Has Bible Prophecy Already Been Fulfilled?-Part 11

By: Dr. Thomas Ice; ©1999

Thomas Ice defines and defends “futurism” as the logical counterpoint to the preterist view he has been critiquing in this series of articles.

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Has Bible Prophecy Already Been Fulfilled? Part XI

In this installment in the series answering the challenges of Preterism I want to give a brief defense of Futurism. Futurism is the view that understands prophetic events like the rapture, the tribulation, the second coming and the millennium as future to the time in which we are now living. In fact, D. H. Kromminga notes that “preterist and the futurist methods, or approaches stand at opposite extremes.”^[1] Indeed they do! I believe that it can be dem­onstrated that futurism is the approach intended by God when He gave us His Word.

Literal Interpretation

Consistent literal interpretation of the Bible leads any interpreter who applies this ap­proach to the futurist understanding of prophecy. By “literal,” I mean a normal reading of the text that allows for figures of speech, the historical and contextual understanding of a passage. E. R. Craven explains:

The Literalist is not one who denies that figurative language, that symbols, are used in prophecy, nor does he deny that great spiritual truths are set forth therein; his position is, simply, that the prophecies are to be normally interpreted (i.e., according to the received laws of language) as any other utterances are interpreted— that which is manifestly literal being regarded as literal.^[2]

Preterists, on the other hand, while interpreting passages that appear to fit their scheme literally (i.e., Luke 21:20-24), overall tend to allegorize key texts (i.e., Matt. 24:29-31). Allegorization occurs when an interpreter brings into a text a meaning, based upon ideas, from outside the text. Thus, their interpretation cannot be supported from a normal reading of the words and phrases. A preterist example is seen when they make the word “coming” (i.e., Matt. 24:30; Rev. 1:7) to mean a non-physical, non-bodily event. This is done, not by demonstrating that “coming” must mean that from the context, but by importing foreign concepts from other sources into a given passage. This is not a valid form of interpretation. Further, E. W. Bullinger tells us in his book, which is the most extensive analysis of biblical figures of speech in English, that “Allegory is always stated in the past tense, and never in the future. Allegory is thus distinguished from prophecy. The allegory brings other teaching out of past events, while the prophecy tells us events that are yet to come, and means exactly what is said.”^[3]

A. J. Gordon, reporting on the views of a converted Jew named Joseph Rabinowitz wrote over 100 years ago the following:

Without a clear proclamation of the second advent, Christians have no common ground on which to meet the Jew; that to spiritualize this doctrine, as many do, is fatal, since the predictions are so clear of a glorious and conquering Messiah as well as a suffering Messiah. If you spiritualize the second advent, you must allow the Jew to spiritualize the first, as he is always ready to do, and you have no basis on which to reason with him.^[4]

Futurism is the natural outgrowth of the consistent literal interpretation of Scripture. This is the accepted approach to hermeneutics by all orthodox interpreters, except when some come to Bible prophecy. Thus, literal or natural interpretation is a support for futurism.

God’s Prophetic Road Map

Deuteronomy provides a prophetic road map covering the whole of history before Israel started down the road about 3400 years ago. As the nation of Israel sat perched on the banks of the Jordan River, before she ever set one foot upon the Promised Land, the Lord gave an outline of her entire history through His mouthpiece Moses. Deuteronomy is this revelation and it is like a road map for where history is headed before the trip got under­way. While different segments of the historical journey have been updated with more de­tails being added along the way, not a single adjustment from the earlier course has ever been made.

In the process of Moses’ exhortation to the nation of Israel, he provides in Deuteronomy 4:25-31 an outline of what will happen to this elect nation once they cross over the Jordan River and settle the promised land. A summary of these events would be as follows:

1. Israel and her descendants would remain long in the land.
2. Israel would act corruptly and slip into idolatry.
3. Israel would be kicked out of the land.
4. The LORD will scatter them among the nations.
5. Israel would be given over to idolatry during their wanderings.
6. While dispersed among the nations, Israel would seek and find the LORD when they search for Him with all their heart.
7. There would come a time of tribulation, said to occur in the latter days, during which time they would turn to the LORD
8. “For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them” (Deuteronomy 4:31).

If the first five events have happened to Israel—and no evangelical interpreter would deny that they have—then it is clear from the text that the final events will also occur to the same people in the same way as the earlier events. This is most clear from the context. The Bible does not “change horses in midstream” so that suddenly Israel, who has re­ceived the curses, is dropped out of the picture and the church takes over and receives the blessings. Despite various systems of the theology, the Bible nowhere teaches that God has forsaken Israel (cf. Rom. 11:1). Any reader of the text will have to admit that the same identity is referred to throughout the whole of the text under examination. If it is true that the same Israel is meant throughout the text, then the last three events have yet to be fulfilled for Israel in the same historical way in which the first five events are recognized by all to have taken place. Thus, a fulfillment of the final three events in the life of Israel will have to happen in the future. This passage in Deuteronomy 4 pictures a return to the Lord after Tribulation, not judgment. This means that a futurist view of prophecy is supported from this early passage and throughout the rest of Scripture.

