At first, it may seem that Preterism is a hopeless doctrine. The second coming already happened? Jesus already judged everyone? Is this all there is? What are we still doing here?
But it’s not until you dig a little deeper than we realize this is actually the most hopeful doctrine.
Daniel 2:32-35 The head of this image was of fine gold (Babylon), its chest and arms of silver (Persia), its middle and thighs of bronze (Greek), 33 its legs of iron (Roman Empire), its feet partly of iron and partly of clay (Roman Empire split into 10 providences). 34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces (God’s kingdom). 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
Matthew 13:31-33 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”
Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
Isaiah 66:12 For this is what the Lord says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;”
Before God’s kingdom arrived there were four other kingdoms, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. However, when God’s kingdom arrived it would start small like a mustard seed and always grow until it fills the whole earth.
That means God’s influence is growing in the world every day, primarily through the spread of Christianity. That means the world is gradually getting better and will continue getting better forever.
Preterism is a more hopeful view than futurism
If we’ve grow up believing that the Great Tribulation and many horrific events that Revelation and Matthew prophesied are still in our future, then we tend to believe the world is gradually getting worse. Harold Eberle writes about the hopelessness of the futurist view in his book “Victorious Eschatology.”
The futurists teach that in the near future there will be great earthquakes, famines, and wars. Then an antichrist will take over the world by establishing one world government, one economic system, and a false religion. This antichrist will then deceive the mass of humanity into following him and cut off the heads of Christians who will not receive his mark. Then God will release His wrath upon the world, burning up one-third of the earth and inflicting great pain upon humanity during a seven-year tribulation. Even more discouraging is the futurist’s belief that the Church will experience a great falling away before the tribulation, with masses of people abandoning the true Church. Indeed, God will have the victory in the end, but the road between now and then is devastating according to the futurist view.
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The futurist view is deeply intertwined with the belief that this world is getting worse and worse, while at the same time, balancing on the brink of destruction. Jack Van Impe, one of the most popular futurist teachers, warns, “All hell will break loose on planet earth—a furious time of pain, mayhem, and agony for millions,” and “the signs of global economic chaos are on the horizon.”12 Hal Lindsey starts off his tremendously popular book, The Late Great Planet Earth, by telling the reader about the “World in a Mess.”13 John Hagee, one of the strongest radio and television personalities promoting the futurist view, writes that the world is “standing on the brink of nuclear Armageddon” and “teetering on the brink of World War III.”14
Eberle, Harold R.. Victorious Eschatology . Worldcast Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Compare that to the Preterist view, where all of the fearful events, trials, tribulations, and disasters have already occured around 70AD and Christ emerged victorious and is now in progress of growing his kingdom here on earth. Yes there are still enemies to be defeated and life here is far from perfect, but we can have hope that this world is going to continue to get better as God tackles the issues of the world and let’s us assist in that change. Doesn’t that make you feel a sense of purpose? Instead of abandoning the world, we get to change it!
Evidence the world is getting better
Take for instance slavery. Even in Jesus’s day, slavery was permitted, Paul didn’t even attempt to challenge it. But God promised to write his law on our hearts:
Hebrews 10:16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
John 13:34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
As part of God’s kingdom, we become more loving people because we are under God’s influence and God is changing our hearts. Now if God’s kingdom is always growing, then that means the amount of love in the world will always be growing.
That’s why it wasn’t until around 160 years ago that slavery was abolished. And even just a few decades ago that discrimination was largely thwarted. Slavery was practically abolished, at least in law, across the whole world. That to me is a prime example of God’s growing kingdom in action.
When we hold to to a pessimistic futurist view, we tend to interpret all the things that are happening in the world in this light. The news shows us terrible things that are happening in the world and it enforces our ideas that the world keeps getting worse. But, the news doesn’t give us statistical information, it gives us sensational information. It doesn’t talk about how people are rising out of poverty across the world, it talks about how some members of your city were murdered. And if we sit and listen to only these negative stories everyday it reinforces this pessimistic view. But if we take a step back and look at the world from the grand scheme of things a different picture emerges. If we compare today’s age to the past we can see how much progress we’ve made. The “good old days” were not actually so good:
Harold Eberle writes
Start by taking a snapshot of what life was like in the United States 200 years ago. In the early 1800s, there were about 5 million immigrants in the United States, but 20 percent of them were slaves. That alone reveals a great evil, but consider consider what else was happening. The age of sexual consent in many states was 9 or 10 years old.15 Abortion was legal throughout most of the nineteenth century, and records tell us that more than one fifth of all pregnancies were aborted, with Michigan having the highest rate at 34 percent.16 Alcoholism was much higher than it is today. Prostitution was also higher, with New York City having approximately one prostitute for every 64 men; the mayor of Savannah estimated that his city had one for every 39 men.17 The percentage of Americans going to church was about equal to what it is today: 30 to 45 percent.18 Thousands of people were moving West, and most of them had no churches to attend until years after they had settled and communities had been developed. Native Americans were being forced off of their lands and in some cases murdered. Thousands of Chinese people were being brought into the West Coast of the United States to serve as forced laborers. When gold was discovered in various regions of the West, gold rushes occurred, which produced some of the vilest and dangerous communities in the world. Many people in the West carried guns for protection because murder was commonplace. Throughout the United States, women could not vote, and men could legally beat their wives as long as they did not maim or kill them. Things in the United States were not better morally, ethically, or spiritually. Of course, there were some godly individuals laying the foundations of the United States government, but the moral and ethical climate of America was much worse than it is today. The “good ole days” were not so good.
