and His New Covenant people.

VIII. John and Revelation: One Prophecy, One Mystery, One Fulfillment

John brings the apostolic witness to its climactic conclusion. Moses foretold one appointed time. Daniel sealed one appointed end because its fulfillment was still far away. Jesus declared that all things written would be fulfilled in His generation. Paul proclaimed that the appointed time had grown short. Hebrews announced that the old covenant was ready to vanish and the better realities were about to remain. Peter taught that the inheritance, salvation of the soul, glory, judgment, and New Creation were ready to be revealed in his generation. John now gathers these threads together and declares that the prophetic mystery foretold by the Old Testament prophets would be finished with no more delay.

Revelation opens with unmistakable imminence: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass” (Rev. 1:1).

John immediately adds: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy… for the appointed time is at hand” (Rev. 1:3).

The language is not vague. The prophecy concerns things that must shortly come to pass because the appointed time was near. John does not divide the book into one near fulfillment and another fulfillment thousands of years later. He speaks of “this prophecy” as a unified revelation.

This directly harmonizes with Daniel. Daniel was told: “shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the appointed time of the end” (Dan. 12:4 LXX).

The reason was obvious: the appointed time was still distant. But John receives the exact opposite command: “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the appointed time is at hand” (Rev. 22:10).

The contrast is decisive. Daniel sealed the prophecy because fulfillment was far away. John was forbidden to seal the prophecy because fulfillment was near. Revelation is therefore not introducing a new prophetic program. It is announcing the imminent fulfillment of the very end Daniel had sealed.

The parallels between Daniel and Revelation are striking:

Daniel 12 Revelation
Seal the prophecy (Dan. 12:4) Do not seal the prophecy (Rev. 22:10)
Time of the end (Dan. 12:4) Time is at hand (Rev. 1:3; 22:10)
Great tribulation (Dan. 12:1) Holy city trampled forty-two months (Rev. 11:2)
Resurrection (Dan. 12:2) Time of the dead to be judged (Rev. 11:18)
Time, times, and half a time (Dan. 12:7) Forty-two months / 1,260 days (Rev. 11:2–3)
Shattering of the holy people (Dan. 12:7) Jerusalem trampled by the nations (Rev. 11:2)
Prophecy reaches completion at the end of the 3.5 years Seventh trumpet sounds at the end of the 3.5 years (Rev. 11:15–18)

The conclusion is difficult to avoid. John is not predicting a second fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy. He is announcing that Daniel’s appointed end had reached its appointed time.

The theological center of Revelation’s time statements is found in Revelation 10:6–7. The mighty angel swears: “that there should be delay no longer” (Rev. 10:6). The meaning is not that chronological time would cease. Rather, God’s prophetic program would no longer be postponed. The appointed time anticipated by the prophets had arrived.

John immediately explains: “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he declared to his servants the prophets” (Rev. 10:7).

Every phrase undermines the double-fulfillment theory.

First, the mystery would be finished. John does not say the mystery would begin another cycle of fulfillment with another consummation at the end of world history. He does not say it would be partially fulfilled while awaiting another fulfillment thousands of years later. The mystery would be completed.

Second, the mystery was the very mystery God had declared through the prophets. This is not a new prophetic program. It is the consummation of the old one. The same prophetic hope anticipated by Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Joel, Zechariah, and the rest of the prophets was reaching fulfillment.

Third, the mystery would be finished at the sounding of the seventh trumpet. This places the completion of the prophetic program within the structure of Revelation itself.

Fourth, the angel explicitly declares that there would be no more delay. This language harmonizes perfectly with the covenantal time texts we have already examined. Moses anticipated a day when Israel’s judgment would be near (Deut. 32:35). Daniel sealed his prophecy because the appointed time was distant (Dan. 12:4). Jesus declared that all things written would be fulfilled within His generation (Luke 21:22, 32). Paul proclaimed that the appointed time had grown short (1 Cor. 7:29) and that salvation was nearer than when believers first believed (Rom. 13:11–12). Hebrews announced that Christ would come in “a very little while” and “would not delay” (Heb. 10:37). Peter declared that the end of all things was at hand and that the appointed kairos had arrived (1 Pet. 4:7, 17). John now gathers all of these strands together and announces that the prophetic mystery would be finished with no more delay.

The immediate context confirms this interpretation. At the sounding of the seventh trumpet John hears: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ” (Rev. 11:15). He then describes: “thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged” (Rev. 11:18).

This is the very resurrection-judgment complex anticipated in Daniel 12. Daniel connected the resurrection, judgment, and consummation to the three-and-a-half-year shattering of Jerusalem. John connects the judgment of the dead to the same three-and-a-half-year period during which the holy city is trampled under foot.

The parallels are exact:

Tribulation → Tribulation

Three-and-a-half years → Three-and-a-half years

Shattering of Jerusalem → Trampling of Jerusalem

Resurrection → Judgment of the dead

End arrives → Seventh trumpet sounds

John is therefore not presenting a different end from Daniel’s. He is presenting the fulfillment of Daniel’s end.

This same covenantal framework governs Revelation’s vision of the New Jerusalem and New Creation. Peter described an inheritance reserved in heaven, a salvation ready to be revealed, and the salvation of the soul as the goal of faith (1 Pet. 1:4–9). He then connected that inheritance to the New Creation of 2 Peter 3. John now portrays that same inheritance as the New Jerusalem descending from heaven: “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven” (Rev. 21:2).

The inheritance is not a return to earthly land promises. It is not a restoration of old covenant shadows. It is the New Covenant heavenly city anticipated throughout the New Testament.

John explains its significance: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them” (Rev. 21:3).

This is the fulfillment of what Hebrews anticipated in the transition from the earthly sanctuary to the true Most Holy Place. It is the fulfillment of Peter’s spiritual house and royal priesthood. It is the fulfillment of Paul’s glory about to be revealed in God’s people. It is the fulfillment of Jesus’ teaching that the kingdom would not come with outward observation because the kingdom was within His followers.

Likewise, John declares: “there shall be no more death” (Rev. 21:4).

This should not be isolated from the broader New Testament doctrine of redemption and salvation as we saw in 1-2 Peter. The issue is not merely biological mortality. The focus is the removal of the Adamic death that separated man from God. In the New Jerusalem, access to God is fully restored. The curse is removed. Fellowship is restored. The inheritance promised by the prophets reaches its consummation.

Thus, Revelation’s New Creation harmonizes perfectly with Peter’s inheritance and salvation of the soul. The New Heavens and New Earth, the New Jerusalem, the dwelling of God with men, the removal of death, and the restoration of life all describe the same covenantal reality viewed from different angles. The emphasis is spiritual, redemptive, and covenantal rather than geopolitical or cosmological.

The book closes exactly as it began: “These sayings are faithful and true… the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done” (Rev. 22:6).

Again: “Behold, I come quickly” (Rev. 22:7). Again: “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand” (Rev. 22:10). Again: “Behold, I come quickly” (Rev. 22:12). And finally: “Surely I come quickly” (Rev. 22:20).

The repetition is overwhelming. The prophecy of this book [singular] was to be fulfilled shortly. The appointed time was near. Christ was coming quickly. The mystery would be finished with no more delay. John nowhere suggests a second fulfillment of these events thousands of years later.

Major Premise: Revelation identifies itself as one prophetic book whose contents would be fulfilled shortly because the appointed time was near and the prophetic mystery would be finished with no more delay (Rev. 1:1, 3; 10:6–7; 22:6, 10, 20).

Minor Premise: The contents of Revelation include the fulfillment of Daniel’s sealed prophecy, the trampling of Jerusalem, the judgment of the dead, the completion of the prophetic mystery, the coming of Christ, and the arrival of the New Jerusalem and New Creation.

Conclusion: Therefore, John understood these prophetic realities as belonging to one imminent covenantal fulfillment, not to multiple fulfillments separated by thousands of years.

John’s testimony therefore completes the cumulative case. Moses foretold one appointed time. Daniel sealed one appointed end. Jesus declared that all things written would be fulfilled in His generation. Paul proclaimed that the appointed time had grown short. Hebrews taught that fulfillment does not return to shadow. Peter identified the inheritance and New Creation as the salvation of the soul ready to be revealed. John declares that the prophetic mystery announced by the prophets would be finished with no more delay. The New Jerusalem had arrived. The old covenant world had passed away. The dwelling of God was now with men in Christ.

IX. Conclusion: One Appointed Time, One Hope, One Fulfillment

The cumulative testimony of Scripture is remarkably unified. Moses anticipated one latter-days covenant crisis, one appointed time (kairos) of judgment and vindication, and one covenantal consummation when Israel would reach her “latter end” (Deut. 31–32). Daniel developed this same expectation by prophesying one coming of the Son of Man upon the clouds, one appointed time of the end, one great tribulation, one resurrection, one judgment, and one destruction of the city and sanctuary during the days of the fourth kingdom, Rome (Dan. 7; 9; 12). Neither Moses nor Daniel introduced multiple eschatological endings separated by thousands of years. They anticipated one covenantal climax.

Jesus placed that fulfillment within the lifetime of His own generation. He declared that all things written concerning Jerusalem’s judgment and Israel’s covenantal consummation would be fulfilled before that generation passed away (Matt. 24:34; Luke 21:22, 32). He also taught that not one jot or tittle of the Law would pass away until all that the Law and Prophets anticipated reached fulfillment (Matt. 5:17–18). The passing of the old covenant heaven and earth was not the beginning of another prophetic cycle but the arrival of the fulfillment toward which the entire old covenant order pointed.

Paul continued this same prophetic framework. He explicitly declared that he taught “none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come” (Acts 26:22). His resurrection expectation was not a second eschatological hope detached from Israel’s covenant story but “the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers” (Acts 26:6) and “the hope of Israel” (Acts 28:20). Paul knew of one hope, not two.

This observation is crucial because the New Testament never separates Israel’s eschatology from Genesis 2–3 eschatology. The defeat of Adamic death, removal of the curse, restoration of access to God’s presence, resurrection, judgment, inheritance, and New Creation are not presented as a separate program awaiting fulfillment thousands of years after Israel’s covenantal consummation.

Adam’s problem and Israel’s story meet in Christ’s one redemptive solution. This is why Revelation 21–22 can describe the restoration of Eden—the tree of life, removal of the curse, God dwelling with His people, and death being no more—while also declaring these things would shortly take place. The passing of Israel’s old covenant heaven and earth brings the arrival of the New Covenant creation where what was lost in Adam is restored in Christ.

Therefore, the Reformed distinction between AD 70 as Israel’s microcosmic eschaton and a future cosmic macrocosmic eschaton lacks explicit apostolic support. Likewise, the Dispensational expectation of a future return to old covenant forms reverses the movement of redemptive history.

The apostles move from shadow to substance. Double fulfillment requires substance to become shadow again. The apostles move from promise to fulfillment. Double fulfillment requires fulfillment to become prophecy again. The apostles move from the land to Christ. Double fulfillment systems often move from Christ back toward the land.

The biblical movement is from Old Testament promise to New Testament fulfillment, from type to antitype, from shadow to substance, from the earthly copies to the heavenly realities. Scripture never teaches that New Testament fulfillment becomes another type awaiting a greater antitype thousands of years later.

The prophets anticipated one appointed time. Daniel sealed one appointed end. Jesus announced fulfillment within one terminal generation. Paul proclaimed one hope of Israel. Hebrews anticipated one final transition from shadow to substance. Peter expected one inheritance ready to be revealed. John announced one prophetic mystery finished with no more delay.

Fulfillment does not return to shadow. When God fulfills His promises, fulfillment means fulfillment.

[1] Wagner, Heralds of the Good News, 285–317.

[2] C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Daniel, trans. James Martin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, repr.), 344–52; James A. Montgomery, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Daniel, ICC (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1927), 378–85.

[3] John F. Walvoord, Matthew: Thy Kingdom Come (Chicago: Moody Press, 1974), 183–86; Walvoord, Daniel: The Key to Prophetic Revelation (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), 289–92; Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), 82–85; John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997), notes on Matt. 24:15–31 and Dan. 12:1–7; Michael J. Vlach, Has the Church Replaced Israel? (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2010), 165–81; Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1993), 178–85.

 

A Full Preterist Response to Kenneth Gentry’s Articles: DANIEL 12, TRIBULATION, AND RESURRECTION and ACTS 24:15 AND THE ALLEGED NEARNESS OF THE RESURRECTION

A Full Preterist Response to Kenneth Gentry’s Articles:  DANIEL 12, TRIBULATION, AND RESURRECTION and ACTS 24:15 AND THE ALLEGED NEARNESS OF THE RESURRECTION 
By:  Michael J. Sullivan
“At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time.  And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book.  2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt (cf. John 5:28-29; Matthew 13:39-43/24:3, 30-31; Acts 24:15; Revelation 20:5-15).  3Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end (Matthew 13:39-43/24-25); many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase (of Messiah and new covenant salvation).”  Then I, Daniel, looked; and there stood two others, one on this riverbank and the other on that riverbank. And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be (vss. 1-4)?”  Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things (including the resurrection and glorification of vss. 2-3) shall be finishedAlthough I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, “My lord, what shall be the end of these things (again they are all fulfilled together)?”  And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 10 Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. 11 “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. 12 Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.  13 But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.
Introduction
There are several things that are missing from Mr. Gentry’s new view that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 was fulfilled corporately in AD 70 in his book,[1] article on his site,[2] or in the various lectures he has given where this passage comes up.
First, there is no humble acknowledgment that his new position on this text is the result of Full Preterist arguments pressing him to it over several years.  Nor is there any humble apology or acknowledgment to the Full Preterist community (or even to his futurist readers for that matter) for his past faulty eisegesis oF cherry-picking the time and fulfillment of the resurrection from the other eschatological events he took as fulfilled in AD 70 (the shattering of Jerusalem in judgment, the tribulation, and the three and a half years’ time frame).  Contextually the passage tells us that “all these things” not “some of these things” would be fulfilled together during the same “time of the end” period (Dan. 12:7).
Secondly, not only does Gentry neglect to tell his readers that his change on Daniel 12:2 is a result of full preterism pushing him in that direction, he doesn’t think twice about accepting the fact that men like him and James Jordan have actually stolen and are teaching the full preterist view on the resurrection and judgment of the dead.  Here is what they are proposing happened which is the full preterist view:

  • There was an “already/becoming/not yet” or progressive resurrection taking place for Israel roughly between AD 30 – AD 70.  In AD 70 the Church (God’s new covenant corporate Israel) was raised from the carcass of old covenant corporate Israel.
  • The souls of OT saints such as Daniel and Christians whom died prior to AD 70 were raised out of Hades or Abraham’s Bosom and inherited God’s kingdom/presence/eternal life at that time.