As significant as Deuteronomy 4 is in establishing the prophetic history of God’s elect people, an expanded narrative of Israel’s future history is provided in Deuteronomy 28—32. “The last seven chapters of Deuteronomy (28–34),” says David Larsen, “are really the matrix out of which the great prophecies of the Old Testament regarding Israel emerge.”^[5] Dr. Larsen provides the following breakdown of Israel’s future history:

26:3–13; 28:1–14	The conditions of blessing to follow obedience
31:16–21	The coming apostasy
28:15–60	The affliction that God would bring upon Israel, while still in the land, because of her apostasy
28:32–39, 48–57	Israel will be taken captive
27; 32	The enemies of Israel will possess her land for a time
28:38–42; 29:23	The land itself will remain desolate
28:63–67; 32:26	Israel will be scattered among the nations
28:62	The time will come when Israel will be “few in number”
28:44–45	Though punished, Israel will not be destroyed if she repents
28:40–41; 30:1–2	Israel will repent in her tribulation
30:3–10	Israel will be gathered from the nations and brought back to her divinely given land [6]

The final few events summarized above by Dr. Larsen certainly did not take place during the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem, nor at any time in history yet past. It appears to be shaping up that while the A.D. 70 incident was indeed a prophesied event, the remaining items in Israel’s prophetic roadmap have not yet been fulfilled. What is sad about the preterist interpretation is that it recognizes the curses upon Israel, but not the future bless­ings that God has also promised. Preterism says that Israel gets the curses but the church gets Israel’s blessings. That’s not what the Bible says. And in order for the blessings for Israel to literally occur, just as the past and present curses have occurred literally, they must take place in the future. Dr. Harton concludes: “Inasmuch as Deuteronomy 28-30 is merely a restatement and amplification of this same promise in Deuteronomy 4, it may be concluded that Deuteronomy 28:15-68 will have an eschatological fulfillment.”^[7]

Deuteronomy 28 as Prophecy

After having enumerated the relatively short list of blessings that God would bestow upon Israel in the land (Deut. 28:1–14), Moses commences to enumerate the much longer list of curses that God will inflict upon His people when they would inevitably disobey (vv. 28:15–68). The Lord would start inflicting the nation with mild curses at the inception of disobedience and gradually turn up the heat as insubordination persisted. The most severe chastisement the Lord would inflict upon His wayward people would be expulsion from their land mediated through the agency of a foreign invader (vv. 49–68). The Lord’s logic is something along the line that if Israel did not want to obediently serve Him in their own land then they could go and serve other gods outside the land (vv. 47–48).

Interestingly, verses 49–68 record two specific instances of removal from the land. The first reference is clearly to the Babylonian captivity, which took place in the sixth century B.C. (vv. 49–57). For example, verse 49 speaks of “a nation” that the Lord would bring against Israel in judgment. This is followed by a second statement of dispersion (v. 64)

which says, “Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth.” This was undoubtedly fulfilled by the Romans when they destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Luke 21:24, which speaks of the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem, says that the Jewish people “will be led captive into all the nations;” a statement which reflects the language of Deuteronomy 28:64. Thus, we see two different instances of the judgment of God’s covenantal curse being worked out in history. But neither of them means that predictions of future prophecy have already been fulfilled.

We have seen thus far, from our prophetic road map, that Deuteronomy 28 has pre­dicted two different instances when the ultimate covenant curse of expulsion from the land will be applied to national Israel. However, we have also noted that Deuteronomy 28—30 indicates that some future events will come after Israel has been regathered back into the land and Jerusalem; then God will bring to pass the tribulation. Thus, since the second covenantal dispersion in A.D. 70 by the Romans led to Israel’s scattering among the na­tions, then that could not have been the tribulation which is to take place after a regather­ing. This would make the tribulation and other prophesied events to still be future events.

Conclusion

If we could take the time to study the rest of the Old Testament we would find that it is an expansion, consistent with the early prophetic roadmap, of God’s prophetic plan. Doz­ens of passages predict a glorious future for Israel. If these texts are taken literally and historically then they have to have a future fulfillment. Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse and in the Revelation, in concert with the Old Testament also expands upon, but is consistent with, that prophetic roadmap begun in Deuteronomy. Our Lord predicts a literal and thus future time of glory and blessing for Israel. Unless one just arbitrarily imports the theology of the church replacing Israel into many key texts, it is clear that hundreds of prophecies still speak of a literal and thus future fulfillment. I think it becomes clear that futurism is the only approach that makes sense of the Bible and its prophesies. While the Bible speaks of a wonderful past, we cannot hide the fact that the best is yet to come! Maranatha!

Notes

1. ↑ D. H. Kromminga, The Millennium in the Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1945), p. 295.
2. ↑ E. R. Craven, in J. P. Lange ed., Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Revelation, reprint ed., Vol. 12. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, [1982] 1960), p. 98.
3. ↑ Ethelbert W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in The Bible: Explained and Illustrated (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1968), p. 749.
4. ↑ A. J. Gordon, “Three Weeks with Joseph Rabinowitz” in A. C. Gaebelein, “Hath God Cast Away His People?” (New York: Gospel Publishing House, 1905), p. 277.
5. ↑ David Larsen, Jews, Gentiles, & The Church (Grand Rapids: Discovery House Publish­ers, 1995), p. 23.
6. ↑ Larsen, Jews,…, pp. 23-24.
7. ↑ George M. Harton, “Fulfillment of Deuteronomy 28-30 in History and in Eschatology,” Th.D. Dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, August 1981, p. 233.

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