Eberle, Harold R.. Victorious Eschatology . Worldcast Publishing. Kindle Edition.
If you go back a few years to the founding of America, 1776, statistics show that only 17% of Americans were going to church. Today, over twice that percentage are going to church. Now, we had some godly people laying down our government… but the idea that everyone was going to church is just a real myth (Harold Eberle, Victorious Eschatology – Part II Youtube)
Look further back and we see even worse things happening. Our studies of history remind us that in the past, villages could be pillaged, wiped out, dieases would destroy millions of people in a short amount of time. Our system of justice was barbaric. Almost every country lived with dictators, kings, and brutes who didn’t care for their people. Religion was highly corrupted with the Catholic church having people purchase their salvation from. Sins were no less commonplace. People didn’t have access to healthy drinking water, electricity, or or luxuries much of the world has today. Medicine was largely ineffective, science was undeveloped, and technology was non-existent. Wars were happening all the time.
Dr. Steven Pinker, Pulitzer prize-winning author and Harvard psychology professor noted that “Today we may be living in the most peaceful era in our species’ existence.”[1] Prior to the Second World War, nations were continually in bloody conflict. Many Western European nations initiated war every two to three years. However, since the peak of the Cold War in the 1980s, civil wars, genocides, and terrorist attacks—have significantly diminished throughout the world.
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“England, Canada, and most other industrialized countries have also seen their homicide rates fall in the past decade. Among the 88 countries with reliable data, 67 have seen a decline in the past 15 years…Rates of rape or sexual assault and of violence against intimate partners have been sinking for decades, and are now a quarter or less of their peaks in the past.”[3]
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Archeologists and anthropologists have surmised that over 15% of society died violently in previous centuries. More recently this number has dropped down to 3%. In the Twenty-First Century less than 1% have died a violent or war-related death.[4]
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Summarizing his findings, Pinker writes that,
“The world is not falling apart. The kinds of violence to which most people are vulnerable—homicide, rape, battering, child abuse—have been in steady decline in most of the world. Autocracy is giving way to democracy. Wars between states—by far the most destructive of all conflicts—are all but obsolete. The increase in the number and deadliness of civil wars since 2010 is circumscribed, puny in comparison with the decline that preceded it, and unlikely to escalate.”[6]
The article goes on to show how poverty is being eradicated across the whole world, health and life expectancies are increasing everywhere and Christianity is growing swiftly in almost every country. See it for yourself:
charismamag.com – Is the world getting worse?
Isaiah makes other prophecies about our time.
Isaiah 2:4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
I believe there will come a time in the earth’s future when we no longer have war. Even now it seems the era of conquests and ravaging villages is passed. Most of our battles now are economic in nature and countries have largely decided to stay within their countries borders. We still do fight, but there is evidence that progress is being made.
Take also the spread of Christianity. There were originally 12 disciples and today there are 2.2 billion Christians in the world, the largest religion on the earth. And the obvious sign that God’s kingdom is growing.
Those prayers we prayed as children: world peace, no more fighting, everyone to love each other, no more poverty, etc… are exactly the intentions of God’s kingdom. And since his kingdom is growing that actually means all those things we prayed for will someday come to pass.
Conclusion
In Futurism, we believe the world is getting worse. Everything is getting more wicked and God is going to come back and destroy everyone. This belief discourages our efforts to go out and improve the world because we think it’s all going to be wasted. As a famous saying goes, “You don’t polish brass on a sinking ship.” Under Preterism, we can feel confident that we are helping to grow God’s kingdom in this world and the things we do here will matter for generation and generation to come.
It’s very cool to think about what this world will look like 500 years from now. Since we know God’s kingdom and influence will always be growing in it, how much better will planet earth be for future generations? No more wars? No more poverty? No more sickness? These are not merely hopes, they may, in fact, be what the Bible promises us:
Isaiah 33:24 And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.
Isaiah 54:13 All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.
Isaiah 60:5 Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you, the riches of the nations will come.
Isaiah 61:6 And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches, you will boast.
With medical advances happening every day, it shouldn’t be hard to imagine a day when most if not all sicknesses are erased. With the internet being created and the world gaining access to knowledge about hygiene and economic conditions improving for almost every country, it seems the sources of poverty and sickness are being diminished.
When Jesus arrived in 70AD, he introduced with his arrival God’s kingdom. This kingdom has been growing in the world ever since. It seems to me like we can have far more hope than ever before. We have access to all the promises of God and have the promise that his influence will ever be growing in the world.
So Preterism is not a hopeless doctrine. In fact, it has far more hope than Futurism allows.
If you want to see proof in data that the world is getting better, check out this TED talk by Steven Pinker: