C. H. Spurgeon (1834- 1892) High Praise for "The Parousia" | Spiritual Resurrection | Old Testament Saints: Members of the Church | Commenting on Commentaries | On Death, Dr. Owen | Christ Crucified | Christ the End of the Law | Day of Atonement, The | Death of Christ, The | Election no Discouragement to Seeking Souls | Expiation | Exposition of the Doctrines of Grace

"The destruction of Jerusalem was more terrible than anything that the world has ever witnessed, either before or since. Even Titus seemed to see in his cruel work the hand of an avenging God"
 

• 1/24/12: Beggars All: Reformation And Apologetics: Charles Spurgeon, Full-Preterism, and Figurative Language "I would take a guess this quote was taken from the Preterist Archive: C.H. Spurgeon. Those involved with Preterism appear to look for anything written by anybody in regard to A.D. 70 and the fall of Jerusalem (simply skim through the pages at the Preterist Archive). The Preterist Archive (now partial preterist) takes this quote without explaining the context." (First posted the quote in its entirety in 1997. Also, the native theology at PreteristArchive.com is Idealist.)

• Israel and Britain: A Note of Warning (1885) "They went so far as to crucify him, and cried as they did so, "His blood be on us, and our children," words so sadly verified when Jerusalem was destroyed, and her children slaughtered, sold as slaves, or scattered to the four corners of the earth. It was indeed, a terrible blindness which happened unto Israel. But although this blindness was a punishment for former sin, it was itself a sin. They willfully rejected the testimony of God against themselves; they refused the self-evident Christ who would so greatly have blessed them. This wilful rejection was carried out so effectually that it became impossible to convert and heal them; they could not be instructed, or reformed, and therefore they were given over to destruction. Nothing remained but to allow the Romans to burn the temple and plough the site of the city. It was a dreadful thing that they should deliberately choose destruction, and obstinately involve themselves in the most tremendous of woes. Poor Israel, we pity thee! It was sad indeed to fall from so great a height! Yet we are bound to admit that God dealt with thee justly, for thou didst choose thine own delusions. The Lord cries, "Oh that my people had harkened unto me."

• Spurgeon's End Times Words of Wisdom - "Here are a few jots and tittles on His views on the end times. Here be some good and sane common sense! I find myself saying amen to many of these sentiments. Maybe he did over react a little to the ‘prophecy-extremes‘ in his day, and we could clearly do the same if we are not careful (I also reacted to prophetic extremes by believing preterism for a season)."

  • "I conceive that among religious people of a certain sort, the abortive explanations of prophecy issued by certain doctors gratify a craving, which in irreligious people finds its foods in novels and romances."

  • "Guess not at the precise era for the destruction of Antichrist; go and destroy it yourself, fighting against it every day. But be looking forward and hastening unto the coming of the Son of Man, and let this be at once your comfort and excitement to diligence, that the Savior will soon come from Heaven."

  • "Those who kiss not the sceptre of silver, shall be broken with the rod of iron. They who will not have Christ to reign over them in love, shall have him rule over them in terror in the day when he puts on the garments of vengeance, and dyes his vesture in the blood of his foes. O acknowledge him as he is covered with his own blood, lest you have to acknowledge him when he is covered with yours!"

(On the Increase of His Government - Isa 9:7)
"It would be easy to show that at our present rate of progress the kingdoms of this world never could become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. Indeed, many in the Church are giving up the idea of it except on the occasion of the advent of Christ, which, as it chimes in with our own idleness, is likely to be a popular doctrine. I myself believe that King Jesus will reign, and the idols be utterly abolished; but I expect the same power which turned the world upside down once will still continue to do it. The Holy Ghost would never suffer the imputation to rest upon His holy name that He was not able to convert the world."
(Taken from jacket of Paradise Restored)

(On the book, The Parousia)
"The second coming of Christ according to this volume had its fulfilment in the destruction of Jerusalem and the establishment of the gospel dispensation... Amidst the many comings of Christ spoken of in the New Testament that which is spoken of as a second, must, we think, be personal, and thus similar to the first; and such too must be the meaning of 'his appearing.' Though the author's theory is carried too far, it has so much of truth in it, and throws so much new light upon obscure portions of the Scriptures, and is accompanied with so much critical research and close reasoning, that it can be injurious to none and may be profitable to all." [Reprinted from the October 1878 issue of The Sword and the Trowel Magazine]

