L
Lehigh3
Guest
This is the Preterist interpretation of those verses. A question that was asked within the regular end-times category about whether the judgment in AD70 only pertained to Israel.
QUESTION : In Acts, when talking to the gentiles, Paul talks about a day when God will judge all nations. (Acts 17:30-31) How is the fall of Jerusalem seen as a judgment on all nations, Jew and gentile?
ANSWER: First, the Gospel was to be preached into all the world as a witness. (Matt. 24:14) This was fulfilled by the time the book of Colossians was written (c. A.D. 60):
"...The Gospel ...was proclaimed in all creation under heaven...." (Col. 1:23)
Then, at the end of redemptive history, a time of great tribulation and upheaval was to take place in order to test the faith of all who had heard the Gospel (i.e., the world). That time of tribulation and testing was centered in its intensity with the Jews, at Jerusalem, yet it was also worldwide and involved the gentiles. It was "about to" take place when the book of Revelation was written:
"Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth." (Rev. 3:10; cf. Matt. 24:7)
From the years A.D. 68-70, Jerusalem was locked in the raging fires of the Great Tribulation, and the nations of the world were in veritable chaos:
Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Preface, 2:
"Now at the time when this great concussion of affairs happened, the affairs of the Romans were themselves in great disorder. Those Jews also who were for revolution, then arose when the times were disturbed; they were also in a flourishing condition for strength and riches, insomuch that the affairs of the East were then exceeding tumultuous, while some hoped for gain, and others were afraid of loss in such troubles; for the Jews hoped that all of their nation which were beyond Euphrates would have raised an insurrection together with them. The Gauls also, in the neighborhood of the Romans, were in motion, and the Geltin were not quiet; but all was in disorder after the death of Nero [A. D. 68]."
When that time of testing was finished, God judged the world: The old-covenant world (which had accommodated human "righteous," and under which the gentiles had remained ignorant) was destroyed, and its shadows were fulfilled in the Body of Christ (Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 8:13). In other words, the temporal kingdom of the world became the eternal Kingdom of God and of His Christ (Rev. 11:15).
Those who had rejected the Gospel were no longer allowed entrance into the Kingdom (as were both Jews and gentiles under the old covenant, through circumcision). But those who had obeyed the Gospel inherited all things (I Cor. 3:21-23; Rev. 21:7), and were revealed to be the true sons of God (Rom. 8:19).
"The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear." (Matt. 13:41-43)
-From preterist Q&A
QUESTION : In Acts, when talking to the gentiles, Paul talks about a day when God will judge all nations. (Acts 17:30-31) How is the fall of Jerusalem seen as a judgment on all nations, Jew and gentile?
ANSWER: First, the Gospel was to be preached into all the world as a witness. (Matt. 24:14) This was fulfilled by the time the book of Colossians was written (c. A.D. 60):
"...The Gospel ...was proclaimed in all creation under heaven...." (Col. 1:23)
Then, at the end of redemptive history, a time of great tribulation and upheaval was to take place in order to test the faith of all who had heard the Gospel (i.e., the world). That time of tribulation and testing was centered in its intensity with the Jews, at Jerusalem, yet it was also worldwide and involved the gentiles. It was "about to" take place when the book of Revelation was written:
"Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth." (Rev. 3:10; cf. Matt. 24:7)
From the years A.D. 68-70, Jerusalem was locked in the raging fires of the Great Tribulation, and the nations of the world were in veritable chaos:
Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Preface, 2:
"Now at the time when this great concussion of affairs happened, the affairs of the Romans were themselves in great disorder. Those Jews also who were for revolution, then arose when the times were disturbed; they were also in a flourishing condition for strength and riches, insomuch that the affairs of the East were then exceeding tumultuous, while some hoped for gain, and others were afraid of loss in such troubles; for the Jews hoped that all of their nation which were beyond Euphrates would have raised an insurrection together with them. The Gauls also, in the neighborhood of the Romans, were in motion, and the Geltin were not quiet; but all was in disorder after the death of Nero [A. D. 68]."
When that time of testing was finished, God judged the world: The old-covenant world (which had accommodated human "righteous," and under which the gentiles had remained ignorant) was destroyed, and its shadows were fulfilled in the Body of Christ (Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 8:13). In other words, the temporal kingdom of the world became the eternal Kingdom of God and of His Christ (Rev. 11:15).
Those who had rejected the Gospel were no longer allowed entrance into the Kingdom (as were both Jews and gentiles under the old covenant, through circumcision). But those who had obeyed the Gospel inherited all things (I Cor. 3:21-23; Rev. 21:7), and were revealed to be the true sons of God (Rom. 8:19).
"The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear." (Matt. 13:41-43)
-From preterist Q&A