The Law was to remain until all is fulfilled.
For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is fulfilled. (Matthew 5:18)
Does sin continue today?
Does dying continue today?
Does crying continue today?
Does pain continue today?
Does sorrow continue today?
Does the curse continue today?
Are we still not living in an "evil age" today?
Do people still marry today?
When does incorruption arrive?
Is "the bondage of corruption" removed from the creature and creation at the moment?
· The second coming has not occurred.
· The glorification of the elect has not occurred.
· The end of the age has not occurred.
· The last day has not occurred.
· The old corrupt earth is still here.
· Creation has not been delivered from the bondage of corruption.
· The age to come has not arrived in all its perfect glory.
· The new heavens and new earth have not arrived.
Notice in the verse you quoted it said "is ready to vanish away" meaning it had not occurred just yet.
The New Covenant didn't come into being instantly and the temple system was still in operation for Jewish believers from the period 30AD to 70AD (40 years). the Jews were born into the Law, therefore they had to continue to follow the Law. This did not apply to the gentiles as they were never under the Law.
A corpse does not normally vanish from sight immediately upon death until it is put into the grave and buried. But corruption, decay, degeneration has already kicked in. It is lifeless. It is powerless. It simply needs a decent burial. That is how the old covenant was between AD30 and AD70. A corpse can still be visible but it is lifeless and has no ability to function. That is what happened to the old covenant between AD30-70.
Even though a corpse may look asleep, it is lifeless. All you have is rotting flesh. Decomposition has set in immediately. It is gradually decaying, and will ultimately vanish away. But that entity has no further earthly use. Its time is up.
Preterists can do their best to beautify this deceased corpse, they can try their best to raise its lifeless carcass from the dead, and they can attribute life to it all they want, but it is all in vain, it is still absolutely and totally deceased.
By calling this covenant “new,” Jesus rendered the first covenant obsolete. What is more, what was rotting, obsolete and outdated was soon to disappear with the destruction of the Jewish temple.
God allowed the Jews who remained under the law time to repent, in hope that they would choose Christ.
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
Just as the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, so did those living in the 40 years from the time of the Resurrection to the destruction of the temple. Those who refused to believe in God’s Word failed to inherit His promise.
Jesus taught the continuation of offering of sacrifices at the temple.
Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. (Matthew 5:23-24)
The Christian believers in Jerusalem were eagerly observing the law.
When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers received us warmly. The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present. Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. (Acts 21:17-20)
The ministry of Jesus and the twelve disciples was exclusively to the Jews.
"These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel." (Matthew 10:5-6)
And this mission to the Jews continued for several years after the resurrection of Jesus as can be seen in the Book of Acts.
"Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews." And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. (Acts 8:1)
Paul received the mystery of salvation through grace after meeting the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus where the risen Lord appeared to him.
"As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:3-6)
“Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (Galatians 1:1)
“I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 1:11-12)
This proves nothing! It does not say what you are saying.
The Law was still being taught by Jewish believers.
“Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’” (Acts 15:1)
“Some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.” (Acts 15:5)
At first there was disagreement among the apostles between what Paul was teaching and what they were. This debate can be found in Acts 15 (The Council at Jerusalem), but in the end it was agreed that the Gentiles were free from the requirements of the of the Law for salvation. It was also decided that Paul and the others would minister to the gentiles and Peter and the apostles would continue their ministry among the Jews.
“The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, ‘Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.’” (Acts 15:6-11)
The council came to agreement that both Jews and Gentiles are saved through the same process, through the grace of God, and Paul refers back to this debate in Galatians.
“On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised (gentiles), just as Peter had been to the circumcised(Jews). For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.” (Galatians 2:7-9)
As can be seen there was a gradual transformation between the New and the Old. The Old Covenant and New ran parallel to one another until the temple was destroyed.
The Old Testament Jew saw the unfolding of God’s plan always as Jerusalem as the epi-center, but they struggled to see the seismic change from the earthly to the heavenly, the temporal to the eternal, the outward to the inward, the physical to the spiritual.
