Saturday 5 November 2016

The Significance and Non-Significance of AD70

Is it possible to read too much significance into AD70?

Certainly the events of AD70 fulfilled certain predictions of the Lord, and of Daniel and other Bible-Prophets. But was AD70 really the be-all and end-all of everything that the Bible means by the following themes, as some AD70-Preterists assert that it was:

the end of the world...

the coming wrath...

the day of the Lord...

the day of judgment...

the day of salvation...

the Second Coming...

the marriage supper of the Lamb...

the coming Kingdom...

our redemption...

the resurrection of the dead...

the arrival of the New Jerusalem...

and new heavens and a new earth.

Some say all of that is now squarely in the past.

Certainly the events of AD70 let believers know that the culmination of all the above themes was now nearer than when they first believed - but AD70 itself probably wasn't the ultimate culmination of all that the Bible has in mind by those themes, was it?

Some even go so far as to say the Church ceased in AD70...

that we should now be beyond preaching the Gospel...

that signs and wonders ceased...

that the only condemnable sin now is unbelief...

some even say the whole universe is already saved...

and say that the New Testament, including the Epistles, requires a distinction to be made between which parts still apply to us this side of AD70, and which parts no longer do - to a greater extent than non AD70-Preterists do.

Nothing really changed spiritually, in AD70, as far as I know. It wasn't a spiritually-redemptive event, encompassing all that the Bible means by redemption - which in the Bible includes the redemption of the body.

It didn't even make any political difference - to believers living outside of geographical areas where Jews lived and had synagogues.

It certainly wasn't the end of all persecution for believers. So it could hardly be thought of as having been "the blessed hope".

The spiritually significant redemptive event was the physical presence of Messiah the King, the Son of God, in the earth - His virgin birth - His ministry - and especially His cross and resurrection - and His ascension into glory.

It was the cross that marked the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New Testament spiritually, not AD70.

AD70 didn't affect anything spiritually, redemptively and new-covenantally that wasn't already enacted spiritually by the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

It was with regard to the cross, not as a prediction of AD70, that Jesus said, "It is finished" and "This is the New Testament in my blood".

Post-Pentecost, the Apostles looked back to that great event; and it seems to me that what they looked forward to - the culminating event which the Apostles still looked forward to - included themes which go beyond what happened in AD70.

There was no explicit revoking of God's goodwill towards the nation of Israel, through the Gospel. So the loss of life and nationhood in AD70 was a tragedy, it was avoidable - and Jesus wept over the thought of it.

Of course it's also possible not to read enough significance into AD70. Some futurists don't see the events of AD70 as prophetically-significant at all, and still expect the fulfilment in future of Jesus' predictions regarding the Temple and Israel.

But that degree of Dispensationalism causes theological problems - because it implies God is interested in Israel returning to Judaism in future. That conflicts with the Apostles' New Covenant doctrine. It's not how they interpreted and applied Old Testament Prophecy at all.

AD70 had significance in that it did fulfil certain specific Bible-Prophecies relevant to the Temple and Jerusalem and the Jews - and it let believers know that their ultimate redemption was now nearer than when they first believed.

It brought a physical and obvious end to any possibility of continuing to carry-out the Old Covenant system - even though spiritually the New Covenant was already fully-functional and there was already no need for believers to become observant of the ancient Jews' Law-system.

All of those occurrences indeed fulfilled certain details in Prophecy - and we shouldn't want to overlook the significance it did have.

But it seems a bit too much of a stretch to claim AD70 was the sum total of everything that the Bible means by themes like Second Coming of the Lord and the redemption of our body and related.

There's been the inauguration of the Messianic Kingdom of God, certainly - and of all that the Kingdom of God entails. But the Apostles still looked forward to the coming consummation of the Kingdom and of all its component blessings.

Inauguration/Consummation.

Kingdom Now/Not Yet.

First coming/second coming - that was the Apostles' revelation - their take on Old Testament Prophecy, and how they applied it.

AD70 confirmed that the central spiritual points of the Apostles' Gospel message was true:

Jesus Christ and Him crucified, risen and coming again.

And that's still our message today. 

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