In a nut shell, that is the full preterist view on the judgment and resurrection of the living and dead between AD 30 – AD 70.  The only difference between progressive partial preterists and full preterists at this point is that full preterists do not go beyond what is written and make up an additional “already/becoming/not yet” eschaton beyond AD 70 which allegedly involves a casket resurrection at the end of history – to appease the creeds and or creedal supporters and publishers.
Thirdly, perhaps Gentry is not remorseful for his eisegesis and cherry-picking Daniel 12:2 from the rest of the AD 70 fulfillments he has given in this chapter, because he knows his new interpretation continues with this deplorable approach.  Let me explain.  There is no exegetical defense of Gentry’s novel view that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 can have two or multiple fulfillments (one in AD 70 and a “consummate” physical one at the end of time).  Therefore, Gentry has come full circle on performing eisegesis (reading things into the text that are not there) or cherry-picking the eschatological events in Daniel chapter 12 from verse 2.  If Gentry can give Daniel 12:2 two fulfillments (one in AD 70 and one in our future), then what is to stop the dispensationalist from saying something like this:  “There may have been some kind of fulfillment of the Great Tribulation in an AD 66–70 (Dan. 12:1; Matt. 24:21) and in the “desolation” of Jerusalem and her temple in AD 70 (Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15), but those events were only typological or preview fulfillments for Israel today after Israel rebuilds her temple in the near future.”  Or why should Gentry oppose the amillennialist teaching that, while the Great Tribulation may have had some aspect of fulfillment in the events leading up to AD 70, we should not consider it as one historic event but an “already but not yet” process the church goes through until the end of history?  Gentry gives Daniel 12:2 two fulfillments but won’t allow dispensationalism or any other futurist system to do the same thing with the Great Tribulation, the three and a half years, or the Abomination of Desolation in Daniel 9:27. Jesus in Luke 21:20-22 and Matthew 13:39-43 did not say that all Old Testament prophecy or the resurrection and glorification of Daniel 12:2–3 would be fulfilled in two totally different ways spanning thousands or millions of years from AD 70 to the end of world history. He said that these things would all be fulfilled in His generation (“this generation”) at the end of the old covenant age.
It is more than inconsistent for Gentry and other partial preterists when debating premillennialists, dispensationalists, and amillennialists to argue that their preterist fulfillments in Matthew 24 and 95% of the book of Revelation were fulfilled in AD 70 and cannot have double, multiple, or be placed in a 2000+ “already-not yet” fulfillment reaching beyond AD 70; and then turn around and use this very argument on the resurrection when debating and trying to dismiss Full Preterist exegesis!  Selah.  For example Gary DeMar, rejects openness to the double fulfillment, mixed fulfillments, or future fulfillment theories in the Olivet Discourse:
“Either the Olivet Discourse applies to a generation located in the distant future from the time the gospel writers composed the Olivet Discourse or to the generation to whom Jesus was speaking; it can’t be a little bit of both. As we will see, the interpretation of the Olivet Discourse in any of the synoptic gospels does not allow for a mixed approach, a double fulfillment, or even a future completion. Matthew 24:34 won’t allow for it.”[3]
And Gentry teaches that a theory of “double fulfilling” AD 70 fulfillments in the book of Revelation, for example, is “pure theological assertion” that has “no exegetical warrant.”[4]  We couldn’t agree more!  So if it is true that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 is found in the Matthew 24 and in the book of Revelation, then it would be “pure theological assertion” to claim another fulfillment of that resurrection is yet future to us.  Per Gentry, his approach has “no exegetical warrant” to it.
Similarly, Gentry and other partial preterists have attempted to blur and muddy their NT two comings of Christ (the parousia), two great commissions, two end of the ages, two fulfillments of the passing of the first creation and arrival of the new, and now two judgments and resurrections of the dead under the guise of two “already and not yet” eschatons.  If you have seen the plethora of exegetical problems with the dispensational double vision eschaton of a “the parousia” consummation/coming of Christ for Israel before the millennium and then another “the parousia” (“secret rapture”) consummation/coming of Christ for the Church, then one can easily see how partial preterism suffers from the same kind of eisegetical double vision hermeneutic which rips apart the harmony and analogy of the NT Scriptures!  Partial preterism teaches that there was one “already and not yet” 1)  roughly between AD 30 – AD 70 for Israel, and then what appears to be the first “not yet” in AD 70 becomes the “already” of the second “already and not yet” 2)  AD 70 – end of time for the Church.  They have learned from their futurist opponents that when an AD 70 fulfillment is exegetically developed their opponents “out” seems to be to throw it into a scholarly “already and not yet” scene.  This is Gentry’s approach now in debating Full Preterists which according to him is “pure theological assertion” with “no exegetical warrant.”  Even partial preterist Joel McDurmon tried this in his debate with Don Preston.  When pressed into a corner on such passages as Daniel 12:2/1 Corinthians 15/Revelation 20 – McDurmon admitted that these passages “could” have had “a” fulfillment in AD 70, but await another fulfillment/manifestation.  To claim that the resurrection and or judgment of the dead in 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 20 “could have a fulfillment in AD 70” is a huge admission which “gives the farm away.”
Fourthly, when one considers Gentry’s older writings and new writings on the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 they definitely do lead us to Full Preterism.  In the past Gentry has argued that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 is the same “one” resurrection as what we see in these texts (Matt. 13:39-43; John 5:28-29—6:40; Acts 24:15; 1 Corinthians 15; Revelation 20).  This is a Full Preterist view.  In his new writings he is arguing that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 was fulfilled spiritually and corporately in AD 70.  This too is a Full Preterist position.
Fifthly, Gentry never explains how Daniel (the person ie. his soul) was raised and received everlasting life in AD 70 (cf. Dan. 12:2, 13).  How and how many times must Daniel be raised from the dead to inherit eternal life and the kingdom?!?  Does Gentry believe that Daniel was raised out of Abraham’s Bosom (as James Jordan believes according to Revelation 20) in AD 70 and inheriting everlasting life was being raised into God’s presence?  Who knows because Gentry cannot articulate his position or attempt to answer the tough questions.
Lastly and most importantly, there is no exegetical work done by Gentry on where the judgment, resurrection, and “end” of Daniel 12:1-4 is referenced and alluded to in the NT (ex. Matt. 13:39-43/Matt. 24:3, 31; John 5:28-29; 1 Corinthians 15; Acts 24:15; Revelation 20) in order to prove that the Full Preterist view that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 was consummately fulfilled in AD 70 is the wrong view.  As I will demonstrate in the bulk of this article, Ken doesn’t want to even acknowledge the collecting of these dots because he knows how reformed creedal eschatology and how full preterism has “connected these dots!” Gentry simply asserts that his new view that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 was fulfilled in AD 70 does not lead to Full Preterism.   He  references only a few passages in the gospels and in the book of Revelation which he feels is an AD 70 fulfillment of Daniel 12:2 (where most commentators and orthodoxy has not made the connections) while ignoring the main passages such as Matthew 13:39-43; John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15 and Revelation 20 (where commentators and orthodoxy has made the connections)!   Here are the passages which Gentry applies to Daniel 12:2 and note how the relevant passages I listed are ignored:
“Christ himself points out that some from Israel will believe and be saved, while others will not (e.g., Mt 10:34–36; 13:11–15), that in the removing of the kingdom from Israel many will be crushed and scattered like dust (Mt 21:43–45). He even speaks of the saved Jews as arising from the “shadow of death” (Mt 4:16). Though in AD 70 elect Jews will flee Israel and will live (Mt 24:22), the rest of the nation will be a corpse: “wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” (Mt 24:28). Indeed, in AD 70 we see in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem (Mt 22:7) that “many are called, but few are chosen” (Mt 22:14).
Second, elsewhere he employs the imagery of “regeneration” to the arising of the new Israel from out of dead, old covenant Israel in AD 70: “You who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Mt 19:28).
This paralleling of divine blessing and divine curse, of life and death (cf. Ro 11:15) for those in Israel is a frequent theme (under varied images) in the Book of Revelation
Third, God’s angels protect some Jews from the winds of judgment, while not protecting others (Rev 7:1–9). John measures some Jews for safe-keeping in the temple, while not measuring others (11:1–2). Some stand high upon Mt. Zion in safety (Rev 14:1–5), while others do not (Rev 14:17–20).
Returning now to Daniel, it appears that Daniel is drawing from the hope of the future, literal resurrection and applying it symbolically to the first century leading up to the tribulation in AD 70. That is, he is portraying God’s separating believing Jews out of Israel through the winnowing of Israel in AD 70. Again, this is much like Ezekiel’s practice in his vision of the valley of dry bones.
Fourth, though Ezekiel’s prophecy is concerned with Israel as a whole, whereas Daniel shows that Israel’s hope is the believing remnant.
In Daniel 12:4 the prophet hears a command to seal up his message until Israel’s end, thus delaying its prophesied actions. In Revelation 22:10 John receives a command precisely the opposite of Daniel’s, resulting in Revelation as a whole being opened and thereby fulfilled shortly: “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near” (Rev 22:10; cp. 1:1, 3; 22:6).”[5]
I feel this is by far the most glaring weakness of Gentry’s new view on Daniel 12:2, and therefore I will go ahead and do the exegetical work he can’t do and won’t do while quoting and referencing other reformed theologians to make the full preterist case.

Jesus’ Teaching on the Resurrection and Judgment of Daniel 12:1-4

Matthew 13:39-43/Daniel 12:2-3
Historical Argument:
The Jews during the times of Jesus and the NT era believed in two ages.  The first “this age” was that of the Mosaic old covenant law and prophets and the “age to come” or “age about to come” was that ushered in by Messiah and answered to the new covenant age.
“The end of this age” Exegetical Argument#1:
The new covenant age had not yet begun when Christ was teaching his audience about the judgment and resurrection which would take place at the end of their “this age” (Christ had not shed His blood yet).  Clearly the “this age” he is discussing is the old covenant age and the harvest/judgment/gathering/resurrection which would take place at that time.
Partial Preterist (Orthodox) Admission to Full Preterism confirms this interpretation:
Some of Gentry’s partial preterist colleagues have come to the conclusion that the parable of the wheat and tares was also fulfilled in AD 70.  For example, Joel McDurmon (Gary North’s son-in-law, and Director of Research for Gary DeMar’s American Vision):[6]
It is clear that Jesus did not have in mind the end of the world, nor did He mean the final judgment.  Rather, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 describe the judgment that would come upon unbelieving Jerusalem. During this time, the angels would “gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity” (13:41) and these would be judged with fire.  Many of them literally were burned in fire during the destruction of Jerusalem.  During this same time, however, the elect of Christ— “the children of the kingdom” (v. 38)—will be harvested.  While the explanation of the parable does not tell us their final end, the parable itself has the householder instructing the harvesters to “gather the wheat into my barn.”  In other words, they are protected and saved by God.
This, of course, is exactly what happened to the Christians. Not only were they saved in soul, but they mostly fled Jerusalem before the Roman siege.  This was consequent to Jesus’ advice to flee and not look back once the signs arose (Matt. 24:16-22); indeed this would correspond with the angels’ work of harvesting the elect (24:30).[7]
“The end” or “This age” Exegetical Argument #2:
“The end” of “this age” is equivalent to Daniel’s “time of the end” in (Daniel 12:4) and thus answers to the same time period.  That this is the same “time of the end” resurrection is clarified even stronger in our next argument.
“Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” Exegetical Argument #3:
Virtually every commentator understands that Jesus is referencing the resurrection and glorification of (Daniel 12:2-3) in which the wise and righteous rise and “shine like the firmament” and “like the stars forever and ever.”
Gentry simply avoids the exegetical facts that Jesus is teaching the harvest/judgment/resurrection of Daniel 12:1-4 would be fulfilled at the end of the old covenant age in AD 70.  Here merely assumes that the parable of the wheat and tares will be fulfilled at the end of the Christian age or “end of history.”  Following James Jordan, the closest Gentry wants to come to applying the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 to Matthew 13:39-43 (the parable of the wheat and tares) is oddly in the parable right before it in Matthew 13:11-15 (the parable of the soils):
“Christ himself points out that some from Israel will believe and be saved, while others will not (e.g., Mt 10:34–36; 13:11–15), that in the removing of the kingdom from Israel many will be crushed and scattered like dust (Mt 21:43–45).”[8]
The harvest is the end of the age” Exegetical Argument #3
Gentry writes of Daniel’s resurrection,
“That is, he (Daniel) is portraying God’s separating believing Jews out of Israel through the winnowing of Israel in AD 70.”[9]
Uh, but isn’t it Jesus here in Matthew 13:39-43 that is connecting the resurrection/glorification of Daniel 12:2-3 with a “harvest” and thus a “winnowing of Israel in AD 70”?!?  Don’t be afraid of the text Ken.  At least another partial preterist Peter Leithart, who understands that the parable of the wheat and tares was fulfilled in AD 70 correctly writes, “Jesus has now come with His winnowing fork, and before the end of the age, the wheat and tares will be separated.  The end of the age thus refers not to the final judgment but to the close of “this generation.”[10]  Gentry takes the eschatological harvest/judgment/gathering of John the Baptist’s teaching in Matthew 3:7-12 as fulfilled in AD 70, so why is Ken so afraid of Jesus’ harvest/judgment/gathering in Matthew 13:39-43 as being the same harvest fulfilled in AD 70?  The answers I believe are as follows:
First, if Gentry concedes that the harvest/gathering/judgment/resurrection took place at the end of the old covenant age in AD 70, then this is but one more passage he has surrendered to full preterism – thus once again demonstrating that his writings and that of partial preterism in general “leads to full preterism” (something Gentry try’s to deny but everyone from any other eschatological school of thought knows to be true).
Secondly, if Gentry concedes that the harvest/gathering/judgment/resurrection of Matthew 13:39-43 took place in AD 70, then the harmony of Jesus’ teaching in the gospel of Matthew and exegetical evidence would demonstrate that the eschatological gathering at the “end of the age” in (Matthew 24:3, 30-31—chapter 25) was also fulfilled in AD 70 along with  the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 at “the end [of the old covenant] age.”
Thirdly, if Gentry concedes that the harvest/gathering/judgment/resurrection of Matthew 13:39-43 took place in AD 70, then a “double,” “multiple,” “type / anti-type,” “already not yet” sell on the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 becomes virtually impossible to make to reformed/creedal orthodox folks who finance his ministry or creedal publishers who publish his materials.  This is also why American Vision and Gary DeMar have avoided this issue as well in my opinion.  If Jesus is directly teaching that the judgment and resurrection of Daniel 12:1-4, 13 would take place at the end of the old covenant “this age,” it would be pure and direct eisegesis (reading into the text something that is not there) to claim that somehow He meant that TWO different kinds of resurrections would take place in two different “this age” time frames spanning thousands or millions of years.  Early creedal statements and that of the Church fathers believed the “age to come” or “age about to come” was still future and when it came the Second Coming and judgment and resurrection of the living and dead would occur.  They did not teach that the NT’s use of the “age to come” or “age about to come” was fulfilled in AD 70 as partial preterists are now admitting and conceding to full preterism.
Concluding Daniel 12:1-4/Matthew 13:39-43 and the teachings of progressive partial preterism.  Directly or indirectly, progressive partial preterism has conceded to full preterism that Jesus taught the judgment and resurrection of the dead in Daniel 12:2-3 was fulfilled between AD 30 – AD 70 at the end of the old covenant age in fulfillment of the parable of the wheat and tares.  This begs the question as to if Jesus elsewhere in the gospels taught this AD 70 doctrine of the judgment and resurrection of the dead and if the rest of the NT applies the judgment and resurrection of the dead in Daniel 12:1-4 to AD 70 or the end of time.  To this issue we continue.
Matthew 24-25/Daniel 12:1-4

