Why I'm Not a FULL Full Preterist
some thoughts on eschatology
Where I’ve Been
It’s 2025, which means I’ve been studying eschatology for ten years. I’ve written books, commentaries, and articles, created videos and podcasts, and have spoken at a dozen or so lectureships on eschatology since 2016. The position I’ve primarily defended since 2015 is full preterism, which is the belief that all Bible prophecy was fulfilled in the past. Specifically, I thought “all things written” were fulfilled no later than the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 as Luke 21:20-22 seems to say.
When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it, for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfillment of all that is written. Luke 21:20–22
If I’m being totally transparent, I was a perfect candidate to accept, teach, and defend full preterism.
In October of 2020, I wrote an article on what made me a perfect candidate. You can skim that here:
But there are factors that I didn’t consider back then, factors dealing with how I was taught to approach Scripture. Many of these reasons had to do with what the Bible is, how it was written, and how the Bible works.
Where I Am
And now here, 10 years later, I realize (and have for some time) that many of my assumptions about the Bible in 2015 are not the same assumptions I have now. I still have a very high view of the Bible, though I prefer to use the expression “Word of God” to refer to Jesus. I still believe in the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus and the miracles that Jesus did.
But I do believe, for instance, that there are “weightier” parts of the Law and that commandments can be ranked with some being “great” compared to others. The Bible, like the earth, is not flat. When I read the Scripture, I ask “WWJD?” and use the life and teachings of Christ as a litmus test to understand and determine the “weight” of the Scripture.
I see Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets. I believe that all of Scripture points to Jesus and that Scripture’s main role is to point to Jesus.
That being said, I believe the most logical explanation for all of the apocalyptic language in the New Testament is that it finds its fulfillment in the local (Jerusalem) and global (the Roman Empire) unrest that characterized the latter half of the first century, specifically during the reign of Nero and up until the fall of Jerusalem.
To me, the language of the destruction of the cosmos, the failing of celestial lights, and similar imagery of chaos and destruction throughout the New Testament makes the most sense if it is applied to those tumultuous years. The reason why this makes sense to me is because (1) it seems to line up with ways all the prophets talked about the fall of nations, (2) it is relevant to the lives and expectations of the church of the first century, and (3) it best fits the many claims within the New Testament that the eschatological program would be fulfilled within the lives of Jesus’s first disciples.
The big hiccup in all of this, though, is, and always has been, the resurrection. This is the question. You can find people across Christian denominations, both liberal and conservative, who understand many of the eschatological texts as referring to some event within the first century, most often the persecution of the church and the fall of Jerusalem, but the resurrection is almost universally seen as a future event.
The biggest pushback I have against FULL full preterism is the apparent lack of involvement of God in the world beyond the fall of Jerusalem. I pushback against the elimination of the Holy Spirit from being an active member of the Trinity. I pushback against the idea that God has no plan for the future for us and our world.
If God is Love, then a laissez faire approach to the kingdom of heaven makes no sense to me.
One way to frame it would be to ask, “Is this as good as it gets?”
Will there ever be an end to war, to violence, to poverty, to sickness, to hunger, or to all of the things that cause pain in the world? Is this all there is? The covenants have changed, Jerusalem has fallen, the prophets have been fulfilled, and we are left with division and confusion and unending violence as well as incompetency from the rulers of the world?
Where I Am Going
So what is the resurrection all about? While I get that some passages are about covenantal change (like 2 Corinthians 3) and other passages are about the individual believing in the words of Jesus and being resurrected from a grave of sin (like in John 5:24), I think there is so much more to the resurrection than a change in legal status for the “corporate body,” covenant community, and individuals within that community.
And I think this hangup is one I have with more than just discussions revolving around theories about the fulfilled resurrection.
I think it has to do with atonement and salvation and baptism and prayer and worship.
It’s a shift from a transactional view of religion to more of a relational view.
The atonement is far more than some divine legal maneuvering. It is an “at-one-ment,” a dramatic, radical reconciliation event that changes how we see everything—God, ourselves, and the world around us.
Salvation is also more than shifting around names between two ledgers; it’s a transformation of the entire self. It is a dispelling of a deep delusion that haunts everyone from faithful church goers to atheists, which is the idea that we are horrible, terrible, good-for-nothing pieces of garbage that God wants nothing more than to destroy forever. It is an awaking to the awesome truth that God actually does love and care for us. It is so much more than sin and forgiveness, but it includes that on some level.
