What I, A Preterist, Believes: Restoring Integrity and Acuuracy to Scripture

Principal 3: Prophecy Is Filled With Symbolism Best Understood By the Intended Audience

I will briefly address the symbolism found in some of the prophecies. John Noe once said that it would be like if a person in the very far future were to find a drawing of a donkey and an elephant both dressed in red, white and blue, battling it out. A person in the future may have no idea what is being represented, however we who are American know it represents the two major parties of American politics. This same rule needs to be considered all throughout bible prophecy. What is confusing to us, probably made good sense to the intended audience of the books of prophecy.

Psalms 18:9 He bowed the heavens, and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. 10 He rode on a cherub, and flew; he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind. 11 He made darkness his covering around him, his canopy thick clouds dark with water. 12 Out of the brightness before him there broke through his clouds hailstones and coals of fire. 13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. 14 And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; he flashed forth lightnings, and routed them. 15 Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare, at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. 16 He reached from on high, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. 17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me. 18 They came upon me in the day of my calamity; but the LORD was my stay. 19 He brought me forth into a broad place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

From the first deliverance from bondage God delivered His people using a cloud. Every atonement day God Himself descended in a cloud upon the tabernacle. Again, for deliverance from sin lasting one year. The fact Christ used the imagery of a cloud in His statements, to the fact that a cloud took Him into heaven, is no coincidence.

Acts 1:9 And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Acts 1:11 and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

God's shikinah glory cloud descended upon His one and only Son before. It was no coincidence.

Matt 17:5 He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."

Matt 24:30 then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory;

Every Jew who was learned in the Law, which was most likely every Jew, would understand this same language. Though we may expect a literal appearance and imagine seeing a man standing on a cloud, they would picture the cloud of glory, descending to reward the righteous, to save them, and descending to judge the wicked, He would rule His kingdom forever, as spoken by the prophet Daniel.

. Daniel 7:13 I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.

The High Priest knew exactly what He was saying when He declared this glorious cloud coming in the midst of the trial. Is there any other reason it infuriated the High Priest? Christ was declaring Himself the Son of Man. Who alone has the authority to judge. Who would rule over His kingdom as Daniel saw. The High Priest knew exactly what Christ was declaring, and he called him a blasphemer and tore his robe for no other reason.

Matt 26:63 But Jesus was silent. And the high priest said to him, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." 26:64 Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter YOU WILL see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." 26:65 Then the high priest tore his robes, and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy.

The same man standing there in trial for blasphemy declared to be the Son of Man in Daniels prophecy.

I also believe the High Priest DID see Him. I believe every part of Jerusalem, every tribe of that land, who experienced the wrath of God upon that adulterous nation, SAW the shikinah glory cloud of God!

Christ was coming in judgment against the Jews in the shikinah cloud of God. Cloud language was used all throughout the Old Testament when God prophesied the destruction of one nation from another.

Jer 4:11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse, 12 a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who speak in judgment upon them." 13 Behold, he comes up like clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles--woe to us, for we are ruined! 14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you? 15 For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims evil from Mount E'phraim. 16 Warn the nations that he is coming; announce to Jerusalem, "Besiegers come from a distant land; they shout against the cities of Judah. 17 Like keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she has rebelled against me, says the LORD. 18 Your ways and your doings have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart."

Ezekiel 30:1-4 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: "Wail, 'Alas for the day!' 3 For the day is near, the day of the LORD is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations. 4 A sword shall come upon Egypt, and anguish shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain fall in Egypt, and her wealth is carried away, and her foundations are torn down.

Ez 34:11 "For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when some of his sheep have been scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

The pattern of God's use of the clouds are clear. Christ used the same imagery to predict His return in judgment and salvation. Judgment against the Babylon of Revelation for the blood of the prophets and saints (Matt 23:31-38, Rev 6,17,19, Daniel 12:7). Judgment against Jerusalem for playing the harlot with other nations and rejecting their Messiah.

Na 1:3 The LORD is slow to anger and of great might, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

Just like language concerning clouds, astrological calamity was used to symbolize God's judgment. When God was going to bring one nation upon another in judgment to effectively remove forever the power of that government, He spoke in the language of the moon, stars and their destruction.

