"Heaven And Earth" & "Sun/Moon Darkened" symbols to Preterists

[random person]

Symbols:

HEAVENS AND EARTH


Interpretation:

HEAVENS: Religious or political authorities.

EARTH: The place or nation involved in the
prophesy.

Old Testament References:​

Isaiah 24:1-5 –

“See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants...The earth will be completely laid waste...The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.”
[NIV]

This passage is a prophecy of the coming attack and conquest by the Assyrians over the Jewish people. It should be obvious that the word EARTH is used as a symbol here, representing the place of the peoples or nation involved. The Assyrian army, used unwittingly as a tool of retribution by God, would come and destroy cities, and burn and loot the land, taking the people captive and killing many of them. The “inhabitants” of the earth would be “scattered” – that is, scattered abroad in captivity. If the earth is meant to be the literal globe, utterly devastated and made empty by God, then the scattered inhabitants would have been instant astronauts!

The EARTH, here, is a symbol of the promised land of Palestine that had become defiled due to the disobedience of God’s chosen people. They had violated the Law, and now they would reap the retribution of God.

ISAIAH 1:2 –

“Hear, 0 heavens! Listen, 0 earth!....”
[NIV]

This vision was to serve as a warning to the nation of Judah. It was not given to all of humanity, nor was it published or made known universally to all mankind. HEAVENS here refers to the religious and political authorities of Judah, and EARTH refers to the place and the people involved, and so to all the inhabitants of Judah.

ISAIAH 34:1-8 –

“...Hearken, ye people: let the earth hear....All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll....For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment....For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance.”

This passage is a prophecy of the destruction of Edom (Idumea), a prophecy so literally fulfilled that this land is barren and waste even today. The EARTH was the peoples of Edom, who were to hear this prophecy against them. God was angry with them and this was their warning of the coming destruction (“the day of the Lord’s vengeance”). This prophecy was not intended or designed to be heard and attended to by peoples of other lands.

The HEAVENS that would be “dissolved” and “rolled together” (like a discarded scroll of parchment), were the political/religious authorities of Edom – its government and armies and those who led that nation away from God’s path (v.2.). God’s bloody sword would be bathed in HEAVEN. The symbol is explained within that very passage in verse 5: “it shall come down upon Idumea.” God’s sword was not bloodied in God’s own heavenly spiritual realm, but rather in the “heaven” that was the worldly realm of the Edomite leaders.

JEREMIAH 22:29 –

“0 earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.”

Here, the prophet Jeremiah is warning the nation of Judah to repent from their idolatry or face destruction and captivity by the Babylonians as a punishment from God. In verse 25 preceding, God tells them:

“I will hand you over to those who seek your life, those you fear – to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Babylonians.”
[NIV]

The EARTH here is the nation involved in this prophecy: Judah. Neither the planet Earth, nor the combined inhabitants of it were being addressed in verse 29. This is a symbol. Incidentally, the NIV translates this passage as “0 land, land, land..., which is a more literal rendering indicating more directly the intended audience.

JEREMIAH 51:25 –

“‘I am against you, 0 destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth,’ declares the Lord.”
[NIV]

Here, Jeremiah is voicing God’s warning to the nation of Babylon, which he would destroy by bringing the Medes against them (v. 11). The Babylonians were certainly warlike, but they did not destroy the entire physical earth, nor even the entire peoples of the then known world. They did destroy the nation of Judah, which is the proper use of the symbol EARTH in this context.

AMOS 5:7 –

“Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth.”

This was a lamentation against the nation of Israel. It was Israel who turned judgment bitter and ceased being righteous in God’s sight. The EARTH here is the nation of Israel.

MICAH 1:2-3 –

“Hear, 0 peoples, all of you, listen, 0 earth and all who are in it, that the Sovereign Lord may witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. Look! The Lord...comes down and treads the high places of the earth.”
[NIV]

This prophecy is against Samaria and Judah, which are the subjects of the EARTH symbol in this passage. In verse 5-6, Micah makes this plain by saying:

“What is Judah’s high place? Is it not Jerusalem? Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble....”

The EARTH and ALL WHO ARE IN IT, are the peoples of the land or nation involved in the prophecy, in this case the peoples of Judah and Samaria.

