Almost all Christians agree that five key prophetic Bible passages refer to the same events: Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, Zechariah 14, and much of the Book of Revelation.

Futurism is the view of most (but not all) genuine Christians, that these end-time passages have their ultimate fulfillment in the future. Some variations:

However, all futurists agree these are all events which will be ultimately fulfilled in the future

Full preterism is an extremely strange view that everything in the entire Book of Revelation was fulfilled prior to 70 A.D., including a symbolic rapture of the saints, the Antichrist, Babylon in Revelation etc. This is so far from the truth that very few believe it.

Partial preterists are genuine Christian amillennialists who agree that full preterism is not viable. However, they still believe that all the prophecies in Matthew 24:1-34, Mark 13:1-30, Luke 21:17-32 and some of the prophecies in Revelation were fulfilled by 70 A.D., Amazingly, they also believe Jesus returned in 70 A.D.! R.C. Sproul, Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. teach this.

The rest of this paper summarizes why they believe this, and why they are incorrect. But first, let’s summarize what the relevant scriptures say.

Futurists, full preterists, and partial preterists agree that these scriptures refer to the same set of events.

Partial preterists believe all these events happened before 70 A.D., because of three Bible verses. In Mt 24:34; Mk 13:30; and Lk 21:32 Jesus said that this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened.

In not accepting futurist interpretations of these verses, yet holding to the truthfulness of scripture, partial preterists have to believe all these things were fulfilled in "this generation", that is approximately forty years from the time they were spoken. Supporting their view is that Roman armies came starting in 67 A.D., and Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. Telling believers to leave the well-fortified city of Jerusalem and flee to the mountains when they saw armies approaching turned out to be life-saving advice.

Book of Revelation had to be written before 70 A.D. according to R.C. Sproul. Otherwise there there is no point in prophesying events that occurred in the past.

The Great Tribulation is already over. Christians should not be concerned about this past event in Israel and the Roman Empire.

There is no millennium on earth. All partial preterists are amillenialists, but all amillenialists are not necessarily partial preterists. This means that the millennium is going on now in heaven, the serpent is bound and cast into the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:2-4) and we can rejoice that the nations are not being deceived anymore until the serpent is released.

There is at most a small gap, less than a generation, between the 69th and 70th week of Dan 9:24-27.

Metaphors include clouds for historical divine judgments on nations. "All the nations of the earth" means "all the nations of the land [of Israel]" On Luke 21:25-28 preterists use "massive doses of symbolic interpretation" according to Thomas Ice (p.97).

The sun and heavenly bodies being darkened did not physically occur. This is just a metaphor for great and catastrophic events that would occur.

All the tribes/people all saw the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30b; Mark 13:26). Christ returned to or near the earth in 70 A.D. to use the Roman armies to execute judgment on Jerusalem. Christ’s return was invisible, yet all the peoples saw Him. Honestly, I am not too clear on how this works for them though.

The Greek word here means "this" or secondarily "that", but is this the generation of 30 A.D. or the generation that sees the start of the fulfillment of the prophecy? A minority view among futurists is that these passages say it is approximately forty years from the start of the fulfillment of the first parts of the prophecy. The NIV Study Bible on Mark 13:30 p.1521 mentions this view among others.

Generation (people living at the same time or in a 40-year period) is often the best translation of genea. It can mean nothing but "generation" in 19 places in the New Testament.

However, all should agree that genea cannot mean generation in two places: Acts 8:33 (descendants / offspring / race) and Luke 16:8 (kind of people). R.C. Sproul in his tape agrees that this meaning is a possibility in the end-time passages, though he says the primary meaning of generation is to be preferred.

In 24 places genea can mean generation, descendants, or kind of people, or all the above. For example, in Mark 8:12 Jesus said no sign shall be given to this generation. Was Jesus really referring to all his disciples, the 70, all early Christians, the crowds who were fed, who lived at this time? Or, was he referring to the unbelieving kind of people who lived at this time?

Outside of the Bible, the two Greek lexicons at the end show that it has the same range of meaning, and also means a "birth" (Herodotus 3:33; Zenophon, "men of the same stock", and a "family" (as early as Homer).

Rather than thinking genea has three meanings, to a Greek it had only one meaning: the same kind. It had three aspects; primarily "latitudinal" (generation), "longitudinal" (family/descendants), and "type" (metaphorically as spiritual siblings/descendants).

Some futurists can see parts of these end-time passages having dual fulfillment, with the fulfillment of all the prophecies including Christ’s return awaiting the future. Perhaps genea was the perfect choice of word to use here because it conveyed both immediate attention and allowed longer term aspects.

As a "red-herring", a one-letter manuscript change from genea to gonea gives the primary meaning of race. The earliest manuscripts that contain these three verses are Vaticanus (325-250 A.D.), Sinaiticus (340-350 A.D.). No early extra-biblical writings referred to these verses except Tatian’s Diatessaron harmony (written c.170 A.D.). However no manuscripts have the word gonea, and it is difficult to envision genea as the same manuscript error in all three synoptic gospels plus the Diatessaron.

Conclusion: The sole reason for preterists believing that Jesus already returned with great power and glory in 70 A.D.., is a rejection that genea can have a broader meaning in these three verses than just the generation of Jesus’ time.

Thomas Ice and Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. The Great Tribulation : Past or Future? : Two Evangelicals Debate the Question. Kregel Publications 1999.

Moulton, J.H. and G. Milligan. Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament. Hendrickson Publishers 1930. p.122.

Thayer, J.H. (translator and reviser) A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament. (20th printing) Zondervan 1979. (p.112).