Obadiah gives the perfect link with bringing down a government, to bringing them down from the heavens. The pride of Edom was what was being addressed here.

1:3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, You who dwell in the clefts of the rock, Whose habitation is high; You who say in your heart, 'Who will bring me down to the ground?' 1:4 Though you ascend as high as the eagle, And though you set your nest among the stars, From there I will bring you down," says the Lord.

This is the setting, the attitude for using the language of the heavens. God would bring down the mighty and proud governments. He used astrological calamity as a symbolism of this.

Isaiah 13:9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. 10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light. 11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant, and lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless. 12 I will make men more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. 14 And like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather them, every man will turn to his own people, and every man will flee to his own land. 15 Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword. 16 Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished. 17 Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold.

Note the last verse. This proclamation against Babylon was to be fulfilled by the Medes!! Therefore the calamity in the heavens happened, or it is hyperbolic language!

Ezekiel 32:1-16 In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him: "You consider yourself a lion among the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas; you burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers. 3 Thus says the Lord GOD: I will throw my net over you with a host of many peoples; and I will haul you up in my dragnet. 4 And I will cast you on the ground, on the open field I will fling you, and will cause all the birds of the air to settle on you, and I will gorge the beasts of the whole earth with you. 5 I will strew your flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with your carcass. 6 I will drench the land even to the mountains with your flowing blood; and the watercourses will be full of you. 7 When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens, and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. 8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and put darkness upon your land, says the Lord GOD. 9 "I will trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I carry you captive among the nations, into the countries which you have not known. 10 I will make many peoples appalled at you, and their kings shall shudder because of you, when I brandish my sword before them; they shall tremble every moment, every one for his own life, on the day of your downfall. 11 For thus says the Lord GOD: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you.

Once again against Egypt God proclaimed cataclysmic events of the heavens and earth. Declaring the mountains to flow with their blood and the heavens to not give light. Prophetic use of this descriptive language fulfilled by the Babylonians. A literal destruction of Egypt, described symbolically by the prophet using the stars and moon.

Joel 2:9 They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls; they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief. 10 The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. 11 The LORD utters his voice before his army, for his host is exceedingly great; he that executes his word is powerful. For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; who can endure it?

Joel 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. 15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. 16 And the LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shake. But the LORD is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel. 17 "So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who dwell in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy and strangers shall never again pass through it.

In the same fashion, Christ prophesied a great tribulation to come upon Jerusalem. He would return to punish them for their rejection and murder of Him, their Messiah. For the blood of the prophets and martyrs He would return in vengeance, upon those very 1st century Jews.

Matt 24:29 "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; 30 then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; 31 and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

What a glorious picture our Lord proclaiming the deliverance from that 'wicked and perverse generation" which would bring around the gathering of His elect into His presence (1 Thess 4:17)!! The Harlot of Revelation, Babylon, who was guilty of shedding the blood of the prophets and saints (none other than Jerusalem), would be brought down, destroyed for their wickedness and broken covenant with the God of all and His Son! Which would ultimately bring freedom to the church and God's presence would remain with man forever, in a New Covenant with all men.

For someone to be a harlot, and adulterous, you need to have a covenant with someone. You cannot "cheat on" a wife or husband without first being married. God declared the Babylon of Revelation to be a harlot city. This could only fit Jerusalem because the Jews were the only nation to have a covenant with God.

Matthew 23:30 saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' 23:31 Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 23:32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.

Out of their pride, the Pharisees in the temple had been saying that they would not have murdered the prophets as their fathers did. Christ then declares the punishment that belongs to their fathers for those murders, as well as for their guilt, as they were about to kill Him and His saints over the next 37 years!

23:33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 23:34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 23:35 that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechari'ah the son of Barachi'ah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

Christ has just declared THE ONE AND ONLY TIME OF VENGEANCE upon their heads. Again, He included the blood of the prophets past and the blood of the future martyrs to be counted against them.

23:36 Truly, I say to you, all this will come upon this generation. 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 23:38 Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate.

The end of this judgment and the sign that what Christ had determined actually occurred would be that their temple would be desolated.