ZEPHANIAH 1:2-3 –

“‘I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,’ declares the Lord...’The wicked will have only heaps of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth’…”
[NIV]

Zephaniah prophesied against Judah prior to the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. God did not destroy the planet in this event. The EARTH here is defined in the next verse (v.4.):

“I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem.”
[NIV]

New Testament References:​

MATTHEW 24:29-35 –

“...The stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn…. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

Obviously, God’s heavenly realm was not to pass away. This HEAVEN and this EARTH were symbols within this great prophecy. They stood for the Jewish national/religious government and the peoples of the Jewish nation that stood in the way of the Church.

The STARS that fall from HEAVEN are symbolic of the leaders and high priests of that decayed nation. Their powers were “shaken” indeed, by the appearance of the power of God, the SIGN OF THE SON OF MAN, in the form of the Roman army. That great destroying force appeared in HEAVEN, that is, God brought its might to bear directly against the Jewish national powers in Jerusalem. These men were the HEAVENS symbolized here. HEAVEN and EARTH passed away in great violence in AD. 70.

ROMANS 9:27-28 –

“Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”’
[NIV]

In this passage it is very obvious that the EARTH symbol is being used to refer to the Jewish nation. Only a remnant of the old chosen people would be saved from the coming destruction. Only those who accepted the Christ would be saved.

The Lord did carry out his sentence with speed and finality. He carried it out on EARTH – the place of the people involved in this prophecy. This EARTH was the Jewish nation.

ROMANS 10:18 (quoting PSALMS 19:4) –

“…their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
[NIV]

The word of Christ, the message of the gospel, was preached into ALL THE EARTH by the time Paul wrote this letter, thus fulfilling the Old Testament prophecy. It did not go out to the far and unknown lands of China or India or America. The EARTH here is symbolic of the people involved in this prophecy – the Jews. The Jews were scattered all over the Roman empire by the time of Christ, and all these diverse regions were represented when Peter spoke the gospel message on Pentecost. Acts 2:5 tells us:

“And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.”Miraculously, each Jew heard the great sermon in his own particular language. Thus, the message was heard and taken back to their own regions, spreading to the very ends of the Jewish world.

REVELATION 1:7 –

“Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him….”

In all of the passages in Revelation, the EARTH symbol and the HEAVEN symbol refer to the same thing until they are replaced by the NEW EARTH and the NEW HEAVEN. The old EARTH and HEAVEN are the Jewish peoples and their errant leaders. They were replaced in the favor and sight of God by the new holy people, those who follow and accept his Son.

In this passage, the KINDREDS were the Jewish tribes, the once set-aside people of God, depicted as kindred because of the strict laws against Jews marrying Gentiles. They were kindreds then, of the EARTH – the land of Palestine, where they dwelt. They wailed because of Christ’s coming, for that coming meant their utter destruction by the Roman invasion. Every Jewish eye “saw” this great event, because they were all caught up in it.

REVELATION 6:13 –

“And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.”

This is a fulfillment of Christ’s own prophecy in Matthew 24:29. The symbols stand for the same thing. The Jewish religious and political authorities, the STARS OF HEAVEN, certainly did fall to their doom along with the people of their EARTH and the very land of Palestine itself.

REVELATION 11:6 –

“These have power…to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.”

In verse 2 preceding, the angel tells John: “it is given to the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot for forty and two months.” “These” who had power, were the Roman armies coming to smite the EARTH, which was the peoples of Palestine. During their prophesied 3 1/2 years of power over Judea (42 months), they caused whatever war acts and desolations they found necessary to subdue the Jews. The Romans did not smite the entire planet earth with plagues, only the symbolic EARTH of the Jewish nation with the plague of war.

REVELATION 11:18 –

“The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has come…for destroying those who destroy the earth.”
[NIV]

The “nations” meant the Gentile world, and in this specific prophecy it refers to the Roman army which was “angry” (which, of course, was God’s own anger made manifest – “your wrath has come”). The time had come for the destruction of those who had, through their sin, destroyed the EARTH – the Jewish world. Those were the leaders and the apostate peoples of that world. They were once the holy people, now they had sinned and would be destroyed. If, according to a futurist interpretation, the EARTH is the planet earth, then there would not be anyone left for God to destroy!