   Daniel 12:1-12

Olivet Discourse
1.  Tribulation and Abomination that causes   Desolation  (Dan. 12:1, 12) 1.  Tribulation and Abomination that causes   desolation

(Matt. 24:15, 21; Lk. 21:20-23)

2.  Judgment and Deliverance  (Dan. 12:1) 2.  Judgment and Deliverance

(Lk. 21:18-22, 28; Matt. 24:13)

3.  Resurrection  (Dan. 12:2-3) 3.  Resurrection (Matt. 13:40-43; 24:30-31; Lk.   21:27-28)
4.  The End (Dan. 12:4, 6, 8-9, 13) 4.  The End (Matt. 24:13-14)
5.  When would all this take place?  “. . .when the power [The Law] of the holy people [Israel] has been completely shattered [the destruction   of the city and the sanctuary in AD 70], all these things [including the judgment   and resurrection] shall be finished.”  “But you, go your way till the end; for you   shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.”   (Dan. 12:7, 13) 5.  When would all this take place?  “There shall not be left here one stone upon   another, that shall not be thrown down” [the destruction of the city and the   sanctuary in AD 70].”  “Verily I say   unto you, This generation shall   not pass, till all these things [judgment & resurrection] be   fulfilled.”(Matt. 24:1, 34)

 
Argument #1 The Analogy of Scripture “Parallels”
Of course progressive partial preterists such as Gary DeMar and Keith Mathison have surrendered to full preterism the belief that Matthew 24-25 cannot be divided into two comings of Christ (one in AD 70 and another at the end of time), but rather one in AD 70.  Gentry has nowhere to go at this point except to concede that this is now a legitimate and orthodox position to take although Luther, Calvin and the WCF all have taught that the coming of Christ in the OD is indeed the Second Coming.  For example the Reformation Study Bible, is in perfect harmony with full preterism in interpreting the parallel’s in Matthew 24:30-31 as being the same eschatological event with the following passages:
“But the language of [Matthew 24:31] is parallel to passages like 13:41; 16:27; 25:31, as well as to passages such as 1 Cor. 15:52 and 1 Thess. 4:14–17.  The passage most naturally refers to the Second Coming.”
It is important to note that full preterist hermeneutical “parallels” are reformed “parallels.”  Let’s briefly enjoy the analogy of Scripture which partial preterism arbitrarily rips asunder in hopes of trying to deal with NT imminence and stay creedal at the same time.
Matthew 24-25/Luke 21 & Matthew 13 Parallels
Evangelism in the world takes place (Mt. 24:14/Mt. 13:38).
There is persecution, tribulation, apostasy, & faithfulness (Mt. 24:9-13/Mt. 13:19-30).
The subject is the growth and reception of the kingdom at which time the judgment at the “end of the age” takes place (Lk. 21:31-32/Mt. 13:43; Mt. 24:3/Mt. 13:40).
The Son of Man comes with His angels to gather the sheep/wheat into His barn/kingdom and the wicked goats/tares are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned (Mt. 24:30-31, 25:31-41/Mt. 13:39-42).
Matthew 24-25/Luke 21 & 1 Corinthians 15 Parallels
Christ’s coming/parousia and trumpet call (Mt. 24:27, 31/1 Cor. 15:23, 52).
This is the time of “the end” (Mt. 24:3, 14/1 Cor. 15:24).
At this time God judges His enemies (Mt. 21:43à22:41-44à24-25/1 Cor. 15:24-28).
This is the time for inheriting the kingdom (Lk. 21:31-32/1 Cor. 15:24).
This is the time for God’s final redemption when the sin, the death, and the Law are destroyed for God’s people (Lk. 21:27-28/1 Cor. 15:23, . The temple’s destruction =’s the death being swallowed up in victory over “the [Mosaic Torah] Law” (1 Cor. 15:55-56/Dan. 12:7).
Matthew 24 & 1 Thessalonians 4-5 Parallels
Reformed and Evangelical commentators such as G.K. Beale see that in 1 Thessalonians 4–5, Paul is drawing from Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 24.
“That both [1 Thessalonians] 4:15–18 and 5:1–11 explain the same events is discernible from observing that both passages actually form one continuous depiction of the same narrative in Matthew 24. . . .”[11]
Christ returns 1 Thess. 4:16=Matt. 24:30
From heaven 1 Thess. 4:16=Matt. 24:30
Accompanied by angels 1 Thess. 4:16=Matt. 24:31
With a trumpet of God 1 Thess. 4:16=Matt. 24:31
Believers gathered to Christ 1 Thess. 4:17=2 Matt. 4:31, 40-41
In clouds 1 Thess. 4:17=Matt. 24:30
Time unknown 1 Thess. 5:1-2=Matt. 24:36
Coming like a thief 1 Thess. 5:2=Matt. 24:43
Unbelievers unaware of impending judgment 1 Thess. 5:3=Matt. 24:8
Judgment comes as pain upon an expectant mother 1 Thess. 5:3=Matt. 24:8
Believers not deceived 1 Thess. 5:4-5=Matt. 24:43
Believers to be watchful 1 Thess. 5:6=Matt. 24:37-39
Warning against drunkenness 1 Thess. 5:7=Matt. 24:49
Beale goes on to write:
“Other significant parallels include:  the use of the word parousia for Christ’s coming; reference to Christ’s advent as “that day” (Mt. 24:36) or “the day of the Lord” (1 Thess. 5:2); and a description of someone coming to “meet” another (eis apantesin autou, virgins coming out to “meet” the bridegroom in Mt. 25:6; eis apantesin tou kyriou, believers “meeting” the Lord in 1 Thess. 4:17; see further Waterman 1975).”[12]
Gentry, to support his argument that 2 Thessalonians 2 was fulfilled in AD 70, says that “Most commentators agree that the Olivet Discourse is undoubtedly a source of the Thessalonian Epistles.[13]  Unfortunately Gentry’s sources of authority end up proving too much.  For example, both D.A. Carson and G. Henry Waterman (the same source Beale uses) make virtually the same parallels between Matthew 24–25 and 1 Thessalonians 4–5 that we do.
Another partial preterist and outspoken critic of full preterism Keith Mathison attempts to avoid the unified parallels between Matthew 24–25 and 1 Thessalonians 4–5 by claiming that his Reformed brothers and “hyper-preterists” merely assume that “Jesus is speaking of his second advent when he speaks of ‘the coming of the Son of Man’ in Matthew 24 and that Paul is speaking of the same thing in 1 Thessalonians 4.”[14]  The notion that Mathison is trying to pawn off here in his new book From Age to Age, is that Jesus in Matthew 24-25 was not teaching on his Second Coming (thus Mathison contradicts Luther, Calvin, and the WCF) and had very little to say about it at all in the gospels, and that it was the Holy Spirit who allegedly leads Paul to develop the doctrine of the Second Coming more in-depth in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15.  Seriously, I can’t make this stuff up folks!  Where is this taught in the reformed creeds and what early church fathers were teaching this?  The self-evident fact of the matter however is that Mathison turns a blind eye to overwhelming evidence because Mathison assumes that partial preterism is right.  It is more than inconsistent and arbitrary to claim preterist parallels between Matthew 24 and 2 Thessalonians 2[15] and between Matthew 24 and 1 Thessalonians 5 to support AD 70 fulfillments of Pauline eschatology,[16] and then deny the obvious parallels between Matthew 24 and 1 Thessalonians 4.  But this is what partial preterists such as Mathison do to remain creedal and support doctrines the Scripture does not teach.  This is why partial preterism is a nothing more than a stepping stone to full preterism.
Argument #2 – Christ came to fulfill “all” of the “jots and tittles” of the OT law and prophets in AD 70 (Matthew 5:17-18=Matthew 24:35).  This would have to include the judgment and resurrection of Daniel 12:1-4
Gentry says that when Christ referred to the fulfillment of “all things written” in (Luke 21:22), He was referring to Old Testament prophecies only, and that Christ therefore did not include the resurrection of all men and the Second Coming in the term “all things written.”[17]  But if Jesus came to fulfill “all” of the “jots and tittles” of the OT law and prophets when “heaven and earth” pass and if Reformed, Evangelical and partial preterist theologians are admitting that “heaven and earth” in (Matthew 5:17-18) refers to the Temple and or old covenant world of Israel which perished in AD 70, then “Houston we have a problem” for Gentry and partial preterism!  Some of the best Reformed theologians have taught that “heaven and earth” in Matthew 5:18 refers to the old covenant system which passed away in AD 70.  Reformed theologian John Brown:
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.[18]
Evangelical theologian Crispin H.T. Fletcher-Louis agrees:
. . . [T]he principal reference of “heaven and earth” is the temple centered cosmology of second-temple Judaism which included the belief that the temple is heaven and earth in microcosm.  Mark 13[:31] and Matthew 5:18 refer then to the destruction of the temple as a passing away of an old cosmology. . . .[19]
One of Gentry’s co-author and partial preterist colleague’s Gary DeMar agrees and goes further building upon John Brown’s observations:
“The darkening of the sun and moon and the falling of the stars, coupled with the shaking of the heavens (24:29), are more descriptive ways of saying that “heaven and earth will pass away” (24:35).  In other contexts, when stars fall, they fall to the earth, a sure sign of temporal judgment (Isa. 14:12; Dan. 8:10; Rev. 6:13; 9:1; 12:4).  So then, the “passing away of heaven and earth” is the passing away of the old covenant world of Judaism…[20]
Exegetically, Jesus says nothing about two passing’s of “heaven and earth.”  And another interpretive problem for progressive partial preterists such as Gary DeMar would be that they take both “heaven and earth” passages passing in (Matthew 5:17-18/Matthew 24:35) as the old covenant temple or world perishing in AD 70.  Follow me with these exegetical/logical points along with the teachings of reformed eschatology and see where we end up.
If the analogy of Scripture teaches us that these passages are “parallel” and thus are the same eschatological time of the end judgment and resurrection events (ie. Matthew 13:39-43=Matthew 24:31ff.=Daniel 12:1-4) and…
If Jesus’ statement of coming to fulfill “all” the OT “jots and tittles” of the law and prophets (Matthew 5:17-18) includes the judgment and resurrection of Daniel 12:1-4 (no one I know denies this).  And…
If all of the OT “law and prophets” were fulfilled when Israel’s “heaven and earth” passed in AD 70 (the necessary implication of partial preterism).  And…
If the passing of “heaven and earth” in both of these passages took place in AD 70 (ie. Matthew 5:17-18=Matthew 24:35), and…
If it is true per partial preterism (DeMar and others) that Matthew 24 cannot have double, multiple or have mixed fulfillments beyond AD 70,…
Then… the judgment and resurrection of Daniel 12:1-4 (necessarily implied in Matthew 5:17-18 and found in Matthew 13 and Matthew 24) took place at the end of the old covenant age in AD 70 and therefore, cannot have a double, mixed or fulfillment beyond AD 70.  Remember partial preterist teaching on the fulfillment of Matthew 24:  “Either the Olivet Discourse applies to a generation located in the distant future from the time the gospel writers composed the Olivet Discourse or to the generation to whom Jesus was speaking; it can’t be a little bit of both. As we will see, the interpretation of the Olivet Discourse in any of the synoptic gospels does not allow for a mixed approach, a double fulfillment, or even a future completion. Matthew 24:34 won’t allow for it.”[21]
Gentry’s assertion that Matthew 24:30-31 is not dealing with the Second Coming or resurrection event (and it’s possible that neither is Matthew 24:36ff.) is simply not valid.  It is not valid because 1)  Jesus is simply discussing the same end of the age gathering He addressed in Matthew 13:39-43 (which is Daniel 12:2-3), 2)  Pauline parallels between Matthew 24-25 / 1 Thessalonians 4-5 prove Jesus was addressing the gathering of the elect as the resurrection, 3)  When Jesus says He came to fulfill the OT law and prophets when Israel’s old covenant “heaven and earth” would pass away in such passages as Matthew 5:17-18/Luke 21:22/Matthew 24:35, He not only has the judgment and resurrection of Daniel 12:1-4 in view in Matthew 24-25 but also of what commentators and theologians have called “Isaiah’s little apocalypse” (Isa. 24—28):
“IN THAT DAY (the last day of the old covenant age) the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, WILL BE GATHERED (cf. Matt. 13:39-43, 49/Matt. 24:30-31/2 Thess. 2:1) up one by one. And in THAT DAY A GREAT TRUMPET WILL SOUND (Matt. 24:30-31/1 Thess. 4:15-17/1 Cor. 15:52) those who were perishing in Assyria and those who WORSHIP THE LORD ON THE HOLY MOUNTAIN IN JERUSALEM.” (Isa. 27:13).
Of Isaiah 27:13‘s connection with the NT texts I inserted above, let’s turn to G.K. Beale and D.A. Carson for support:
“The trumpet as a sign of the day of the Lord in 1 Cor. 15:52 recalls Isa. 27:13…” Of 2 Thessalonians 2:1, “The content of Paul’s appeal in this section concerns not only “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” but also “our gathering to him.” The immediate reference to this latter subject is the comforting picture given in the previous letter of how all believers, both those who have died and those who are still alive, will be gathered together to Jesus at his return (1 Thess. 4:16–17). The motif, however, goes back to the widespread OT hope in the gathering together of the scattered exiles to their own land on the day of the Lord (Ps. 106:47 [105:47 LXX]; Isa. 27:13; 43:4–7; 49:12; 56:8; Jer. 29:14; 30:3, 18; 31:8, 23; 33:7; Joel 3:1–2; Zech 2:6; Tob. 14:5; 2 Macc. 1:27; 2:7, 18; Pss. Sol. 17:50; T. Ash. 7:6–7; T. Naph. 8:3). This hope was taken over by Jesus and his scattered followers to refer to the final gathering of God’s people with the Messiah (Matt. 24:31 par.; cf. 23:37 par.).[22]
Within “Isaiah’s little apocalypse” the resurrection is to take place at the time of this trumpet gathering in Isaiah 27:13 and on a mountain where the wedding feast takes place Isaiah 25:6-8.  In Jewish weddings the feast always follows the wedding which leads us to our next argument.
Argument # 3 Wedding=Resurrection
If the parousia of Christ in both Matthew 24-25 is pointing to Christ coming to close the old covenant age in AD 70 (DeMar and Mathison’s view with Gentry seeing no problem with it), and if the wedding takes place at this time (cf. Matthew 25:1-13), then it necessarily follows that the resurrection of Isaiah 25:6-8 was also fulfilled in AD 70.
Daniel’s time of the end judgment and resurrection had to either be fulfilled at the end of the old covenant age in AD 70 or at the end of the Christian age – it can’t be both!  Either the passing of “heaven and earth” and the fulfilling of all the OT law and prophets were fulfilled when Israel’s old covenant world “heaven and earth” passed away with the destruction of the temple in AD 70, or it refers to the literal planet at the end of time – it can’t be both!  Either Christ came in His parousia and the wedding/resurrection took place in AD 70 or it takes place at the end of time – it can’t be both!  Whey?  Because in the words of DeMar,  “…Matthew 24:34 won’t allow for it.”
Concluding the teachings of progressive partial preterism on Matthew 24-25/Daniel 12:1-4.  Through 1)  the analogy of Scripture and 2) seeing that Jesus came to fulfill all the OT law and prophets by AD 70 in such passages as Matthew 5:17-18/Matthew 24:35/Luke 21:22 full preterism is justified in taking a consistently reformed position that the judgment and resurrection of the dead described by Jesus and Daniel in Matthew 13:39-43=Daniel 12:1-4=Matthew 24-25 were events fulfilled at the end of the old covenant age in AD 70.  This is when all OT prophecy was fulfilled (cf. Luke 21:20-22/Matthew 5:17-18/Matthew 24:35) and there can be no double, multiple, or mixed fulfillments of this prophetic material beyond AD 70.  This is consistent reformed eschatology pure and simple.  Selah.
John 5:28-29/Daniel 12:1-2
Commentators have long understood that Daniel 12:2 is the source for Jesus’ teaching on the resurrection in John 5:28-29 because the only OT passage which mentions a resurrection for both the righteous and the wicked is Daniel 12:2 and the only OT passage addressing “eternal life” is Daniel 12:2.  G.K. Beale points out an additional connection – in that Jesus is following the (OG) LXX of Daniel 12:1-2, 4 when it comes to this coming resurrection “hour” of both believers and unbelievers:[23]
The “already” or imminent “already”

