Would preterists be willing to conceed to the precedent of God using prophecy in double-fulfillments? Such as, the Davidic Psalms, the Feasts, and Israelogy?
If such precedents are a given in looking at biblical prophecy, I submit that the prophesies Jesus made were fulfilled in his day AND are meant to be fullfilled for another generation at the Last Day. I make this claim because we have precedent already God using prophecies for one situation to be a prophecy for something seperate and different in the further future!
I believe both Preterists and Futurists are right and correct, since both can be proven. What they don't realize is, that they both have just one piece of the larger puzzle, and that together, they both have the answer.
Hi Josephus! Excellent question; would preterists concede to the precedent of God using prophecy in double-fulfillments? I think GW or someone else has gone into depth about this in the past, but I'll see what I can add. We recognize that God has used Old Testament shadows to speak of New Testament realities. In that sense there is a "double-fulfillment" of sorts (and I use that term hestitantly). In some prophecies (certainly not all of them) there was an application in OT times and an application in NT times. An example of this would be Psalm 16, in which David spoke of himself and Christ.
So "double-fulfillment", in a sense, can be applied to
certain passages from the OT (and I still hesitate to use that term). But the NT times were to be the
fulfillment of those OT shadows, not the beginning of a new era of types and shadows. Preterists do not believe in triple or quadruple fulfillments. We believe in an OT shadow and a NT reality for certain prophecies. There is no biblical precident, for example, in taking Isaiah 13 concerning the destruction of ancient Bablyon by the Medes and applying a "future fulfillment" to America, Russia, and the end of the universe. There is no biblical principle in which there was to be an Old Testament Anti-Christ (Antiochus),
and then two or three NT Anti-Christs (Nero, and some yet-to-be-known future guy).
Preterists do not believe that when Jesus warned His disciples "
when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh (Luke 21:20)" that there is any room for multiple fulfillments, as if every time Jerusalem is surrounded by armies over the next 2000 years Christ's disciples are supposed "
flee to the mountians". If Luke 21 was not meant specifically for the 1st Century Discples Jesus spoke to, and if it was meant to have one or two or three fulfillments before the final,
real fulfillment, then how can this passage truly be understood and obeyed? For an example of this, on the Eschatology forum I read a post in which someone stated that Jerusalem could be "
surrounded by armies"
now simply because Palestinians and other Arab neighbors are enemies of Israel, and they have countries that border Israel. Do you see the problem with this? "
Armies surrounding Jerusalem" can now mean sporadic attacks by suicide bombers and neighboring enemy countries who are not even invading Israel at this point.
So who has the authority or the ability to discern for the entire Christian world if the
final fulfillment has come rather then some multiple fulfillment? I would be very interested in finding out how many Christians today would actually be willing to abandon their homes, forever leaving their former lives behind them, and fleeing to the mountains to live the remainder of their lives the very next time Israel is invaded or Jerusalem is attacked.
I personally have a problem with this kind of futurist exegesis because other Christian offshoots (like Mormonism) apply this interprative process to justify their own existance. Isaiah 29:1-13 speaks of apostate Jerusalem (Israel) in the OT, but the LDS Church declares a "
double fulfillment" of the passages, saying they also speak of an ancient civilization of Israelites in the Americas some 400 years after Christ, and of the coming of the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith. Christians are aghast at this kind of interpretive process used by Mormons, and yet these
very same Christians use the
exact same interpretive principle to find Russia, apache helicopters, and nuclear war in various biblical passages. Something's wrong here.
I've recently bought a book called
Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period by Richard Longenecker that investigates the hermenuetical principles Jesus and the Disciples used when applying OT passages to the NT times. It should shed a great deal of light on the subject of "double fulfillments" and such. I'll try to remember to get back to you when I'm done reading it and give you my impressions.
If some other preterists would like to add to this, please feel free.
In Christ,
Acts6:5