REVELATION 19:2 –

“[God] has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries….”
[NIV]

Here, too, the EARTH is the land and peoples of Jerusalem and Judea. It was the Jewish state that was corrupted by the sin and unbelief of the Jews, committing spiritual adultery against God. This condemnation simply does not fit any other nation or people. Neither Rome, nor any other people, were corrupted by a betrayal of God, for, until Christianity broke the Gentile barrier, they never knew God at all.

REVELATION 20:9 –

“When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth – Gog and Magog – to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.”
[NIV]

Here, the EARTH is more generally referring to the place of the nations involved in the prophecy. The Romans were the forces that occupied the “four corners of the earth” – they completely occupied and ruled the land of Palestine.

Although God used the Roman armies as his divine tool to cause destruction upon the Jews, they were not his people by any stretch of imagination. The Romans were the forces of paganism, represented by the symbolic names of “Gog and Magog,” seemingly overwhelming in their numbers.

They were persecutors of the people of Christ, thus they are pictured as surrounding the camp of God’s people and his beloved city, which is the Kingdom or the Church. The Romans, too, would be devoured after their short “season” or “short time” (vss. 3 and 7), by the power of God through the words of the Gospel (John 1:1; Hebrews 12:29).

REVELATlON 20:11 –

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was no place found for them.”

The self-righteous and sinful Jewish authorities (HEAVENS) and the unbelieving Jewish peoples of Palestine (EARTH) would “fly away” from the presence of God, and there would be “no place found for them” in the new system of grace through the Christ they had rejected. If “heaven” meant God’s abode, then it fled away from him and he is homeless!

REVELATION 21:1 –

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away….”

The old worldly authority and nation of Judaism (FIRST HEAVEN and EARTH) were no more after the Roman destruction, and taking its place was a brand new spiritual authority and nation, established on the day of Pentecost, and now redeemed from its enemies. It was the Church or Kingdom of God (NEW HEAVEN and NEW EARTH), which would last forever.

 

[random person]

Symbol:

SUN/MOON DARKENED or TURNED TO BLOOD

lnterpretation:

The darkness of a nation‘s distress, sorrow, and desolation.

Old Testament References:​

ISAIAH 13:9-11 –

“See, the day of the Lord is coming – a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger – to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil.”
[NIV]

This passage, so similar in form to the words of Christ and of John, speaks of the destruction of the land of Babylon. This section is one of the “burdens” of various kingdoms that Isaiah was prophesying against. The “day of the Lord” was, as previously noted, the actual war event when, in this instance, Babylon was conquered by the Medes. In verse 17, God says, “behold, I will stir up the Medes against them.” Note also, that God punished the “world” for its evil – that is, the Babylonian “world.”

The imagery of the STARS WILL NOT SHOW THEIR LIGHT, the SUN DARKENED, and MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, simply reflects the great distress, despair, and desolation of the Babylonians when this terrible thing happened to them. It was as if the “sun went down on their nation,” as we might say it today.

The stars and physical universe did not go dark because the Medo-Persian empire supplanted the Babylonian one. This language is figurative.

ISAIAH 5:30 –

“And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea. And if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.”

This passage tells of the Assyrian attack and destruction of Israel in 721 B.C. This DARKNESS was obviously not literal. As the verse indicates, it was the pall of sorrow and despair of Israel as they suffered God’s wrath (v. 25) and were taken into captivity.

EZEKIEL 30:18; 32:7-8 –

“At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.”

“And when I shall put thee [Pharaoh] out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God.”

Here, we see a prophecy concerning Egypt. That nation would be destroyed by God, using the Babylonians (Ezek. 30:10) in 572 B.C. This destruction would cause the DARKNESS of distress and desolation to the conquered peoples of Egypt.

AMOS 8:9 –

“in that day,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight”’
[NIV]

Amos prophesied for Israel, and this concerned the destruction and captivity of 721 B.C. by the Assyrians (see 6:14, and 5:27). The literal sun did not literally go down at noon and darken the earth. These were symbolic terms signifying the desolation and sorrow of the Israelites due to their calamity.

