R.C. Sproul
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
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It was Christ's punishment on his people for rejecting him.
It was the end, not of all history, but the end of the Jewish age.
Remember, he talks about the age of the Gentiles.
Well, if there is an age that refers to the age of the Gentiles, that can only be meaningful in contrast to some other age, and the obvious one here would be the age of the Jews.
And so the full preterist says that the Jewish age ended in 70 AD with the return of Christ in judgment and the beginning of the age of Gentiles took place.
They even argue for a secret rapture and an invisible final resurrection at that point.
because I believe there are other texts in the New Testament, such as the one I've already read, that indicate that we still have every reason to hope for a future personal, visible return of Jesus.
However, I do think that partial preterism has to be taken seriously, that a most significant event did take place in 70 A.D., and I am persuaded that what Jesus was talking about in the Olivet Discourse was, in fact, His judgment coming on Israel.
But I don't think he was referring to his final consummation of his kingdom.
Now, the other theory that you meet here frequently, that's something that does take place in biblical prophecy, where a future event will be predicted where you have a typological fulfillment of it in a near-term situation, but where its final, full fulfillment takes place
And we see that with some of the Old Testament prophecies, out of Egypt have I called my son.
That was fulfilled immediately with the Exodus, but fully and finally with Jesus' return from Egypt after the flight into Egypt during the slaughter of the innocents by Herod, and so on.
You have that kind of phenomenon.
And so I'm saying in the final analysis, I'm not sure
In fact, the only thing I know for sure is that nobody knows for sure when Jesus is going to come.
But I still think that we as the people of God have a very blessed hope.