Daniel 12:1:    “And at that hour…” John 5:25:    “…an hour is coming and now is…”
Daniel 12:2:    “Many of those who sleep in the width of the earth will arise   [anatesontai]…some unto eternal life and others to reproach…and to   eternal shame.” John 5:24:    “…he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life,   and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into   life.”

 The “not yet”

Daniel 12:1:    “And at that hour…” John 5:28:    “…for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear   His voice,
Daniel 12:2:    “Many of those who sleep in the width of the earth will arise   [anatesontai]…some unto eternal life and others to reproach…and   to eternal shame.” John 5:29:    “and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection   [anatasin] of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection   [anatasin] of judgment.”MJS – also related:1 John 2:18:    “Dear children it is the last hour…”Revelation   14:7:  “…the hour of His judgment has come.”

From the very start Gentry is at odds with reformed theologians such as G.K. Beale.  Both believe that the resurrection of John 5:28-29 is the “not yet” of a physical resurrection at the end of history, but consider the problem in that Beale believes the “not yet” resurrection “hour” of Daniel 12:1-2—John 5:28-29—1 John 2:17—Revelation 14:7 are all the same event to be fulfilled at the end of history, while Gentry on the other hand believes the judgment and resurrection “hour” of Daniel 12:1-2—1 John 2:17—Revelation 14:7 were fulfilled in AD 70!  However, both reformed views form full preterism when it comes to John’s judgment and resurrection “hour.”  Beale (nor the classical Reformed amillennial position) does not give the “not yet” judgment and resurrection of Daniel 12:1-4 TWO end of the age (“not yet”) fulfillments as the progressive partial preterists are now forced to do — in order to try and be consistent with NT imminence while trying to please creedal supporters at the same time.
In commenting on the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 Gentry mentions the spiritual and corporate nature of the resurrection for Israel in Ezekiel 37 a lot to support his corporate view of Israel being raised into the new covenant Israel by AD 70.  Well, since there was a spiritual and corporate resurrection of the dead coming out of their graves in Ezekiel 37 and there is a spiritual fulfillment for the dead rising within the immediate context of John 5:24-26, there is no exegetical reason why the new covenant anti-type coming resurrection hour out of graves in John 5:28-29 is not also a corporate and spiritual resurrection.
Since partial preterism is now teaching that the resurrection of John 5:28-29 is the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 and are fulfilled together, and that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 happened in AD 70, it necessarily follows that they need to prove without a shadow of doubt that the resurrection of John 5:28-29 is a physical/biological resurrection which takes place at the end of history and not the AD 70 one.  And if I’m not mistaken Joel McDurmon has also said that this passage could have had a fulfillment in AD 70 just like there “could” have been one in 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 20.  Gentry and partial preterism in general have not brought forth any compelling exegetical evidence that John 5:28-29 refers to a biological resurrection at the end of history.
David Green in response to Strimple in our book House Divided Bridging the Gap in Reformed Eschatology A Preterist Response to When Shall These Things Be?, has updated his response a bit on this passage (see pages 178-180):
Strimple Argument #6: John 5:28-29 obviously teaches a physical resurrection of the dead in that it speaks of a time in which “all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (297).
Answer: In order to understand John 5:28 and 29, we must first look three verses above it, in John 5:25, where Jesus said that the hour “now is” when “the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.”  As most Reformed interpreters agree, Jesus in that verse was referring to the preaching of His death and resurrection.  The preaching of that message commenced at Pentecost.  “The dead” were physically living people who were spiritually dead in sin, and “the voice of the Son of God” was the gospel.  Having heard the gospel, those who were spiritually “dead” were spiritually resurrected.  They lived in that they received eternal life through faith in the gospel (“the voice of the Son of God”).
Then, in verses 28 and 29, Jesus expanded His teaching on the resurrection to include those who were not only spiritually dead, but who were also physically dead.  He did not call them “dead” (as He had already called the living who were spiritually dead), but He referred to them through another figure of speech as “all who are in the graves.”  They were not literally in their graves or tombs, of course, but were in Hades/Sheol.
What is often missed in this passage is that, like the physically living in verse 25, the physically dead in verse 28 were also going to live by means of hearing Christ’s “voice.”  As we know from verse 25, that “voice” is the gospel.  The physically dead therefore were going to hear the gospel (cf. 1 Pet. 4:6.) and were, as a result of hearing the gospel, going to be resurrected (regenerated, born from out of death and Hades).  This means that the physically dead were, like the physically living, spiritually dead.  And this inescapably means that both the physically living and the physically dead were going to be spiritually resurrected by means of the gospel-voice of the Son of God.  One resurrection in two main stages:  First, the last days saints; then, the Old Testament dead (“the rest of the dead” in Revelation 20:5). Note the parallels between John 4:21, 23 and John 5:25, 28:

  1. . . . [T]he hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. . . . (Jn. 4:23)
  2. . . . [T]he hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. (Jn. 4:21)

1. . . . [T]he hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. (Jn. 5:25)
2. . . . [T]he hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice. . . . (Jn. 5:28)
These two sets of prophecies are parallel.  They speak of the same timeframes, which were these:
Pentecost (AD 30)
1. The true worshipers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

  1. The dead would hear the voice of the Son of God, and live.

Fall of Jerusalem (AD 70)

  1. God’s worshipers would no longer worship Him in Jerusalem.

2. All who were in the graves would hear His voice.
After hearing the gospel, the dead were raised out of their Adamic graves (Hades) in the end of the age.  And those among them who believed the gospel received eternal life in the kingdom of God.  But those who hated the gospel (those who had done evil) were raised out of Hades only to stand before God and to enter into “eternal punishment” / “the second death” (Matt. 25:46; Jn. 5:28-29; Rev. 20:14).”
Gentry agrees with full preterism that Jesus’ “already and not yet” eschatological “hour” in John 4 is between AD 30 – AD 70 when the old covenant mountain and temple worship is removed and the new established,[24] but then Gentry would claim Jesus’ same phrases on the coming eschatological “hour” in John 5 allegedly deal with the end of time.  We again find this arbitrary and exegetically unconvincing.