ZEPHANIAH 1:14-15 –

“The great day of the Lord is near – near and coming quickly....That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness....”
[NIV]

The symbolic or figurative nature of these phrases is very clear in this passage which speaks of the impending defeat of the nation of Judah. The DARKNESS and GLOOM, CLOUDS and BLACKNESS, were distress, anguish, trouble, and ruin!

New Testament References:

​

MATTHEW 24:29 –

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light....”

ACTS 2:20 –

“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.”

REVELATION 6:12 –

“I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red.”
[NIV]

Here, we find three prophecies of the same event. In Acts, we are told that “this is that” of which the prophet Joel spoke. It was the destruction of the Jewish nation in AD. 70, and the symbols are used in the same way as before. This DARKNESS would be terrible, indeed, for this would be a final destruction of the old Jewish nation.

John saw in his vision the events that were soon to take place and recorded them in symbols as if it were then happening. He saw the earth – the people involved, or the Jewish nation – being shaken by a great “earthquake” of invasion and war. Their desolation and sorrow turned their DAY into utter and complete BLACK, as black as the inside of a bag made of black goat hair, because they were now utterly cut off from God. Their MOON was TURNED BLOOD RED by their own blood which was shed and their violent destruction and removal from their ancestral land.

 

[random person]

Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth:
and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure:
yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment;
as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
but thou art the same,
and thy years shall have no end.
The children of thy servants shall continue,
and their seed shall be established before thee.

Psalm 102:25-28

And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
your young men shall see visions:
and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids
in those days will I pour out my spirit.
And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth,
blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.


The sun shall be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood,
before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered:
for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance,
as the Lord hath said,
and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

Joel 2:28-32

But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: and I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Acts 2:16-21

I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord.
I will consume man and beast;
I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea,
and the stumblingblocks with the wicked;
and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the Lord.
I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah,
and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place,
and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;

Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them
in the day of the Lord’s wrath;
but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy:
for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord,
until the day that I rise up to the prey:
for my determination is to gather the nations,
that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation,
even all my fierce anger:
for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy

the residue of my people shall spoil them,
and the remnant of my people shall possess them.

Zephaniah 1:2-4,18; 3:8; 2:9

 

[JLB777]

Symbol:

SUN/MOON DARKENED or TURNED TO BLOOD

lnterpretation:

The darkness of a nation‘s distress, sorrow, and desolation.

Old Testament References:​

ISAIAH 13:9-11 –

“See, the day of the Lord is coming – a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger – to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil.”
[NIV]

This passage, so similar in form to the words of Christ and of John, speaks of the destruction of the land of Babylon. This section is one of the “burdens” of various kingdoms that Isaiah was prophesying against. The “day of the Lord” was, as previously noted, the actual war event when, in this instance, Babylon was conquered by the Medes. In verse 17, God says, “behold, I will stir up the Medes against them.” Note also, that God punished the “world” for its evil – that is, the Babylonian “world.”

The imagery of the STARS WILL NOT SHOW THEIR LIGHT, the SUN DARKENED, and MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, simply reflects the great distress, despair, and desolation of the Babylonians when this terrible thing happened to them. It was as if the “sun went down on their nation,” as we might say it today.

The stars and physical universe did not go dark because the Medo-Persian empire supplanted the Babylonian one. This language is figurative.

ISAIAH 5:30 –

“And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea. And if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.”

This passage tells of the Assyrian attack and destruction of Israel in 721 B.C. This DARKNESS was obviously not literal. As the verse indicates, it was the pall of sorrow and despair of Israel as they suffered God’s wrath (v. 25) and were taken into captivity.

EZEKIEL 30:18; 32:7-8 –

“At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.”

“And when I shall put thee [Pharaoh] out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God.”

Here, we see a prophecy concerning Egypt. That nation would be destroyed by God, using the Babylonians (Ezek. 30:10) in 572 B.C. This destruction would cause the DARKNESS of distress and desolation to the conquered peoples of Egypt.