Christ had just declared the last week of the 70 weeks of Daniel would come against those very Pharisees. For the murders of their fathers, for their murder of the Messiah and for the future murders of the saints.

Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. Dan 9:26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed. Dan 9:27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator."

There is 1 time of vengeance in scripture, this one in Matthew 23 which decreed the "Day of the Lord and the consummation of the 70 weeks of Daniel on that very generation of Jewish leaders.

In perfect concert with Christ's words, the end of the age would come when the power of the holy people had been shattered.

Dan 12:8 I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, "O my lord, what shall be the issue of these things?" Dan 12:9 He said, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. Dan 12:10 Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but those who are wise shall understand. Dan 12:11 And from the time that the continual burnt offering is taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Dan 12:12 Blessed is he who waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. Dan 12:13 But go your way till the end; and you shall rest, and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days."

Again, the resurrection, Daniel's own, would be fulfilled at the end of "the time of vengeance." God accomplished all, in some way shape or form, that He wanted to accomplish in the "end of the age" by the time Jerusalem and it's temple fell.

The "time of vengeance" gives us the link for one more key of prophecy. The one and only "end times" decreed "time of vengeance" was to be taken out upon the Babylon, the harlot of Revelation!

Rev 6:9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne; 10 they cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?" 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

Just as Christ had declared that the future blood of the martyrs would be taken out on their heads, this prophecy shows us that in spite of the cries for vengeance for their righteous blood, the time for "filling up the measure of your fathers" (Matthew 23:32) had to be completed.

Revelation further links "the time of vengeance" with the harlot of Revelation in chapter 17:

Rev 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who is seated upon many waters, Rev 17:2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk…….Rev 17:16 And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot; they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, Rev 17:17 for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. "

The time that was to be fulfilled was "the time of vengeance" and the "end of the days" at which time Daniel and all who had died under the Old Covenant would be raised. Ushering in a completed, consummated New Covenant.

The last and most obvious case closing proof that the harlot Babylon was Jerusalem, on whom "the time of vengeance" was to come, is Revelation 19:1-2.

Revelation 19:1 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for his judgments are true and just; he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants."

Thanks for the analysis, Nate . Very interesting , especially the observation that the writings made more sense to contemporaries that to people a couple of thousand years away . We really are at the mercy of the translators in a lot of ways .
Look at how English (American) has changed in the last hundred years . If I told you about my "bitch" would you think I was talking about a female dog or a mean woman ?
If I told you about my "hoe", i would have to tell you it was an agricultural implement .
I certainly wouldn't refer to a joyful hetero-sexual man as "gay"
These are only the most obvious, of course , but it just shows that old translations are not necessarily the most easily understood .
However, "modern" translations probably contain the interpretations of the translator .

AMEN!!!

FWIW, I'll second that- AMEN!!!

I've only taken the challenge to study Preterism in the last couple of months, but reading the scripture from the perspective of the immediate audience it was written to sure clears away a LOT of presuppositions we bring to it today.

The Bible has taken on a clarity I have never known before in the preterist view.
The truth will do that to you. :o)
I will add you to my posts.
Also see www.1newjerusalemministries.com The board there is an awesome resource!

The preterist view brings clarity, you say? Well, I have a few questions for you:
1. When Jesus ascended into Heaven, the angels told the apostles that Jesus would come again in like manner as they saw Him go into Heaven. “He ascended into Heaven in a physical body; He will come again in a physical body,” is basically the point the angels were making. Did Jesus come again in a physical body in A.D. 70?
2. The Bible says that the present heavens and earth will be dissolved, and then God will create new heavens and a new earth (II Peter 3:10-13). If we are in the new heavens and new earth now, as you say we are, when did the old heavens and earth dissolve?
3. Was Nero the Antichrist, in your view? If so, when was he thrown into the lake of fire? And who was the False Prophet, if Nero was the Antichrist? When was the False Prophet thrown into the lake of fire?
4. If the resurrection of the dead that is prophesied in the Bible has already happened, what about the people who have died since A.D. 70? What happened to them? And what will happen to people who die tomorrow, etc.?
5. If the final judgment has already happened, will everyone who has lived since A.D. 70 not be judged?
6. How can preterism offer any hope for Christians, if the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment have already happened?

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