When the heavenly man came the heavenly took over from the earthly as the focus.
Did the Jews of Jesus’ day understand the prophesies in the Old Testament? No, they got them badly wrong. If they had, they would have recognized Jesus for who he was.
The Old Testament prophesies cannot be fully understood without starting with the light of the New Testament. Otherwise one will typically make the same mistake the Jews made – putting their hope in some political conquering king messiah who rules with an iron fist.
Jesus taught the opposite. God’s kingdom is not of this earth and our relationship with God is through grace and love, not sacrifices at the alter and legalism.
On the road to Emmaus Jesus had to explain how to interpret the Old Testament prophesies in light of the truth He revealed. This must have been quite a revelation! It’s too bad we don’t have an epistle of everything Jesus said as they walked; we probably wouldn’t be having this discussion.
Jesus said “It is finished!” and so it is. With His revelation we can go back to try to find meaning in the Old Testament prophesies. If we come up with something that conflicts with the New Testament, do we throw away the New Testament? No, we look again. Prophesy is best understood by starting with the clearest, least metaphorical, least obscure verses in the epistles and Gospels. Not the other way around.
The Rev Grier says it well in his book The Momentous Event:
“If they heralded the glories of Christ’s people not under the figures of the land, the temple, and the sacrifices, but in the richness and fulness of the New Testament language, it would have meant nothing and conveyed nothing to the Old Testament saints. They could not have borne excessive light. Let us remember that when Christ did come, it was difficult even for His chosen disciples to understand, and that He said to them, ‘I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now’. Only by things known, such as land, the temple, and the sacrifices, could the prophets picture the unknown.”
Remember the Old Testament passage were written hundreds of years before Christ, at a time when the Judaic sacrificial system was actively in place. We cannot ignore the fact that these prophecies were made within the oblique confines of the old covenant set-up. Natural Jerusalem was still the centre of global worship to the king of glory. Israel still represented the totality of God’s relationship with mankind, Judah being the privileged tribe. Elaborate religious ceremonies were required to maintain a strong relationship with Jehovah God. It must have been very hard for the Old Testament prophets to comprehend the great New Testament revelation of the Gentiles being brought into an equal relationship with God under a completely new arrangement. It must have been even harder to put it into comprehendible vocabulary.
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.
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Hebrews 8:13)
The temple, the sacrificial system, and the priesthood, were done away in 70AD and the Jews could no longer look to them for redemption or atonement. From that day forward forgiveness and mercy could only be found through Jesus Christ and His work on the cross alone.
Paul shows us that the old covenant was decaying and ready to vanish away after the cross. Of course, anything that is decaying is already dead. From then on it is just rotting and in urgent need of a decent burial.
All authorities concur in the declaration that “when all these things should have been done”, ‘The End’ should come: that “the mystery of God should be finished as he had declared to His servants the prophets“: it should be completed: time should now be no more: the End of all things (so foretold) should be at hand, and be fully brought to pass: in these days should be fulfilled all that had been spoken of Christ (and of His church) by the prophets: or, in other words, when the gospel should have been preached in all the world for a testimony to all nations, and the power of the Holy People be scattered (abroad), then should the End come, then should all these things be finished. I need now only say, all these things have been done: the old and elementary system passed away with a great noise; all these predicted empires have actually fallen, and the new kingdom, the new heaven and earth, the new Jerusalem–all of which were to descend from God, to be formed by His power, have been realised on earth; all these things have been done in the sight of all the nations; God’s holy arm has been made bare in their sight: His judgments have prevailed, and they remain for an everlasting testimony to the whole world. His kingdom has come, as it was foretold it should, and His will has, so far, been done; His purposes have been finished. --
This is a spurious quote circulated by Preterists to support their questionable beliefs. It is taken from notes written during the translation of the works of Eusebius by Samuel Lee. Why do Preterists just accept what they are taught? Why do they not check these things out before promoting them?