Baptism is much more than either a transaction to earn salvation or a declaration that you are already saved. It is guerrilla theater. It is a radical declaration that you have died and risen again. It is an announcement to the empire and the forces of death that you renounce their ways and their false gospel. It is aligning yourself with a victim of the state in death and the King of kings in resurrection.
Prayer is not about giving God a shopping list; it is about reminding yourself everyday that you live in the presence of the Divine. It means living as if you actually have been resurrected. It means talking to your Dad, your Papa, your Abba. It means trusting that you are heard, adored, and sought after.
Worship is not a way to win God over or to keep God on your side. It is an outpouring of love and forgiveness and faith and doubt and desire and confusion and confidence and hope and peace and distress. These are the emotions found in the psalms, and these are the emotions that should saturate our worship, sometimes all at once. It is also all about relationship and resurrection and celebration.
So take Revelation 22 for instance. It’s a passage I talk about a lot.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:1–2
Just as the gates of the kingdom of heaven are never shut, the tree of life produces fruit all year long, and this fruit is for the healing of the nations.
What does this suggest? Is this not a promise that there is work to be done? That the good news of God is on the move? That healing through the gospel and the water of life, which is the Holy Spirit, is still available and needed now?
But what is healing if not resurrection?
And what is resurrection if not a new heavens and new earth?
This is why I cannot be a FULL full preterist. Eschatology isn’t about an end of everything; it’s about the beginning of everything. It’s about a new trajectory that started with John the Baptist and Jesus.
Why, then, is there evil in the world? Why is there still pain and suffering and war?
My honest opinion is that the church lost the plot. By forsaking our husband to marry the empire, we have postponed the radical transformation that can happen through the gospel.
We outsource the work of the church to the government, we hide behind our desks and keyboards engaged in continuous division and debate, and we watch people suffer while we debate theology.
And so I believe that the apocalyptic vision of Jesus was fulfilled, but I believe there is still a lot of healing that needs to be done. The end of Revelation 21-22 seems open ended. It is our past, but it is our present and our future.
It is our reality, but our perception is cloudy.
We need resurrection. We need healing. We need light and life and fruit and the Spirit.
God is not out of business. The Spirit is alive. Jesus is with us.
Love never fails.
When will we stop looking to the clouds and embrace the promises that are ours? When will we stop preaching death and doom and destruction and embrace the good news? When will we pick up a trash bag or buy loaves and fish or build a tiny home or pay a power bill or help someone fill out a job application or protest violence by preaching the good news of the kingdom? When will we become agents of healing?When will we say enough is enough? When will we participate with God in being ambassadors of a new creation?
And so I find myself moving into a both/and approach.
Do I see the apocalyptic vision as being fulfilled? Yes. But I also think we have a glorious future ahead of us if we accept the invitation and challenge of the Spirit to come, drink, and preach a message of healing.
To put this in another, perhaps more simple, way: if you show me a specific prophecy in Scripture, I believe I could show why the original audience would have had good reason to expect the fulfillment of that prophecy within their lifetimes , but if you show me all of Scripture (and the Word of God, Jesus), I am filled with a hopeful longing for the manifestation of the new creation in every corner of the world and for everyone.
Daniel, great read. I am fascinated by what you’ve laid out here and came to very similar conclusions myself recently.
Preterists can make the mistake of treating the Scriptures as an intellectual study that needs to be ‘worked out’ - yet the complete division between any 2 FPs shows just how far anyone is from doing that. We need to embrace there’s a whole lot more mystery in it.
When we spoke on my pod you spoke against the idea of Empire Christianity, which I agreed with at the time. But I’ve since become Catholic because the Catholic position perfectly synthesises all this near term fulfilment and establishment of something (a restored Davidic Kingdom), whilst allowing for both ongoing and future somewhat dual fulfilment. The challenge of all other positions is that you are forced to become entirely futurist on ecclesiology, because we await a future time when the church will actually work anything out.
Have you reconsidered this? Check Sean McMahon, another FP Catholic convert who has been doing lots of content on the intersection. John Bergsma’s work on Jesus as the Jubilee is also fascinating.
Cheers
Luke (What’s the Point Anyway)
well gods plan for the world has nothing to do with the israelites redemption story and the bible. the only reason anyone thinks that today is becuase thousands of years of illiterates misinterpreting the texts. it’s actually an insult to god to claim that the bible is relevant today because you’ve built a foundation on a pattern of lies.