The Apostle Paul’s teaching on the Resurrection and Judgment of Daniel 12:1-4

We now turn our attention to Pauline eschatology and how Paul develops the resurrection of  Daniel 12:2, 13 in the NT.  Does Paul follow the same teaching that Jesus does in the gospels concerning an imminent AD 70 “hour” and judgment/resurrection of the living and dead?
Acts 24:15/Daniel 12:2
Paul, in agreement with Daniel and Jesus, also taught that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 was imminent in the first century:  “having hope toward God, which they themselves also wait for, that there is about to be a rising again of the dead, both of righteous and unrighteous (Acts 24:15, YLT & WEY)
Argument #1 – Paul taught the OT resurrection:
The Apostle Paul taught, “…nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place” (Acts 26:21-23).  This would obviously include Daniel 12:2
Argument #2 – Only one place in Prophets that predicted a resurrection for both groups:
There is only one passage found in “the law and prophets” (Acts 24:14-15) that explicitly speaks of a resurrection of believers and unbelievers, and that is Daniel 12:2.  This is Paul’s source in Acts 24:15, as virtually any commentary or scholarly work agrees.
Argument #3 – Paul’s resurrection was “about to” take place:
Paul says that Daniel’s resurrection was “about to” take place.  Although Gentry has completely ignored arguments 2-3 above, he has tried to appeal to lexical and language works such as BDAG to get rid of the imminence in this passage.[25]  He and other partial preterists appeal to YLT and WEY translations in supporting passages they want to be fulfilled in AD 70 when debating futurists, but somehow everyone is supposed to think that these translations must be in error if they posit the resurrection as being imminent in the first century when debating full preterist’s.  Unbelievable. 
Argument #4 – The burden of proof is now upon Gentry:
Gentry’s new progressive partial preterist interpretation that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 was fulfilled in AD 70 begs the question – if Jesus in the gospels and John in the book of Revelation apply the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 to AD 70, then why is it a stretch to believe that the Apostle Paul isn’t developing the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 in Acts 24:15 to AD 70 as well?
In Gentry’s article Acts 24:15 AND THE ALLEGED NEARNESS OF THE RESURRECTION,[26] he claims this passage does not support a full preterist interpretation concerning the judgment and resurrection of the dead.  Since Gentry and his partial preterist partners in crime have stolen a full preterist view of an AD 30 – AD 70 “already and not yet” resurrection (one that was progressive, spiritual, and corporate for Israel resulting in the souls of saints being raised out Hades or Abraham’s Bosom) the burden of proof is now upon Gentry to prove that Acts 24:15 isn’t the AD 70 judgment and resurrection he claims did take place in AD 70 (no matter if mello here should be translated as “about to” or not)!
Argument #5 – Cowards are usually found hiding and unable to respond:
Gentry will not allow myself, Don Preston or William Bell to add comments under his articles on his site, because he doesn’t want to look bad and have us demonstrate to his readers how indeed his teachings are in fact leading people to full preterism.  Nor does he want it publicly pointed out how he is avoiding 3 out of the 4 arguments that we have given on this passage (see above).  I continue to find Gentry arrogant, deceptive, ignorant and unscholarly when he behaves in such a manner.
Romans 13:11-12/Romans 8:18-23 YLT/Romans 11:11-27 & Daniel 12
Again since Paul taught no other things on the resurrection except that which could be found in the law and the prophets, it is no stretch to see that Daniel’s “hour” (cf. OG LXX) in Daniel 12:1-2 of resurrection is not only Jesus’ or John’s in (John 5:28-29) but also in Paul’s (Romans 13:11-12).  If Beale is correct in that the judgment and resurrection of Daniel 12:1-2 has an “already and not yet” aspect to it, and he makes parallel’s to the (OG) LXX with that of the “already and not yet” “hour” of John 5:24-29, then I see no reason why Paul is not drawing from that same “hour” and waking out of “sleep” here:  “Besides this you know what hour it is (cf. 1 John 2:17-18), how it is full time (the end time or time of the end of Daniel 12:4) now for you to wake from sleep (Dan. 12:2). For salvation (cf. Dan. 9:24 – finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness) is nearer to us now than when we first believed (the NT’s “already”); the night is far gone, the day is at hand (the NT’s AD 70 “not yet”). Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on (the transformation resurrection process) the armor of light; (Romans 13:11-12).

Daniel 12:1:    “And at that hour…” Romans 13:11:    “…you know what hour it is…”
Daniel 12:4:    “the end time” or “time of the end” Romans 13:11:    “…how it is full time…”
Daniel 12:2:    “Many of those who sleep in the width of the earth will arise Romans 13:11:    “The hour has come for you to wake up from your sleep…”

Partial preterists such as Jordan and Gentry believe that Jesus and the Apostle John taught that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 had a spiritual and corporate body resurrection process taking place between AD 30 – AD 70.  We have this already and imminent not yet process in Paul’s theology on the resurrection in this passage as well pointing to AD 70.
Argument #1 – Imminence:
The resurrection of Romans 13:11-12 was the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 and it was “at hand.”
Argument #2 – The analogy of Scripture:
Partial preterists have acknowledged that Romans 13:11-12 was fulfilled in AD 70 and yet the Reformed Study Bible and classic amillennialists believe that the restoration of creation and the resurrection or redemption of the body in Romans 8:18-23 are the same events.  We couldn’t agree more and accept both of these reformed conclusions!
Argument #3 – Imminence in Romans 8:18-23 YLT and analogy of Scripture:
In our second edition of House Divided Bridging the Gap in Reformed Eschatology (pages 116-120) I pointed out how Gary DeMar (Mathison and Gentry’s partner in crime when it comes to trying to overthrow full preterism) agrees with us and the YLT and WEY translations that the glorification of the Church or the “glory” that was “about to be revealed” points to an AD 70 fulfillment of (Romans 8:18).  At least this is more progressive and honest than Gentry’s more than inconsistent “scholarship” on mello here.  I wrote the following and would like a response from Mr. Gentry:
“It is more than arbitrary for partial preterists such as Gentry to honor Young’s literal translation of mello in Revelation 1:19 when debating Dispensationalists and Amimmennialists, but then not honor it in Romans 8:18 when debating full preterists.  Mello is used in the aorist infinitive in both verses.  Gentry writes of mello in Revelation 1:19:
…this term means “be on the point of, be about to.” …According to Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible, Revelation 1:19 reads: “Write the things that thou hast seen, and the things that are, and the things that are about to come [mello] after these things.” The leading interlinear versions of the New Testament concur. This is surely the proper translation of the verse.[27]    …when used with the aorist infinitive — as in Revelation 1:19 — the word’s preponderate usage and preferred meaning is: “be on the point of, be about to.  The same is true when the word is used with the present infinitive, as in the Rev. 3:10.[28]  Unfortunately, none of the major translators cited above translates Revelation 1:19 in a literal fashion.[29]
Where is Gentry’s disappointment when it comes to translators not translating Romans 8:18 by the same grammatical standard?  It is nowhere to be found, even though there are two other Greek words of imminence (apokaradokia and apekdekomai —  “eagerly waiting”) within the immediate context.
At least partial preterist Gary DeMar has tried to be more consistent with a proper translation of mello in Romans 8:18. Citing Robert Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible he writes:“Whatever the glory is it was ‘about to be revealed’…”[30]
We appreciate the honesty on properly translating mello here as “about to be revealed,” but contextually there is no ambiguity as to what the imminent manifestation of this “glory” was — the liberation of creation from its groaning and bondage, the full adoption of the sons of God, and the “redemption of the body” (vss. 18-23).”
To further complicate matters for progressive partial preterists such as Gentry, Mathison and DeMar on Paul’s imminent expectation of the glorification of the Church, liberation of creation, full adoption of the sons of God and the resurrection or redemption of the body in Romans 8:18-23 is my reference to John Lightfoot (one their favorite partial preterists to quote) who in no uncertain terms held to a full preterist view of the “creation” groaning – being men and not the planet earth (not even poetically).
And of course one final response to Gentry here on the use of mello in Romans 8:18 – Ken used BDAG as virtually his end all argument in his attempt to translate mello in (Acts 24:15) as “shall” or “will” instead of “about to be,” and yet BDAG references (Romans 8:18) as “about to be revealed.”  Once again we find partial preterist’s such as Gentry being unable to deal with what other partial preterists teach on important texts and or are using grammatical arguments and linguistic works arbitrarily.
Argument #4 – Romans 11:11-27:
Gentry, and his anti-full preterist co-authors in WSTTB? and other partial preterist associates form full preterism – the imminent glorification, restoration of creation, and resurrection in (Romans 8:18-23) and (Romans 13:11-12) were “about to be” fulfilled in an AD 70 “at hand” time frame along with a third resurrection text partial preterists take as fulfilled in AD 70 (“all Israel shall be saved” being “life from the dead”) which to my knowledge Gentry has not acknowledged along with Mathison (Romans 11:11-27) (see pages 126-128):
“Mathison neglects to interact with other partial preterists such as DeMar and Jordan who teach that “all Israel” was saved by AD 70 and that covenantally, there no longer remain “ethnic” Jews after AD 70.[31] Why was not the view of DeMar and Jordan one of the many “possible interpretations” within Mathison’s eschatology of uncertainty?”
To drive the point home again – if it is true that there was a spiritual corporate (process and covenantal) resurrection which was fulfilled to close the old covenant age in AD 70 (climaxing with dead saints such as Daniel himself being raised out of Hades or Abraham’s Bosom) per orthodox partial preterism, then why wouldn’t the Apostle Paul be teaching this kind of resurrection in Acts 24:15 YLT; Romans 8:18-23 YLT; Romans 13:11-12; and Romans 11:11-27?  If not why not Mr. Gentry?  And if so partial preterists such as Joel McDurmon need to prove from these passages that both an AD 70 resurrection is in view but an ultimate physical one is found in the text as well.
1 Corinthians 15/Daniel 12:1-4
Again, we would concur with Reformed Study Bibles, commentators and theologians whom state that Paul is following Christ’s eschatology and thus the two are “parallel” in such passages as Matthew 13:39-43; Matthew 24-25; 1 Thessalonians 4-5 and 1 Corinthians 15.  Or that Daniel’s resurrection is Paul’s in 1 Corinthians 15.  But can Gentry and Jordan’s progressive AD 30 – AD 70 resurrection for Israel resulting in the dead being raised out of Hades be seen in 1 Corinthians 15?  As Joel McDurmon has admitted there could have been an AD 70 fulfillment of the passage.

Daniel 12

1 Corinthians 15

1.  Resurrection unto “eternal life” (v. 2) 1.  Resurrection unto incorruptibility or immortality (vss. 52–53)
2.  Time of the end (v. 4) 2.  Then cometh the end (v. 24)
3.  When the power of the holy people [the Mosaic OC law] is completely shattered (v.   7) 3.  When victory over “the [Mosaic OC] law” comes (v. 56)

Argument #1 The rising of the dead:
There definitely seems to be good reason to plug Gentry’s progressive and corporate view of the resurrection of Israel into 1 Corinthians 15.
Wuest’s translation of the present tense of (1 Cor. 15:25) correctly renders the last enemy of death as in the process of “being” destroyed.  Obviously this is not a fleshly corpse resurrection taking place over the last two thousand years.  Are corpses coming out of the ground?  Are men living to be 500-900 years old?  No.  But between AD 30 – AD 70 the administration of the old covenant condemning power of “the law” was present and its promises contained in the Law and Prophets had not been completely fulfilled (Matt. 5:17-19/1 Cor. 15:54-56).
In Hosea, Israel had been sown in death and captivity but she was in the process of being raised from something greater than a Gentile power (ie. “the death” that came through Adam), united together, and transformed through the good news of the new covenant.  Israel’s process of being transformed and being sown and rising from old covenant glory into new covenant glory in (1Cor. 15 & 2 Cor. 3) should be viewed together.  The Greek and grammar of these passages being in the present passive indicatives renders a more probable translation of “if the dead are not rising,”(vss. 16, 29, 32), “the death being destroyed” (vs.26), “But God is giving it a body,” (vs.38) and,  “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is being sown in corruption; it is being raised in incorruption:  It is being sown in dishonour; it is being raised in glory: it is being sown in weakness; it is being raised in power:  It is being sown a natural body; it is being raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (vss.42-44).  Gordon Fee in his work on (1Cor.15) puzzles over this,
“The grammar of this sentence is somewhat puzzling…” “The sentence literally reads, “The last enemy is being destroyed.”[32]
Perhaps something else that might be “puzzling” in 1 Corinthians 15 that my friend Don K. Preston pointed out to me at the Criswell Conference concerning (1 Corinthians 15:49) is that  the text does not say “we shall bear the image” it is literally “let us bear the image.”  It is in the subjunctive, (phoresomen) not simple future!  That first century Christians were playing an active role in their resurrection (through the sovereign power and free grace of God) is something that we have already seen in the “already and not yet” resurrection of Romans 13:11-12/Daniel 12:1-2.
Most if not all of Gentry’s amillennial co-authors in WSTTB? would agree with the Reformed Study Bible for example which equates the parousia and or resurrection of Matthew 13:39-43; Matthew 24:27-31 with 1 Corinthians 15:
But the language of [Matthew 24:31] is parallel to passages like 13:41; 16:27; 25:31, as well as to passages such as 1 Cor. 15:52 and 1 Thess. 4:14–17.  The passage most naturally refers to the Second Coming.”
The classic amillennial position is that the one end time resurrection and judgment of Daniel 12:1-4 is the resurrection and judgment Paul is developing in 1 Corinthians 15.  So…
Argument #2 – Analogy of Scripture:
If it is true that the resurrection and judgment of Daniel 12:1-4 was fulfilled in AD 70 (per Gentry) and if it is also true that the resurrection and judgment of Daniel 12:1-4 is the same time of the end resurrection described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 (which cannot be double fulfilled – per classic amillennial view), then the resurrection of 1 Corinthians 15 was fulfilled in AD 70.  This is a perfectly logical and reformed conclusion to make regarding the resurrection of 1 Corinthians 15.
There are many more full preterist arguments that Gentry needs to respond to when it comes to 1 Corinthians 15 which are addressed in chapter seven of our book, House Divided Bridging the Gap in Reformed Eschatology.

