As current eschatalogical debates go, the defense of anything leaning towards the preterist interpretation generally migrates back to one particular proof text:
Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
Matthew 24:34
Much debate surrounds the use of the Greek “genea” as “generation”, as to whether that is the generation then alive, or later.
While I agree that this word should mean that current generation, as is evidenced in Matthew 24:1-3, I tend to bring the basis of my argument to another passage, one from Daniel.
In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.
Daniel 2:44, emphasis mine
This, then, could be considered the “fall-back proof-text” for my argument. It all depends on the definition of the Kingdom. Yet, it is “the Kingdom” which is precisely what is in view in the Gospels.
So He was saying, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it?
Luke 13:18
This should strike a chord with every theologian attempting to define the Kingdom.
Either Jesus is Lord, or He isn’t. Either He is the Messiah, or He isn’t. Either He is the ultimate interpreter of Scripture, Old Testament prophecies included, or he isn’t.
What is the Kingdom of God like? Is it an eschatalogical reign? Is it an ethereal, make-believe place? Is it a political movement? What can it be likened to, or compared to? Shall it be a government center in Jerusalem? Shall it be like a great military takeover with the destruction of the anti-christ infrastructure, as the Kingdom displaces and restores all that was destroyed at some Armageddon campaign? None of these, or most of the other explanations fit, not even most of the “Kingdom Now” approaches, although they are somewhat improved in some areas.
Further, when is the Kingdom? Jesus said in Mark 1:15, the time was fulfilled, and the Kingdom was here, then! If His language was unclear, you only have to go to Luke 16:16, and investigate what He said. The Law the prophets were until John, and since then, the Kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force. This is precisely the language of Daniel 7:18 in the KJV translation: “But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom”.
Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven was like a little bit of leaven that a woman hid in three measures of dough, until the whole lump was leavened (Matthew 13:33). The leaven here is not the malice and wickedness Paul refers to, nor is it “pride” which puffeth up. No, leaven is an invisible, active agent working on the whole to transform it from the inside out. The leaven of the Gospel is the Holy Ghost!
Bear this out. Jesus said that if He cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God had come upon them. This was speaking of the authority as well as the power with which He was doing this. It was not merely a demonstration of force, but it was the right of a greater Kingdom to overcome a lesser Kingdom.
Further, throughout the Gospels, Jesus revealed the true nature of sin, the demonic spirit world. Casting out demons was destroying the work of the evil one, and by casting them out, people were made whole and healed. This is why, when certain sins such as adultery were communicated, people had to be killed immediately. The commission of certain sins opened a door to a demon, just as it always had, since the time of Cain slaying Abel. Sin, through the agency of the invisible demonic, was able to infect the whole of the camp, and even the nation, when it was let in even a little. Even in the regulations of mold, we see the parallel.
But, now, in the agency of the Holy Ghost, there was a new leaven. Whereas all Israel had to be without leaven at the Passover, they could not have any yeast, or unclean spirits within them. Yet, by the time you get to Pentecost and the Fellowship offering, you had to have both leavened and unleavened bread. In other words, you were still holy and free from sin, but now, the Spirit of the living God, the only true and pure and clean leaven was required.
This indwelling Spirit was the power by which Christ did His miracles and by which God the Father raised up God the Son, as Romans 8:11 testifies. This Spirit is the power of the Gospel, which quickens our mortal bodies, and regenerates the believer in Christ Jesus.
Further, it is communicable through the laying on of hands, as we see in the book of Acts and also in the instructions of Paul to Timothy and in Hebrews 6:1-2, the six foundations of the faith. This Spirit could be transferred to others, and hence, like yeast, would spread through the whole of the lump of the congregation of the saints.
Jesus, knowing this, and knowing that as Paul later wrote that the carnal mind cannot accept the things of the Spirit for they are Spiritually discerned, left it as a picture, as a parable. Those that would come to understand might see how the picture applied, but to those who did not believe, who did not come to know the Spirit of God, they would never understand anyway.
So, what is the Kingdom of God like? It is the Holy Spirit, deposited within, dwelling in us because of the Faith in Jesus Christ. It is planted through the Word of Faith, the Word of the Kingdom, and once He is inside us, He begins to grow and produce fruit in us. Just as other spirits produced uncleanness, the Holy Spirit produces righteousness and holiness. First the sprout, then the stalk,then the leaf, then the full head of grain. It is the Holy Spirit within us that does the work.
When one sees that the Kingdom consists of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and these are precisely what the life of the Spirit is all about, we settle our issue.
Jesus brought the One and Only Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom is Eternal, and when David sat on his throne, it was truly the Lord’s throne. Hence, all things are brought together under one head, namely Christ, as Ephesians 1 describes what could be named the “master plan of God”.
How could we get so convoluted and mixed up, as to miss the very thing that Jesus brought? Yet, on the other hand, how could we ever imagine that the Kingdom is a commodity or made “in our image”, instead of God’s.
God the Father, through Jesus Christ, “set up” a Kingdom, in fulfillment of Daniel 2:44 at His first coming. And, He laid down the basic principles of that Kingdom, the principles that have always existed concerning that Kingdom, those mysteries hidden from the foundation of the world.
[B]ut let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 9:24
This is who God is, and who He always will be. To attempt to get him any other way is lawlessness, iniquity, and rebellion. It belies a self, a selfish ungodly, depraved heart, not how man was created, but filthy, fallen, and corrupt. Unholy, and damned to destruction.
But, the Kingdom is God’s way. God’s truth. God’s life. The Kingdom is salvation from the world and from our corrupt, fallen humanity. As Colossians 1:13 says, we are transferred out of the dominion of darkness into the Kingdom.
So, we see that Daniel 2:44 was fulfilled in Christ’s first coming.
This brings us into sharp contrast with the dispensationalist and most futurist, but it is established fact.
They will attempt to differentiate that Christ cannot be sitting on David’s throne, but since it says Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord after David, it is clear that David’s throne is the Lord’s throne.
Further some would argue that the Kingdom must be a physical reality, but this contradicts John 3:3-5, which says the Kingdom cannot be seen nor entered except by those who are born again. Again, the circle is endless.
But, at the end of the dialogue, Christ has only one Kingdom, and it is here. Daniel 2, and hence 7 are fully fulfilled through the fall of Rome, “in the days of those kings”.
Once you let Jesus interpret the Scriptures, and define what the Kingdom really is, Daniel starts to fall into place. When you realize that there is no need for the Great Tribulation to be “immediately” followed by the Second Coming, because it’s not what the writer intended in Matthew 24:29, you then further free yourself up to see the case laid out that that the Great Tribulation occured in 70 AD, and that Jesus is still, yet coming.
From there, with a few other key points, the case develops itself, or it should, if it is true. If it is true, and God has provided sufficent historical record to verify the affirmation of prophecy, and it seems He would do so, at least in a measure, then, indeed, we see the whole of the eschatalogical vessel splayed from bow to stern.
God meant what He said, and said what He means. But the statement remains, not whether you have understood the Kingdom, but whether you have found it.
For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Matthew 7:14