The Folly of Full Preterism (Eschatology)
Christians disagree about the last days, the antichrist, the great tribulation, and the timing of Jesus’ coming. Triage helps: some disagreements are third-rank (not church-dividing), others are first-rank (boundary of orthodoxy).
Full preterism (also called hyper or consistent preterism): all New Testament eschatology was fulfilled in the first century; Jesus’ second coming was not bodily at history’s end; the final resurrection and final judgment are past in a spiritual sense; we are now in the new heavens and new earth.
Partial preterism (moderate or orthodox preterism): some promised judgments are past (notably the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and related tribulation language); yet the second coming, the bodily resurrection, the final judgment, and the final state remain future.
Triage: Full preterism denies catholic, creed-level hope (bodily return and resurrection) and collides with apostolic warnings; it is a first-rank error. Partial preterism sits within historic Christian orthodoxy and can live alongside other biblical-eschatology views as a family discussion.
1. Why Many Embrace Partial Preterism
Partial preterism pays honest attention to near-term language and first-century context without forfeiting future hope. Consider three textual streams:
Imminence statements
“You will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 10:23).
“There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:28).
“This generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (Matthew 24:34).
Locale-specific details in the Olivet Discourse
Fleeing Judea to the mountains; Jerusalem surrounded by armies; not one stone of the temple left upon another (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21:20). These fit a first-century horizon culminating in AD 70.
Historical correspondence
The Roman-Jewish War and the fall of the temple provide a concrete backdrop for tribulation imagery; many have read the beast as Nero and the imperial power aligned against the church (cf. Revelation 13).
Pattern: near judgments (typological “comings”) foreshadow the climactic appearing of Christ. Partial preterism says some last-days language targets near fulfillment (AD 70) while preserving the ultimate second coming, resurrection, judgment, and new creation.
2. Why Full Preterism Fails
Full preterism converts typological, near-horizon judgments into the entire fulfillment of Christian hope. Three problems follow:
Apostolic boundary lines: Paul condemns the claim “the resurrection has already happened” (2 Timothy 2:17–18). He treats denial of a future bodily resurrection as faith-destroying (1 Corinthians 15:12–19).
Creedal collision: The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed confess Christ “will come” to judge the living and the dead and a “resurrection of the body.”
Pastoral devastation: If the resurrection and final judgment are already behind us, the forward-facing consolation (“we will be changed,” “death swallowed up”) dissolves into a spiritualization that drains Christian hope.
In short: full preterism is not a harmless tweak; it guts the future core of the Gospel’s public promises.
3. The Consistency Test and Revelation 20
Full preterism’s strongest rhetorical appeal is common-sense hermeneutics: take time statements at face value; don’t turn “soon” and “this generation” into millennia. But the same standard exposes its inconsistency.
Short vs. long timeframes: Full preterism insists a “generation” cannot stretch to 2,000 years, yet compresses the thousand years of Revelation 20 into a few decades.
Thousand-year symbolism: Whether one reads the millennium literally or symbolically, it always denotes a long span. It cannot plausibly be squeezed into three, forty, or even sixty years culminating in AD 70 (or Masada, or Bar Kokhba).
End-of-millennium crisis: Revelation 20 ends with a global, climactic conflict and Satan’s final doom—not an obscure provincial riot tucked into the early second century.
Irony: The hermeneutic that insists we honor the near passages overrules the long passages when convenient. Biblical interpretation must honor both: the near-horizon judgments (e.g., AD 70) and the long horizon of the kingdom’s advance and final unveiling.
4. Retrieval and Balance
Across the ages, Christians have located parts of the “tribulation” and “man of lawlessness” discussions in the first century (some pointed to Nero; later Protestants often to the papal system). At the same time, the church has always confessed a future visible return, a bodily resurrection, and an everlasting kingdom manifestly unveiled.
A balanced approach draws on both:
Retrieval: take seriously first-century imminence, local color, and typological patterns (the way Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jesus describe historical judgments in cosmic terms).
Hope: preserve the future, public, bodily horizon—what the creeds summarize and the sacraments rehearse.
This balance resists two opposite errors:
Futurist sprawl that evacuates texts of any first-century reference;
Preterist totalization that evacuates our future hope.
5. Gospel, Church, and the Last Day
The Gospel announces not only that Jesus has saved us but that he will save us to the uttermost. A living Christ now reigns, intercedes, and will appear. Partial preterism can underscore Jesus’ verdict upon an old order (AD 70) and still cherish the climactic hope:
Second coming: public, visible, personal appearing.
Resurrection: bodies raised imperishable; mortality swallowed up by life.
Judgment: righteous vindication, wicked exposed and sentenced.
New creation: heaven and earth renewed; the dwelling of God with humanity unveiled.
This is not optional embellishment—it is the church’s oxygen. Teaching that these have already happened “spiritually” renders preaching and comfort hollow. The Lord’s Table looks forward; our funerals lean toward dawn; our labor “in the Lord is not in vain.”
6. Summary Statements
Full preterism: a first-rank error that contradicts apostolic teaching and creedal faith.
Partial preterism: a historically rooted, orthodox option that honors both near-term fulfillment and final hope.
Interpretive integrity: take all time markers seriously—near and long; local judgments and cosmic consummation.
Pastoral payoff: a Savior who judged in history will appear in glory; the church can grieve with hope, labor with purpose, and wait with patience.
Bible verses about resurrection, coming, and hope
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:20)
“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command… And the dead in Christ will rise first.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.” (Revelation 22:12)
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body.” (Philippians 3:20–21)
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself.” (John 14:3)
“He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.” (Acts 17:31)
“We await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:13)
“Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out.” (John 5:28–29)
“When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4)
“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” (Romans 16:20)
