THE SECOND COMING:

Full Preterism? Or, Partial Preterism?

Victor M. Eskew

 

          There are two main positions taken regarding the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  One is referred to as Full (or Complete) Preterism.  The word “preterism” means “past” or “gone by.”  Those who hold this view teach that the Second Coming of Jesus is already past.  They also believe the resurrection of the dead and judgment have passed as well.  They teach that all of these things transpired at the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.  They affirm that the world as we know it will continue until the earth completely winds down.

          The other view of the Second Coming is called Partial Preterism.  This view teaches that there were many prophecies that were fulfilled in A.D. 70 when Jerusalem was destroyed.  However, the physical Second Coming, the resurrection of the dead, and final judgment are still in the future.  The question is:  “Which view is right?”  A better way to ask the question is:  “Which view is Biblical?” 

          The answer seems simple when various passages of the New Testament are examined.  When Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives, His disciples watched Him to into the heavens.  “And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?  this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:10-11).  The key words for this discussion are the words:  “…shall so come in like manner.”  Jesus physically left the disciples.  He literally ascended into the heavens and a cloud received him out of their sight.  The angels said Jesus would come again in the same manner.  He will come with clouds (Rev. 1:7).  He will come from heaven (1 Thess. 4:16).  He will come physically from the heavens (Matt. 25:31).  A coming in judgment on the city of Jerusalem does not fulfill the promise of the angels. 

          When Jesus was in the upper room with the apostles the night before His crucifixion, He promised them that He would return.  “…I go to prepare a place for you,” He said (John 14:2).  “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3).  In John 14:28, Jesus made the promise again.  “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you…”  Those who heard Jesus would not have thought the promise was figurative in nature.  They would have believed that Jesus was leaving, preparing them a place, and that He was coming again one day to get them. 

          Let’s consider John’s words found in 1 John 3:2.  “ Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:  but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”  If John is referring to Jesus’ coming in A.D. 70 when Jerusalem was destroyed, how were John’s readers made like unto the Christ when He came?  Did they “see him as he is”?  John is referring to the Second Coming at the end of time.  Jesus now possesses a spiritual body.  It is body that is much different from the body each person possesses at this time.  How?  One difference is that it is not composed of flesh and blood (1 Cor. 15:50).  John admits that right now “it doth not yet appear what we shall be.”  In other words, we cannot comprehend the spiritual body we will receive.  But, he promises, saying:  “…but we know, when he shall appear, we shall be like him…”  When Jesus comes the righteous dead will be raised first.  They will be given a body like the one Jesus has now.  Then, those who are not asleep “shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump…” (1 Cor. 15:51-52).

          Several of Jesus’ parables also confirm that Jesus is going to literally return to judge the world.  In Matthew 25, we find three Second Coming parables.  All of them teach a physical return of the Christ.  In “The Parable of the Ten Virgins,” the virgins were waiting for the bridegroom.  He came, and the five wise virgins were allowed into the marriage.  “…and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage:  and the door was shut” (Matt. 25:10).  Jesus concludes the parable with these words:  “Watch therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matt. 25:13). 

          We see the Second Coming taught again in “The Parable of the Talents.”  A householder travels to a far country after he consigns his goods to his servants.  In Matthew 25:19, the story continues.  “After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.”  The lesson is clear.  Right now we are in the time when the householder, Jesus, has gone away.  One day, He will return.  When He does, He will reckon with us.  There will be a judgment at that time.  The faithful will enter into the joy of the Lord (Matt. 25:21, 23.  The slothful, however, will be cast into outer darkness:  there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 25:30). 

          The final parable of Matthew 25 is “The Parable of the Sheep and Goats.”  That parable opens with very plain words about the Second Coming.  “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:  and before him shall be gathered all nations:  and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:  and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left” (vs. 31-33).  If an individual continues to read the parable, he finds the basis for the separation given.  It is based on the type of service an the child of God provides others in his life.  The parable would have to be stretched to make it apply to the rejection of the Jewish state through the destruction of Jerusalem.

          There have been many “comings” of God in judgment in the past.  Yes, the destruction of Jerusalem was one of them.  But, there is one more coming.  It will transpire when our Lord returns the second time from heaven.  “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:  so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:27-28).