The book of Revelation and Daniel 12:1-4

Revelation 20/Daniel 12
Gentry has been very outspoken that the millennium of Revelation 20 was not fulfilled by AD 70 and yet at the same time holds that there was a progressive judgment and resurrection for Israel between AD 30 – AD 70.  In our second edition of HD, I added seven closing arguments or points on the millennium of Revelation 20 which would also refute Gentry’s futuristic position (pages 131-133):
“In scriptural usage, a symbolic “thousand” can be likened to “one” (day / yesterday / a watch in the night), or used in reference to millions of hills, or to eternity (“forever”). A “thousand” can be likened unto or used to represent a number lesser or greater than a literal thousand. Only its context can determine its literal numerical meaning, but the basic idea that is communicated by the number is “fullness.” As G. K. Beale wrote, “The primary point of the thousand years is probably not a figurative reference to a long time . . .”[33]
To conclude my section on the millennium of Revelation 20, please consider the following exegetical, orthodox, and historical points:
Kenneth Gentry informs us that the book of Revelation is about things which were past, present, and “about to be” fulfilled in John’s day (Rev. 1:19, YLT). There is no exegetical evidence that Revelation 20 does not fall within these inspired parameters.
As G.K. Beale has said, the symbol of the thousand years does not have to be taken as describing a long period of time (i.e., thousands of years).
It has also been acknowledged by Reformed theologians that many Rabbis believed that the period of Messiah was to be a transitionary stage between “this age/world and the age/ world to come.”  These Rabbis (such as R. Adiba), understood this transition period to be forty years, based upon how long the Israelites were in the wilderness before inheriting the land. This type/anti-type understanding is developed for us in the book of Hebrews (cf. Heb. 3-4; 10:25, 37; 11—13:14, YLT).  And as we have noted from Reformed partial preterists such as Joel McDurmon and Gary DeMar, it is within the realm of Reformed orthodoxy to believe that Jesus’ and Paul’s “this age/world” was the old covenant age, and that “the last days” were the days of transition between the old covenant age and the new covenant age (AD 30 – 70).
Reformed partial preterists such as Keith Mathison, Kenneth Gentry, and James Jordan teach that the content of Revelation 1-19 and 21-22 was fulfilled by AD 70, at which time there was a judgment and resurrection of the dead and arrival of the new creation.  And amillennialists such as Simon Kistemaker teach that Revelation 20:5–15 recapitulates the same judgment and consummation scenes that are depicted in chapters 1–19 and 21–22.  Full preterists hold to both of these Reformed and “orthodox” positions in interpreting the book of Revelation.
In criticizing the premillennial view, which often seeks to isolate Revelation 20 from the rest of the New Testament, amillennialists and many postmillennialists hold that Revelation 20 falls within the “already and not yet” of the “last days” period in the New Testament, and that this transition period is depicted in the parable of the wheat and tares, or in Matthew 24–25.  But as we have seen, it is “orthodox” to believe the “last days” ended with the old covenant age in AD 70, and that the harvest/gathering and coming of Christ in Matthew 13 and 24–25 was fulfilled by AD 70.
If it is true that a) the coming of Christ in Matthew 24 and 25 is referring to the AD 70 judgment, as Mathison and other partial preterists are now proposing, and if it is true that b) John’s version of Matthew 24-25 is found in the book of Revelation, and if it is true that c) Matthew 24:27-31 — 25:31ff. is descriptive of the one end-of-the-age Second Coming, judgment, and resurrection event (the creedal position), then d) the authors of WSTTB have some explaining to do, because these orthodox doctrines form the “this-generation” forty year millennial view of full preterism.

MATTHEW 24-25

REVELATION 20:5-15

Resurrection and   judgment Matt. 24:30-31 (cf. Matt. 13:39-43/Dan. 12:2-3) Matt. 25:31-46 (cf.   Matt. 16:27-28) Resurrection   and judgment Rev. 20:5-15
De-creation   heaven and earth pass/flee matt. 24:29, 35 (cf. Matt. 5:17-18) De-creation   heaven and earth pass/flee Rev. 20:11 (cf. Rev. 6:14; 16:20; 21:1)
Christ   on throne to judge Matt. 25:31 God   on throne to judge Rev. 20:11
Wicked   along with Devil eternally punished Matt. 25:41-46 Wicked   along with Devil eternally punished Rev. 20:10, 14-15

If it is true that a) the judgment and resurrection of the dead in Daniel 12:1-4, 13 were fulfilled by AD 70 (per Gentry), and if it is true that b) Daniel 12:1-4, 13 is parallel to Revelation 20:5-15 (classic amillennial view), then c) once again the authors of WSTTB have some explaining to do, in that these orthodox views form the “this-generation” forty-year millennial view of full preterism.

DANIEL   12:1-2

REVELATION   20:5-15

Only   those whose names are written in the book would be delivered/saved from   eternal condemnation Dan. 12:1-2 Only   those whose names are written in the book would be delivered/saved from the   lake of fire Rev. 20:12-15
This is the time for the resurrection and judgment   of the dead Dan. 12:1-2 This is the time for the resurrection and judgment   of the dead Rev. 20:5-15

Therefore, the reader should be able to discern that the full preterist view of the millennium is: 1) consistent with the teaching of Revelation, 2) falls within the “orthodox” views the Reformed church, 3) is in harmony with the analogy of Scripture, and 4) has historical support from Rabbis who saw a forty-year transition period between the two ages. Our view on the millennium is exegetically sound and orthodox. It is not as “difficult” as Mathison attempts to portray it.”
Mr. Gentry wants to apply his AD 30 – AD 70 judgment and resurrection view of Daniel 12:1-4 in Revelation 7 and 14 but doesn’t want to touch upon where everyone clearly sees Daniel 12:1-4 being fulfilled in the book of Revelation – ie. Revelation 20!  This appears to be once again an arbitrary creedal philosophy guiding him and not a commitment to “sola scriptura” or sound exegesis.  Again, Ken has already informed his readers that anyone wanting to give multiple or double fulfillments to his AD 70 fulfillments in the book of Revelation, would be guilty of “pure theological assertion” which  has “no exegetical warrant.”[34]  So he can’t then turn around and claim that John in Revelation 7 and 14 is giving the judgment and resurrection of Daniel 12:1-2 two fulfillments.  He sure would have to disagree with partial preterist Joel McDurmon who claimed there could have been an AD 70 fulfillment of the resurrection in Revelation 20 but it would also have to have another “final” fulfillment at the end of time.  McDurmon’s comments are indeed “pure theological assertion” without “exegetical warrant.”
I’m sure Ken would say that John in Revelation 7 and 14 is using the judgment and resurrection of Daniel 12:1-4 typologically to point to AD 70 whereas in Revelation 20 he is using Daniel 12:1-4 to refer to the “final” resurrection.  But once again reformed theology sees an “already” resurrection process for the living taking place in Revelation 20 culminating in what partial preterist James Jordan sees as a resurrection for Daniel’s soul being raised out of Hades or Abraham’s Bosom (per Daniel 12:2, 13/Revelation 20).  After all, where in Revelation 20 is there any mention of a physical or biological resurrection per Gentry?  Only “souls” are mentioned.  And your typical amillennialist is going to tell us that the same end time resurrection and judgment of the dead in Revelation 7, 11 and 14 is then recapitulated in Revelation 20.  These are orthodox views that full preterists have taken on the judgment and resurrection of the dead in Revelation 11, 7, 14 and 20.  We have no desire to “go beyond what is written” or “add” to the prophetic material in Revelation so that we can be creedal.  When creedal tradition seeks to trump sound exegesis, it’s time for the true reformed Christians to make a stand on sound exegesis and what the historical church (combined amillennial and partial preterists) have written on the millennium of Revelation 20.

Conclusion

If no written or printed response is forthcoming from Mr. Gentry and his co-authors of WSTTB? to our second edition of HD, then I will conclude with Gary North’s kind of logic in these matters and that this debate is over because no consistent exegetical one can be given.  I wanted to express my sincere appreciation to the work that Mr. Gentry and his co-authors and anti-full preterist associates have done thus far in demonstrating what full preterists have been saying all along:  the “one” Second Coming or “THE parousia” of Christ attended with the one judgment and resurrection of the living and dead was a process from AD 30 to AD 70 for Israel coming out of her old covenant world/body and into the her new covenant world/body, was spiritual, corporate, resulting in the souls of men such as Daniel (Daniel 12:13) being raised out of Hades or Abraham’s Bosom to close the old covenant age in AD 70.
This article has proven that progressive partial preterists have indeed “given the farm away” to full preterism when it comes to the judgment and resurrection of the dead.  This used to be the defining difference between the two views, but as we have seen Gentry and his progressive partial preterist associates have only stolen our AD 70 judgment and resurrection view of the living and dead (w/out giving us credit) and simply asserted with no exegetical evidence that such passages as John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15YLT; 1 Corinthians 15; and Revelation 20 teach two fulfillments or that a biological resurrection at the end of time is present in any of these passages.
Gentry co-authored a book entitled, HOUSE DIVIDED THE BREAK-UP OF DISPENSATIONAL THEOLOGY in which he and others demonstrated that progressive dispensationalists have given the farm away to covenant theology/eschatology and thus there remains nothing left to dispensationalism.  They must accept that their house is falling apart and cannot stand or accept covenant theology/eschatology.  Gentry is now on the receiving end of this kind of logic.  Our “House Divided” book has demonstrated without a shadow of doubt that progressive partial preterists such as Gentry, DeMar, McDurmon and Mathison combined with the classical amillennial and creedal views form full preterism and they can either accept this or watch their house continue to fall at the feet of full preterism.



[1] Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. He Shall Have Dominion (Draper, VA:  Apologetics Group Media, 2009 Third Edition), 538.
[2] Kenneth Gentry, DANIEL 12, TRIBULATION AND RESURRECTION, http://postmillennialism.com/2012/03/daniel-12-tribulation-and-resurrection/
[3] Gary DeMar, The Olivet Discourse: The Test of Truth, http://www. americanvision.org/blog/?p=190
[4] Kenneth Gentry, Four Views on the Book of Revelation, ed. C. Marvin Pate (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), 43–44.
[5] Kenneth Gentry, DANIEL 12, TRIBULATION AND RESURRECTION, http://postmillennialism.com/2012/03/daniel-12-tribulation-and-resurrection/
[6]   Gary North, perhaps not knowing his own son-in-law’s position at the time, wrote in 2001: “Anyone who equates the fulfillment of [the parable of the wheat and tares] with A.D. 70 has broken with the historic faith of the church.” http://www.preteristcosmos.com/garynorth-dualism.html
[7] . Joel McDurmon, Jesus v. Jerusalem: A Commentary on Luke 9:51 – 20:26, Jesus’ Lawsuit Against Israel (Powder Springs, GA: The American Vision, Inc., 2011), 48-49; see entire section 43-51. One of DeMar’s co-authors
Peter Leithart, has also conceded that the parable of the wheat and tares was fulfilled in the first century, Peter J. Leithart, The Promise of His Appearing:  An Exposition of Second Peter (Moscow, ID:  Canon Press, 2004), 95.
[8] Kenneth Gentry, DANIEL 12, TRIBULATION AND RESURRECTION, http://postmillennialism.com/2012/03/daniel-12-tribulation-and-resurrection/
[9] Ibid.
[10] Peter J. Leithart, The Promise of His Appearing:  An Exposition of Second Peter (Moscow, ID:  Canon Press, 2004), 95.
[11] G.K. Beale, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series 1–2 Thessalo-nians (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 2003), 136.  Copyright 2003 by G.K. Beale.  Some Progressive Partial Preterists are now agreeing that 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 took place in AD 70.  Mike Bull is admitting that Gentry and Mathison are forced to “dodge and weave to put this passage [1 Thess. 4:15-17] into our future.” Mike Bull, The Last Trumpet, http://www.bullartistry.com.au/ wp/2011/06/05/the-last-trumpet/

[12] . Ibid, 136–137.

[13] .  Kenneth Gentry, Perilous Times: A Study in Eschatological Evil (Texarkana, AR:  Covenant Media Press, 1999), 100, n. 19.  Here Gentry cites D.A. Carson, “Matthew,” in Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 12 vols. (Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan, 1984), 8:489; and G. Henry Waterman, “The Sources of Paul’s Teaching on the 2nd Coming of Christ in 1 and 2 Thessalonians,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 18:2 (June 1975); 105–113.

[14] . Mathison, From Age to Age, 515.

[15] . Mathison, Postmillenialism, 230.

[16] . Ibid, 226.

[17]Dominion, 542.

[18] .  John Brown, Discourses and Sayings of Our Lord (Edinburg: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1990 [1852]), 1:170.

[19] .    Crispin H.T. Fletcher-Louis, Edited by Kent E. Brower & Mark W. Elliot, Eschatology in Bible & Theology: Evangelical Essays at the Dawn of a New Millennium (Downers Grove, IL:  Inter Varsity Press, 1997), 145.

[20] DeMar, Last Days Madness, Ibid. Fourth revised edition, 192.
[21] Gary DeMar, The Olivet Discourse: The Test of Truth, http://www. americanvision.org/blog/?p=190
[22] Beale, G. K., & Carson, D. A. (2007). Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament (747, 886–887). Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic; Apollos..

[23] 0. G.K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of The

Old Testament In The New (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011), 131132.

[24] Gentry, ibid. FOUR VIEWS ON THE BOOK OF REVELATION, 43.
[25] Kenneth L. Gentry, Acts 24:15 AND THE ALLEGED NEARNESS OF THE RESURRECTION http://postmillennialism.com/2012/02/acts-2415-and-the-alleged-nearness-of-the-resurrection/
[26] Kenneth Gentry, Acts 24:15 AND THE ALLEGED NEARNESS OF THE RESURRECTION, http://postmillennialism.com/2012/02/acts-2415-and-the-alleged-nearness-of-the-resurrection/
[27] . Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., The Beast of Revelation, (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1989), 23–24.
[28] . Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., Before Jerusalem Fell, (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1989), 141–142.

[29] . Ibid., 141.

[30] . Gary DeMar, Last Days Madness: Obsession of the Modern Church, (Powder Springs, GA:  American Vision, 1999), 225.

[31] Gary DeMar, All Israel will be saved:  Notes on Romans 11:26, American Vision http://americanvision.org/1234/all-israel-will-be-saved-notes-onromans/#.UG3auVGJr3A.  James B. Jordan, The Future of Israel Re-examined, July 1991. Biblical Horizons, No. 27 July, 1991

[32] Gordon D. Fee, THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS, (Grand Rapids, MI:  Eerdmans Publishing, 1987), 756.
[33] . G. K. Beale, The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 1018.
[34] Kenneth Gentry, Four Views on the Book of Revelation, ed. C. Marvin Pate (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), 43–44.
 