"carefully read through the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, and you will find nothing about the siege of Jerusalem there.  Yet, this is the interpretation that finds favor at present." (When Christ Returns, p. 11)

(On the Significance of A.D.70; Matthew 24:34)
"The destruction of Jerusalem was more terrible than anything that the world has ever witnessed, either before or since. Even Titus seemed to see in his cruel work the hand of an avenging God. (Commentary on Matthew, p. 412)

Truly, the blood of the martyrs slain in Jerusalem was amply avenged when the whole city became a veritable Aceldama, or field of blood... It was before that generation had passed away that Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed. There was a sufficient interval for the full proclamation of the gospel by the apostles and evangelists of the early Christian Church, and for the gathering out of those who recognized the crucified Christ as their true Messiah. Then came the awful end, which the Saviour foresaw and foretold, and the prospect of which wrung from his lips and heart the sorrowful lament that followed his prophecy of the doom awaiting his guilty capital... Nothing remained for the King but to pronounce the solemn sentence of death upon those who would not come unto him that they might have life: "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." The whole "house" of the Jews was left desolate when Jesus departed from them; and the temple, the holy and beautiful "house", became a spiritual desolation when Christ finally left is. Jerusalem was too far gone to be rescued from its self-sought doom." (Commentary on Matthew, p. 412,413)

"The King left his followers in no doubt as to when these things should happen: "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." It was just about the ordinary limit of a generation when the Roman armies compassed Jerusalem, whose measure of iniquity was then full, and overflowed in misery, agony, distress, and bloodshed such as the world never saw before or since. Jesus was a true Prophet; everything that he foretold was literally fulfilled." (The Gospel of the Kingdom, p.218)

(On Forty Years and That Generation)
The Kingly Prophet foretold the time of the end: "Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation." It was before that generation had passed away that Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed. There was a sufficient interval for the full proclamation of the gospel by the apostles and evangelists of the early Christian Church, and for the gathering out of those who recognized the crucified Christ as their true Messiah. Then came the awful end, which the Savior foresaw and foretold, and the prospect of which wrung from his lips and heart the sorrowful lament that followed his prophecy of the doom awaiting his guilty capital." (in loc.)

(On Matthew 16:28)
"If a child were to read this passage I know what he would think it meant: he would suppose Jesus Christ was to come, and there were some standing there who should not taste death until really and literally he did come.  This, I believe, is the plain meaning...  The third (interpretative possibility) still holds its ground and is currently received, though I believe it to be quite as far from the Truth of God as the others. Will you carefully read the chapter through at your leisure and see if you can find anything about the siege of Jerusalem in it? Yet this is the interpretation that finds favor at the present time!" ("An Awful Premonition" in 12 Sermons on the Second Coming of Christ - Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1976, 5)

(On Matthew 24:2)
"To them the appearance was glorious; but to their Lord it was a sad sight. His Father’s house, which ought to have been a house of prayer for all nations, had became a den of thieves, and soon would be utterly destroyed: Jesus said unto them, "See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Josephus tells us that Titus at first tried to save the temple, even after it was set on fire, but his efforts were of no avail; and at last he gave orders that the whole city and temple should be levelled, except a small portion reserved for the garrison. This was so thoroughly done that the historian says that "there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited."

(On Matthew 24:4)
"They were to beware lest any of the pretended Messiahs should lead them astray, as they would pervert many others. A large number of impostors came forward before the destruction of Jerusalem, giving out that they were the anointed of God"

(On Matthew 24:15-21 , the Abomination of Desolation)
"This portion of our Saviour's words appears to relate solely to the destruction of Jerusalem. As soon as Christ's disciples saw "the abomination of desolation," that is, the Roman ensigns, with their idolatries, "stand in the holy place," they knew that the time for their escape had arrived; and they did flee to the mountains." (Matthew: The Gospel of the Kingdom. . p. 215.)

