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experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world (1 Peter
5:8-9). Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give
the devil an opportunity (Ephesians 4:26-27). For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness,
against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly place (Ephesians 6:12). These are
instructions which are the very tactics to be applied by the believer in this present age
because we are not yet in the New Heavens and New Earth. If Satan is bound and
crushed, as the preterist interpretation insists, then they are unfaithful to their
understanding of Scripture to apply the above passages to the Christian life today, as
they so often do. A crushed and bound enemy does not prowl, or wage war, etc. This
becomes crystal clear when one realizes that Satan resumes his war with God only after
he has been released from his prison (Revelation 20:7b).
Similar thinking could, even should, be applied from the implications of preterism
to many passages and subjects in the Christian life. Just think. No more suffering. If no
suffering, then no need for endurance. No need for the sanctification process which
involves suffering, endurance, faith and hope. No hope, because Christ returned in A.D.
70 and ushered in a new day. No apostasy of the church. No pain, suffering, or death.
Therefore, since we are obviously not living under such conditions it means that
preterism is also wrong.
The Sufferings Of This Present Time
The New Heavens and New Earth is to be a time of peace and rest for God s people.
The era preceding this time will be one of suffering and struggle. Again, if the preterist
interpretation is correct, then the instruction of the NT Epistles on the issue of suffering
only directly applied to believers until A.D. 70, because we would now be in the time of
peace, not the sufferings of this present time spoken of by Paul (Rom. 8:18).
Endurance of unjust suffering is a major theme in the Epistles. In fact, the NT paints
it as one of the major ingredients which God brings into our life to produce Christ-like
character in His children (Heb. 12:1-17). Peter notes, For this [unjust suffering] finds
favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering
unjustly. . . . But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds
favor with God (1 Pet. 2:19-20). Revelation promises a future reward of co-rulership
with Christ to believers who have remained faithful and loyal to Christ during this
present age of humiliation (Rev. 3:21; see also 2:25-28). Revelation 3:21 not only
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promises future rule with Christ after this current age of humiliation, but notice it also
makes a distinction between Christ s future kingdom and the Father s current rule. He
who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and
sat down with My Father on His throne. These passage do not make sense and certainly
would no apply to today if we are in the New Heavens and New Earth of the preterists.
Present and Future Apostasy?
If preterism is true, says Gary North, then most of the prophesied negative
sanctions in history are over 108 I would say, if futurism is true, then great apostasy lies
ahead. Does the current church age become increasingly apostate concluding with the
Great Apostasy during the Tribulation, or were the scores of passages speaking about
apostasy fulfilled in A.D. 70, as preterism demands? The Great Apostasy happened in
the first century. We therefore have no Biblical warrant to expect increasing apostasy as
history progresses; instead, we should expect the increasing Christianization of the
world, 109 declares preterist David Chilton.
This is another area where large sections of the NT, especially the Epistles and
Revelation, would have to be adjusted away from the meaning Christians have
historically seen in those passages. An example of this is seen in how the different
approaches would handle Paul s warning in 2 Timothy 3. Paul begins by saying that
in the last days difficult times will come (3:1). The last days likely refers to the whole
of the current Church age, or perhaps it is a general reference to the final portion of the
current Church age. Either way, it is a reference to the period of time before the final
phase of history which preterists say we are not in. Paul goes on to describe how these
times will be characterized by men who will be lovers of self, . . . (3:2) rather than lovers
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