House Divided Chapter Four The NT Time Texts Partial Preterist Keith A. Mathison Vs. Full Preterist Michael J. Sullivan – "All Things" Fulfilled Luke 21:20-22

House Divided Bridging the Gap in Reformed Eschatology A Preterist Response to

When Shall These Things Be?

Chapter Four
The Eschatological Madness of Mathison or How Can These Things Be? 
Part 4 – All Things Fulfilled Luke 21:20-22

Michael J. Sullivan

Copyright 2009 and 2013 – All rights reserved.  No part of this  book (or article) may be reproduced in any form without permission  in writing from the publisher or author of this chapter/article (Vision Publishing  or Michael J. Sullivan), except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.  

All Things Written 

In Luke 18:31, Jesus says that when He and His disciples go up to Jerusalem (in about AD 30), “all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.” Mathison argues that since the Second Coming did not occur at that time, it follows that when Jesus says in Luke 21:22 that “all things written” will be fulfilled when Jerusalem is destroyed in AD 70, He is referring only to prophetic predictions that concerned the destruction of Jerusalem and not to all eschatological prophecy in general (172).

Response: 

Of course no one disagrees with Mathison’s observation that the context of Luke 18:31 limits Jesus’ phrase of “all things” to prophetic material pertaining to His passion.  But Mathison assumes what he needs to prove when he assumes that the context of Christ’s coming in Matthew 24 is only dealing with the fall of Jerusalem, and not His actual Second Coming connected to all eschatological prophecy in general.  Later we will see that Mathison is not in line with the creeds or the historic church when it comes to what the Olivet Discourse actually covers.

Gentry says that when Christ referred to the fulfillment of “all things written” in Luke 21:22, He was referring to Old Testament prophecies only, and that Christ therefore did not include the resurrection of all men and the Second Coming in the term “all things written.”[1]  But Gentry fails to understand that the resurrection of the dead was predicted in the Old Testament. The Apostle Paul, who taught the resurrection of the dead, taught “nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place” (Acts 26:21–23). Paul stated specifically that the Old Testament predicted the resurrection of the dead (Acts 24:14–15; cf. Dan. 12:2-3; Isa. 25:8; Hosea 13:14). Therefore even if “all things written” in Luke 21:22 refers only to Old Testament prophecies, as Gentry says, it still includes the resurrection of the dead, and therefore literally “all things written.”

In the book of Revelation, it is said from beginning to the end (Rev. 1:1; 22:6–7, 10–12, 20) that the prophecies of the book would be fulfilled “shortly.” Those soon-to-be-fulfilled prophecies included the Second Coming, the resurrection of the living and the dead, the last judgment, and the new heavens and the new earth—in other words, literally “all things written.”

Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:11, tells his first-century audience, “Now all these things happened to them as examples [types], and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” Jesus’ and Paul’s audience understood the phrase “this age” to be a reference to the old covenant age, and the “age to come” as a reference to the Messianic or new covenant age. They also understood that under the umbrella of the old covenant “age” (singular) there were various “ages” (plural), or covenants. The covenant that God made with David is an example of this. Thus when the old covenant agewas consummated, it was then that all of Israel’s “ages,” as contained in “the Law and the Prophets” (“all things written”), were consummated.

The fulfillment that has been wrought in Christ is no piecemeal fulfillment that has remained a “yes and no” fulfillment/non-fulfillment for 2,000 years, as futurists such as Mathison imagine. The Law of Moses does not remain “imposed” as it did between the Cross and the Parousia (Heb. 9:10, NASB). Rather, Christ returned and the old covenant vanished in His Presence forty years after His Cross (Heb. 8:13). If He did not return, and if the dead were not raised in Him, then the old covenant never vanished, and we are still in our sins. This is the inevitable implication of denying that literally “all things written” are fulfilled in Christ today.

A comparison of Daniel 12:1–2 with the Olivet Discourse proves that literally every eschatological prophecy in the Scriptures would be fulfilled in AD 70:
Daniel 12:1-12 Olivet Discourse

Daniel 12:1-2

Olivet Discourse

1. Tribulation and Abomination that causes Desolation (Dan. 12:1, 12) 1. Tribulation and Abomination that causes desolation (Matt. 24:15, 21; Lk. 21:20-23)
2. Judgment and Deliverance (Dan. 12:1) 2. Judgment and Deliverance (Lk. 21:18-22, 28; Matt. 24:13)
3. Resurrection (Dan. 12:2-3) 3. Resurrection (Matt. 13:40-43;24:30-31; Lk. 21:27-28)
4. The End (Dan. 12:4, 6, 8-9, 13) 4. The End (Matt. 24:13-14)
5. When would all this take place?“. . .when the power [The Law] ofthe holy people [Israel] has beencompletely shattered [the destructionof the city and the sanctuaryin AD 70], all these things[including the judgment andresurrection] shall be finished.”“But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.” (Dan. 12:7, 13)
 
5. When would all this take place?“There shall not be left here onestone upon another, that shall notbe thrown down” [the destructionof the city and the sanctuary in AD70].” “Verily I say unto you, Thisgeneration shall not pass, till allthese things [judgment & resurrection]be fulfilled.”  (Matt. 24:1, 34)

Mathison believes that the majority of scholars “rightly understand” the resurrection of Daniel 12:2-3 as being a future biological resurrection of all believers.[2] But he has not explained how that resurrection can be separated from the first-century great tribulation, abomination of desolation, and destruction of Jerusalem in Daniel 12:1, 7, 11. Daniel 12:7 says that when the power of the holy people would be completely shattered (in AD 70), then “all these things would be finished” –not “some” of them.

Partial Preterist James Jordan now understands the resurrection of Daniel 12:2-3 (and Daniel’s personal resurrection in verse 13) as be-ing a spiritual and corporate resurrection that took place from Jesus’ earthly ministry to AD 70. Jordan actually sees this past resurrection as being the resurrection of Revelation 20:

“The death of the Church in the Great Tribulation, and her resurrection after that event, were the great proof that Jesus had accomplished the work He came to do. The fact that the Church exists today, nearly 2000 years after her death in the Great Tribulation, is the ongoing vindication of Jesus work.”[3]

“Revelation takes up where Daniel leaves off, and deals mostly with the Apostolic Age and the death and resurrection of the Church.”[4]

“What Daniel is promised is that after his rest in Abraham’s bosom, he will stand up with all God’s saints and join Michael on a throne in heaven, as described in Revelation 20, an event that came after the Great Tribulation and in the year AD 70.[5]

Mathison’s co-author Gentry has also finally come to the conclusion that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 was fulfilled in AD 70:

“In Daniel 12:1-2 we find a passage that clearly speaks of the great tribulation in AD 70.”

“…But it also seems to speak of the resurrection occurring at that time…”

“Daniel appears to be presenting Israel as a grave site under God’s curse: Israel as a corporate body is in the “dust” (Da 12:2; cp. Ge 3:14, 19). In this he follows Ezekiel’s pattern in his vision of the dry bones, which represent Israel’s “death” in the Babylonian dispersion (Eze 37). In Daniel’s prophecy many will awaken, as it were, during the great tribulation to suffer the full fury of the divine wrath, while others will enjoy God’s grace in receiving everlasting life.”[6]

We commend Gentry for his recently developed full preterist exegesis of Daniel 12:1-3. However, it presents a problem for him. Gentry stated, in the same book, that the resurrection in the parable of the wheat and tares is not yet fulfilled.[7] Yet Jesus taught that Daniel 12:2-3 would be fulfilled at the same time as that parable.

Nevertheless, some of Gentry’s partial preterist colleagues have come to the conclusion that the parable of the wheat and tares was also fulfilled in AD 70. For example, Joel McDurmon (Gary North’s sonin-law, and Director of Research for Gary DeMar’s American Vision)[8]:

It is clear that Jesus did not have in mind the end of the world, nor did He mean the final judgment. Rather, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 describe the judgment that would come upon unbelieving Jerusalem. During this time, the angels would “gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity” (13:41) and these would be judged with fire. Many of them literally were burned in fire during the destruction of Jerusalem.

During this same time, however, the elect of Christ—“the children of the kingdom” (v. 38)—will be harvested. While the explanation of the parable does not tell us their final end, the parable itself has the householder instructing the harvesters to “gather the wheat into my barn.” In other words, they are protected and saved by God.

This, of course, is exactly what happened to the Christians. Not only were they saved in soul, but they mostly fled Jerusalembefore the Roman siege. This was consequent to Jesus’ advice to flee and not look back once the signs arose (Matt. 24:16-22); indeed this would correspond with the angels’ work of harvesting the elect (24:30).[9]

Curiously, McDurmon does not mention that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2-3 is quoted by Jesus in Matthew 13:39-43. Partial preterists such as McDurmon also ignore the fact that Paul, in agreement with Daniel and Jesus, also taught that the resurrection of Daniel 12:2-3 was imminent in the first century:
having hope toward God, which they themselves also wait for, that there is about to be a rising again of the dead, both ofrighteous and unrighteous (Acts 24:15, YLT & WEY; cf. Matt. 13:39-43).

There is only one passage found in “the law and prophets” that explicitly speaks of a resurrection of believers and unbelievers, and that is Daniel 12:2-3. This is Paul’s source in Acts 24:15, as virtually any commentary or scholarly work agrees. As G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson wrote on Acts 24:15:

The resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous is based on the prophecy of the end in Dan. 12:2-3, which indicates twogroups of people, some being raised to eternal life and others to eternal reproach and shame, and then refers to the “righteous” (Θ) or to “righteousness” (MT). Clearly this passage lies behind Paul’s statement, although the wording is different.[10]

Partial Preterists such as Gentry who admit the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 was fulfilled in AD 70 need to not only address the issue of this being Paul’s source for his resurrection doctrine in Acts 24:15, but other places in the NT. Again Beale points out in one of his most recent works, that Jesus is following the (OG) LXX of Daniel 12:1-2, 4 as His source for His teaching on “eternal life” and the coming resurrection “hour” (or “the hour of the end”) of both believers and unbelievers in (John 5:28-29).[11]

And clearly the books being opened in judgment and the resurrection of all in Daniel 12:1-2 is the judgment and resurrection of Revelation 20:5-15. Gentry at one point seeking to refute the Premillennial Dispensational theory of two resurrections cited Daniel 12:2/John 5:28-29/John 6:39-40/Acts 24:15 as evidence of “one resurrection and one judgment, which occur simultaneously at the end…”[12] We couldn’t agree more with Gentry #1 – that these texts are descriptive of “one” and the same resurrection and judgment which take place at the same time in history. And yet we also agree with Gentry #2 – Daniel 12:2 was fulfilled in AD 70.  Another question or challenge for partial preterists who see the resurrection of Daniel 12:2-3 as being fulfilled in AD 70 is this:

How many times must Daniel be raised unto, and receive, “eternal life?”

Daniel 12

1 Corinthians 15

1. Resurrection unto “eternal life”(v. 2) 1. Resurrection unto incorruptibility or immortality (vss. 52–53)
2. Time of the end (v. 4) 2. Then cometh the end (v. 24)
3. When the power of the holy people [Mosaic OC law] is completely shattered (v. 7) 3. When victory over “the [Mosaic OC] law” comes (v. 56)

 

To be fair and thorough I should point out a recent development in Gentry’s understanding of how the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 is fulfilled.  As we saw above, Gentry, in order to refute the two-resurrection theory of premillennial dispensationalism, claimed that the resurrection of this text is the one and same, yet-future resurrection as described by Jesus and Paul in John 5:28-29; John 6:39-40; and Acts 24:15 (and no doubt Revelation 20).Then later, Gentry changed his interpretation when responding to a full preterist (apparently realizing that he could no longer arbitrarily sever the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 from the firstcentury Great Tribulation in verse 1, and the first-century “time, times and half a time” and “shattering of the holy people” in verse 7). On Gentry’s Facebook wall, he wrote regarding Daniel 12:2 that it has nothing to do with a biological resurrection:

“Daniel 12 is not dealing with bodily resurrection but national resurrection (as does Eze 37). Dan 12 sees the ‘resurrection’ of Israel in the birth of the Christian Church, which is the New Israel.”

But later, following his lecture on the millennium at Criswell Bible College, Gentry gave a slightly different response.  After being challenged on how the New Testament develops the resurrection of Daniel 12:2 in Matthew 13:39–43; John 5:28-28; Acts 24:15 and specifically in Revelation 20:5–15, he responded by saying that Daniel 12:2 was typologically and spiritually fulfilled in AD 70 and that it will be anti-typically and ultimately fulfilled in a literal “bodily resurrection” at the end of world history.

Besides this not being taught by Daniel or any New Testament author, my question and challenge to Gentry’s new explanation of this passage is this:  If Gentry can give Daniel 12:2 two fulfillments (one in AD 70 and one in our future), then what is to stop the dispensationalist from saying something like this:
There may have been some kind of fulfillment of the Great Tribulation in an AD 66–70 (Dan. 12:1; Matt. 24:21) and in the “desolation” of Jerusalem and her temple in AD 70 (Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15), but those events were only typological fulfillments.  The ultimate fulfillments will be in our future when Israel rebuilds her temple.

Or why should Gentry oppose the amillennialist teaching that, while the Great Tribulation may have had some aspect of fulfillment in the events leading up to AD 70, we should not consider it as one historic event but an “already but not yet” process the church goes through until the end of history?