(On Matthew 24:16)
"The Christians in Jerusalem and the surrounding towns and villages, "in Judea ", availed themselves of the first opportunity for eluding the Roman armies, and fled to the mountain city of Pella, in Perea, where they were preserved from the general destruction which overthrew the Jews. There was no time to spare before the final investment of the guilty city; the man "on the house-top" could "not come down to take anything out of his house", and the man "in the field" could not "return back, to take his clothes." They must flee to the mountains in the greatest haste the moment that they saw "Jerusalem compassed with armies "(Luke 21:20)."

(On Matthew 24:17)
"Then shall the end come." Before Jerusalem was destroyed, "this gospel of the kingdom." was probably "preached in all the world" so far as it was then known.."

(On Matthew 24:21)
"For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." Read the record written by Josephus of the destruction of Jerusalem, and see how truly our Lord’s words were fulfilled. The Jews impiously said, concerning the death of Christ, "His blood be on us, and on our children." Never did any other people invoke such an awlful curse upon themselves, and upon no other nation did such a judgment ever fall. We read of Jews crucified till there was no more wood for making crosses; of thousands of the people slaying one another in their fierce faction fights within the city; of so many of them being sold for slaves that they became a drug in the market, and all but valueless; and of the fearful carnage when the Romans at length entered the doomed capital; and the blood-curdling story exactly bears out the Savior’s statement uttered nearly forty years before the terrible events occurred."

"The destruction of Jerusalem was more terrible than anything that the world has ever witnessed, either before or since. Even Titus seemed to see in his cruel work the hand of an avenging God. (Commentary on Matthew, p. 412)

"Truly, the blood of the martyrs slain in Jerusalem was amply avenged when the whole city became veritable Aceldama, or field of blood." (Commentary on Matthew, p. 412,413)

(On Matthew 24:29)
"Our Lord appears to have purposely mingled the prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and his own second coming, so that there should be nothing in his words to satisfy idle curiosity, " (Matthew: The Gospel of the Kingdom. p. 217)

(On Matthew 24:32-33)
"Our Lord here evidently returns to often made use of its illuminated the subject of the destruction of Jerusalem, and in these words gives his apostles warning concerning the signs of the times. He had recently used the barren fig tree as an object-lesson; he now bids his disciples "learn a parable of the fig tree" and all the trees (Luke 21:31). God’s great book of nature is full of illustrations for those who have eyes to perceive them; and the Lord Jesus, the great Creator, often made use of its illuminated pages in conveying instruction to the minds of his hearers. On this occasion, he used a simple simile from the parable of the fig-tree: "When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh." They could not mistake so plain a token of the near return of summer; and Jesus would have them read quite as quickly the signs that were to herald the coming judgment on Jerusalem: "So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." The Revised Version has the words, "Know ye that he is nigh," the Son of man, the King. His own nation rejected him when he came in mercy; so his next coming would be a time of terrible judgment and retribution to his guilty capital. Oh, that Jews and Gentiles today were wise enough to learn the lesson of that fiery trial, and to seek his face, those wrath they cannot bear!"

(On Matthew 22:7)
"In these terrible words, the siege of Jerusalem, the massacre of the people, and the destruction of their capital are all described. "When the king heard thereof, he was wroth. The King had reached the utmost limit of his forbearance and long-suffering patience. "The cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath" overflowed when he heard how his servants had been maltreated and slain; and: he sent forth his armies. The Roman emperor thought that he was sending his armies against the Jews; but he was, unconsciously, working out the eternal purposes of the most High God, even as the kings of Assyria and Babylon had been, in the olden time, the instruments by which the Lord had punished his rebellious people (see Isaiah 10:5, Jeremiah 25:9).

"The cruel executioners did their terrible work in the most thorough manner. Read Josephus, and see how the Romans destroyed: those murderers, and burned up their city. The words are remarkable in their awful force and accuracy. Only Omniscience could foresee and foretell so fully and faithfully the woes that were to befall the murderers and their city."

(On The 'Millennial Reign' of Christ)
"Those who wish to see the arguments upon the unpopular side of the great question at issue, will find them here; this is probably one of the ablest of the accessible treatises from that point of view. We cannot agree with Mr. Young, neither can we refute him. It might tax the ingenuity of the ablest prophetical writers to solve all the difficulties here started, and perhaps it would be unprofitable to attempt the task. . . (review of Short Arguments about the Millennium; or plain proofs for plain Christians that the coming of Christ will not be pre-millennial; that his reign will not be personal, B. C. Young. In The Sword and Trowel 1:470 (October 1867).

(On the "Israel of God")
"Difference of dispensation does not involve a difference of covenant; and it is according to the covenant of grace that all spiritual blessings are bestowed. So far as dispensations reach they indicate degrees of knowledge, degrees of privilege, and variety in the ordinances of worship. The unity of the faith is not affected by these, as we are taught in the eleventh chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. The faithful of every age concur in looking for that one city, and that city is identically the same with the New Jerusalem described in the Apocalypse as "a bride adorned for her husband."(Spurgeon, "There be some that Trouble You," in The Sword and Trowel, (March 1867), 120.)

(On Luke 21:28-31)
"But all that time, —the most awful time, perhaps that any nation ever endured,— the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ were altogether unharmed. It is recorded that they fled to the little city of Pella, were quiet according to their Lord's command, and that not a hair on their head perished." (Joyful Anticipation of the Second Advent, 42:603.)

(On the New Heavens and Earth)
"Did you ever regret the absence of the burnt-offering, or the red heifer, of any one of the sacrifices and rites of the Jews? Did you ever pine for the feast of tabernacle, or the dedication? No, because, though these were like the old heavens and earth to the Jewish believers, they have passed away, and we now live under a new heavens and a new earth, so far as the dispensation of divine teaching is concerned. The substance is come, and the shadow has gone: and we do not remember it." (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. xxxvii, p. 354).

(On Revelation 21:2)
"And there was no more sea." --Revelation 21:1
Scarcely could we rejoice at the thought of losing the glorious old ocean: the new heavens and the new earth are none the fairer to our imagination, if, indeed, literally there is to be no great and wide sea, with its gleaming waves and shelly shores. Is not the text to be read as a metaphor, tinged with the prejudice with which the Oriental mind universally regarded the sea in the olden times? A real physical world without a sea it is mournful to imagine, it would be an iron ring without the sapphire which made it precious. There must be a spiritual meaning here. In the new dispensation there will be no division--the sea separates nations and sunders peoples from each other. To John in Patmos the deep waters were like prison walls, shutting him out from his brethren and his work: there shall be no such barriers in the world to come. Leagues of rolling billows lie between us and many a kinsman whom to-night we prayerfully remember, but in the bright world to which we go there shall be unbroken fellowship for all the redeemed family. In this sense there shall be no more sea. The sea is the emblem of change; with its ebbs and flows, its glassy smoothness and its mountainous billows, its gentle murmurs and its tumultuous roarings, it is never long the same. Slave of the fickle winds and the changeful moon, its instability is proverbial. In this mortal state we have too much of this; earth is constant only in her inconstancy, but in the heavenly state all mournful change shall be unknown, and with it all fear of _storm_ to wreck our hopes and drown our joys. The sea of glass glows with a glory unbroken by a wave. No tempest howls along the peaceful shores of paradise. Soon shall we reach that happy land where partings, and changes, and storms shall be ended! Jesus will waft us there. Are we in Him or not? This is the grand question."

Date: 30 Nov 2006
Time: 13:23:54

Comments:

I think that this is a dangerous false teaching. I say this for two reasons. First, it has been the inspiration for anti-Semitic pogroms against the Jewish people since the early days of Christianity. Two thousand years of anti-Semitism in the name of Christ has not endeared the Jewish people to this idea that Jesus is the promised Messiah. It is the branches boasting against the root and that is clearly warned against by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11:18.

Secondly, God's everlasting promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and His pledge of fidelity to the children of Israel cannot be disregarded anymore than His promises to the body of believers, the Church (Jews and Gentiles who have been made one in Christ) can be abrogated. If God can change His mind where the Jewish people are concerned, than He can also change His mind about the Church.

You do a disservice to the gospel by excluding the Jewish people and the instructions of Romans 1:16. Heaping condemnation upon them as if the rejection of Jesus by their spiritual leaders dooms the entire race of people to some sort of unpardonable sin lacks credibility. It is in fact more odious than just leaving the lost sheep of the House of Israel out of evangelistic outreaches; it destroys Jewish people spiritually by negating God's promises to them. Even the New Covenant is clearly established with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, Jer. 31:31-37; Rom. 9:4-5 (if Israel is the Church, who then is Judah?).