AMOS 8:9 –

“in that day,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight”’
[NIV]

Amos prophesied for Israel, and this concerned the destruction and captivity of 721 B.C. by the Assyrians (see 6:14, and 5:27). The literal sun did not literally go down at noon and darken the earth. These were symbolic terms signifying the desolation and sorrow of the Israelites due to their calamity.

ZEPHANIAH 1:14-15 –

“The great day of the Lord is near – near and coming quickly....That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness....”
[NIV]

The symbolic or figurative nature of these phrases is very clear in this passage which speaks of the impending defeat of the nation of Judah. The DARKNESS and GLOOM, CLOUDS and BLACKNESS, were distress, anguish, trouble, and ruin!

New Testament References:

​

MATTHEW 24:29 –

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light....”

ACTS 2:20 –

“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.”

REVELATION 6:12 –

“I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red.”
[NIV]

Here, we find three prophecies of the same event. In Acts, we are told that “this is that” of which the prophet Joel spoke. It was the destruction of the Jewish nation in AD. 70, and the symbols are used in the same way as before. This DARKNESS would be terrible, indeed, for this would be a final destruction of the old Jewish nation.

John saw in his vision the events that were soon to take place and recorded them in symbols as if it were then happening. He saw the earth – the people involved, or the Jewish nation – being shaken by a great “earthquake” of invasion and war. Their desolation and sorrow turned their DAY into utter and complete BLACK, as black as the inside of a bag made of black goat hair, because they were now utterly cut off from God. Their MOON was TURNED BLOOD RED by their own blood which was shed and their violent destruction and removal from their ancestral land.

How does a metaphorical symbol cause a heart attack from fear, in a person???


24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. [Literal]
25 "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;
26 men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. Luke 21:24-26


...men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth.


People will die from their heart failing them, because of fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth.


Yet Preterist's say these signs are just metaphorical symbols???




JLB

 

[random person]

How does a metaphorical symbol cause a heart attack from fear, in a person???


24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. [Literal]
25 "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;
26 men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. Luke 21:24-26


...men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth.


People will die from their heart failing them, because of fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth.


Yet Preterist's say these signs are just metaphorical symbols???




JLB

Absolutely, the prophets spoke in hyperboles, and yet what does Luke 21:32 say?

Verily I say unto you, This generation (genea #1074) shall not pass away, till all (pas #3956) be fulfilled.

LUKE 21:32 GREEK INTERLINEAR

Why don't you read this literally, JLB777? I do!

1074. genea
Strong's Concordance
genea: race, family, generation
Original Word: γενεά, ᾶς, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: genea
Phonetic Spelling: (ghen-eh-ah')
Short Definition: a generation
Definition: a generation; if repeated twice or with another time word, practically indicates infinity of time.


3956. pas
Strong's Concordance
pas: all, every
Original Word: πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν
Part of Speech: Adjective
Transliteration: pas
Phonetic Spelling: (pas)
Short Definition: all, the whole, every kind of
Definition: all, the whole, every kind of.
HELPS Word-studies

3956 pás – each, every; each "part(s) of a totality" (L & N, 1, 59.24).

3956 /pás ("each, every") means "all" in the sense of "each (every) part that applies." The emphasis of the total picture then is on "one piece at a time." 365 (ananeóō) then focuses on the part(s) making up the whole – viewing the whole in terms of the individual parts. ----> All the parts of the whole Olivet Discourse must be fulfilled before the generation passes!

[When 3956 (pás) modifies a word with the definite article it has "extensive-intensive" force – and is straightforward intensive when the Greek definite article is lacking.]

 

[random person]

Preterism is realization that the Biblical apocalyptic language genre almost wholly consists of symbols and hyperboles, but all imminent time statements should be read dead serious literal.


E.G. 2 Samuel 22:6-17,21,25 & Psalm 18 concerning David and King Saul.

 

[x141]

We must interpret the word within the confines of the purpose that God purposes in himself, before the world was.

 

[Der Alte]

Preterism is realization that the Biblical apocalyptic language genre almost wholly consists of symbols and hyperboles, but all imminent time statements should be read dead serious literal.

E.G. 2 Samuel 22:6-17,21,25 & Psalm 18 concerning David and King Saul.

And you don't see any contradiction here?