QUESTION A Hyper-Preterist wrote. "The issue of the second coming is most clearly settled by LUKE 17:20-25 because the pharisees asked him WHEN the kingdom of God would come. The first point Jesus wanted to make was that the kingdom of God comes NOT WITH OBSERVATION. This means NO EARTHLY KINGDOM, Like many today the Pharisses had a LITERAL mindset. People will remain in darkness Until they ABANDON this literal mindset. (Note: This guy is arguing for the kingdom coming in 70AD??? A literal mindset???) Being truly born again will allow us to see SPIRITUALLY that the "kingdom of God is within you" Then in verse 25 he gave us the TIMING "BUT FIRST he must suffer many thangs and be rejected by THIS GENERATION" There is NO WAY you can take this out of the first century (Note: Would this not fall under a literal mindset he just finished arguing about? He is arguing for the timing of the kingdom as a post 70AD kingdom. This view results in a invisible kingdom that comes in history so I guess this makes it a temporal but invisible earthly kingdom.), because "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many" Heb 9:28; Ps 95:10 tells us 40 years = THIS generation. So simple math gives us the time formula. 30=40=70. You can't argue with this math. IT IS IRREFUTABLE. (Note: This is an example of arrogance. I'm am right and you can argue with anything I say.) Also The book of Revelation had explicit time parameters in 1:1 these things must SHORTLY come to pass" 22:10 SEAL NOT the words of this book for the time is AT HAND. We cannot prolong these time statements or else we risk provoke the WRATH of God like the ancient people of Israel did in Ezekiel. Futurism Bible Prophecy and the IMAGINARY SATAN need to be eliminated from this world so we can start to fight the evildoers. Then we can have peace in this world recognizing that the kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU."
ANSWER "I agree that the kingdom is within and does not come with observation. This clearly rules out AD70, because we weren't alive then for it to come within us then, and also what happened in AD70 was observable by to the whole Roman Empire and beyond.
According to the Bible, the kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.. "from everlasting to everlasting." To try to make it an earthly kingdom -- whether through Dispensationalist teaching or Preterist teaching -- is just a major error.
When Jesus says "the kingdom is at hand" He is not saying "the kingdom will come in 40 years." Rather, He is saying that "the kingdom is within reach." It is 'near' it is 'at hand' it is 'immanent' -- as opposed to "coming chronologically." An example of this is Mark 12:34, where Jesus said: "thou art not far from the kingdom of God." Now, did He mean: A) That this person was chronologically closer to AD70 than others. B) That this person was personally closer to the kingdom than others
So, to answer your question. The kingdom comes to different people at different times. It certainly did not come to you or I in AD70 did it? It came to me in 1979. I understand that you feel secure in your Preterist beliefs. I did too for a number of years. But that was before the typological nature of that 40 years really sunk in. Israel was a visible schoolmaster pointing to invisible things. We mustn't call the shadow the substance. What was true of them in an external sense is a picture - a type - a shadow - a representation - of what it true for everyone else in an internal sense. It is quite common that God uses visible things to represent the invisible.
And so, likewise, even today, if people will hear his voice, and not harden their hearts AS IN the day of temptation for Israel, they will likewise be able to enter into His rest. If not, however, they will find their tabernacles desolated, just as Israel did in AD70."