I remind you that the rejection of the leadership of Israel of their own Messiah was clearly prophesied and that Acts 4:27 and Rom. 11:28-32 declares this to be part of God’s divine plan for the redemption of mankind, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. Any attempt to see Romans 1:16 as past tense only serves to support my original premise that preterism does not correctly divide the Word of truth. If it was to the Jew first it must still be to the Jew first, lest it not be the power of God unto salvation unto all that believe.

“I ask then: Did God reject His people? By no means!” Rom. 11:1. When someone fails to rightly divide the Word of truth, it becomes evident that false teaching leads to false conclusions. The Second Coming is the final fulfillment of the New Covenant promises to the Jewish people as noted prophetically in Zech. 12:10 and restated by Paul in Romans 11:26-27, “ And so all Israel shall be saved for out of Zion shall come the Deliverer and He will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”

Who in their right mind would claim the millennial kingdom is already here. Who would claim that the lion is laying down with the lamb and children can play safely with poisonous snakes and only sinners will die young, being only 100 years old. The Old Testament prophets all painted a picture of the millennial kingdom of the Messiah to be a time on the planet when the curse of Adam’s fall would be reversed. A kind of Edenic kingdom would flourish during Christ physical reign over the planet from the thrown of David in Jerusalem. Yet all of these Scriptures are somehow disregarded or spiritualized away. Why?

A prayerful re-reading of Jeremiah 31:31-37 puts the truth to the false teaching of preterism. God says when the sun, moon and stars cease to shine, then He will reject Israel and not before. Furthermore the words of the Savior warn of desolation for rejecting the Messiah on one hand and the promise of restoration should they proclaim, as Bible clearly teaches they will, “Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.”

I realize that this theology agrees with Covenant Reformed doctrine so that your biblical worldview finds preterism compatible with that. I also realize that you have emotionally invested in this teaching, however I am asking you to consider the fruit of your theology. It is important that we consider the influence our personal theological beliefs have one others of like precious faith.

It was the faithfulness of the God of Israel to His Word and the faithfulness of the Jewish apostles to their Savior that brought salvation to the Gentiles. How are the Gentiles handling the Word of Truth today with regard to God’s people Israel? Are they being as faithful and gracious to them today as those early Jewish evangelists were to the Gentiles? Not if their theology discounts the Jew’s rightful place in God’s plan and fails to make reaching them with the Good News a priority.

Rather t provoking them to jealousy (that they would want that personal relationship with the Living God that we have been given in the Messiah) we have more often than not justified the physical extermination of this people, and know it has been extended to the spiritual excommunication of the Jewish people altogether.

Steven Rowitt

954-263-5059

Date: 07 Jun 2009
Time: 21:37:02

Your Comments:

Steven Rowitt's comments are accurate to an extent, though still uninformed. NO - YHWH GOD has not turned His back on Israel and yes he still has a plan for them, His covenant people. No, Israel can't be "spiritualised" to mean all believers from all over the earth and all peoples. And NO - The "Jews" of today are not The Israelites of the Bible and YES they admit this in their own texts and NO this is not new knowledge. Please see author Ted Weilands book "Israel - out of all nations?" and his book "God's Covenant People - Yesterday Today and Forever" avbl for FREE at www.missiontoisrael.org

[TD - I once held a written debate with Ted way back in the 20th century.  I hope he still has copies.  I surely have mine.  blessings!]
 

Date: 24 Jul 2010
Time: 11:33:46

Your Comments:

" I REALIZE THAT CALVINIST BELIEVE THIS"

Who told you that? I imagine some Calvinists believe this, but certainly not all. I imagine many Arminianists also believe this theory.

But Calvinism vs Arminianism has nothing to do with this.

I tend to lean toward Calvinism, but I do not hold to Preterism at all.
 

Date: 05 Dec 2011
Time: 13:17:56

Your Comments:

Spurgeon was NOT a preterist. He believed in the premillennial return of Christ as a FUTURE event. Please remove his name from your list.
John R Ecob D.D.

[Sir, please read carefully.  What you say is acknowledged, while still pointing out his preterist statements.  Perhaps Spurgeon has something yet to teach you on the subject of fulfilled prophecy.]