Gentry gives Daniel 12:2 two fulfillments but won’t allow dispensationalism or any other futurist system to do the same thing with the Great Tribulation, the three and a half years, or the Abomination of Desolation in Daniel 12 and Daniel 9:27. Jesus in Luke 21:20-22 and Matthew 13:3943 did not say that all Old Testament prophecy or the resurrection and glorification of Daniel 12:2–3 would be fulfilled in two totally different ways spanning thousands or millions of years from AD 70 to the end of world history.  He said that these things would all be fulfilled in His generation (“this generation”) at the end of the old covenant age.
The Transitive Property of Equality Principle (Since A=B & B=C, then A=C) As It Relates to Dan. 12:1-13 (A), Mat. 13:38-43 (B), and Mat. 24:3-36 & 25:31-41 (C)

                                                   Since A (Daniel 12)  = B (Matthew 13)
Tribulation on National Israel as Never Before Verse 1b Verses 40-42
Time-of-the-End / End-of-‘this’-Age Separation Verses 1c, 4a, 9b, 13b Verses 39b-41
Saints Rise and Shine in the Eternal Kingdom Verses 2a, 2b, 3 Verse 43
Wicked Rise to Shame in Eternal Condemnation Verses 2a, 2c Verses 39-42
Kingdom-Age Evangelism via God’s Shining Ones Verse 3 Verse 43

 

                                                          And B (Matthew 13) = C (Matthew 24-25)
Pre-Kingdom Evangelism by Jesus’ Disciples Verses 37-38 24:14
Tribulation on National Israel as Never Before Verses 40-42 24:21-22
End-of-‘this’-Age / End-of-the-Age Separation Verses 39b-43 24:3, 30-31; 25:31-41
The Sons of the Day / Hour Shine with the Son Verse 43a 24:27, 30-31, 36
Inheritance of and Entrance into the Kingdom Verse 43a 25:34

 

                                                      Then     A (Daniel 12)  =   C (Matthew 24-25)
Tribulation and Sanctification / Great Tribulation Verses 1b, 10 24:21-22
Time / Day / Hour of the Judgment (aka Separation) Verses 1-2, 4 (OG/LXX) 24:36; 25:31-33
Fulfilled at the Time-of-the-End / the End-of-the-Age / the End à viz. The Shattering of National Israel’s World—Her Heaven and Earth (i.e. the Temple, etc.) Verses 4a, 9b, 13b
Verse 7
24:3b, 13-14
24:1-8, 14, 28-29, 34-35
Inheritance of and Entrance into Eternal Kingdom-Life Verses 2b, 3a, 13b 25:34, 46
The Sons of the Day / Hour Shine with the Son Verse 3a 24:27, 36; 25:34
Kingdom-Age Evangelism via God’s Shining Ones Verse 3 25:29a

Two or More Things that Are Equal to Another Thing Are Also Equal to Each Other: 

Daniel 12 (A)          = Matthew 13 (B)   =     Matthew 24-25 (C)
Kingdom-Age Evangelism = Kingdom-Age Evangelism = Kingdom-Age Evangelism
Tribulation Like Never Before = Tribulation Meted Out = Great Tribulation Unlike Before
Time of the End of Daniel’s People; End of the Age of National Israel = Time of the End of that Age To Befall Jesus’ Generation = Age of National Israel to End in the Fall of Its Temple & City
The Chosen Ones to Rise & Shine; The Wicked to Rise to Shame = The Righteous Ones to Rise & Shine; Tares Reaped to Burn = Sheep to Inherit Kingdom; Goats to Inherit Punishment

 


[1] Dominion, 542.
[2] Keith A. Mathison, WSTTB 160–161; From Age to Age: The Unfolding of
Eschatology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009), 281.
[3] James B. Jordan, THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL A Commentary on the Book of Daniel, (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 2007), 620.
[4] Ibid., 621
[5] Ibid., 628
[6] Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. He Shall Have Dominion (Draper, VA: Apologetics Group Media, 2009 Third Edition), 538.  On Gentry’s Facebook page he answered my question on this text by writing, “Dan 12 is not dealing with bodily resurrection but national resurrection (as does Eze 37). Dan 12 sees the “resurrection” of Israel in the birth of the Christian Church, which is the New Israel.”  But when I challenged Gentry on how the NT develops the resurrection of Daniel 12:2-3/Matt. 13:43/John 5:28-29/Acts 24:15/Rev. 20:5-15 at his Criswell lecture on the millennium, he changed his tune and is now claiming that the resurrection text of Dan. 12:2 has an AD 70 “type” fulfillment and an end of the history “bodily resurrection” fulfillment as well.  I told him that if he can do this with the resurrection of Dan. 12:2, then dispensationalists can double fulfill or have multiple types and anti-types fulfillments of prophetic material that Gentry says was only fulfilled in AD 70 – tribulation, abomination of desolation of a temple in Jerusalem, apostasy, etc…  Again partial preterists like Gentry and Mathison are arbitrary and inconsistent when they want something only fulfilled in AD 70 when debating futurists, but then want something fulfilled in the future when debating full preterists.
[7] Ibid., 235 n. 70, 243.
[8] Gary North, perhaps not knowing his own son-in-law’s position at the time, wrote in 2001: “Anyone who equates the fulfillment of [the parable of the wheat and tares] with A.D. 70 has broken with the historic faith of the church.”
http://www.preteristcosmos.com/garynorth-dualism.html
[9] Joel McDurmon, Jesus v. Jerusalem: A Commentary on Luke 9:51 –
20:26, Jesus’ Lawsuit Against Israel (Powder Springs, GA: The American Vision,
Inc., 2011), 48-49; see entire section 43-51. One of DeMar’s co-authors
Peter Leithart, has also conceded that the parable of the wheat and tares was
fulfilled in the first century: “Jesus has now come with His winnowing fork,
and before the end of the age, the wheat and tares will be separated. The end
of the age thus refers not to the final judgment but to the close of “this generation.”
Peter J. Leithart, The Promise of His Appearing: An Exposition of Second
Peter (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2004), 95.
[10] Beale, G. K., & Carson, D. A., Commentary on the New Testament use
of the Old Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic;
Apollos, 2007), 598.
[11] 30 G.K. Beale, A NEW TESTAMENT BIBLICAL THEOLOGY THE UNFOLDING
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NEW (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Academic, 2011), 131-132. This creates a huge problem for Partial Preterists
such as Gentry who not only take the resurrection of Dan. 12:2 as fulfilled
in AD 70, but also takes the eschatological “not yet” “hour” of (John 4:21-
24) as fulfilled in AD 70 (as Full Preterists do). Why? Because according to
Mathison (WSTTB, 172-174) Jesus is using the same eschatological “already”
and “not yet” pattern of this coming “hour” in both John 4:21-24 – 5:25-29 and
thus are referring to the same period of time. Once again when we combine
what Beale, Gentry, and Mathison are saying here on these texts, they form
the Full Preterist view in that the “not yet” resurrection “hour” of Dan. 12:1-2/
John 5:28-29 was fulfilled in AD 70. For more on why John 5:28-29 is not a
description of a fleshly end of time resurrection see David Green’s response to
Dr. Strimple.
[12] Kenneth L. Gentry, THE GREATNESS OF THE GREAT COMMISSION
(Tyler TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1990), 142.

 

 

House Divided Chapter Four The NT Time Texts Partial Preterist Keith A. Mathison Vs. Full Preterist Michael J. Sullivan Part 3 Double Fulfillments

House Divided Bridging the Gap in Reformed Eschatology A Preterist Response to

When Shall These Things Be?

 
Chapter Four
The Eschatological Madness of Mathison or How Can These Things Be? 
Part 3 – Double Fulfillments
Michael J. Sullivan
Copyright 2009 and 2013 – All rights reserved.  No part of this
book (or article) may be reproduced in any form without permission
in writing from the publisher or author of this chapter/article (Vision Publishing
or Michael J. Sullivan), except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical
articles or reviews.

 
In this chapter, I will answer objections that Dr. Keith Mathison raised
against preterism in his chapter in WSTTB. Mathison’s chapter was
entitled, “The Eschatological Time Texts of the New Testament.” His
objections included:
 
• Prophetic imminence in the Old Testament
• The futurity of the last days
Prophetic double fulfillment (Part 3)
• Prophetic “telescoping”
• Jesus’ “in-like-manner” return
• “The Rapture”
• The creation groaning
• The abolition of death, pain, mourning, and Satan
• The salvation of “all Israel” in Romans 11
• The “thousand years” of Revelation 20
 
Mathison raised other objections in his chapter but they are addressed
elsewhere in this book. At the conclusion of this chapter, I will
offer a critique of Mathison’s tenuous and fragmented approach to the
eschatological time texts of the New Testament.

 
Double Fulfillments
 
On page 168, Mathison observes that Daniel’s prophecy of “the abomination
of desolation” was double-fulfilled. It was first fulfilled in the desecration
of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes in 168 BC. Then Jesus
spoke of its future fulfillment two hundred years later. The prophecy of
the birth of Immanuel was also double-fulfilled. It was first fulfilled in
Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz in Isaiah’s day. Then it was “ultimately fulfilled”
in the birth of Jesus many centuries later. Mathison’s conclusion: “New
Testament prophecies may also have multiple fulfillments,” first in AD 70
and then in the end of world history.
 
Response:
 
I think everyone agrees that many prophecies in the Old Testament
were typologically fulfilled and awaited full realization in the New Testament.
This phenomenon reflected the contrast between Old Testament
types and shadows, and the New Testament Anti-Type or Body,
i.e., Christ (Col. 2:17).
 
But this principle in no way implies or leads to the notion that New
Testament prophecies, which are fulfilled in Christ, will be fulfilled multiple
times over potentially millions of years of time. The fact that the
Old Testament was “typical” and “shadowy” in no way suggests that the
New Testament is of the same pre-Messianic character. The Cross of
Christ will not be fulfilled multiple times until the end of human history,
and neither will Christ’s Second Coming (Heb. 9:26–28).
 
Mathison’s co-author Ken Gentry teaches that the time texts of the
New Testament “demand” a fulfillment in AD 70, and that the theory
of “double fulfilling” Revelation, for example, is “pure theological assertion”
that has “no exegetical warrant.”[1] Another partial preterist colleague
of Mathison, Gary DeMar, rejects openness to the double fulfillment
theory in the Olivet Discourse:
 
Either the Olivet Discourse applies to a generation located
in the distant future from the time the gospel writers composed
the Olivet Discourse or to the generation to whom
Jesus was speaking; it can’t be a little bit of both. As we will
see, the interpretation of the Olivet Discourse in any of the
synoptic gospels does not allow for a mixed approach, a double
fulfillment, or even a future completion. Matthew 24:34
won’t allow for it.[2]
 
The New Testament is the revealing of the salvation promises contained
in the Old Testament, and those promises were to be realized and
found “in Christ” and in His Body the church (2 Cor. 1:20). Mathison
would have us believe that the New Testament is a further obscuring of
the meaning of kingdom prophecies (with more shadowy and typical fulfillments),
which will only become clear at the alleged end of the very age
that Christ died to establish, the age that Mathison—incredibly— calls
“evil” (188).
 
Mathison, while refuting Dispensationalism, writes, “We are no
longer under the old covenant.”[3] DeMar likewise teaches that the time
of the destruction of Jerusalem was “the end of the Old Covenant” and
“the consummation of the New Covenant.”[4]   But Mathison and DeMar
do not seem to realize what their teaching implies. If the old covenant
(“the Law”) is no more and the new covenant reached its consummation,
then according to Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:17–19, “the Law and
the Prophets” are fulfilled and “heaven and earth” passed away and we
now live in the new heavens and the new earth.
 
It irresistibly follows that if we are no longer under the old covenant,
it is because Christ’s Second Coming took place at the end of the
old covenant age and brought to consummation every “jot” and “tittle
of its promises (cf. Matt 5:18; Heb. 8:13, 9:26–28, 10:25–37). There is
no possibility of double-fulfilling or partial-fulfilling every jot and tittle
of the Law and the prophets.
 
Some of the best Reformed theologians have taught that “heaven
and earth” in Matthew 5:18 refers to the old covenant age which passed
away in AD 70. Reformed theologian John Brown:
 
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.[5]
 
Evangelical theologian Crispin H.T. Fletcher-Louis agrees:
. . . [T]he principal reference of “heaven and earth” is the temple
centered cosmology of second-temple Judaism which included
the belief that the temple is heaven and earth in microcosm.
Mark 13[:31] and Matthew 5:18 refer then to the destruction of
the temple as a passing away of an old cosmology. . . .22
 
Mathison’s double-fulfillment-in-the-New-Testament theory opens
Pandora’s Box to double-fulfilling everything: The earthly ministry of
Christ, His sufferings, His death, His resurrection, His Ascension, His
pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and His Second Coming; even the allegedly
future millennium could be double-fulfilled. Even the casting of
Satan into the Lake of Fire could be double-fulfilled.
 
Every New Testament promise in the Bible becomes ultimately
uncertain in Mathison’s theory. The “Christ” of Christianity could
potentially be a type of a future, “actual” Christ (cf. WSTTB, 182,
n39). Therefore, unless we want to end up adopting a liberal, postmodern
approach to God’s word and turn all of His promises into
“yes and no,” Mathison’s double-fulfillment theory must be firmly and
finally rejected.
 



[1] Kenneth Gentry, Four Views on the Book of Revelation, ed. C. Marvin
Pate (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), 43–44.
[2] Gary DeMar, The Olivet Discourse: The Test of Truth, http://www.
americanvision.org/blog/?p=190
[3] Keith A. Mathison, Dispensationalism: Rightly Dividing the People of
God? (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 1995), 31.
[4] Gary DeMar, Last Days Madness: Obsession of the Modern Church
(Atlanta, GA: American Vision, 1999), 55.
[5] John Brown, Discourses and Sayings of Our Lord (Edinburg: The Banner
of Truth Trust, 1990 [1852]), 1:170.